By: Sophie Allen Aug 13/2024
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By now it’s safe to assume that every ecommerce brand has heard of influencer marketing, especially if they’re active on social media. We briefly touched on influencer marketing as a growing trend in 2023 and it’s only gotten better since. Working with an influencer can be an effective way to build up your brand’s reputation and following, boost sales and website traffic, and spread the word about what you have to offer. Let’s take a deeper look at influencer marketing and how to build an effective influencer marketing strategy.
Influencer Marketing has Evolved
Gone are the days when celebrities were the only ones advertising products to us. These days, social media influencers are popping up on social apps such as Instagram and TikTok, promoting brands and adding a layer of authenticity that celebrities fail to reach. This is largely because social media influencers are more easily seen as regular people compared to their celebrity counterparts and can interact with their followers on a deeper level by keeping their main focus on influencing.
Types of Influencers
The continued evolution of influencer marketing has resulted in four tiers of influencers emerging: nano, micro, macro, and mega. These designations are based on the size of the influencer’s reach and range from less than 10,000 (nano) to over 1,000,000 (mega). These numbers also come with a price tag so unless you’re calling in a favour from a friend of a friend who’s related to someone famous, the chances of your business benefitting from a macro influencer–unless your brand is huge or high-end–are small. While that may sound confusing, consider how much it costs to hire a celebrity for a 30-second commercial (we don’t expect you to know the exact cost but, for reference, you can book JLo for $1.5 million) and see if that works with your advertising budget. If not, working with a smaller-scale influencer might be a better way to go for your business.
The Benefit of Using Small-Scale Influencers
Aside from being a more budget-friendly option, nano and micro-influencers can help promote your business on a more genuine, personal level. For starters, smaller-scale influencers can dedicate more time and effort to individual partnerships which leads to more tailored content for your brand. They’re also able to spend more time interacting with their followers, fostering good relationships and trust. You may even be able to find micro-influencers within your community who can post content that is more relevant to your shared region, leading to higher engagement rates. When working with a small-scale influencer, it’s worth establishing a good relationship before asking for their endorsement to ensure a genuine review and authenticity. As a bonus, some influencers will also provide reviews in exchange for your product, making them a much more budget-friendly option.
Building an Influencer Marketing Strategy
Are you ready to get started with your influencer marketing strategy? Here are some things to help get your strategy off on the right foot:
Do Your Research – Find an influencer that aligns well with your brand. More important than follower count is ensuring that you’re partnering with someone who will promote your brand to an audience that will respond positively to what you have to offer. You’ll also want to research where your ideal audience is to ensure you’re using the right platform (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc) to reach them. You can get started with your influencer search using platforms like Upfluence.
Establish a Relationship – Interact with the influencer you want to work with and establish a good relationship before making your ask. You want the influencer to know your company and again, ensure that the relationship is a good fit. This will make it better to work together and build a harmonious partnership moving forward, as well as bring alignment to what you want from the partnership.
Set Clear Goals & Objectives – Once you’ve secured a partnership with an influencer, be clear on what you’d like to achieve with them (brand awareness, more website visits, increased interactions with your socials, etc) to ensure you’re set up for success. Outlining a plan with clear expectations and benchmarks keeps everyone on track and accountable. This also includes your briefs to the influencer–keep them detailed with what you want and what your offering is. The more information about your company and product the influencer has, the better the content will be. Don’t forget to include any terms or ideas that are important to your brand, as well as ones to avoid.
Allow for Creative Freedom – While you should guide the influencer with what terms to use or avoid and information about your products and brand, it is still important to let the person you’re working with do what they do best–create content. Influencers know their audience and style, it’s why you’ve chosen them, so remember to let them get creative with your product and offer support by providing them with enough to be informative while allowing them to remain authentic.
Key Takeaways
Getting started with influencer marketing is a lot like choosing your digital marketing team; researching the best influencer fit for your brand, product, and budget is key. From there, it’s a matter of establishing a cohesive working relationship and providing enough information to get started, while trusting the experts to execute strategy with your best interests in mind. Good communication is necessary to ensure everyone remains aligned while working towards your goal, while progress updates keep you informed of performance along the way. It is important to remember that influencer marketing, much like content marketing and SEO, is a slow-and-steady approach in which you’ll be building up your brand’s authority, credibility, and thought leadership within your industry. It takes time to build audience trust but, once won, will result in a loyal and engaged customer base.
Ready to dive in? Snaptech has the social media expertise to help launch your brand into the exciting world of influencer marketing.