‘Influencer marketing 2020’ is a phrase we hear a lot of in the world of social media but what exactly is it? At its basic level, influencer marketing is a type of marketing used on social media platforms where your business, product or service can be endorsed publicly by people who have a strong following and who have social influence.
What does influencer marketing do?
Influencer marking can remove the need for direct marketing to a large group of consumers, allowing a business instead to inspire an influencer to spread the word to a more relevant target audience.
Why is influencer important in marketing?
Influencer marketing creates trust. In 2018, research showed that almost 90% of millennials rely on endorsements and reviews to inform their purchasing decisions. In this age of following our favourite celebrities on every social media platform, what is more impactful than your favourite popstar, film star or TV personality telling you that a certain blend of coffee, or a particular brand of shampoo is great enough for them to use/buy it? This increased trust factor for your brand/product/service will improve conversion rates. Furthermore, the targeted exposure that influencer marketing gives will raise ROI (return on investment) and will increase your reputation online and off.
What is the point of influencer marketing in 2020?
Influencer marketing relies on the power of a given individual’s influence and that individual’s ability to influence the action of their followers. With over 17 million followers on Instagram, James Charles, the teenage make-up artist, has cosmetics brands falling over themselves to enter into partnerships with him. A single post showing him using a certain brand of brush can easily gain 2 million likes and with exposure like that, even the smallest conversion can lead to huge sales!
What is an influencer marketing strategy?
An influencer marketing strategy will identify people who have a strong influence on your industry or target audience. A partnership is formed with the influencer who will agree to show your brand or product to their audience. Influencer marketing often works alongside content marketing, social media marketing, and other similar forms of brand promotion on social media channels.
How to find the right influencer for you?
With in excess of half a million influencers active just on Instagram, the opportunity for collaboration is vast and the need to find the right influencer is vital. These tips will help!
- An influencer has to be relevant to your brand and their audience needs to be your target audience.
- The size of your influencer’s following is crucial – it represents the potential audience you can reach, but bigger isn’t always better if the audience isn’t relevant.
- In much the same way as you create personas when formulating a content plan, audience personas are a great way to work out who you want to target. With this in place, you can then create a corresponding set of influencer personas.
- Engagement. If your influencer has lots of likes, comments and shares then their audience trusts them and a healthy and consistent engagement rate means the influencer has a loyal following.
- The influencer’s tone and style should align with and complement yours. How they present their content will reflect directly on your brand/product.
- Sponsored content is important to watch for too. Too much and an influencer may lose their engagement rate. Sponsored ads are fine in small quantities but your influencer needs good quality organic, non-paid for content, as well as UGC (user generated content).
- Do your homework – show your preferred influencer that you have made the effort to learn about what they do, what their chosen channels are and who their audience is. And don’t forget to engage with your influencer too – like their posts, comment on them. Appreciate them.
- Think about budget. When working with a large influencer, you need a budget. Think about payment structure – would your influencer prefer a one-off, flat fee or would a commission structure work for them?
- Make your initial contact personal – no influencer wants to receive a generic or mass email that they know has been sent to a hundred others. Taking the time to send a personal message will show you are serious and that you have done your research. Include information about your brand and share your goals for your campaign so that they can make an informed decision.