Influencer marketing is becoming a strong force for brands in 2020. More brands are looking at influencers to elevate their messaging or boost awareness of a service or product they sell. Here’s what you should know about Influencer Marketing’s impact today.
What is Influencer Marketing?
It is essentially the use of someone who has a large following in digital spaces (more likely social media) to help promote a product or services of a brand. Think of your favorite clothing line or make up product. Are you more inclined to go out and buy something once your know a public figure you admire endorses it? Millions have proven to believe so.
Influencer marketing is on track to becoming a $15 billion dollar industry according to Mediakit Data and Business Insider. You can find most influencers on Instagram, as it is the top platform where most influenced-base content is distributed. Brands partnering up with influencers is not a brand new marketing method but has heightened with the state of social media today.
Take hip hop DJ, DJ Khalid for example. With his strong following on Snapchat and across other channels, he’s able to shine more light on to a product to help a brand generate more interest. He would get 3-4 million views per snap a day, reaching a large magnitude of people. Kim Kardashian is another great example of garnishing more interest to a product. She is one of the most followed celebrities on Instagram with 157 million followers to date. She and Jennifer Lopez have been ambassadors for the Portal by Facebook campaign with the message of “Self-Care”. You’ve probably seen the commercial during the holiday break, as it was broadcasted quite a bit on TV. The ad on YouTube alone has been seen over 2.5 million times. Whether or not you understood what Portal by Facebook was all about from the campaign, you can guarantee it sparked the interest of a lot of people once they finished viewing the ad.
Achieving Success with Influencer Marketing
Let’s be honest, influencer marketing can really suit well for those brands who are able to throw thousands of dollars to a campaign. However, there are still cost effective alternatives you can utilize to win with influencer marketing.
Be your own influencer. Your brand itself can become an influencer. It will take time, but you want to build your credibility among your audience. Take the time out to acknowledge when someone gives your brand an online review, mentions you in a tweet or tags you in a post. You generate momentum for your audience because they will see a live representation of your product or service at display from other people. Showcasing the good and bad of your brand is all a part of the influence you are perpetuating.
Tag or directly message others to your post. Sometimes, you have to reach out to the influencers by just tagging them in a campaign post. This is not the most practical tactic, but it can be effective if done in a respectful manner. Avoid coming off as spam or someone nagging for their attention. If you aren’t comfortable with tagging them, send a direct message. If you take this approach, make the message as brief as you can. You are fighting for their time and long-winded messages will not come off well to the influencer.
Be authentic. If your purpose and message is clear about your product or service, than you will see great results. Authenticity is essential when it comes to influencing others. You want to showcase the product in a personable manner that seems beneficial to the general public. The messaging shouldn’t come off as a “settle sell” and more as an “effective placement” to gain the interest of the public.
Create experiences. To add on to having an “effective placement” of your product when you are creating influencer content is to think about the experiences you are enabling. Allow your audience to feel as if they are a part of a moment. How will the every day use of this product impact them? Those experiences you want to create for others are essential to a repeat of purchase and relationship with your audience. If you bring an influencer in to the experience, it has to come off as natural and on brand to the product.
Think about Oprah in this case with Weight Watchers. Oprah can sell anything, because she’s….well Oprah. Oprah also comes off as a valid representation for the Weight Watchers as she has seen success and failure in her weight loss journey. She’s also able to successfully capture moments utilizing WW in a way no one else can. Because the partnerships fits, it can become an effective way to bring more people in to the campaign.
Finding the perfect influencer for your campaigns
Again, you want an influencer and your brand to have a relationship that matches. Finding the right person to an ambassador for your campaign will be challenging. The first thing you will want to do is design your influencer marketing strategy, Think about the following: messaging of content, purpose, budget, length of campaign, goals, KPI and ROI.
You also want to define who you want to reach out to in this campaign. The right influencer will be able to help cross all checkmarks for your strategy at play. They will also be able to successfully reach to demographic of people you are trying to persuade with coming to your brand.
Who are influencers? They can be bloggers, online personalities, YouTubers, celebrities, industry experts, and your actual customers. Identify who you think would best present your brand in the best manner (and sometimes your budget will have a lot to do with this decision).
Lastly, you want to always think of your end game. How you move forward with your influencer marketing plan is determined by what you are shooting for in the end. Are your trying to boost awareness, generate more revenue, create more experiences or get more visits to your website? Define what you hope to achieve so that you can offer a plan that will get you the results you desire. Make the content you create meaningful and allow it to also create impact for your overall campaign. Check out this great guide on building your Influencer Marketing Strategy from Alexa’s Blog. This is a great tool for beginners.
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Moore Digital 