Influencer marketing is a form of marketing that utilizes “influencers” to form a relationship between the customer and the company. Unlike more traditional forms of marketing, influencer marketing does not revolve around set target markets like content or social marketing. What makes influencer marketing unique is the fact that influencers can be anywhere and anyone. From a YouTube content creator to Instagram model, the possibilities are endless.
What influencer marketing is not, however, is finding viral celebrities or quick increase in profits. Although viral celebrities have exposure and a large audience, there is no relationship between them and their followers since many people often forget about viral celebrities in a month or two. The main point of influencer marketing is building a relationship between the company and an influencer’s following, and that’s impossible if the influencer is going to be irrelevant in the near future. The same also goes for expecting quick increases in profit. Building a relationship takes time, credibility, and reputation. An influencer’s following will not buy a product just because that influencer has been sponsored by a certain product or brand. The company must build trust with the audience they are attempting to convince to purchase their products.
And this is what makes this form of marketing so appealing. Companies are presented with the ability to connect with hundreds and thousands of people across any industry, genre, and group through a source that is recognized and respected by that audience. Influencer marketing also has a longer lifespan as influencers constantly remind their followers about the product/company. Furthermore, influencer marketing offers easier ways to determine whether or not a campaign is successful. Influencers are often given a unique code or URL, which helps the company track conversions, referrals, and sales.
Influencer marketing is pivotal and can be extremely beneficial for any company, but does it actually work? According to Mediakix’s 2019 Influencer Marketing Survey, 80% of marketers think influencer marketing is either very effective or effective. 71% think the quality of customers gained from influencer marketing is better than other forms of paid media. Marketers also believe that influencer marketing can lead to an increase in overall brand awareness, such as social reach and engagement, and conversions like sales and signups.
Now that we know influencer marketing is both important and works, let’s discuss how to properly launch a campaign centering around influencer marketing.
The first step to launching any successful marketing campaign is to define your goals. Are you trying to increase brand awareness by getting more people to recognize and associate positive feelings with your brand? Are you trying to increase sales/engagement where more people purchase your products and share, comment, and like your social-media content?
After deciding what the goal of the campaign is, the next step is identifying and choosing your audience for the campaign. What is the ideal demographic for your company? Which target market are you trying to reach? The answers to these questions will be essential to picking the right influencers for your campaign.
Picking the right influencer depends on your target market and demographic; there are bloggers, content creators, models, and industry leaders – the possibilities are endless. Having the right influencer that can appropriately connect with your desired audience is crucial.
With the goals and method of your campaign in place, it is time to create content, which is both relevant to your brand and high in quality, that represents your company’s core values and beliefs. Without good content, the goals you’ve set for the campaign and the influencer you’ve picked will have all been in vain.
There are many ways to produce quality content. See what competitors are doing, and determine what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. Figure out what keywords are trending through keyword optimization and research, and utilize those keywords in your campaign. Do some field work and discover what the most powerful contents have in common. For example, longer content is more popular, and images and charts make content more appealing and informative. Finally, with everything you’ve learned, optimize your content. Include all the relevant keywords, all the critical strategies behind quality content, the effective strategies for strong campaigns, and everything else.
The last step is to track, track, and then track some more. The only way to know if a marketing campaign is successful is through data, and that’s only accomplished through tracking your outreach by using several different metrics like brand awareness, engagement, sales, and brand identity.
It’s not easy to develop a compelling marketing campaign, much less launch an ever-changing partnership with an influencer for a campaign based around influencer marketing. If done right, however, influencer marketing can provide limitless possibilities for your company and brand. You now have all the tools and steps to start your own influencer marketing campaign. What will you bring to the table?