Menu

Search

  |   Business

Menu

  |   Business

Search

What Is Influencer Marketing? Here’s How It Works

Unlike conventional advertising methods, social media marketing is on the rise today. It isn’t only cost-effective but also resonates better with the relevant audience. Therefore, you can find a plethora of social media growth tools on the market and even brands are willing to invest in them. For instance, Cloutsy Instagram SMM Panel helps marketers and content creators to grow their online presence with great service quality and affordable rates.

You may already have come across influencer marketing on social media, and an increased number of businesses leverage the power of influencers to grow their brand through a channel of known audience rapidly. Whether you want to be an influencer or you’re a brand trying to reach the heights of success, keep reading this article to learn about influencer marketing in detail!

What Is Influencer Marketing?

Influencers are individuals or, to be more specific, content creators who have built trust and authority in their niche through knowledge and expertise, which is why they have the power to influence their audience or their purchasing habits.

You can find influencers in a variety of niches, such as sports, lifestyle, beauty, health, travel, gaming, and fashion. Back in the day, it can be said that celebrity endorsement was “the thing”.

However, influencers have such a connection with their audience that they build over time, and influencer marketing yields spectacular results. Influencers with great engagement rates are even more attractive in the eyes of the brands.

One thing to keep in mind is that there are different kinds of influencers based on the number of followers. Here is a breakdown:

  • Celebrities – Over 1 million

  • Mega influencers – 500,000 to 1 million

  • Macro influencers – 100,000 to 500,000

  • Micro – 10,000 to 100,000

  • Nano – 1,000 to 10,000

While you may assume that celebrities or mega influencers would yield exceptional results as compared to the small-tier influencers, most of the time, influencers with around 15,000 followers are the most effective ones since they have a tight-knit community and a better engagement rate. They also charge way less than top-tier influencers.

Benefits of Influencer Marketing

1. Exceptional Return on Investment

Influencer marketing isn’t only more affordable as compared to traditional methods of advertising like TV or billboards, but also has a huge return on investment.

For example, a TV ad is only displayed on the TV when you’re paying for it. On the other hand, you only pay once to an influencer to, say, post a picture of themselves wearing your brand’s clothing. Whereas new audiences can always check the post out later and discover your brand.

2. Adds Authenticity to a Brand

Everyone knows that no brand is going to talk badly about itself. Whereas even if a post mentions #ad or #sponsored, it still holds a lot of value in the eyes of the audience because the brand isn’t self-promoting instead, it’s the influencer who people trust.

Therefore, whenever an influencer promotes a business, it instantly makes the brand look more credible and authentic, which leads the audience to make a purchase with peace of mind.

3. Boosts Engagement

As influencers talk about your brand on their accounts, it boosts brand awareness and recognition. With this, more social media users start exploring your brand and taking valuable actions.

Such as signing up for your newsletter, following your social media accounts, and liking your posts. They basically turn into your long-term customers, which are the benefits you keep reaping down the road.

How to Leverage Influencer Marketing?

1. Be Clear on Your Goals

Before you start looking for the right influencer to market your brand on social media, you must come up with clear goals. The most common goals that brands have with influencer marketing are to reach new relevant customers, boost brand awareness, and drive sales.

Whatever goal you have in your mind, make sure you follow the SMART framework to help you achieve your goals more effectively and easily. Your goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.

2. Define Your Prospective Audience

It’s essential to establish your audience personas to make your marketing efforts worthwhile. You must research and consider who you want to target, their interests, the social media platforms they are most active on, and what products or services they are currently using.

Thorough research will allow you to match the influencer personas with them, which will drastically facilitate you in maximizing conversions.

3. Look for the Right Influencer

After having a clear customer persona in your mind, you must start looking for the right influencer for your specific brand needs. Of course, the first and foremost factor is to make sure they are relevant to the audience you’re targeting.

You may also want to look for the number of followers they have since it can have an effect on the reach. However, you may want to consider their engagement rate. Even if an influencer has around 10-20k followers, but they have amazing engagement on their posts, they might be the right one for you.

4. Do Your Research

After looking for some of the influencers most relevant to your preferences, you should compile a list and start researching extensively. You should look for their audience and the kinds of social media profiles they have.

It’s also imperative to ensure that they post high-quality, organic content regularly. If the kind of content they develop doesn’t match your vision or brand values, you will be better off with another influencer.

You must also confirm their engagement rate, which will significantly help you achieve your goals. For this, you must check their social media posts and the number of views, shares, likes, and comments they have.

5. Reach Out to Influencers

After your research, you can pick the right one and leave them a message or an email address they have provided in their bio for collaborations or sponsored posts. You must clearly communicate what kind of content you expect from them by telling them about your brand and your specific goals.

Make sure that you allow freedom to them in content creation. Otherwise, too much pressure or unnecessary demands may affect the quality of their work and restrict them from being creative.

6. Track Your Results

Without monitoring your influencer campaign results, you wouldn’t really know if it was effective, and this will hinder you from learning from your mistakes and overcoming them in the future.

You can share a code with the influencer, so you can track the number of sales through it that your campaign drove. In addition, you can also ask them to share the analytics of the sponsored post with you.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.

  • Market Data
Close

Welcome to EconoTimes

Sign up for daily updates for the most important
stories unfolding in the global economy.