Getting Started With Influencer Marketing

In the early stages, influencer marketing was dominated by a few select bloggers and celebrities.

Today, with increasing access to the internet, and technological advancements allowing for the creation of powerful mobile phones that take incredible pictures, it seems like almost anyone can become an influencer. In today’s world, influencers wield a lot of power, power that brands can tap into for their benefit. Read on to find out who exactly an influencer is, and how to incorporate influencer marketing into your social media strategy.

The growth of social media usage has brought along with it the rise of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is a form of marketing that relies on endorsements and mentions from people who have a considerable following and are authorities in their niche. The Influencer Marketing Hub defines an influencer as someone who has the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of their authority, knowledge, position, relationships,  following in a distinct niche, with whom they actively engage. 

The influencer marketing process involves three distinct elements: 

1. The Brand offering a product or service that needs to be marketed
2. The Influencer who has authority and an audience that the brand is interested in reaching
3. The Audience that follows, interacts and trusts the influencer

For influencer marketing efforts to be successful, all three elements must be aligned. To put it into context, a diaper brand looking to market their new diaper bags is not likely to benefit from working with a 19-year-old video game influencer. The video game influencer’s audience may be very confused when they see the influencer talking about diaper bags. 

With this in mind, what should be considered when getting started with influencer marketing?

• Objective: What are you hoping to achieve by engaging an influencer? Are you looking to create awareness or encourage trials and purchases?
• Platform: How many platforms do you want to use in your campaign? If you are just getting started, it may be best to stick to just one platform such as Instagram.
• Influencer: Which Influencers do you want to use? Do you want to use macro-influencers or micro-influencers or a mix? There are free and paid tools that can help you evaluate influencers. Remember to pick influencers that are aligned with your brand.
• Budget: How big is your budget? How do you plan to compensate the influencers? How long will you run the influencer campaign?
• Message: What is the campaign message? Be sure to brief your influencer(s) on the campaign message, guidelines, and dos and don’ts so everyone is on the same page. You want your influencer marketing campaign to be cohesive.
• Performance: How will you evaluate the performance of your campaign? Be sure that all the parties involved are clear on the performance indicators. It’s only by assessing the performance of the campaign that you can ascertain its success and effectiveness.

Influencer marketing, when done properly can be a very effective marketing tool. Ensure that your influencer marketing campaign aligns with your other marketing efforts for maximum success.