It's nearly impossible to scroll through social media without coming across some form of influencer marketing. Influencers are flaunting their latest snacks, clothes, makeup brands, or candles everywhere you look, and that's just the beginning. Influencers are constantly looking for new ways to be sponsored on their favorite platforms, from traditional posts to the ever-popular Instagram Stories to long videos.
It might feel like influencer marketing is a new thing that just became popular recently. Actually, influencer marketing began 15 years ago. PayPerPost, the first marketplace to pay bloggers for branded content, launched quite a bit of speculation. Since blogs were mainly seen as online diaries, many experts were skeptical that adding advertising or sponsorships into the content would actually feel unauthentic.
Do You Need Influencer Marketing In Your Strategy?
Influencer marketing is not for every type of business. Some niches have made their way into influencer marketing and can thus be found on Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms. Let us explain in this manner. The following major niches are frequently encountered when working with influencers:
- Fashion, Beauty, Lifestyle.
- Travel.
- Health, Fitness.
- Food.
- Interior design, DIY.
- Parenting.
- Gaming.
- Sports.
- Business, Tech.
As you may have noticed, the majority of these are relatable niches that can be linked to your product in some way. So, if you like an influencer's curated content that is relevant to your product, you can contact them via email or DM.
Getting started
Every marketing campaign is different. Some are focused on increasing the sales of a certain product or service, while others are general awareness campaigns that aim at demonstrating how a brand can provide value to its target audience.
Nonetheless, knowing the goal of your campaign needs to be the first step in planning any marketing activities, including influencer marketing. Engaging influencers should be just one of the many activities you’ll take to promote your brand. It’s not wise to focus all your budget just on influencer marketing and expect overnight results.
Know what you want to achieve before you dive in
What do you require from influencers and what do you want them to accomplish for you? Influencers can range from content creators who help you with your social calendar to full-funnel drivers who help you drive sales or launch a new product.
Once you've determined what role they'll play in your ecosystem, you can dive into strategy planning and determine what type of program, partners, and content will help you move the needle. Influencers can be powerful drivers throughout the customer journey, from awareness to conversion, but you must first understand their role before developing a strategy based on which program type, partners, and content will help you move the needle.
Choose the platform that you want to focus on first
It’s better to take it slow and get it right than haphazardly scatter your resources in different places. Your brand should already have a presence on the selected channel and the channel needs to contain an audience that aligns with your ideal customer.
“Each social media platform has a different core demographic: understand which social media platform is best for you and where to find your potential customers. If you use Instagram to promote your e-commerce, your e-commerce should have some of the “Instagram sassy vibes".
Purpose of campaign
Formulate the purpose of your overall campaign and start to think about the messaging. What do you want influencers to highlight? What kind of content are you looking for them to create? How do they need to talk about your product?
Research influencers. Take into account the type of influencer you want to approach (macro-, micro-, etc.) based on your budget and campaign goals. It’s also worth looking at the number of sponsorships that influencers are doing, as this can affect engagement if every other piece of content is a paid sponsorship.
So here comes our list of 1000+ influencers, which you can filter out based on your brand niche, and this groundwork assists you in identifying some options. Here is a sneak peek that you will get from our list:
- Their engagement ratio with their followers
- Their average user activity
- You can filter out the category as per your brand requirement
- Their popular posting time so that you can get the idea about how many likes and comments they will get if they post it in that particular time
Bonus: Top 5 Influencer Marketing tools to find more influential people
Plan out how will you manage the financial arrangement with Influencers
Any paid media campaign needs monitoring and subsequent adjustments to meet goals. Cultivating a fruitful relationship with influencers requires Hands-on involvement. Once you settle on options, pitch your proposal. Larger influencers are typically represented by a management agency that handles the partnership. Contact smaller influencers by dropping a direct message to their social media account.
Once you've reached an agreement, how should you approach influencer marketing? We've discovered that providing clear outlines, briefs, and deadlines helps to avoid confusion and ensures that you get the results you want. Share key product information as well as specific goals to ensure the influencer is on the same page as you and will produce authentic content.
Following that, both parties collaborate to deliver the campaign and make any necessary changes to meet your sales targets.
Best Influencer Marketing Example
When creating an advertisement, don't take everything so seriously. Advertisements with a sense of humour sell better than those with a lack of humour.
If you've ever seen a Ryan Reynolds commercial, whether, for an upcoming film or one of his products, you know how amusing they can be. Consistently releasing funny advertisements generates a conversation around them, increasing their reach. Audiences enjoy being entertained and will wait for the next ad, expanding the reach even further. After all, who doesn't enjoy a good laugh?
One super cool example of his ad was hilarious and people loved it.
1. Aviation American Gin
Ryan Reynolds in 2018 became the owner of Aviation American Gin and has since created some hilarious advertisements. The company collaborated with Virgin Atlantic to offer the gin on flights and in Clubhouse lounges. While the video featured Sir Richard Branson and Ryan Reynolds discussing the partnership, it took an unusual approach to announcement videos in which Reynolds uses business terms, but in his trademark witty style.
2. Axis Bank – #AxisThoughtFactory
Thought Factory, a dedicated innovation lab, was created by Axis Bank, one of India's largest private sector banks. They collaborated with well-known technology bloggers to publicize the event. Influencers who attended the event live-tweeted about it and blogged about it. This event was live-tweeted and blogged about by many tech experts and social media personalities.
3. McDonald’s and Travis Scott
As one of the world's leading fast-food brands, McDonald's naturally pairs well with a mega-influencer. They collaborated with rapper Travis Scott to promote his favourite McDonald's meal, while Scott created a line of McDonald's-inspired merchandise through his Cactus Jack label.
Wrapping Up
As previously stated, influencer marketing does not have to end with social media. Take the content you've created and implement it to your other channels, such as email or newsletters to educate people about your product. Those certain options for driving sales can sometimes be more effective than a social media campaign.
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