In the last decade, influencer marketing has become an entirely new division in the world of digital marketing. Odds are, you’ve seen or have been impacted by influencer marketing on social media in one way or another. And most importantly, influencer marketing is expected to grow – in fact, the prediction is that by the end of 2021, influencer marketing is going to be worth $13.8 billion.
Although influencer marketing has become a mega tool for many brands, some are still unsure if it’s the right direction for them. If you’re not yet convinced, or if you’re still trying to figure out whether influencer marketing should be integrated into your own business strategy, let me give you the full breakdown.
For starters, it’s important to understand that the majority of brands are allocating a separate budget for content creation, and out of that they focus 75% of the budget towards influencer marketing. Based on these statistics and industry performance, we can see that the majority of businesses believe that allocating a specific influencer marketing budget is impactful to their online marketing.
That’s why, in this guide, I will outline the following:
- The different kinds of influencers you can work with
- How to start working with influencers
- How to make influencer marketing work for your budget
- How to build a strategy for your influencer marketing, and
- How to measure the influencer’s work.
The Different Types of Influencers
Before you start allocating budget towards influencer marketing, it’s important you understand all the different influencer categories on the market and how they can fit your marketing.
In general, there are four main types of influencers, each type has its own way of work, budget, and expectations. Note that below I focus on Instagram, but this is valid across all platforms.
(Mega) Celebrity Influncers
Mega influencers – also known as the celebrities that took over social media – are those with a mass following of over 1 million followers and are often the most targeted by large brands with a huge budget to market their products. These influencers’ followers are highly dedicated fans that love and trust what the influencer is doing. And while they may not immediately be able to purchase the products advertised by these individuals, the connection between the influencer and the brands they work with becomes aspirational for this audience – they strive to acquire these products so they can be more like their favorite influencer. Of course, these mega influencers can also work with more affordable brands, but it’s the large, and often high-end brands that have a lot of capital to invest in these individuals.
Macro-Influncers
Macro-influencers are those who have amassed between 100k and 1M followers. Because of this wide range, those at the higher end can often be seen as mega influencers, since they, too, work with large brands. However, macro-influencers are often individuals that came from a non-existing fan base and grew a community. They nurtured their relationship with their followers and share a large part of their lives online. This of course makes them the perfect marketing machine. It’s important to note that most influencers in the macro, micro, and nano sectors belong to a niche group – sometimes even a few. As a result, many of these influencers highlight that they won’t work with brands that do not fit their niche, message, or aesthetic.
Micro-Influncers
Micro-influencers fall within the 10k to 100k followers range. These influencers are very community-oriented and strongly care about what they are selling to their audience. In addition, they are often more relatable to their audience than mega influencers. This could explain why micro-influencers pull in a better engagement rate than mega influencers.
Nano-Influnencers
Nano-influencers usually have less than 10k followers. Although they might not be the most coveted group for brands, nor do they charge $100k a post, nano influencers do have a lot of power. Just like micro-influencers, nano-influencers deeply focus on the community they are building and the enrichment of their community. They are usually niched to a specific topic and focus all of their content around that particular topic. As they grow, they may expend on the content they share, but overall, they are an expert in one niche.
How Do You Start Working With Influencers?
The influencer marketing world can sometimes be overwhelming. There are so many possibilities and directions that it is sometimes hard to understand where you need to start!
If you wanna skip the DIY part of in-house influencer marketing and get some help, you can always check out our Influencer Marketing Services here.
But, if you’re still looking to try this on your own, let’s start with a plan.
For starters you need to ask yourself the following:
- What am I trying to accomplish with influncer marketing?
- What are my expectations from a collaboration, and are they realistic?
- What am I willing to pay or offer the influncer?
- What is the goal? Is this a one-time arrangement, or am I looking to build a long-term relationship or partnership?
These are just a few of the things you need to start asking yourself before you start contacting or working with influencers. You need to be clear on your own expectations so you can clearly outline them to the influencer.
Once you understood what you want and need for your business, it’s time to start your market research.
Look at your competitors and see what they are doing and what you like and dislike about their influencer campaigns. Understand their creative approach and see if the influencers they have chosen fit your vision. If so, start making notes on what you want your potential campaign to look like. Save that content and use it as inspiration.
