The world is changing, and so is the way that businesses market their products. I am sure that you’ve heard the term “Influencer Marketing” once or twice by now and I expect that you’ll be hearing it more and more as we move into the future. While Influencer Marketing is not new to marketers, many businesses are not familiar with the benefits of using influencers to promote their brand.
So, if you’re not that familiar with Influencer Marketing, or you want to learn more about another way that you can market your brand, this is the blog for you!
What is Influencer Marketing?
Online an influencer is defined as:
“A user on social media who has established credibility in a specific industry. A social media influencer has access to a large audience and can persuade others by virtue of their authenticity and reach.”
So, what is Influencer Marketing? Influencer Marketing is when you contact an influencer to promote your brand or be the face of a product launch. It can be a high scale operation or an informal proposal offering a few products in return for an Instagram post or two.
While these influencers are not classes as celebrities, some larger influencers have such a large fan base that they can be used to promote relevant products through advertising campaigns, just like a movie star or music artist. Similarly to celebrities, Influencers are paid based on their social presence and popularity. Prices range from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands depending on Influencers following.
Now that we have covered what an Influencer is defined as and why they are used to market products and services, let’s take a look at a few businesses that have hit the nail on the head when it comes to Influencer Marketing.
What Businesses Have Used Influencer Marketing Successfully?
Millions of companies around the world have used Influencer Marketing and seen substantial growth from these campaigns. Here are a few well-known companies that have seen growth from their Influencer Campaigns:
Daniel Wellington
With almost 5 million followers on Instagram alone, Daniel Wellington is the perfect example of how to mix a traditional social media marketing campaign with Influential people. For some time now Daniel Wellington has paid Influencers to wear their accessories and take photos with them. When looking at their Instagram, you can clearly see their brand and what they stand for. This is also reflected in the influencers which they work with. It is imperative that when you search for influencers, you take a look at what they stand for and if their audience is one that would show and interest in your brand and products.
Naked Juice
While Naked Juice has several Instagram accounts, their main account has over 50K followers. You can see that they use a mix of influencer posts and product posts. Once again, they have shown their brand through the influencers that they have collaborated with. For Naked Juice, they chose fitness influencers who promote an active lifestyle. Their followers are most likely to take notice of the food/drink they are buying, as they are seeking the same healthy lifestyle.
How to Find the Right Influencer for You!
Relevance
As mentioned above, relevance is key! No matter how many followers an influencer has unless their followers are relevant to what you’re promoting, you are unlikely to succeed. A great way to determine who to reach out to is by categorising your business and finding your industry. For example, if you sell healthy food, your best bet is to find fitness or lifestyle influencers. People that promote a healthy lifestyle will have an audience packed with fitness fanatics that will be jumping to learn more about your product.
Engagements
The level of engagements that an influencer receives is a factor that you need to consider. It tells you many things about the influencer and their audience. The first factor is whether their audience is real or fake. If an influencer has hundreds of thousands of followers and receives a few hundred likes per post. This could suggest that they have purchased fake followers, or that their followers are not interested in what they post, but we will come back to that in a moment.
On the topic of buying followers, you should not pay an influencer if they have fake followers. These followers are not real, which means they will not engage, visit your website or purchase your products. A recent study that was discussed in the Metro found that 65% of Amber Gill’s followers were fake. Amber appeared on last year’s summer Love Island and won. Which meant brands from all over the world wanted her to promote their products. Of course, these brands paid for her to post to 100% of her followers but only 35% of her followers were real (according to these news outlets).
Another reason why you need to consider an influencer’s level of engagement is that you want to ensure that their audience is active and interested in what the influencer posts. If an influencer has a real audience that likes, comment on and shares their content, it is likely that they care about the influencer’s opinion and trust what they promote. Thus, they are more likely to engage with their sponsored content and learn more about your brand and product.
Audience
One of the best ways to plan an Influencer Marketing campaign is to start by defining the audience to target. This means choosing the Influencers by focusing on the type of their followers, their audience size and what they stand for. As mentioned in our relevancy section, you need to ensure that their followers are going to engage with the sponsored content and that they are the type of people you would target when doing any type of marketing.
Budget
Another thing that you need to consider when looking for influencers is your budget. You need to factor in how many influencers you want to reach out to and how much you are willing to pay each influencer. While it is difficult to estimate the cost of an influencer per campaign, you can make a fair judgement by looking at their following, their engagement and if they have worked with brands before.
To find out the exact cost of a particular campaign, you will need to get in touch with the influencer themselves or their management. If you take a look at an influencers bio, you will be able to see their contact information. This tends to be either a personal email or an agency email, depending on their size. You will then need to send across your proposal and go back and forth until you are happy with the arrangement. Normally, a business will hire a marketing agency to do this. A marketing agency can essentially become your middle-man and take care of all the back and forth to get you the best outcome.
Get the experts involved
While an influencer campaign can seem quite easy to do, Many Industries tend to struggle with contacting and presenting to these influencers. Going back and forth with either an influencer or their management can take a significant amount of time which many businesses and workers just do have. That’s where an agency gets involved. An agency can put in the groundwork for you. All we need to know is your basic requirements such as budget and who your demographic is, then the rest is left to us!
If you are interested in learning more about influencer marketing and how it can benefit your business please do get in touch with a member of our team. Since 2011 we have been working extremely hard to offer up-to-date services that are relevant to the times. As the world continues to develop and shift it is vitally important that all businesses take a look at those that succeed and follow in their footsteps. Influencer marketing is the next step that many businesses are too afraid to take, but with the right agency behind you, you can see great success and move towards the future.
There are several ways you can get in touch with a member of our team. You can call us on the number 0115 727 0038 or you can complete our form on our contact us page. All of our specialists are ready to help you you so feel free to get in touch whenever you are ready to start this project.
