Influencer marketing is a term being used more and more often in today’s digital age, and for good reason. It’s more effective than traditional advertising, it’s more affordable, and it can be utilized by any size business, not just the big players in the market. Before you start an influencer marketing campaign, it’s important to understand exactly what influencer marketing is, and how your business can benefit from it.
WHAT IS, AND WHAT ISN’T INFLUENCER MARKETING?
According to marketing and software company Tap Influence, influencer marketing is a “type of marketing that focuses on using key leaders to drive your brand’s message to the larger market. Rather than marketing directly to a large group of consumers, you instead inspire / hire / pay influencers to get out the word for you.” With the rise of digital marketing, peer-to-peer reviews and social media, people everywhere have become increasingly tired of traditional marketing techniques and obnoxious ads commanding “You shall buy this now!”. Many of us at this point have started to unconsciously block them out, which poses a serious problem to companies spending millions on marketing and not producing any results.
Influencer marketing instead relies on individuals to promote their product organically to their trusted circle of followers and friends. It’s the equivalent of your friend saying “Hey, I like this product and think you should try it too.” When consumers look to buy a new product, more often than not, they either go to their friends, or seek out a peer review. Word of mouth and peer reviews have become the standard for researching new products. People want real, uncorrupted opinions of products before they buy them, and friends are trustworthy outlets for advice.
While it’s important to know what influencer marketing IS, it’s equally important to know what it ISN’T. Influencer marketing is not the answer to your marketing problems. It should not replace your current efforts. Instead influencer marketing should be used in conjunction with current social media and content marketing strategies. Influencers are not current customers (although there may be some overlap). This is a big point of confusion. Marketing through current customers is called advocate marketing, which is still very powerful, but not influencer marketing. User generated content (UGC) is also not influencer marketing-though it is a very powerful and free marketing tool. Influencers are the experts, the go-to people for advice about a certain product market.
THE BENEFITS OF INFLUENCER MARKETING
With a good base of knowledge, it’s now time to learn about the benefits.
Improved SEO rankings – The more people sharing and linking back to your content, the higher you will rank among your competitors.
Increased customer loyalty – Since you are talking WITH your audience instead of talking AT them, your making your audience a part of the conversation and making them an integral part of your social presence, creating deep and lasting connections.
Long term relationships w/ influencers – The relationship between you and your influencer is mutually beneficial. They like your product enough to risk their reputation, so treat ’em right, and they’ll stick around.
Increased brand affinity – Thanks to your influencers spreading the good word about your brand and your product, you’ll see a generous boost to your brand’s reputation, and your brand preference and brand recall scores.
Increased web traffic, and social media followers – Although it takes time, if your product-influencer combination is a good match, you will see significant increase in major statistical categories.
STARTING YOUR INFLUENCER MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Running a campaign entirely by yourself can be very time consuming, so if you don’t have the bandwidth, you may want to seek a little help so you can keep you business running normally. That being said, the long-lasting relationships with influencers and genuine content created in the process will be well worth the effort. Here are 3 steps to consider in the process:
1) Finding your influencers
This is THE most important step. The influencer needs to be a good fit and they need to have an engaged following. If you’re a selling beauty products, it probably wouldn’t be a great idea to reach out to someone who writes a tech blog. Likewise, reaching out to someone who has 4 million followers but doesn’t produce many likes, shares, clicks, or comments, will not produce great results for you. Quality over quantity really matters here. You need an influencer who is going to drive traffic to your site and help convert potential customers into loyal patrons.
Where can you find influencers? Probably the best place to start is blogs. There are so many blogs out there, that a quick google search can produce pages and pages of potential influencers. Make a list of which are most relevant to your product. Keep track of who you’ve reached out to in an excel sheet or your CRM system. You will also want to take notes so you know who has agreed and declined to promote your product.
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest (depending on your product) are all great places to look as well. If you look at your news feed on any of these platforms, odds are you’ll notice people sharing articles photos or videos of restaurants, songs, places to visit, etc. It’s smaller scale, but don’t underestimate the power of word of mouth. Find out what friends people go to when they’re looking for advice on what product to buy, and reach out to them. If you can find out where they get their information, even better. Follow the trail and you’ll find many influencers along the way.
2) Choosing your content
Now that you’ve got your influencers, you’ll need content. The easier you make it for influencers to market your product, the more likely it will be that they choose to become an influencer and want to continue the relationship. Give them photos, videos, and text to share. This not only makes it easier for them to post, it gives you control over what they’re sharing. Listen to their advice though, they know their audience. If they think re-wording something, or choosing a different photo would bring the best response, trust them.
This relationship is mutually beneficial. Nurture the relationship. You’re in this for the long haul and you don’t want to make enemies. Remember, just as quickly as they can spread raving reviews about your product, they can also spread bad ones, and people remember which products to avoid.
3) Finalizing your Compensation
The last step is compensation. Compensation can take on many forms and doesn’t necessarily have to be monetary. Some great ways to compensate influencers without direct payment include: shout outs, product discounts, giveaways, and commission. Compensation has to make sense to both parties involved. Primarily, an influencer will only want to work with you if they BELIEVE in your product or service. Compensation should be a secondary factor in their decision making process.
CONCLUSION
We’ve covered a lot in this article, but at least you’re now armed with a basic understanding of influencer marketing, and how your company can benefit from it. In summary, influencer marketing is a means of marketing to large, highly focused groups of people, through a highly regarded expert. It does not replace your current marketing efforts and will not be the solution to all of your problems. Influencer marketing can boost your SEO rankings, and will create deeper connections with your audience, resulting in greater customer loyalty.
If you are interested in a marketing or influencer marketing campaign, feel free to contact us to learn how we can help you accomplish your goals.