Influencer Marketing: Strategies for Success
What does it actually mean to be an “influencer” in today’s digital world? Until a few years ago, the term “influencer” was limited to A-list celebrities, public figures, and politicians. However, with the boom of social media in the last decade, everyone now has the opportunity to become an influencer and grow a personal brand online. As hundreds of thousands of new content pieces are uploaded to social media daily, influencers have increasingly become more niche to stand out and attract a more specific audience. Five years ago, you might’ve just come across a fashion influencer. Now, there are different categories for everything from sustainable fashion influencers to high-end jewelry influencers.
This wide range of influential people with targeted audiences is a perfect marketing resource for brands. Influencers can help introduce your brand to a new audience and boost sales through their loyal communities of consumers. We’ve put together some of our favorite tips when exploring whether influencer marketing is right for your business and when choosing a collaborator and platform. Let’s dive in.
Set Clearly Defined Goals
Before you look for influencers and plan a marketing strategy, you must understand exactly what your goals are with influencer marketing. Are you looking to promote a new product? Are you trying to get more followers to build your social presence? Or are you interested in collaborating with an influencer to get their audience into your merchandise? You’ll have to set goals according to your answers to these questions.
For example, if you’ve just launched a new coffee drink that you’re trying to get everyone excited about, you would want to collaborate with an influencer to specifically promote this drink rather than your general brand. You can even come up with a campaign idea that invites people to participate in some kind of challenge relating to the drink and watch it take off with the power of influencer marketing. Having specific goals and metrics to track will also help you analyze whether influencer marketing works for your brand or whether you need to switch things up. With so many influencers to collaborate with, how do you know which one works best for your brand? This question brings us to our next point: the perfect influencer match.
Hunt for the Perfect Influencer Matches
There are simply so many influencers now, and new ones gain traction in different markets every day. The sheer number to choose from means you’ll have to put in time, energy, and effort to find the influencers that perfectly match your vibe. While there are online platforms you can use to try and find influencers to collaborate with, the most organic matches will come from approaching people you already follow and doing research to see if they match your target audience persona and vibe.
For example, if you have a new 2-step all-in-one skincare product to promote, you might think of going to makeup and beauty influencers. However, they’re already promoting so many similar products to their audience, and as a result, you might not get much attention for your product. Instead, with your specific goals and audience in mind, you can approach working mom influencers, women busy running businesses, or women busy with studying for school. If they promote it, audiences will understand that this is a product that busy women like themselves can use and grow to love. Get creative with who you approach and what angle you take to promote the product. Remember to always keep it relatable with your audience.
Figure Out Which Social Media Platform to Use
Another important thing to consider in influencer marketing is not just the influencer, but also the social media platform to use. Different social media platforms are effective for different kinds of digital marketing. There’s a reason why beauty influencers don’t become big on Twitter, and it’s because the app is primarily for witty one-liners and conversations rather than videos or pictures. On the other hand, painters looking to sell their work might prefer Reels or TikTok over static images because audiences can see the process behind their hard work and are thus more likely to invest in it. You’ll have to research, brainstorm, and visualise different marketing campaigns with different influencers to determine what social media platform you should focus your time and energy on. It’s also important to note that various influencers are big on different platforms, so while you might be interested in working with someone, their platform’s audience might not align with your goals or target customers.
Knowing your demographics and understanding your audience’s age, location, interests, and online habits are key steps to developing your marketing plan and choosing a platform. You know that Gen Z and Millennials will probably not browse through Facebook, but you will find them active and ready to engage on Instagram and TikTok. The same is true for a more mature audience. If you’re looking to push more mature products, such as investment schemes, real estate, or home makeovers, you probably aren’t going to find too many buyers on younger apps because users probably don’t have houses to renovate. Instead, you can find Facebook influencers that can push your brand on private groups and through their personal page. It all comes down to research and data when choosing the best platform for your goals.
Measure the Effectiveness of the Campaign
So you’ve chosen an influencer and platform, but how do you know if your campaign is working? The answer is easy: data. Different influencers will lead to different results in your campaign. This is due to various reasons, including how much their audience trusts them, how well the campaign performed, or even how the market was doing overall at this time. You must measure the campaign’s success to assess the performance of individual influencers and plan for the future. By studying analytics and comparing product sales before and after (specific influencer discount codes are an easy way to measure this!), you can identify which influencers generated the most engagement, conversions, or positive sentiment and which ones didn’t quite hit the mark. This data is invaluable for future collaborations, as you can focus on working with influencers who consistently deliver strong results and align with your brand objectives and audience.
If parts of the campaign underperformed, you now have a bank of knowledge and numbers to understand why this happened and how to prevent it from occurring in the future. Perhaps the issue was with something modifiable like the target demographic, or perhaps it was with the larger issue with the influencer you decided to partner with. Either way, data will help inform future decisions and bring you key insights into your marketing strategies.
Influencer marketing is constantly changing, and with Meta launching Threads, you can be sure to see some new voices taking over the platform. Because influencer marketing is a new and volatile space, it allows for high-risk, high-reward campaigns and unparalleled creativity. Make use of the freedom of social media to create unique campaigns, but also do your research to find the best platforms and influencers to align with your goals and audience. If you’re not sure whether something is working with your influencer marketing strategy, check the data to inform future decisions.
Always in your corner,
The Content Queens
