Ten years ago, only celebrities and a few dedicated bloggers could be considered influencers. Nowadays, it seems like social media influencers are everywhere, and the market is saturated. Some have even been caught up in fraud.
If you have looked into using social influencers for marketing purposes, you may have found that there is conflicting information available, with some people saying that you should definitely use social influencers, and others saying that they are not necessary for growth.
Influencer marketing has become more difficult for brands to navigate. But don’t worry, we’re here to help you make sense of it all.
To see if influencer marketing is a good fit for you, read on for our tips.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from influencers. Influencers are individuals who have a dedicated social following and are viewed as experts within their niche. Influencer marketing works because of the high amount of trust that social influencers have built up with their following, and recommendations from them serve as a form of social proof to your brand’s potential customers.
The current state of the influencer marketing landscape
If you were featured on Instagram’s featured page or your look was distinctive enough in 2014, you had a good chance of becoming an influencer. Some people have turned social media influencer marketing into a full-time career after partnering with enough brands.
Rosie Clayton’s Instagram page consists mainly of pictures of her in brightly colored dresses and outfits against equally brightly colored walls. At a time when the use of VSCO’s less saturated filters were becoming popular, Clayton’s highly saturated photos stood out. She collaborates with brands from all over the globe, incorporating their products into her signature aesthetic.
But things change, right?
We take our cues from what we see around us, and aesthetics are no different. With more and more bright, carefully composed images appearing online, it’s only natural that influencer marketing would start to follow suit. But as the ‘typical look’ of influencer content becomes more and more common, where will the trend go next?
In her article for The Atlantic, Taylor Lorenz predicts a trend towards increased authenticity on Instagram, driven by the network’s youngest users. Lorenz argues that while older users of the platform are often highly skilled at using professional equipment to take and edit picturesque photos, the younger generation is more likely to post unedited images directly from their phones.
If you want to be a fashion influencer with a younger demographic, you don’t just need perfect photos. You can also use casual poses and less editing.
This article covers a small group of young people who use Instagram. It shows that over the last five years, influencer marketing has changed a lot, and that this trend is likely to continue.
The value of influencer marketing
Although Instagram is the most popular social media platform for influencer marketing, there are other platforms that are rapidly growing. Adweek predicted that the industry would be worth $10 billion by 2020. Different platforms, such as Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok, have their own sets of influencers with unique demographics.
The majority of marketers surveyed believe that ROI from influencer marketing is at least as good as other marketing methods, if not better. Additionally, two-thirds of respondents said they intend to raise their budgets for influencer marketing next year.
Now that we know where the influencer industry is, let’s look at how to create an influencer strategy.
How to create an influencer marketing strategy
An influencer program will only be successful if it is deliberately targeted and planned. You cannot simply send free things to everyone who asks or to your existing friends and acquaintances and expect to be successful.
1. Understand what type of content you need
In an average influencer marketing campaign, the first step would be to find an influencer to partner with. However, since the focus of this post is on content strategy with influencer marketing, it is more important to determine the type of content needed before finding influencers.
After you determine the kind of content you want to create with influencers, you can identify which influencers would be the best to collaborate with.
#1: Collaborative Branded Content
If you want to create content that will have a big impact on your target audience, consider working with influencers. They can help you create content that’s not only entertaining and engaging, but also reflects well on your brand.
An influencer’s creativity can be useful for developing branded content. They likely have expertise in fields related to entertaining your target audience, and can help create content that resonates with them. You can feature the influencers in the content, and have them tell a story through it.
An excellent example of how social media can help a brand is Tommy Hilfiger’s partnership with Cameron Dallas. Cameron is a hugely popular social media star with 13.5 million Twitter followers. Together they created a branded video which received an impressive 8,000 likes and 2,000 retweets.
#2: Review Content
An influencer is defined as a person with the ability to influence the purchasing decisions of others because of their authority, knowledge, position, or relationship. An influencer generally has a large social media following in a particular niche, making them someone worth paying attention to. In a study by gen.video, it was found that influencers have become the most trusted source for shopping among social media users.
If you want to win over your target audience, have influencers create honest and detailed review content about your product or service. By sharing their genuine experience with your brand and mentioning all the pros and cons, you will make it even more trustworthy.
The gen.video study found that 84% of shoppers feel it is important to learn about other people’s experiences before buying a product. Therefore, reviews by influencers will not only help you gain the trust of your target audience, but also convince them to buy from you.
A well-known YouTuber with 4.5 million subscribers, Linus Sebastian, was sponsored by ORIN PC to review and demonstrate their product. He is very knowledgeable about technology and his honest and detailed review of the product garnered more than a million views. The video also received 30,000 likes and 2,000+ comments. Many people were convinced to buy the product after watching the review.
This approach is good for making people aware of your brand, gaining trust with new audiences, and getting people to take desired actions.
