The Meaning Of Influencer Marketing
Social media marketing that uses endorsement and product mention from an influencer is termed as influencer marketing. Influencers are individuals having a dedicated social following and are considered to be experts within their audience. Influencers build a high amount of trust with their followers. The solid trust acts as a foundation for influencer marketing. Recommendations from them serve as a form of social proof to the brand’s potential customers.
Micro, macro, niche and paid influencers are the different types of influencers available. A company chooses an influencer to fulfill specific marketing goals and objectives of their brand.
How To Build An Influencer Marketing Strategy
Influencers are on a continuous rise on social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter. The rise in the number of influencers makes the task of choosing the right influencer with the right customer base difficult.
Like any marketing tactic, an influencer program takes exclusive targetting and planning. Your company will not easily find success just by sending free things out to everyone. However, with an effective influencer strategy, your company can reach its marketing goals very easily.
Here are the steps to be followed while planning an influencer marketing strategy:
Detailed Research
Just like any regular marketing strategy, research is the first step for an influencer strategy as well. During your research phase, look into the type of influencers who will compliment your products. You must keep in mind whether you want to go for top influencers or micro-influencers with less than 2000 followers.
The decision you make will have a huge impact on the budget of your products’ campaign.
Set Budget And Determine Compensation
While setting the budget, keep in mind to also factor in time for planning, executing, and reviewing your strategy. A successful influencer marketing campaign involves careful monitoring and follow up.
Your budget has a huge impact on your campaign as it helps in setting the scale of the campaign.
Set Goals And The Message To Be Delivered
After determining the budget it is essential to set goals and decide the message you want to deliver to your audience. The two most common reasons for using influencer marketing are to elevate brand awareness and increase sales. However, instead of setting two very broad goals, it is better to stick with the immediate needs of your brand. Increasing customer base in older demographics or expansion into a new user group with a new product and more are examples of basic goals.
Find Your Influencers And Contact Them
The key element in this step is research. Extensive research helps you to find the right influencers to showcase your brand. You must also decide how you will reach them. For micro-influencers, a mere text is acceptable, but it isn’t the same case with the more established influencers.
During the aforesaid research, the following things must be kept in mind:
- Does the influencer post about related things on their social media platforms?
- Are they legitimate social media users or is it merely a fake social media handle?
- Have they worked with similar brands before?
Review And Change Your Strategy
Set predetermined dates to measure the progress of your ongoing campaigns. If you feel your campaign requires some changes or it could be made better, apply the changes to the campaign. Not all campaigns are successful but hopefully, you will learn new things with each one you create.
