A short guide to influencer marketing
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While the end goal of marketing remains unchanged since the Mad Men era, the various approaches that can be taken to achieve those ends seem to keep growing year on year. In a saturated social media environment, where every company is fighting tooth and nail for the biggest share they can of consumer attention, it’s more innovative approaches like highly shareable marketing games that encourage people to participate rather than scroll by, and piggybacking onto existing followings for audience growth that are yielding some of the best results.
These “existing audiences” are the followers of influencers. These are well-known personalities who have grown their own online communities and as such have their own audiences. They’ve made themselves the product. Consumers are following their story. With presences on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest, these quasi-celebrities are proving to be really effective collaborators for brands.
Adding more cutting-edge and modern marketing techniques like influencer posts and branded marketing games alongside more traditional promotional techniques are a great way to ensure maximum impact from any marketing campaign.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a marketing and communications strategy where people with significant social media followings are contacted to highlight products or services and do targeted promotions. This strategy is becoming increasingly popular as influencer marketing allows brands to gain visibility and awareness quickly. In a way, it’s a lot like product promotion in movies, but it’s a lot cheaper, and the feedback cycle is far, far faster.
It’s also worth noting that any marketing campaign shouldn’t solely rely on a single influencer or even a group of influencers. While a popular online personality plugging your brand in a post could do great numbers, there’s little to guarantee the quality of their post. Some may influence for a living, but most have it as a side hustle or hobby. You should also bear in mind that if an influencer you use puts out a lot of promotional posts, it dilutes their authenticity and ability to effectively help your marketing efforts. A good strategy can greatly benefit from influencer marketing, but that bet should be hedged with more traditional content, as well as some more innovative and reliable methods, like creating a marketing game on a gamification platform, or even running some events.
To do influencer marketing effectively, it’s important to find the right influencers to work with who can appropriately reflect your brand’s image and values, come in at the correct price points, and have a demographic relative to your own target audience.
The 4 typical profiles of influencers
Not all influencers are created equal. There are different influencer profiles generally classified according to the size of their following. As not all influencers operate at the same level, choosing the right influencer for your campaign is essential.
Nano-influencers
The nano-influencer is the first step on the influence scale. With an average community of no more than 5,000 followers, they are “ordinary” consumers, but active and engaged online. They’re eager to express their opinions, share their views, but also potentially keen to produce quality content for companies.
As they address a group of peers or their close circle, they are considered more authentic than larger influencers. People identify with them more easily. They’re more “real.” As a result, the messages and information shared will have a greater impact because they foster trust.
Nano-influencers may have a smaller community, but their significant advantage is their proximity to their community. This gives this category very high engagement rates in the field of influencer marketing.
Micro-influencers
Micro-influencer content creators are those who have a community of between 5,000 and 100,000 followers. As they are the most present on social networks, they are also the most frequently utilised. In order to get feedback on their products and services, and to improve their online visibility, companies and brands are very interested in these influencers.
Typically, micro-influencers build a real community around common and specific interests. They therefore tend to produce quality, trusted, and authentic content. As a result, they may have a higher engagement rate than an influencer with a more developed community.
Macro-influencers
The macro-influencer has accumulated over 100,000 followers and is very active on all the major social networks.
They manage to reach a very large audience because of their popularity and growing notoriety. At their level, they are already relatively well known on social networks and may be under contract with major brands. The size of their audience allows brands to reach a lot of people through their channel.
Mega-influencers or celebrities
Mega-influencers are basically celebrities. They are generally personalities that get recognised in the street, and are followed by millions of people on social networks. They are also often under advertising contracts for major brands.
Celebrities generate enormous visibility among their respective communities and the impact of their actions can be very strong. However, these influencers are obviously even less accessible than macro, micro, and nano-influencers, and much more expensive.
The benefits of influencer marketing for brands
Renew your content strategy with an influencer campaign
Adding influencer marketing to your promotional repertoire is ultimately another impactful piece of artillery at your disposal when plotting promotional strategies. In a fast moving age of relentless digital and cultural innovation, the intelligently varied approach offers the best chances of success. Through different types of communications, such as event parties, the organisation of online competitions and marketing games campaigns, press packages, and appropriate influencer marketing, brands can quickly and effectively penetrate new markets and grow their audiences.
By using an influencer to promote your product and business on social media, you have another way to set yourself apart from the competition. Sponsored content that identifies your brand can increase your visibility, your popularity, and the number of visitors to your various communications platforms. It allows you to piggyback off of an existing audience in order to grow your own.
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