Before social media or any kind of media for that matter, how did businesses get their business? The answer is simple, people. People talked about their experiences and others would believe them and go to the same place.
And this is still one of the most effective forms of promotions, it has just evolved a little bit. And this is what we Gen Z called influencer marketing. And 80% marketers agree that influencer marketing strategy is effective for business (source).
So, how can you as a brand use influencer marketing for business growth? In this ultimate guide, you’ll learn: the benefits of influencer marketing, how to collaborate with influencers, and how to create an effective influencer campaign.
Let’s start with the basics.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is primarily a social media strategy to reach the target audience. A social media influencer in your niche with a loyal and consistent following promotes your product authentically. Influencer marketing works best on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
You can reach your desired target audience through strategic influencer outreach to gain their trust and boost your conversion. Influencers can help you increase your brand visibility through authentic stories, including the product, or by sharing their honest reviews about it. Repurpose the content created by these influencers for better marketing and engagement.
Types of social media influencers you should know before creating a campaign:
- Nano-influencers with ≤10K followers
- Micro-influencers with 10K – 100K followers
- Macro-influencers with 100K – 1M followers
- Mega-influencer with 1M+ followers
Not all these influencers are fit for your brand. You’ve to focus on your niche, influencer marketing platform, the connection of influencers with the followers, and how you want to reach your target audience when choosing an influencer.
Benefits of Influencer Marketing for Business?
Here’s a fact, as per a survey, B2B businesses use influencer marketing for brand awareness (67%) and to increase credibility (54%). So, it is not just for consumer products. This is just one of many benefits of influencer marketing.
1. Increase brand awareness
Influencers become influences because their audience trusts and follows them for their authentic content and suggestions. So, when you choose a niche influencer, you can reach your target audience organically, improving your brand awareness more efficiently.
2. Reach your target audience
If you want better ROI from your marketing, an influencer marketing platform can help you reach your desired audience. You can avoid wasting time and resources on a ‘shooting in the dark, hoping for the best’ marketing strategy.
3. Gain customers’ trust
Ads can be expensive, and gaining customers’ trust through these ads takes time. That’s where social influencer campaigns become useful. Followers trust their influencers and are more likely to trust your brand if they get positive word of mouth from social media influencers.
4. Boost your conversion
Influencer marketing provides 11x higher ROI than traditional strategies (source). Direct access to the target audience and the trust factor of the influencer lead to more conversions.
How to Collaborate with Social Media Influencers?
Influencer marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. You need to know the following types of influencer collaboration that you can use to get the best ROI.
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Sponsored Content
Influencers get paid a certain amount to place a brand on their feed and content. The content could be an image or a video, based on your and influencers’ niche. You have some control over the content as you are paying through sponsorship. The influencer has to mention that it’s sponsored content or use a tag based on the platform.
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Event Coverage
If you have a launch or a conference, you can invite multiple influencers in your niche to it to create hype. The influencers can post about the event in advance to attract more crowds. However, you may need to provide accommodation for influencers from a different city.
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Gifting
Gifting influencer marketing strategy is best when you need to create user-generated content (UGC). Here, you need to identify influencers who can benefit from your product and send them your product as gifts. Therefore, research is crucial when choosing influencers more likely to provide you with a
positive review.
You can also use this content on your social media and website to gain customers’ trust. Remember that with gifting collaboration, the influencer isn’t bound to provide you with a certain type of content.
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Barter
Barter collaboration is a more formal version of the gifting method. Here, the company and influencer have a formal agreement where the influencer will create content in exchange for receiving free product instead of monetary payments.
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Giveaways
You collaborate with the influencers to host a giveaway for your products. The goal is to engage the influencers’ followers to follow your official account or take other action to get a chance to win a free product. The post or story will have all the details to gather the proofs, prizes, and unique hashtags to create more buzz about the giveaway influencer campaign.
