We have covered Digital Marketing, Content Marketing, Video Marketing, Email Marketing, and even Social Advertising. But one strategy  that we have yet to discuss is Influencer Marketing.

This is a newer strategy that has grown tremendously. In the past, Influencer marketing was specifically limited to celebrities. A celebrity post about a product is common, and can send your company into a whirlwind of increased engagement. Though, influencer marketing is no longer limited. The number of influencers on social media continues to increase everyday, creating a better opportunity for more companies to benefit from this strategy.

What Is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing. It uses product mentions from influencers, who are people that have a large and dedicated audience on social media. Many of these influencers have a specific niche, and a lot of the products that they promote have something to do with that niche. But, this is not always the case. Finding the right influencer to promote your brand can be a fun process being that the number of influencers on social media today is continuously growing. It is important to find someone whose audience will correlate to your target market.

You may be wondering, is this strategy valuable?

Being that there are so many different social media platforms that can be used for influencer marketing, this is an amazing strategy. Mediakix, an influencer marketing agency, surveyed marketers in 2018. 89% of those influencers said that the ROI from this strategy was comparable or better than other networks.

How Do I Create An Influencer Marketing Strategy?

Again, we have gone over every other digital marketing strategy and how you set these up. Now, we are going to do the same for this strategy.

Step 1: Find an Influencer

This first step is basically all about research. Firstly, you want to know what platform to use. This is all dependent on your target market. You need to know where most of your audience is. This depends on age, occupation, hobbies, etc. Once you choose a platform to start out with, this is when you can start looking for an influencer.

You want to focus on one platform at a time. For example, let’s use Instagram. There are so many different influencers on Instagram. Think about the type of influencer you are interested in. Do you want a fitness influencer? A fashion influencer? Maybe a makeup and beauty influencer? It all depends on your product or service, and how you want your brand to be perceived.

There are a few questions that you can ask yourself while you are looking for an influencer.

Ask Yourself These:

Does this influencer post about similar things to your product or service? Do they seem like someone that would be interested in using your product or service themselves? Are they real and do you think they will actually take the time to promote your product or service? Have they worked with brands before? If so, were they similar to yours?

These are important questions to ask yourself. You want to make sure that you are taking your time and finding the best influencer for your brand. This can be difficult for the first time, but once you have the hang of it, you will be able to expand this strategy onto different platforms and different influencers.

Next, are you going to go for someone with a massive following? Or do you want someone with a smaller audience, knowing that a higher percentage of that audience is going to be extremely dedicated. Once again, this is all dependent on your brand and what you are looking for. When looking for an influencer, you want to think about the compensation that you will be giving. Remember, the larger and more popular the influencer, the higher rate they are going to charge you. If you are a smaller business or a starting company, you are going to want to stay away from the massive celebrity influencers for now.

Step 2: Budget and Goals

Step 2 can be done simultaneously with step 1, being that they sort of coincide with each other. This step is another one that sets the scene for the rest of your strategy. As you are researching influencers, you want to know your budget. You also want to be able to pinpoint what exactly you want to result from this. Do you want more followers and customers? Or are you looking to increase your sales? Do you want to have more communication and a better relationship with your consumers? It is important that you have specific goals set before you implement your strategy.

Step 3: Contacting Influencers

Once you are past the research and planning steps, it is time to reach out. This step is typically the most nerve racking. Your strategy is finally beginning. With your plan set, you should be able to choose the best way to reach them. With a micro influencer, someone with a smaller and more dedicated audience, you may be able to private message them on the platform. For influencers that are more established and have a very large following, you should click around their profile and try to find their business email. This is usually something that will be on their profile.

Step 4: Review

As with any strategy, it will never be perfect. You want to keep an eye on your results in order to make your strategy better if needed. If something isn’t working, you can always go back and reevaluate.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing is an awesome strategy to grow your company. It is one that is popular and is going to continue to grow more and more everyday. If you are a big fan of social media, you should look into using this strategy.

We hope to have helped you learn a little about Influencer marketing, and possibly convinced you to implement this strategy.

If you have any questions:

Be sure to contact us here!