Influencer Marketing: How To Start An Influencer Strategy?

By James Robert- Mar 20, 2023 49

Influencer marketing is a popular marketing method that uses people called influencers to promote a service or brand to a larger market. Influential people are leaders of opinion who have a social basis. They appear as experts or reliable sources of information.

 

If you want to explore the benefits of influential marketing, choose some helpful tips, and learn from some examples, keep reading. In this article, we will also teach you how to start influencer marketing for your brand.

 

Why is influencer marketing important?

Influencer marketing is closely related to social media marketing because most opinion leaders gather their audience on social platforms. This channel gives access to a huge audience - half of the world's population uses social media.

 

Even better, influencer marketing allows you to reach people you can't reach through traditional advertising. Two-thirds of consumers use ad blockers, but the same people gladly take advice from influential people. 80% of users buy something based on an impressive recommendation.

 

Brands that already employ influencer-based marketing have proven the effectiveness of this channel. 89% of marketers say that the ROI of influential marketing is comparable to or better than that of other marketing channels. Not surprisingly, 17% of companies spend more than half of their marketing budget on influential people.

 

Thus, influencer marketing is crucial in the age of social media and advertising fatigue. This channel helps build confidence in your brand and produces impressive results. Now, let's move on to the other benefits of influential marketing offers

 

How does Influencer Marketing work?

Of course, influencer marketing is a must today. So your decision will be about choosing the type of influencers from the sea of categories, platforms, and channels. Which gives more benefits? Which one aligns with your needs?

 

How to do Influencer Marketing?

Now let's see how to develop a strategy for an influencer marketing campaign.

 

 

 

Set your Goals for an Influencer Campaign

It is important to understand that influencer marketing is not based on the number of followers. It’s actually about connecting influencers with the right followers. For this, you must first identify what your purpose is with the promotion. If you're still in doubt, check out examples of goals:

 

     Increase the visibility of the brand to a specific audience

     Increase website visitors

     Increase the number of followers on a particular social network

     Create more engagement

     Downloading a specific element

     Register for the event

     The older generation

     Increase sales

 

If you don’t have a clear purpose, it will be very difficult to measure your success at the end of your campaign. Once you've identified your purpose, it's time to figure out what kind of campaign you want to run.

 

Your purpose also determines what kind of influencer you will work with. Not the kind of attitude that influencers adopt, on any social network.

 

Planning your Campaign

Various campaigns are going on with influential people. If you really want to achieve your goals, it is important to identify the right campaign.

 

You can ask an influencer to simply mention your brand or do an in-depth review of a product or create content with you. Sometimes brands allow influential people to take their social media profiles and allow them to manage their outreach for a certain period of time.

 

Like any marketing strategy, an influencer campaign requires guidance and planning. You do not have the required permissions to post. Even if your campaign is based on sending samples or free demos, your plan should be designed and the results tracked.

 

The purpose of any content marketing campaign is to show you how you can add value to your audience. In the case of influential marketing, you need to prove that you can add value to an influential audience.

 

 

Finding Brand Influencers

It is impossible to find the right influencer unless you know who you want to influence.

 

Therefore, you should already know your ideal client. If so, keep that in mind when looking for influencers. The more you can narrow down your audience for the campaign in question, the easier it will be to select the right influencer. In another blog article here, we explain in more detail how to find brand influencers.

 

Managing Influencer Marketing Campaigns

After defining the objectives, designing the campaign, and deciding who will be influential, it is time for a briefing.

 

A campaign overview is a clear explanation of what a brand expects from influencers, including guidelines and rules. The important thing is to make it clear to influencers what their role in the campaign will be and what the brand is offering in return.

 

When a relationship exists between the brand and the influencer, it is easy to move on. Because influential people already know what a brand offer has in common. If it is not, the first contact for presentation and clarification is interesting.

 

Working with Influencers

It is very important that you remember that real influencers will only be willing to work with you if they believe that your product adds value to their followers.

 

While the best influencers can be expensive, they don’t engage their audience on their blogs or social channels just for the money. Influencer marketing is not just about paying someone to say good things about you.

 

People are only accepted as influencers because they add value. If they try to pitch irrelevant or unprepared products to their followers, they will quickly lose credibility. So they will not be influential.

 

No matter how much you pay your influencers, your brand needs to provide something valuable for your following foundation. There is no point in trying to work with influential people who have a different audience than you.

 

There are many potential ways to work with influencers. Here are some examples:

 

     Send samples or demos with discount coupons for him to invite his followers.

     Ask for a review. Of course, in this case, you need to be very confident in your product and willing to hear negative feedback. Remember, the real influencer will be sincere.

     Build competition among the influential, and give big prizes to those who will get the best results.

     Pay for sponsored content.

 

Influencers are like paid media

This is another important point to mention. The way you invest in ads on social media, you can invest in ads created by influencers.

 

When you pay for an ad, you're investing in more visibility. A particular channel will present its offer to its subscribers, readers, listeners, or viewers. For example, influential people like a TV station have their audience. So when you’re campaigning with an influencer, you’re buying media in a way.

 

There are different levels of participation of an influential person in a campaign. Some campaigns are based solely on influential people. But often, influencers are just one part of the overall marketing strategy. You can even choose to include influencers in every step of your marketing, from research to planning.

 

Checklist for Influencer Marketing Campaign

Each campaign will have a specific checklist. Because it will depend on many factors, such as what social network the game has and how the short is made. But, here is a summary of the main actions.

 

     Set your goals

     Define your performance metrics

     Choose your method to find the influential ones

     Determine your campaign manager, budget and resources required

     Determine what the incentives given by the influencers will be

     Verify and examine potential influencers

     Give a brief definition of the campaign

     Communicate with influential people, it will already depend on your relationship with them

     Discuss with influential people and remove all doubts

     Create relevant content or track content that influencers are creating

     Make sure there is transparency in your campaign, for example, is your influencer letting you know that it is a paid partnership?

     Monitor and support influencers as needed

     Track your performance metrics

 

Conclusion

For influential people to stay here, they are part of the Creator’s economy. However, this does not mean that working with them today is always done the same way. The world of influencer marketing has changed a lot in a short time and in a few years, we may have more news. This guide will help you get started with your strategy. Still, it is important to be prepared for change.

 

Influencer marketing works hand in hand with content marketing. To be successful, brands need to believe that influential people present them correctly. If you choose influential people whose followers are close to your goal, then you have a chance of a successful campaign.