#3: Tutorials/demos
If you want to win trust and influence purchase decisions, another type of content that is highly effective is a tutorial or demo in video format. By showcasing your product in action, tutorials and demos can create a desire in the audience to try it out.
According to a survey by Ask Your Target Market, 76% of respondents said they were more likely to buy something after seeing it in use. In a separate survey by Experticity, 94% of respondents said they considered influencers to be more knowledgeable than regular people. Furthermore, 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.
2. Set a budget and management strategy
You should know approximately how much you wish to spend on influencers, so you need to make your budget. Make sure to also include time in your budget for planning, executing, and reviewing your influencer program. A successful influencer marketing campaign is not something you can set and forget. You will need to carefully monitor it and follow up.
A more hands-on approach is needed with influencers than with a more automated ad strategy. This is because influencers are human and usually have several partnerships. Therefore, some may not be able to post on time or make the requested tags or calls to action. By being more hands-on, you will be able to build these relationships and figure out what is effective and what is not in your niche.
If you have the time and resources, you may want to set up an official ambassador program. Fujifilm uses its ambassadors for new product launches and to supplement their content. With a variety of photographers and videographers at their disposal, the company is able to diversify their feed to showcase what their equipment can do.
An influencer marketing agency can be a good option for brands that want to work with a larger group of influencers. The agency can handle the research and coordination involved in finding and working with influencers.
3. Decide on goals and message
The most common reasons to use influencer marketing are to increase brand awareness and sales. However, it is more effective to start your strategy by determining what your brand’s needs are. For example, you may want to increase your customer base among a younger demographic or expand to a new user group with a new product. Alternatively, you may want to use influencers to talk about your brand values rather than following trends.
Influencers can help you target a specific audience who is likely to be interested in your product. They can do this by reaching out to their followers and making sure your content is seen by people who are interested in what you have to say. This can save you time and energy by ensuring that your message is getting to the right people.
Influencer content that is personal and conversational helps it stand out from content that is features- or sales-driven that a brand might do for the same product.
It is important to have a message that is on par with your campaign goals. You want to be careful not to censor an influencer’s creativity and personality, but you also don’t want them to post something that is not related to your campaign. It is beneficial to map out how you want your influencer marketing campaign and message to be before you launch it.
4. Find the right influencers
The ideal influencer for your content strategy should look a bit like this:
- They should specialize in a field related or similar to your industry
- They should be able to drive high levels of engagement through their content
- They should have some experience in creating the types of content you need
So what you need to do is find influencers in the relevant niche, examine their engagement rate, and then look through their content to see if they meet all your requirements. As for the tools to conduct your initial search here are a few options:
- Grin – Grin lets you run an in-depth search of their influencer network to find highly relevant influencers for your brand. You can filter the results based on location, social network, and engagement rate. The tool provides you with necessary information such as the content they create and their contact info. You’ll also be able to track your campaign and easily measure your ROI from the platform.
- BuzzSumo – BuzzSumo lets you find influencers using relevant keywords and discover their various stats such as Twitter follower count, page authority, domain authority, retweet and reply ratios, etc. You can also filter the results by type of influencers – from bloggers and journalists to regular people.
- Influence.co – If you’re leaning towards Instagram influencers, Influence.co’s influencer search tool is an excellent option. You can conduct a search for influencers in a relevant category and filter the results based on location and follower count.
Select any of the influencer profiles that you wish to view and gain access to information such as engagement rate, reach, and posts they’ve created for other brands. This is very useful as it can help you understand just how effectively the influencer can help in promoting your brand through their content.
If the influencer search tool you’re using doesn’t give you clear details of the influencer’s average engagement rate, you can also use tools like the Influence Calculator from Muundy. You just need to enter some information like the number of followers and the number of likes and comments for three posts. The tool then calculates the influencer’s engagement rate on your behalf. The higher the engagement rates the better.
Once you’ve found some influencers who are relevant to your brand and who have high engagement rates, you can look at the kinds of content they have created in the past. See if they have been able to create content that feels authentic and also promotes a brand effectively. Make sure that the influencers you decide to work with have experience creating the kind of content you need for your content strategy.
5. Review and refine your strategy
You should always have pre-planned dates to measure your progress for an influencer marketing campaign, even if it is still ongoing. Some campaigns may not be successful, but you can hopefully learn from each one you create.
Conclusion
Here are three essential steps for creating a successful content strategy that includes influencer marketing:
1. Start with a goal. What do you want to achieve with your content?
2. Decide which types of content will help you achieve that goal. What kind of content will resonate with your audience and help you achieve your objectives?
3. Find influencers who will be perfect for the campaign and who can help you create the exact types of content you need. Identify influencers who have influence with your target audience and who can help you create content that will achieve your goals.
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