What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing has grown tremendously in the last decade to a point where it isn’t just limited to celebrities. There are social media influencers for every industry now that you can utilize for your business.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is using social media to endorse products using individuals who have a dedicated social following and are viewed as experts within their niche. It works well because there is a high amount of trust between the influencers and their following.

The value of influencer marketing

At the end of 2018, a survey was done to see what marketers feelings were on influencer marketing. Of those surveyed, 89% said ROI from influencer marketing was comparable to or better than other marketing channels. It was also noted that 65% of marketers planned to increase their influencer budgets for the following year. That may be because 71% of marketers rated the quality of customers and traffic from influencer marketing to be better than other marketing sources.

How to find influencers

The first step is to decide on the platform you want to use. We recommend starting with just one and then expanding later. Choose a platform that is right for your industry. For example, beauty and fashion brands will shine best on Instagram and YouTube.

You’ll have to do some research and social listening to determine who you might be interested in reaching out to. It’ll help determine the most influential voices in the industry. You’ll also need to determine what kind of following you’re going after. Do you want someone with a massive following or are you trying to target a micro-influencer? Whatever you decide will help determine your budget.

Look for influencers who are already familiar with your brand. The best-case scenario is someone who already likes your brand or could easily see the appeal in it. They are more likely to say yes when reaching out.

When you do decide to reach out to influencers, there are various ways to do this depending on the influencer. If they are a micro-influencer, you can simply send them a direct message on the platform. For more established influencers, look at their profile to see if they list an email for business inquiries. Influencers with a larger following may even have a manager or agency working on their behalf to manage sponsored posts.

Measuring influencer marketing success

One of the best ways to measure if influencer marketing has been successful is to use trackable links. This will clearly show you the traffic and conversion rates coming exactly from a specific influencer. Another way to track results is to use unique promo codes. Every time a customer uses the code provided by a specific influencer, you can directly and accurately attribute the revenue to its origin. You can even create personalized landing pages for influencers that are about a specific freebie or offer.

Influencer marketing is here to stay and can be very advantageous for your business. Reach out to us if you have any further questions on how to approach influencer marketing.