You might think that influencer marketing is a new concept that has only recently gained popularity. In reality, influencer marketing started 16 years ago with PayPerPost, the first platform to pay bloggers for branded content.
Sixteen years later, the tables have turned, and influencer marketing has become a massive business.
Today, you can hardly scroll through social media without seeing influencers showing off their latest food products, outfits, makeup, and all sorts of money-making products anywhere, anytime, and in any way, in posts, stories, reels, or TikToks.
Influencer marketing is growing by the day and can be very beneficial to your business; with that being said, let’s find out what influencer marketing is and how to create an influencer marketing strategy.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is a common component of brand awareness campaigns, as well as one that can lead to many sales and leads.
Influencer marketing is a medium for brands to promote their products through referrals or recommendations from influencers and content creators on the cloud. Most influencers can be found on social media platforms, blogs, podcasts, and television!
In their early days, influencers were primarily bloggers who shared stories about their lives and promoted products they used on a daily basis.
Today’s influencers have vastly more options available to them than the early influencers. They have the choice of multiple social media platforms and content types; the ones who like video platforms, YouTube or TikTok, are both excellent destinations. Then there are traditional blogs or even Facebook for those who want to share written, lengthy articles. And for the influencers out there who are after a smattering of everything, Instagram is the place to be.
How to Develop an Influencer Marketing Strategy:
When it comes to influencer marketing, there is no one size fits all approach, but with proper planning and research, almost any business can benefit. Let’s take a look at how to create an influencer marketing strategy.
1. Set your goals:
The main objective of any brand using influencer marketing is to reach the influencer’s followers and, in doing so, attract a new target audience.
Mind you, the goal is to reach new customers, not necessarily to make a sale in the first place.
2. Define your target audience:
The next step is to determine who your audience will be for that specific campaign.
A great way to ensure you understand who you are trying to reach is to develop audience personas.
The next step is to determine who your audience will be for that specific campaign.
A great way to ensure you understand who you are trying to reach is to develop audience personas.
3. Think of the Three R’s of influence:
The 3 R’s of influence you should consider are:
Relevance:
A relevant influencer is one who shares content that is relevant to your business and sector. They should have an audience that closely matches your target audience
Reach:
Reach is the potential number of people you can reach through the influencer’s follower base. Keep in mind that a small audience can be effective if aligned with your goals and target audience.
Resonance:
This is the level of possible engagement the influencer can build with an addressable audience for your brand.
4. Research:
To start, check out the accounts of your potential influencers. What are they posting? How often? Are their posts paid or organic?
If they’re constantly bombarding their followers with tons of paid posts, their engagement rate might not endure. Look for influencers with lots of organic, unpaid content to keep your followers interested, excited, and engaged.
Another element to look for when searching for your influencer is trust; this means that your audience truly believes in the influencers you will be teaming up with. Without trust, the results will be shallow, and you’ll have difficulty seeing a real tangible impact.
To know if your potential influencer is trustworthy, you need to see engagement, such as a large number of views, likes, comments, and shares, coming specifically from the followers you are trying to reach.
5. Connect with them privately, and individually:
Once you’ve done your research, chosen your ideal influencer, and are ready to start a partnership, gently begin your communication with your potential new partner by interacting naturally with their posts.
A direct message or email is a terrific starting point. Don’t send a bulk email or general message, but a personalized one providing as much information as you can about your brand, what you hope to accomplish with your campaign, and explaining how they will benefit as well.
6. Track your results:
To measure the performance and success of your campaign, don’t rely on comments and likes as metrics but instead focus on ROI.
For instance, UTM Parameters are an excellent way to track the number of visitors sent to your website by each influencer. If you’re working with multiple influencers, give everyone unique links with UTM codes, then you’ll get a solid look at the results and calculated impact.
Need help with Influencer Marketing? Our team of experts at Nfinity8 got you covered!