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Account Takeover
An influencer will literally ‘take over’ your brand’s account for a specific time to interact with their and your followers. They can announce the date and time in advance to boost the traffic on your account. You can get user-generated content for your brand through posts, comments, questions, stories, and more. You can leverage the influencer’s followers to generate better leads.
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Brand Ambassador Program
You can create an ambassador program where you make committed influencers your brand ambassadors or partners. Choose influencers whose brand values and voice align with yours. Thus, instead of a single or occasional post, they will post your product more. Therefore, you can build a credible image among your target audience.
How to Create an Influencer Marketing Strategy?
Creating an effective strategy is important to reap the benefits of influencer marketing for business. The following are a few steps to help you create better influencer campaigns and strategies.
1. Set up goals and KPIs for the influencer campaign
The first step to creating a successful influencer marketing strategy is to set goals and relevant KPIs. Use the information generated and gathered in this step to guide the creation, execution, and tracking of the campaign. A few goals of influencer marketing include increasing brand visibility, customer engagement,
and UGC creation.
2. Understand influencer payment structure in your niche
Every niche has a specific reach. Furthermore, the influencer’s charges vary based on the followers, engagement rate, content types, and the influencer’s image. Thus, research influencers in your niche to identify an approximate pay range.
3. Create a budget and marketing strategy
Decide which type of influencer collaboration will help you achieve your goals. You also need to choose an influencer marketing platform where your target audience is likely to reside. Now you can allocate a certain budget to create a sustainable strategy that can get better ROI.
4. Influencer outreach
Once you set the goals and have a budget, it’s time to find the right influencers whose brand image and tone align with your brand. You can look for top voices in your niche and people with the most follower engagement to short-list a few people for influencer outreach. Focus on influencers’ brand voice and engagement to ensure that they can help you achieve the desired goals. Contact them to discuss the scope of the project and negotiate the charges.
5. Share the content idea and strategy with the influencer
Share the full scope of the collaboration, including the deliverables and payment schedule. If they create content, provide them with a brief guide to align their tone to your brand and maintain authenticity. This helps you create an effective timeline to get better results from the influencer campaign.
6. Track the KPIs to refine the influencer marketing strategy
Track and analyze the campaign performance based on your desired KPIs. It helps you measure the success of the collaboration and identify any trends or problems. The analysis of past influencer campaigns will help you refine your future strategies.
Influencer marketing might seem overwhelming, but that’s exactly where Four Pillars Media Agency steps in. Our skilled influencer marketing services are designed around your brand’s objectives. Through powerful branding, we can help you gain the trust of the customers. Get in touch for a branding consultation session!
Conclusion
Influencer marketing helps businesses improve brand awareness, reach their desired target audience, gain customers’ trust, and boost conversion rate. Social media influencers can create sponsored content, promote the products you gift them, host giveaways on your behalf, or promote an event that you invite them to. Create an influencer marketing strategy based on your goals, influencer engagement rate, followers, and budget. Four Pillars Media Agency is here to help you grow your digital presence with tailored branding strategies. Contact us to know more.
FAQs
1. What’s the difference between influencers and creators?
The target of influencers is to interact with their audience and ‘influence’ the purchase decision. Content creators are more about producing content for their own purposes and audience interaction. Some influencers can also be creators.
2. What are the three R’s of influencer marketing?
Effective influencer marketing is based on the following 3 R’s:
- Relevance of the influencer’s followers and personal brand to your business.
- Reach of the influencer’s content to your target audience.
- Resonance of their content among their followers.
3. What are the types of influencers for influencer marketing?
The type of influencers can be differentiated based on their niche and followers. Primarily, influencers are divided by their followers as follows:
- Nano-influencers (≤10K)
- Micro-influencers (10K – 100K)
- Macro-influencers (100K – 1M)
- Mega-influencer (1M+)
4. How to choose the right influencer for your business?
When choosing an influencer for your business, focus on:
- The niche of the influencer
- Their engagement rate and impact on the target audience
- Quality of the content they create
- Their authenticity when creating a post
- Their personal brand image and voice