What Exactly Is Influencer Marketing? What Are Influencers? How Can They Be Used?
What Is Influencer Marketing?
In 2017, social media influencer marketing made headlines everywhere. But, you may be wondering just how influencer marketing works and why it's so popular.
This article should help you to understand influencer marketing, why it's so helpful and where you can use it to your advantage.
What exactly is influencer marketing (sometimes called "influencer relationship management")?
Influencer marketing is a method in which businesses, celebrities, brands, non-profits, and other organisations reach out to other companies, celebrities and influencers to build a relationship online and in real life.
They then share content, offers and services, and collaborate to gain followers.
Influencer marketing is buying and selling celebrity endorsements for various products, services, and brands.
Influencer marketing can be defined as the purchasing or selling celebrity endorsements for products or services by businesses, organisations, product creators, brands, service providers etc.
There are many different types of influencers who have different motivations and goals.
For example, You could be a product influencer for clothing companies looking to promote their collections.
You can be an influencer for a particular type of music or fashion trends, or social trends. You can also encourage lifestyle brands and products.
Is influencer marketing effective?
Influencer marketing is all about the influencers, as they are the main people behind the trends and the best people to be marketing to for your brand.
Not all brands need an influencer as a central marketing tool, such as food companies that want to promote organic or fair trade, but all brands and campaigns need their influencers to reach their audience on their own and follow through on a specific theme.
To know if influencer marketing is adequate for your brand, you have to define what it is and what you can improve.
One of the best ways to use influencer marketing is for your followers – who are already part of the community you're trying to reach – to recommend and share your products and activities while promoting your brand and/or products.
So have you already existing followers act as your influencers
Influencer marketing is all about trust. The best influencers will always give you a guarantee and a long term relationship.
The best part of this experience is that your brand will get more exposure, more targeted consumers and more targeted sales results.
How do you measure influencer marketing?
How do you measure influencer marketing? Influencer marketing is the art of leveraging "influencers"- influential people who have gained influence, credibility, and popularity by having an impact on a social network, blog, or social media group in your target audience.
It is an old marketing way but is more frequently used by more and more business and brands.
Influencer marketing is generally perceived to be a growing trend with a higher emphasis on authenticity than other traditional ways of promoting a brand or business.
By influencing a person's purchasing decisions and positive impression towards a brand, they are considered as 'influencers', and their visibility is often boosted on the internet.
As more brands become aware of this marketing channel, influencers are being sought out, and the trend continues to grow.
The key areas you should measure will be very dependent on your goals, so be clear on what you want to accomplish before you start.
The popular way of thinking says the most important goals are engagement and brand awareness.
Other areas you may want to measure include: # of impressions, word-of-mouth traffic, lead generation, CPM spend, conversions, social media ROI, and your overall performance.
When communicating with influencers, it is helpful to measure as many performance areas as possible—set performance goals.
For example, reach could be measured by the number of followers, and engagement could be measured by the number of retweets, likes or shares.
Sentiment could be measured by several positive comments or posts.
In most cases, the goal is to generate as many clicks as possible to a page/landing page at the expense of generating more revenue.
The trick is being able to turn that click-through revenue into money.
Let's be honest: if you aren't generating revenue, how much influence do these people have?
In our experience, the main aim should be to get users away from social media and to your website.
Once they are on your website, not only can they see your offering, but you can use other marketing tools like email marketing or retargeting campaigns to increase the statistical likelihood that a user will buy from you.
If you want to understand more about how influencer marketing can help your business or just need help setting up a sales funnel that converts, click on the link below.
