With the rise of social media and digital marketing comes the rise of influencer marketing, but what exactly does this new type of marketing entail?
When we think of social media marketing, you might think of sponsored or “paid” ads in your feed, or you might think about organic marketing from a company’s Instagram account, but what about having a social media influencer on your side? Today, we’re talking about the value of influencer marketing; keep reading to learn more.
Influencer Marketing 101
According to Sprout Social, marketing with an influencer is a “…type of social media marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from influencers—individuals who have a dedicated social following and are viewed as experts within their niche.” So what does that mean exactly? Well, we asked our very own Social Ads Specialist and former Social Media Influencer Specialist, Gillian Ponce, what she thinks about the topic. She said, “The companies and clients we work with have a vision. They have a vision of who represents their product or services, which motivates the brand to use a certain influencer. But more importantly, an influencer must have a following that would be interested in such a product or service. So essentially, we’re using an influencer’s audience to expand our client’s audience.”
The History of Influencer Marketing
If you think about it, influencer marketing existed long before social media ever did. After marketing was ever invented or established, it didn’t take long for marketers and big brands to figure out that an influential figure backing a product would sell more of whatever they are trying to sell. For years now, the Wheaties brand has been sponsoring athletes and putting their faces on boxes, even before we had social media. Or what about NASCAR drivers with brand names scrawled all over their cars and uniforms? This isn’t a new form of marketing; really, instead marketing through an influencer is just a reinvented form of marketing.
You might think back to the early days of Facebook and Instagram and think, “I never saw an influencer on my feed.” Well, there’s no doubt that influencers have gained a lot more traction in just the last few years as social media has become more popular. From fitness influencers to gaming influencers, it seems like there’s a face for every niche, and truth be told, there is. Marketing with an influencer is the perfect way to directly target your audience, whether your product is for everyone or only a select amount of people.
Influencer Marketing Strategy
If you have a product or service to offer that is already being advertised on social media, you might think it’s time to recruit an influencer or two. Here are the things you should consider when looking for someone to represent your brand:
- What do they specialize in? – If they are a gamer, does it make sense for them to post about a new type of protein powder? Look for an influencer that you genuinely believe would be interested in your product—influencer deal or not.
- How’s their engagement? – Anyone can have a large number of followers, but the engagement rate is much more valuable to you. You can check someone’s Instagram engagement score and more stats with a program like upfluence.
- Is their audience your audience? – It’s possible for someone to claim they are a “foodie” and have content related to gaming, but does their following represent that they are a food influencer? Sometimes their followers realistically consist of old friends, acquaintances, and people they’ve met in the past. So even if they have food-related content, they might not be the best person to represent your brand because they simply don’t have an audience that will purchase your product.
An Example of Influencer Marketing
For this example, we’re going to use a company that creates hair care products for teenagers. In this case, it might seem easy to think we should only reach out to teenagers who will promote our product. While this might not be a bad idea, what you might not think of, is that parents of teenagers are much more likely to be the ones that will purchase shampoo and conditioner, more so than the teenagers themselves. That is why we would reach out to more moms with teenagers and family-style bloggers for this specific client than we would teenagers to be an influencer for this product. Once we find who we think would be interested, we would check their following and engagement stats for an indication that an influencer deal would be beneficial for the client. Then we’d reach out to said influencer to negotiate the terms of the deal.
Do Your Influencer Marketing With REVITY Marketing Agency
Take the next step in your social media strategy by working with REVITY to help you with your influencer marketing. We’ll get you in touch with influencers that perfectly fit with your brand and help you grow your audience.
REVITY is a full-service digital marketing agency that caters to clients and brands all over the world, so if you’re ready to grow your business with proven marketing practices, contact us today for a proposal!
