A decade ago, influencer marketing was only for celebrities and some bloggers. But now it seems like there are social media influencers everywhere, and some of them have been caught up in fraud.
If you have begun looking into influencer marketing, you may have seen conflicting information about whether social influencers are necessary for growth.
Navigating influencer marketing strategies is more difficult than ever. But don’t worry, we’ve got a guide to help you make sense of it all.
If you’re wondering if influencer marketing is right for your business, read on for some tips.
What Is Influencer Marketing?
The basic idea behind influencer marketing is that it is a form of social media marketing that uses endorsements from people who are viewed as experts in their field and who have a large social media following. This type of marketing is effective because the people who are being endorsed by the influencers have already built up a level of trust with their followers, and so endorsements from these influencers come across as more trustworthy than if they came from the brand itself.
The Current State of the Influencer Marketing Landscape
It was easier to stand out on Instagram in 2014 than it is today. If you were featured on Instagram’s featured page or your look was distinctive enough, you had a good chance of being chosen as an influencer. Some people have turned social media influencer marketing into a career.
Rosie Clayton’s Instagram feed is filled with colorful dresses and outfits situated against colorful walls. When VSCO’s muted tone filters were becoming popular, Rosie’s highly saturated photos jumped out in contrast. She works with brands from all over the world, fitting them into her aesthetic.
But things change, right?
The way that influencers market themselves is constantly changing. Right now, bright images and well- stylized photos are popular. However, eventually this look will become mundane and everyday. So what will be the next big thing in influencer marketing?
Taylor Lorenz’s article in The Atlantic predicts a trend where people strive to return to what Instagram used to look like, when your feed was just friends. Lorenz wrote that while Millennial influencers used DSLR cameras and edited their photos to get the perfect shot, the generation younger than them largely posted directly from their mobile phones.
If you want to be a fashion influencer with a younger demographic, you don’t need to only post perfectly edited photos. Nowadays, more people are open to casual poses and limited editing.
The subset of influencers that this article covers are young Instagram users, and it should be noted that this is just a small part of the larger group of influencers. Over the last five years there has been a shift in the way that influencer marketing works, and it is likely that this trend will continue in the future.
The Value of Influencer Marketing
As influencer marketing grows in popularity, other social media networks are beginning to gain traction with influencers. According to Adweek, the industry is estimated to be worth $10 billion by 2020. Different platforms, such as Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok, have their own pool of influencers with diverse audiences.
An agency that specializes in influencer marketing, Mediakix, conducted a survey at the end of 2018 to gauge marketers’ thoughts and feelings about influencers going into the new year.
According to the survey, most marketers believe that ROI from influencer marketing is just as good as, if not better than, other types of marketing. Furthermore, the majority of respondents indicated that they intend to raise their budgets for this type of marketing in the coming year.
Now that we know where the industry is, let’s look at how to create an influencer strategy.
How to Find Influencers and What to Pay Them
To start, you should research the platform you want to focus on and see if your brand already has a presence there or if you want to expand your brand into that network. You can always expand to other platforms later, but it’s easier to stick with one platform when you’re just starting out.
Consulting our guide on social listening can be advantageous if you are unclear about where to start. It can assist you in pinpointing where individuals are talking in reference to your business and brand–as well as help you find the most dominant voices speaking about your industry on each platform.
The success of your influencer marketing strategy depends on the industry you’re in. For example, beauty and fashion brands are successful on Instagram and YouTube, while the video game industry does well on Twitch.
When you are doing your research, think about what kind of influencer you want to target. Do you want to go for celebrities with a lot of followers, or people with less than 2000 followers? There are also people in the middle, with 5-10 thousand followers. Once you know what you want, you can set your budget.
The amount of money an influencer is paid can vary a lot, so you should research how much influencers in different categories typically get paid. Micro influencers are usually only passionate about a few topics and are willing to accept products as payment. Some of them work independently, but others might be part of an agency or network. On the other hand, people with large followings or who are famous will expect to be paid more, and might even use a talent agency.
It is important to think about how you will judge the success of your social media influencer marketing campaign in terms of return on investment. One way to do this is to compare your expectations for influencers to other types of marketing firms. For example, you might compare the budget for a video production firm creating an advertisement for you to an influencer creating a video. While it may seem difficult to predict the value of influencers, this approach can provide a familiar point of reference.
In 2017, Influence co-published the results of their research into Instagram influencer payment. They looked at the average cost per Instagram post and found:
- The overall average price was $271 per post.
