The famous “word of mouth” is no longer just offline, it is also at friends’ gatherings, at business dinners. With the emancipation of social platforms, this new concept was born: Influence Marketing.
Influence Marketing thus consists of a partnership between people and companies, where they publicize the services and products of different online businesses through social networks.
Some Insights:
Businesses earn USD 5.20 for every USD 1.00 invested in influencer marketing. (Influencer Marketing Hub)
80% of marketers believe that influencer marketing is effective. (MediaKix)
70% of teens trust influencers more than celebrities. (Digital Marketing Institute)
60% of the influencer marketing budget is expected to increase in 2023. (BigCommerce)
The influencer marketing industry is expected to be worth USD 15 billion by 2024. (Business Insider)
Create an effective Influencer Marketing strategy.
It may sound unexpected, but the most important factor for a successful influencer marketing campaign is not the number of followers of the influencer, but the loyalty of their community.
To create a successful strategy we must follow these steps:
1 – Set Objectives. First, it is necessary to identify the goals and objectives that the brand seeks in this relationship. The strategy will always be outlined according to these objectives, which can be the communication of a new product, increase online sales, credibility of a project or business, etc.
2 – Select Influencers who match the brand. It doesn’t matter to collaborate with influencers with a huge community if they don’t consider what we have to say to be relevant. Thus, part of the second step is to create a list of potential influencers who share the same values as the brand, and whose followers are interested in the narrative we have to tell them. It is sometimes much more valuable to select micro-influencers than celebrities with a dispersed community and without a strong power of influence in fact. Depending on the objectives we defined earlier, we were able to understand which influencers it would make sense to collaborate with.
3 – Relationship and Benefits. The third step is to approach the influencer, introduce the brand and “seduce” them to start this relationship. Here it is important to clarify what are the benefits for both (brand and influencer), and what each one can obtain from the partnership. Usually, a financial incentive is given to the influencer, but it can also be just a product or use of services.
4 – Content Creation. Having defined the business relationship between the two, it’s time to create the contents. The brand must prepare a briefing that contains the necessary elements for creation and deliver it to the influencer. Afterwards, it’s important to let him create with creative freedom – don’t worry too much about that, the briefing has already expressed the brand’s values, as well as the campaign’s objectives. And the more genuine and natural the content, the more effective the campaign and its engagement and results will be.
5 – Results. It is also necessary to define KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to measure the success of the campaigns. These should be chosen according to the objectives you set: number of people reached, number of clicks, messages, sales, etc.
