Influencer marketing has really changed the game when it comes to brand reach online.
Leveraging the audiences of well-known influencers and ambassadors can help to build your brand awareness, increase trust in your business, and create a community.
Social media influencers have built huge followings on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and they can have a big impact on the behaviour of their followers.
You may be thinking that influencer marketing is something only big brands do – but that is definitely not the case. Any business – whether small or large – can use influencer marketing, and if you do it strategically, you too can see ‘big brand’ results.
So how do you leverage influencer marketing for your business? Don’t we have some secrets to share with you…
We know that your brand is your biggest asset, and influencers can help you elevate your brand to a whole new level.
Our hot tips for influencer marketing
Be strategic
Are you new to the concept of influencer marketing and trying to find direction on where to start? You may be wondering how to pick the right influencer? What do you need to make sure they’re right for your brand?
Our number one tip for choosing an influencer is to be strategic! This means looking into the influencer’s social media profiles and seeing if their personal brand aligns with your own. Just like any endorser – you need to make sure that the associations people have with the influencer align with the associations you want people to have with your brand.
Here’s an example.
If you are a business that provides vegan make-up products, you might want to partner with influencers that are strong advocates for animal rights to enhance cruelty-free associations to your brand. Because their audience likely shares similar stances.
The risks of not working with the right influencer are significant, so you really need to ensure that you’re doing your homework.
Do your homework
Not only do you need to be strategic to find an influencer who aligns with your brand, you also need to find an influencer that matches your target market. Finding an influencer who matches your ideal customer will appeal more with your target audience and drive sales. This is an age-old marketing theory.
But finding out if your influencer resonates with your target audience requires homework.
Things you will need to find out is:
- Are they in your target market’s age bracket?
- Same life stage? (single, married, etc)
- Target gender?
- Do they share your target market’s values?
Answering these questions requires a lot of homework (stalking!).
Keep it authentic
Influencer marketing works best when endorsements come naturally and authentically. Remember this is why people follow and love influencers to begin with – they are seen as everyday people with no strings attached (quite different to how we see celebrity advertising!). So, make sure that any content your influencers post that promotes your products is natural and not over-the-top salesy.
This means scheduling promotions out so that they are not too frequent, having your product appear in the backdrop of a video, incorporating your product into their regular life, etc.
For example, you don’t want to be giving an influencer a baby-focused product if they don’t have a baby! Or an alcohol product if they don’t enjoy alcohol.
Build relationships
Follow influencer accounts and interact with their content. Communicating regularly with influencers can help to build a mutually beneficial and authentic relationship between your brand and the influencer’s brand.
They too want to know that you are actually interested in them!
Share the influencer’s content
You should ensure the content shared includes your brand and can be recognised by the audience. When an influencer does share content which your brand, you should try to share it on your social platforms too. This builds on yours’ and the influencer’s reach.
Why branding?
We’ve said it a few times now, branding. But what is it and what does it have to do with influencer marketing?
Branding makes your business unique and memorable. It is everything your customer sees, and it represents your business’ soul. Most importantly, branding is not a one-off thing. Branding is something that evolves through time – which means having a strong brands is to constantly monitor it.
And influencer marketing is one of the best ways to enhance and strengthen any associations you want your brand to have in the mind of your consumers. Do you want to be seen as an environmentally friendly brand? Choose influencers that have strong environmental values to endorse your products. Want to be seen to have the best products for gym junkies? Partner with fitness influencers who hit the gym a lot to showcase your product.
Influencer marketing is one of the best branding formula that creates the best chemistry with people and brands.
But it is also good for brand awareness. Our friends at HubSpot have given us some great insight into how well influencer marketing is working in 2023.
In fact, they reported that 80% of marketers say influencer marketing is effective, and 89% say it works just as well as existing marketing channels!
With followers trusting the opinions of influencers, we can help you to leverage their popularity and credibility to reach and build a relationship with their audience, increasing your brand awareness.
Want to use influencer marketing to strategically enhance your branding?
Contact us to get the ball rolling!
Book a meeting with our Chief Marketer, Holly Martin to discuss how we can transform your branding.
What kinds of influencers are out there?
Influencers can really give your brand a boost through posting a picture of your product, tagging your account, mentioning your product in a blog, or sharing a video of them using your product and explaining why they endorse it.
Sprout Social identified that Instagram is often found to be the most popular platform for influencer marketing. Across social media platforms you can find a range of influencer types including celebrities, bloggers, key opinion leaders and social media influencers.
HubSpot has identified four levels of social media influencers in the current market.
- Nano-influencers: Have 10,000 followers or less. Using a nano-influencer’s platform can help you to reach a very niche and targeted audience.
- Micro-influencers: Have between 10,000 to 100,000 followers. Micro-influencers are seen as authentic, reaching a larger audience than nano-influencers, while producing content in a niche space.
- Macro-influencers: Have 100,000 to 1 million followers. These influencers have a larger reach which can help you to engage with a broader community.
- Mega-influencers: Have more than 1 million followers. Mega-influencers are often celebrities or public figures that have a massive following that is often very diverse.
If your product or service is geared towards a specific niche, then a micro or nano influencer might be the way to go. These influencers have smaller followings, but they can be effective at reaching your desired audience niche.
On the other hand, if you have a more general product or service, and you’re looking to reach a wider audience, then macro and mega influencers could be the right fit for you with their larger following and diverse audiences.
Of course, it is important to remember that the success of influencer marketing comes down to more than just the follower count.
You should opt for influencers who have an engaged audience who comment on content, rather than relying on views and reach. Also considering the audience’s demographics and alignment to your brand remains important to successfully leverage influencer marketing.
All of this impacts your business’s branding, and we are here to help you nail it! Find out more about how we can help you reach your audiences here.
A story of success
A local small business, GlowAfter, has recently seen some big wins through reaching out to influencers that suit their style to a T! Thanks to The Marketing GP who implemented some strategic influencer marketing.
We helped GlowAfter to reach out to influencers across several social media platforms through DMs and free product offerings.
An influencer with more than 75,000 followers shared a story featuring the product, seeing an impressive boost to the brand’s reach over the 24-hour period, gained followers – including said influencer – and sales.
Other influencers and brands have responded with thanks, or liked GlowAfter’s content, which is a great win for a small business beginning to build those ever-important relationships.
The Marketing GP did extensive research into influencers that matched GlowAfter’s branding and target audience. They needed to make sure the influencer’s personal brand aligned with their own – but also that the influencer was a close resemblance to their target market. Maintaining a list of potential influencers who may not align with the brand for whatever reason can help to avoid any hiccups in the process.
Other very important details The Marketing GP considered was not sending GlowAfter’s ‘Superpower Against Hangovers’ to someone who is pregnant or simple doesn’t drink – awks!
Want to incorporate influencer marketing into your marketing strategy?
Book a meeting with our Chief Marketer, Holly Martin, today!