- The average price for micro-influencers with fewer than 1,000 followers was $83 per post.
- The average price for influencers with more than 100,000 followers was $763 per post.
If you want to be successful in creating a website, you need to do a lot of research. You will probably find yourself returning to this step often during the process.
How To Create A Successful Content Strategy
The two main benefits of working with influencers are that they can help you create more authentic content about your brand, and that they could be effective at improving your brand’s content strategy.
If you are new to working with influencers, this guide will give you a detailed plan for creating a content strategy that includes influencer marketing.
Define Your Goal
Defining a goal for your content strategy will help you understand what kind of content to create and what kind of influencers to work with.
What are your main goals for your content? Do you want more people to see it and share it? Is it important to you that people learn about your brand through your content? Are you hoping to use your content to engage your target audience? Or is your ultimate goal to create content that will drive people to purchase your products? Write down all of the goals that are important to you, in order of priority.
It is important to understand what your goals are in order to most effectively measure the success of your content strategy. For example, if engagement is the goal, you would want to look at how many likes and comments the content generates.
Understand What Type Of Content You Need
When planning an influencer marketing campaign, it is more effective to first determine the type of content needed, rather than finding an influencer to work with.
After you figure out the types of content you want to create with influencers, you can decide which influencers to work with.
Here are some of the most popular types of content you can create with influencers:
Collaborative Branded Content
If you want to create branded content that will have a greater impact on your target audience, consider working with an influencer. They can help you produce content that is both entertaining and engaging, which is sure to impress your fans and followers of the influencer.
Influencers are creative individuals who are experts in certain fields and would be able to come up with great ideas for your content. You should use their creativity to your advantage, and have them brainstorm ideas that would be entertaining and relatable to your target audience. You could then feature the influencers in the content, and have them tell a unique story that would captivate your audience.
An excellent example of how a brand can make a huge impact is Tommy Hilfiger’s partnership with social media star Cameron Dallas. The influencer has 13.5 million Twitter followers, and the brand’s video tweet received more than 8,000 likes and 2,000 retweets.
This can help you expand your reach, improve engagement with your audience, and build trust.
Review Content
An influencer is someone who is considered an expert in their field and because of that, their recommendations are trusted by people who follow them. A study found that people trust influencers more than any other source when it comes to shopping.
When influencers share their experiences with your product or service, it comes across as more trustworthy to potential customers.
Reviews by influencers are important in order to convince your target audience to buy your product.
One example of a company that has sponsored a YouTuber to review their product is ORIGIN PC. Linus Sebastian of Linus Tech Tips, who has 4.5 million subscribers and extensive knowledge of technology-related topics, shared a video in which he gave an honest and detailed review of the brand’s product. The video garnered more than a million views, 30,000 likes, and 2,000+ comments.
Social media can be a great way to raise awareness for your brand and build trust with a new audience. It can also be a great tool for driving conversions.
Tutorials/Demos
Another way to win trust and influence purchase decisions is through tutorials or demo content, preferably in video format. Tutorials and demos can showcase your product in action and create a desire among the audience to try out the product.
A survey conducted by Ask Your Target Market found that 76% of respondents were more likely to buy something after seeing it in use. A separate survey conducted by Experticity found that 94% of respondents consider influencers to be more knowledgeable than regular people. In addition, 92% of respondents in the Experticity survey felt that influencers are better than regular people at explaining how a product works or how a product can be used.
You can create a content strategy that involves working with influencers who create how-to videos or demonstrate how your products work or can be used. This is what Segway did when they worked with Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy. Lewis created a video demonstrating the new Segway miniPRO.
This approach can help you achieve goals such as raising brand awareness, building trust with a new audience, and driving conversions.
Influencer Takeover Content
Brands can also improve their social media content and increase engagement by working with influencers. In this type of campaign, an influencer is selected to work with on a particular day. The influencer is given access to the brand’s social media account and creates posts based on a particular theme.
An influencer takeover can be a very effective way to get fresh content and drive high levels of engagement on your social media page. The influencer will create content on your behalf and share the news about the takeover with their followers, which could help you earn new followers.
The Discovery Channel is known for partnering with influential content creators related to travel and nature. Recent examples include travel influencer Ben Mikha taking over their Instagram to share a breathtaking photo of a particular destination. Mikha told a little back story about the attraction and shared his experience with followers.
An approach like this can be useful for attracting a new audience, growing social media following, driving engagement.