Everything You Need to Know About Influencer Marketing

Traditional forms of marketing are dying gradually. In the celebrity industry, every move a celebrity makes is gossip.

It is no longer news that when an influencer wears a branded T-shirt or uses a product and endorses it on his or her social media page, almost 50% of that influencer’s followers go for that product. This is the reason so many brands are paying influencers a huge sum of money just to promote their products and services.

Businesses have now discovered that so many buying decisions are influenced these days by someone we like and trust.

Have you been hesitant to take the plunge into influencer marketing because you are not just clear about it? Then, this post is what you need.

In this post, you are going to learn everything you need to know about influencer marketing. This post will cover why you need influencer marketing for your business, what to look out for in an influencer, how much they charge, and many other things. So, let’s get started.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is simply a collaboration between a brand and a person with high influence and popularity to promote a product or service. This marketing strategy has become a core marketing tactic for many consumer-facing brands.

Nike is one brand that is using influencer marketing very well. Their innovative use remains the key to the huge growth of the company for years now.

Influencers are people with a huge amount of dedicated social media followers. Whatever they do is a buzz. When they wear a new hairstyle, their followers want to wear it. When they start wearing a particular brand of clothes, their followers want to go for it.

These people have the power to influence their followers to do anything they so desire. These people can be bloggers, actors/actresses, footballers, musicians, writers, TV personalities, etc.

Why Do You Need Influencers for Your Business?

There is no need to deny the fact that TV commercials are not as effective as before. The trend has moved to social media. Social media is where the battle for brand awareness and visibility are happening.

And this is where influencer marketing comes in. Most brands prefer to pay influencers to promote their product or services on social media. Do you know why? Most people are up to date with every post an influencer makes than with every commercial on television or radio.

Aside from that, people trust influencers more than they trust brands. You probably know this.

Also, due to the relationship between these influencers and their audience, you can get an influencer to help you drive traffic to your website or social media page.

The return on investment in influencer marketing is 10X more than the return on traditional advertising or any form of digital marketing.

Consumers want to be entertained and informed rather than just be told to buy a product or use a service. And this is what a social media influencer can do for you. They know how to pass your marketing message to their audience in an entertaining way without looking as if they are promoting your product or service.

How Much Does Influencer Marketing Cost?

You are probably thinking that influencer marketing may be too expensive for your business right? Don’t get scared. There is no fixed price for influencer marketing. The higher the number of followers and engagement an influencer has, the higher the cost.

Moreover, not all come with monetary exchange. Some micro-influencers (influencers with 10k – 25k followers) accept free products or free services in exchange for promoting your brand.

Airlines can give free trips in exchange for promotion. Dental clinics can give free dental care. If you sell perfumes, you can give a certain amount of perfumes every month to the influencer as long as the deal lasts.

So, instead of bargaining about how much to pay an influencer or influencers to promote your product or service, you should bring up this kind of proposal and see how it goes. Although this kind of deal is no longer common, there is no harm in giving it a try. Up-and-coming social media stars will say yes to this kind of partnership.

Qualifying Potential Influencers for Your Business

In a world where everybody wants to become an influencer, it’s getting harder to tell who actually has an influence over their audience and who to invest in.

The truth is, there are many influencers with thousands of followers who can’t even get you one sale. But they want to be paid thousands for a sponsored post.

You will need to do your digging before approaching any influencer. Social media has grown into a “who can fake it the most” game, with bot comments and fake followers.

• Relevance

The influencer you will be signing a deal with must have a following that aligns with your target market. The influencer must be someone already sharing content relevant to your industry.

For example, you can’t use an Instagram model who is known for sharing fashion content like bikinis to promote investment software. It will be too easy for her followers to know that the post was sponsored. Aside from that, the conversion rate will be very low. Do you know why? Audience interest differs.

• Reach

This is another factor to consider when picking your influencer. If your goal for your promotion is to get 100k impressions and 10k engagements, you will need to look for an influencer with a huge number of followers with a high engagement rate per post.

• Resonance

This is known as the level of engagement per post. If the level of engagement per post is low, it means a good number of those followers are either bots or are not dedicated followers.

How to Approach an Influencer?

Don’t be straightforward when approaching an influencer. First, build a relationship with them. Follow them, engage with their content by dropping comments that will make them want to check you out and see who you are.

You may be thinking they may not notice. They will. Mostly if you are the first to drop a very nice comment.

Sometimes most influencers go through their comments section when they are free and start replying. Try to know these influencers in and out before shooting them a message either via DM or email.

In Conclusion

Keep in mind that there is no such thing as an influencer has no buying followers. If you use an influencer to promote your brand and it doesn’t come out as well as you envisioned, it may not be the fault of the influencer. It is either your content sucks, or you didn’t do your research to know if the audience was a great fit for your brand.

Will you give influencer marketing a try now?