After you’ve looked at your competitors, start looking at influencers from different niches.
Decide which influencer categories you want to work within and on what platforms you’d like your product/service to be featured.
Now that you have a foundation, let’s talk about the specifics.
How To Make Influencer Marketing Work for Your Budget
After laying out the foundation, it’s important to understand how you should allocate your budget. When we speak about a budget, the monetary value can differ and it does not have to be a straight payoff. Meaning, your influencer campaign arrangement does not have to be strictly X cost per post. There are a variety of business models that you can work through. In this post, we will talk about the very basic options, but we can create a more in-depth post about the business models.
If you’re looking to go for the most straightforward option – X per post/video/story/campaign, etc. – then you’re looking at budgets that can start anywhere from $1k-10k a year and go all the way to 100k-500k a year. If you’re only starting out with influencer marketing, then you’d most likely be in the $1k-$10k a year range so you can test your methods.
If you’re a small and new business that does not have a monetary budget, you can also launch campaigns with the following models:
- Product
- Product + affilate link that earns the influncers money once used
- Product + discount code and the influcner also share revanue with each sale from the code
There are many more models and options, but let’s stick to the most basic models for now.
The most important element to underline is the kind of ROI you’re looking for. Aside from driving traffic and sales, you also need to think about the content assets you’ll gain. It’s important that the influencers you choose will be on-brand for you so you can use all content they produce for your marketing advantage.
How To Build an Influncer Marketing Strategy?
First and foremost, FIND THE RIGHT INFLUENCERS.
This is the most important step in your whole strategy, 34% of brands that run in-house campaigns report that finding the right influencers for them is one of the biggest challenges.
How do you find the right influencers?
You start building a database. In that database, outline your target audience and their most important features. From there, start looking for influencers that focus on your target audience and build a solid list before you start reaching out.
Once that is done, you need to understand what platforms you want each influencer on. I would recommend creating a database for each platform you want to market on.
Once the list is ready, decide on the creative campaign, budget, and goals, and start reaching out to those influencers. Keep in mind that many will ignore you, forward your message to an agent, and so on. That’s why it’s important to make sure you have an exhaustive list that constantly gets updated.
Also, note that when you reach out and pitch to your influencer, don’t just send them a generic email. Create an email with a personal message (similar to the cold email template I have shared in a past post). In addition, an influencer may negotiate your offer, asking for more or sharing their packages with you. Make sure to ask for their media kit with the most recent statistics and campaigns before agreeing to collab.
If you end up working with an influencer and you’ve negotiated a rate that is over $500, make sure you have a signed contract and a media release form. This way, you’re covering yourself, the campaign expectations are clear, and you can use the content they provide for your advertising without having them suddenly say they don’t want something published.
How to Measure your ROI
Measuring ROI is extremely important, but when it comes to influencer marketing, it can also be tricky.
Often, there is no clear ROI when it comes to influencer marketing because it’s difficult to measure the conversion rate as you would with something more traditional, like digital ads.
That said, there are a few ways you can see the impact of the collaboration:
- If you provided the influncer with a coupon code, then you can follow and see how many people used it, what timeframe it was used in and other metrics. This measurment shows that the influncer communicated your prodcut well and drove sales to your website.
- Another way to see the ROI is through an affilate link. If you see that since they relased the link you’re getting more conversions, then your product worked with thier audience.
- You can also measure the impact of your campaign by looking at your follower count. Are these followers engaging with your content? Are they interested in your products? Are they also following that influncer?
- Additionally, you should also request the analytics from the posts and stories the influncer did. See if the data shows value. Look if the influencer also gains more followers and check if audiences are sharing and/or saving the post. All of these should give you an indication if your campagin was successful and valuable.
The first two methods are the clearest way to measure the ROI in a campaign, but it’s important to understand that engagement, growth, and exposure also bring significant value to your business.
There you have it – a basic guide to influencer marketing.
Of course, there is much more to this topic than has been covered in this blog post. But if you are yet to be introduced to how things work in the influencer world, this is the perfect guide to get you started.