How influencer marketing can form part of your strategy

When you consider that influencer marketing has been around for more than 15 years it’s astonishing that more brands and businesses aren’t considering influencer marketing as part of their long or short term marketing planning.

We think it’s because there is often still confusion about what an influencer actually is and how to approach influential marketing in general. So we’ve put together this short guide to help you make sense of it.

What is influencer marketing?

Brands can promote their product, service or exciting new launch, online through endorsements or recommendations created by influencers. You will usually find this kind of marketing on social media, in well-read blog posts or via a podcast. It’s designed to build brand awareness through mass-reach and in many circumstances can result in sales or conversions for the brand.

Would influencer marketing suit your business?

A recent study showed that 9 out of 10 brands are using some form of influencer marketing, so no matter how niche your business might be, there is likely to be an influencer out there for you. Finding the correct influencer to suit your business needs and end goal is crucial to its success.

Is influencer marketing just a fad?

No! It’s here to stay! The more our social media platforms continue to develop, the more opportunities there are for influencers to create content. The way that influencers work is also changing, adapting to their environment (as every good influencer should). Most influencers started out using blogs on a website, but the ability to reach lots of people was time consuming and often required a lot of SEO work – now with social media in the mix and with channels like TikTok, influencers are able to share ‘by the minute’ updates of their reality more regularly, increasing their engagement.

How to build influencer marketing into your strategic marketing plan

Let’s look at this methodically:

1. Start off by identifying the goals you have for your campaign and how an influencer can help you achieve this. Is your goal to attract a new target market? An influencer can help you break down those barriers.
2. Review the influencers on offer by researching macro, micro and celebrity influencers and understand the landscape. Perhaps you’re already aware of a number of influencers that work within your industry.
3. Make connections with influencers you’d like to work with, you can do this simply by searching relevant hashtags on the relevant social platform you’d like to use. Review their audiences and reach out to them. You should also check who your competitors are working with.

Ways in which an influencer can help

• Providing you with UGC (user generated content) that you can share. People generally buy from people that they know have used the brand before and it can be difficult to generate this sort of content yourself, internally. Reposting relevant content is always a great way to boost engagement levels.
• Measure ROI through a promotion with an influencer – provide them with a discount code (for example) to use in a social media post so you know how successful your investment has been.
• Promote awareness of your brand by using influencers to post photos, stories or videos of your product or services.
• Strong user testimonials can also be captured from influencers who are trying out your product for the first time and providing a review to their large captive audience.

Whatever your reasons for researching influencer marketing, it should be considered as part of your strategic marketing plan. To find out how we can help you build this into your plan, take a look at our services or contact one of the team today.