INFLUENCER MARKETING 101: ALL YOUR QUESTIONS AND MORE

Influencer marketing has become increasingly popular over the last few years. There are two main reasons for the growth in demand. One, influencer marketing creates trust in a brand and two, it gives a brand easy access to a new audience. In fact, the concept itself is similar to backlinking.

When a brand partners with an influencer, that influencer shows support for the brand by giving an honest recommendation to their followers and telling them to go check out that brand. The brand is instantly introduced to a new audience who, most likely, already trust the brand because they trust the influencer. If you aren’t already familiar with influencer marketing, it’s time to learn the ins and outs of it so that you can create an impressive strategy for your brand.

INFLUENCER MARKETING 101

Influncer marketing means that a brand has partnered with an influencer to promote their product or services. The brand pays the influencer and in return, the influencer promotes the brand.

HOW DOES INFLUENCER MARKETING WORK?

Inluncer marketing benefits both the brand and the influencer. The brand gets more recognition, the influencer gets paid, and both get introduced to a new audience.

WHY DO BRANDS DO INFLUENCER MARKETING?

Brands work with influencers because it is quick and effective. As soon as an influencer posts about a brand, the brand is introduced to a new audience that already trusts them because the influencer, a person they look up to, trusts the brand.

WHO IS INFLUENCER MARKETING FOR?

When we think about influencer marketing, people often imagine YouTube beauty gurus partnering with makeup brands. The truth is that any type of brand can partner with influencers on many different platforms.

For example, a chef who focuses on creating healthy meals could partner with a health food brand and promote the brand on Pinterest by incorporating the brand’s products in their recipes. Here’s where influencer marketing is most popular:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Pinterest
• Blog

TYPES OF INFLUENCERS

When creating an influencer marketing strategy, the most important decision is choosing what influencers you want to reach out to. The four main types are:

• Celebrity
• Macro
• Mid-tier
• Micro
• Nano

Working with more well known influencers like celebrities can be very defining for your brand. The upside is that you will get a lot of brand recognition, but the downside is that it may not be your exact targeted audience. Hiring a celebrity-level influencer is expensive as well.

Micro and nano influencers are good for brands looking to target a certain audience in a cost effective way. They are usually very excited to work with brands and try new things.

Mid-tier and macro influencers come with their own set of pros and cons that’s a combination of both popular and lesser known influencers. They are more cost effective than celebrities and will give you a fair amount of brand recognition, but it will be to a broader audience that’s not specifically tailored to your desired customer personas.

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT INFLUENCER

When choosing which type of influencer to work with, you must:

• Look at their location. Consider where they and their audience are based.
• Know their audience and the audience’s interests.
• Research the influencer’s interests and values to see if they align with your brand.
• Make sure they have the desired demographics and content.
• Analyze the audience and make sure they actually have a real audience (not bots).

On top of that, you need to understand your goals for the partnership so that you can work with someone whose audience will accomplish the goals you’ve established. For example, if your main goal is to get engagement on Instagram, choose an influencer who is popular on Instagram and also has an audience that will engage on the platform.

HOW TO DRIVE REVENUE WITH INFLUENCER MARKETING

So far, we’ve talked about brand recognition, but influencer marketing can also be a quick way to drive revenue. To do so, a brand can give the influencer a promo code to share with their followers or create ads from the influencer’s content. Having the influencer promote a limited time offer or conduct a contest can drive revenue fast.

INFLUENCER MARKETING KPIS

To know if your efforts are a success, you need to track your performance. Some common influencer marketing KPIs are:

• Engagement
• Impressions
• Earned media value
• Clicks
• Adds to cart

TOP INFLUENCER MARKETING TIPS

TRY OUT NEW PLATFORMS AND GET ON TIKTOK

If your brand is only on Instagram and Facebook, don’t be afraid to work with Influncers on TikTok. Right now, TikTok is booming. Plus, it’s a very attractive place if you are looking for brand recognition because of the potential for a post to go viral. TikTok is algorithm-based, not follower-based. That means that post appears at the top of people’s feed not because they follow the account, but because it is popular or fits their preferences.

MAKE CONTENT

At Colibri, we like to say content is queen. And it’s true! You need content to show people who you are to keep them engaged and entice them to come back for more. So why not have influencers help you create content? You can create blogs, new products, videos, and more that merge your brand’s vision with theirs.

USE SAMPLES

Like any form of marketing, you need some kind of incentive. Sampling is one of the most popular influencer marketing strategy. Here’s how it works:

• The brand sends the product to an influencer.
• They try it and recommend it by giving a link to their audience.
• In the link, users will find a sampling code that will send them a sample size of the product.
• The influencers have the opportunity to give something back to his/her community, and the brand gets people to test and buy their products (win-win).

USE BRANDED CONTENT ADS CAMPAIGN

Branded content ads are a great way to create brand recognition. How it works is that an influencer posts about a brand or product and the brand then promotes it to reach the right audience. This is what it looks like:

TAKEAWAYS

Congrats! Now that you are a pro at influencer marketing, it’s time to create your strategy. Check out this article on how to create an influencer marketing strategy. As you create your strategy, keep in mind the different types of influencers that are out there, what your goals are, and the many tips available online (like ours!) to get inspiration from.