Chances are, you’ve probably heard of the term ‘Influencer Marketing’ before. It is a form of digital marketing made more popular by the dominance of Social Media, but what actually is Influencer Marketing?
What Is Influencer Marketing?:
Influencer Marketing is a form of social media marketing. Essentially, it is when an individual with a large social media following advertises or endorses a brand online. Instagram, YouTube and TikTok are the more popular platforms when looking for influencers because these tend to garner the biggest audiences.
Influencer marketing works because the influencers build trust with their audience over time through their authenticity. People view influencers as ‘ordinary’ people, rather than seeing them as celebrities. This means that their audience can relate to them more, and thus trust their recommendations. People can trust influencer recommendations just as much as they would recommendations from family and friends.
Engagement Is Everything:
If you decide to give influencer marketing a try, remember that when choosing an influencer to work with, the number of followers they have isn’t actually the most important thing. You need to look at their engagement rate. Finding influencers with more loyal followers will work in your favour because their audience actually cares about what they post. You can find someone’s engagement rate by using tools such as Phlanx. A good engagement rate is between 1%-5%.
Your Brand Matters:
If you want influencer marketing to work for you, you need to make sure you have a strong brand. Paying someone to promote your brand and just expecting it to make you lots of money is the wrong way to look at influencer marketing. You need to make sure that what you are offering people is high-quality and beneficial. An influencer’s brand is so important to them because they built it from nothing and make a living from it, so they won’t just automatically agree to post something for you.
Equally, you need to choose the influencers you want to work with carefully. Having someone that believes in, and is interested in your brand is important. Also, make sure that their audience and your target audience match, otherwise you’re probably not going to see many results.
Influencer marketing is going to be around for as long as social media will be, so it is probably something you should look into incorporating into your marketing strategy. It allows you to reach a wider audience and get your brand/products in front of millions of people. It isn’t a guaranteed success for every business, but you won’t know unless you try.