What are Influencers?
To put it simply, an influencer is any person who influences the behavior of others. In a marketing context, influencers are individuals who collaborate with brands to promote products or services to their audience.
Now that word-of-mouth recommendations and criticisms spread through social media faster than fire in a dry field, influencers are more important than ever. They usually have huge followings on social media and are brand advocates as well as niche promoters.
Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers, people and organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field. Influencer marketing is a social media marketing strategy that sees brands leverage the audience of influencers to drive awareness and sales. Influencers are paid to endorse or promote a product to their audience, who, in turn, buy the product from the brand.
While it seems that some companies don’t want to let go of their outbound marketing practices, fashion ecommerce sites are targeting influencers like pros. Many are reaching out to reputable fashion bloggers and sending them clothing and accessory items to be reviewed. The blogger then posts photos and writes about the garments, often linking back to the site where their audience can buy the items being reviewed.
Influencers are valuable because they offer instant access to the credibility a growing company needs. 70% of millennials are influenced by recommendations from their peers. Influencers provide a connection point between companies and their target market.
Working with an influencer:
- Increases brand awareness: Gain exposure to your influencer’s existing audience. This market is already engaged and waiting for relevant content.
- Builds trust: Consumers already trust the opinions of the influencers they follow. Influencers instantly boost the credibility of your brand.
- Improves customer relationships: Strengthen relationships with your customers through the intimate existing connections influencers have with them.
- Improves your brand: The positive connection influencers already have with customers causes a “halo effect” which strengthens the company in the eyes of the consumer.
- Improves SEO: Working with influencers offers opportunities for link-building. More links lead to better search rankings.
Influencers Types and Platforms
Influencers can affect your business in many ways. Their way of influence depends on their way of work and the agreement in which you make with them.
The different type of influence they can bring to you may come in a variety of presentations to the audience.
There are a few types of influencers based on size of crowd:
There are a few types of influencers based on content and niche:
Influencers Approach
When everyone can be an influencer, it can get complicated to find the right influencers to represent your brand. Here are some factors other than influencer rates to think about during your influencer search.
Audience Match
Once you find an influencer with the follower count you’re looking for, take a look at who those followers are. Do they match your target audience? If they don’t, the influencer will probably have a harder time sharing your brand message. If they do, great! Before you go signing them up, though, check out the engagement and read some of the comments and responses to make sure that the engagement is what you’d like to see for your brand.
Authenticity, Passion, and Knowledge
Does the influencer you’re considering speak knowledgeably about your industry? Does their audience engage with their content—even their sponsored content? Does the influencer create their own content in their promotional messages? The right influencer for your brand is one that comes across as a relatable person sharing information about their favorite products instead of a salesperson. It helps immensely if they also have a passion for the niche.
Goal Match
Your goal has a lot to do with the type of influencer you’ll want to choose. For example, if you’re looking to increase your brand awareness, macro influencers with larger fan bases are probably going to be the most beneficial to you. If you want to increase conversions, however, nano or micro influencers might be your best bet thanks to their typically high engagement rates.
Platform
The platform an influencer uses is important, too. If your audience loves stunning imagery, you’ll probably want to find an Instagram influencer. If your audience goes crazy for video content, a YouTube influencer might be a better option. If you’re a B2B business targeting other businesses, find a LinkedIn influencer to partner with.
Source: influencermarketinghub
In Summary
The new time of influencers bring countless opportunities and with it comes a great deal for a thorough preparation.
Make it easier and get in touch with us for expanding your operation with influencers!
