Influencer Marketing Strategy

Influencer marketing has rapidly evolved from its early beginnings, finding its roots in individuals with substantial social influence who promote things and services they use, like, and vouch for.

In the digital era, this strategy has undergone a significant transformation, particularly with the onset of social media platforms. Nowadays, influencer marketing is an online powerhouse, with the U.S. influencer market reaching a valuation of 16.4 billion dollars in 2022, solidifying its role in marketing in general. Let's add another interesting statistic, just to underline its importance in today's world: 72% of Gen Z and Millennials actively follow influencers on various social media platforms, which only demonstrates the massive reach and impact of influencer campaigns.

In the thick of this growth, a notable shift has occurred towards a more personalized approach. The consequence is the rise of micro and nano-influencers. These influencers, though having a smaller audience compared to mega-influencers, possess a highly engaged and niche follower base. Recognizing the authenticity and relatability they bring, a significant 56% of marketers now prefer collaborating with micro-influencers, since the plan is to capitalize on connections they create with a more specific audience.

As you already know, influencers are usually divided into tiers. The main parameter is the number of followers they have. Here's the most common division:

• mega-influencers: mega-influencers have more than 1 million followers and a wide reach; in most cases, mega-influencers are celebrities, such as singers, actors, public figures, or athletes (believe it or not, Cristiano Ronaldo;
• macro-influencers: macro-influencers have between 500,000 and 1 million followers; they also have general appeal, and can cover a wide range of topics within their niche;
• mid-tier influencers: mid-tier influencers typically have between 50,000 and 500,000 followers; they usually have a specialized focus within a niche;
• micro-influencers: micro-influencers have 10,000 to 50,000 followers; they have a higher engagement rate compared to top-tier influencers, but also a bigger reach than nano-influencers;
• nano-influencer: nano-influencers have between 1,000 to 10,000 followers; their audience is small but engaged, and they are perceived as very authentic.

So, if you run a local business, or you have a small-scale e-commerce shop, specialty boutique, or neighborhood restaurant, just to mention a few examples, you should probably opt for nano-influencers. Since they can reach out to local communities and niche audiences, they are a great choice for precise local targeting.

Micro-influencers are an excellent pick for niche product brands, subscription services, health and wellness businesses, or tech startups.

Growing e-commerce projects, fashion and beauty brands, travel agencies, and food delivery companies are some of the most usual partners of mid-tier influencers. They have significant reach and are suitable for businesses that look to expand their brand visibility.

Macro-influencers are ideal for already established consumer brands, tech companies, and big retail chains, just to give you some examples. They are known for their extensive reach, just like mega-influencers.

Mega-influencers, as mentioned, can cover different demographics and diverse audiences. On the other hand, they are usually pretty expensive, and affordable only to multinational corporations, global consumer brands, and similar businesses.

Now that we have explained influencer tiers, and how to choose the perfect influencer type considering your business, we'll now say a couple of words about social media platforms. Stay tuned!

With 4.89 billion expected users in 2023, social media platforms are still climbing the ranks. Although there are some new kids on the block, such as TikTok, in your campaigns you shouldn't ignore good old platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

• Facebook

Even though it has a broad user demographic, Facebook mostly attracts adults between 18 and 65+ years of age. It's particularly suitable for service-based businesses, local establishments, e-commerce ventures, and organizations focused on community engagement. As for the campaigns, it's good for brand awareness, event promotions, and engagement through thoughtful content. On Facebook, you'll find influencers ranging from industry experts to lifestyle bloggers.

• YouTube

YouTube predominantly draws in young and middle-aged adults, but there are a lot of teens as well. It is a good fit for educational content, product reviews, tech, beauty, fitness, and lifestyle-related topics. If you want to do campaigns that involve tutorials, product reviews, or you simply want to tell a story about your brand, YouTube seems to be the natural choice. The YouTube influencer scene is expansive, showcasing content creators, vloggers, reviewers, industry experts, and engaging personalities.

• Instagram

As a visually-driven platform, Instagram is a hub for a, generally speaking, youthful audience. There's a notable concentration of individuals aged 18 to 34. It thrives with visually appealing businesses such as fashion, beauty, travel, lifestyle, and gastronomy. Successful campaigns encompass influencer partnerships, sponsored posts, contests, and immersive visual storytelling. Within this vibrant community, influencers in fashion, beauty, travel, and micro-influencers play a crucial role in the authentic engagement of their followers.

• TikTok

TikTok is a sensation among the younger demographic, particularly teens and young adults. Even though younger generations are still in the majority on TikTok, this platform is rapidly gaining traction across various age groups. Brands with a youthful and trendy appeal find a natural fit here, spanning entertainment, food, fashion, and products or services aimed at a vibrant audience. Engaging campaigns involve viral challenges, user-generated content, and short video ads. The platform is bustling with creative content creators, dancers, comedians, and individuals showcasing their unique talents.

1. Identifying the right influencer

A successful influencer marketing strategy begins with identifying the right influencer. And the first step in identifying the right influencer is, of course, to understand your target audience and campaign objectives. In other words, you have to know your ideal consumers, their demographics, interests, and so on.

The next step is to do the research on influencers. Social media platforms are a good place to start, but you can also use some tools and platforms like Upfluence or Influencity. Be sure to check out their content, as well as other elements, such as engagement rates.

(BTW, it's generally accepted that 1% to 5% is a decent engagement rate. Keep in mind that the more followers someone has, the harder becomes to get these numbers. Besides that, contextual factors such as content type, industry, and the specific platform also need to be taken into consideration.)

As already mentioned, ponder on the type of influencer that suits your campaign's goals. Your objectives, and the nature and size of your business, will determine if you choose nano, micro, mid-tier, macro, or mega influencers. Whatever you do, seek influencers with a genuine connection to their audience and a track record of credible partnership.

Additionally, evaluate the quality of their content, ensuring it aligns with your brand's image and messaging. If navigating this process feels overwhelming, engaging with influencer marketing agencies or platforms can be quite beneficial. They provide access to influencer databases, offer valuable insights, assist in negotiations, and help manage influencer partnerships.

2. Legitimacy and authenticity check

The next logical step of the influencer marketing strategy is to check an influencer's legitimacy. Legit and authentic influencers maintain a consistent and genuine tone of voice - that's how they reflect their real personality and interests. Weird posting patterns and sudden shifts in the type and style of the content are definitely red flags.

You also want to check if influencers have an authentic and real audience, rather than a bunch of paid accounts or bots. That's why you should look for meaningful comments and discussions, and a number of likes and shares that's proportional to the number of followers.

Tools like HypeAuditor or Social Blade can help you out as well, as they provide insights into an influencer's growth, audience demographics, and engagement. Look for unusual spikes in followers and for an unusually high percentage of followers from suspicious locations - these could easily be fake accounts.

3. Negotiations and partnerships

Once you've chosen an influencer you want to do a campaign with, you have to reach out and start the negotiation process. The goal is to find common ground beneficial to both parties. As in any negotiation, do your best to understand the other party's motivations and values. That means that you should come up with a proposal that aligns with their brand identity and audience. Clearly articulate your needs and expectations (we've dedicated the next step only to KPIs), but at the same time try to stay as flexible as possible.

Once terms are agreed upon, formalize the partnership with a comprehensive written agreement (we'll talk about the legal details later on in the article). State the campaign timeline and the procedure for revisions and approvals. A transparent and detailed agreement sets the foundation for a successful collaboration, minimizing potential conflicts and misunderstandings.

Building a genuine relationship with influencers is vital for long-term success. Authenticity fosters trust and loyalty. Engage with the influencer beyond campaign transactions, show appreciation for their work, and offer constructive feedback. A genuine connection ensures a mutually beneficial and sustainable partnership, where influencers become true advocates for your brand. It's about nurturing relationships, and not just about business transactions.

4. Define KPIs and payment

The next step of the influencer marketing strategy (which is, in a way, part of a previous step) is to set clear KPIs for the campaign. Here are some of the most relevant KPIs:

• reach: measures if the campaign has successfully exposed the brand or product to a wide audience;
• impressions: higher impressions signify increased brand exposure, reaching more individuals and potentially enhancing brand recall and recognition;
• engagement rate: a high engagement rate, especially a click-through rate (CTR), is a strong indicator that the influencer's content has captivated the audience;
• follower growth: a jump in followers during or after the campaign demonstrates that the influencer's endorsement has positively impacted the brand's audience base, which could lead to more engaged customers;
• conversions: successful conversions indicate that the influencer motivated the audience to complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or subscribing.

As for the payment, influencers are still usually paid per piece of content (per post or per story, for example). But it doesn't mean you can't arrange performance-based payment. It goes without saying that the conditions have to be clearly stated in advance and that they should be fair and mutually beneficial.

5. Tracking and reviewing campaign success

Although we can't argue that the hunch can be an important part of decision-making in business, you probably strive to make data-driven decisions. From that perspective, it's crucial to track and analyze influencer campaign performance.

Tracking and analyzing influencer campaign performance - engagement rates, reach, conversions - is key to understanding the impact and the value of the campaign. Some things, such as website traffic, coupon code usage, or specific calls-to-action you can track on your own (of course, with a little help from Google Analytics and similar tools). However, metrics like engagement rate, reach, and impression are typically derived from the influencers' social media accounts.

Once the campaign finishes, conduct a detailed review of the gathered data. Compare the actual performance against predefined KPIs and objectives. That's how you can successfully identify what has contributed to positive outcomes, as well as areas for improvement. Moreover, pay close attention to the influencer's content quality, messaging alignment, and audience response.

6. Strategy review and optimization

As already said, you can derive valuable insights by identifying successful aspects and areas for improvement. With A/B testing during the campaign, you get a real-time understanding of what strategies work best. We'd advise you to experiment, and not just with content types, but possibly with messaging and influencer approaches. Stay flexible and make necessary adjustments.

In addition, gathering feedback from influencers is invaluable. Engaging in open conversations to understand their perspectives and audience insights can offer a unique angle for strategy refinement. This feedback loop helps a lot to improve future campaigns. To rephrase, this will help you incorporate successful elements and discard ineffective ones.

When it comes to the very nature of collaboration with influencers, there's one thing that we absolutely have to go through. There are different ways you can work with influencers, and we'll discuss the most frequent ones:

• sponsored content: this type of collaboration means that you compensate influencers to create and share content that showcases your brand, product, or service; influencers create content based on your messaging and themes; sponsored content is used mostly to increase your visibility, and to reach a broader audience;
• affiliate links: affiliate links are actually unique tracking links influencers use for promotion; every time conversion happens, influencers earn a commission for every sale made through the link; this is a pretty fair approach, since it's a performance-based, meaning that you will give a cut for every conversion;
• promo codes: provide influencers with exclusive promo codes to share with their audience is another effective collaboration option; it's a cool option since it incentivizes both the influencer's audience and the influencer;
• giveaways: collaborating on a giveaway involves influencers hosting a contest where their followers can participate and win your product or service; it's great if you want to boost rapidly your visibility and engagement, and attract new clients;
• product reviews and unboxings: influencers can provide an authentic review or unboxing experience of your product; when you send them the product, they will share their genuine thoughts and reactions on social media; it's a trusted way to showcase your product's features and benefits;
• brand ambassadorship: this is a long-term relationship between a brand and an influencer, which means that influencers will create multiple pieces of content over an extended period; it fosters a deeper connection and trust with the influencer's audience.

In our Influencer Marketing Strategy article, we'd like to address a very important question - the question of legal issues. If you plan to do influencer marketing campaigns, you'll just have to get familiar with legal considerations, especially those outlined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Their guidelines stress the importance of transparent disclosure when influencers promote or endorse products or services. As a brand, it's your responsibility to educate influencers about these guidelines and ensure they clearly disclose paid partnerships or sponsored content. Failing to comply with these regulations can lead to penalties and affect both the influencer and your brand's reputation.

It's self-evident that clear and well-written contracts are the most important in protecting both parties' interests. Contracts should explicitly outline various aspects, including campaign expectations, compensation structure, content usage rights, exclusivity clauses, and dispute resolution mechanisms.

Influencer marketing often transcends geographical boundaries, making international regulations a critical aspect. Different countries have distinct rules governing advertising, data privacy, and marketing practices, so you should be well-versed in these regulations. For instance, the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) mandates explicit consent for data processing, impacting how influencers engage with their audience.

Upholding truth in advertising is equally crucial; misleading claims or false representations of products and services can lead to legal repercussions. This fact just reinforces the necessity for accurate and honest marketing practices. By integrating these legal considerations into your influencer marketing strategy, you create a foundation of trust and legality that propels successful and enduring partnerships.

We'll finish the influencer marketing strategy story with some typical mistakes you should watch out for. When engaging with influencer marketing, a frequent error is the hasty selection of influencers without thorough evaluation. Do not focus only on their follower count, and do not neglect factors like content relevance and audience engagement! In order to ensure a genuine connection with your brand, you need to examine their authenticity and content style, but also the demographics of their audience.

Another pitfall is to have overly optimistic expectations, with a special emphasis on immediate and dramatic results. Influencer marketing is an ongoing process, and creating relationships with an audience takes time. Realistic objectives and a long-term perspective are essential for gradual, yet consistent growth.

Furthermore, we'd also like to highlight inadequate campaign tracking. Without comprehensive data and insights, evaluating the success of a campaign becomes guesswork. Gathering accurate data allows for informed decisions, enhancing future influencer marketing strategies.

Thank you for diving into our all-encompassing guide on crafting a top-notch influencer marketing strategy. We strongly emphasize that integrating influencer marketing into your approach is not just a preference but a vital necessity. Throughout this article, we've provided a step-by-step journey, guiding you from selecting the right influencer, different types of collaborations, and optimizing flows, to analyzing campaigns and strategies. Moreover, we've delved into the distinctive opportunities presented by each social media platform, allowing you to tailor your strategies for maximum impact.

By also exploring collaboration options, understanding legal aspects, and being mindful of common missteps, you are now well-equipped to navigate the world of influencer marketing!