Influencer marketing has become the crux of a lot of digital strategies, for
So, it’s no wonder 57% of fashion and beauty brands engage in influencer marketing to amplify their digital activity in lieu of crumbling organic reach and social algorithms forcing brands into advertising.
Influencer marketing has become the crux of a lot of digital strategies, for e-commerce brands
Word of mouth has always been a strong driver for brands, relying on consumers to promote their product or services, and engage new audiences. Fast-forward to the world of modern marketing and this method has been replicated with the rise of social media influencers, enabling brands to truly demonstrate tangible ROI through social media campaigns – the first time for many.
As a result, influencer marketing is still soaring high on the agenda, with budgets being increased year by year to maximise on this high impact tactic. In 2017, digital marketers spent more than $570m on influencer marketing globally. Last year, $1.6bn was sidelined for sponsored collaborations on Instagram alone. So, if your brand isn’t among the 39% that plan to increase their influencer marketing budget this year then you better get the ball rolling now, because the industry certainly won’t be slowing down in 2019!
But where do you start? How do you know which influencers or channels are right for your brand? What is a reasonable price to pay and what results should you expect?
These are all questions that you’ll likely be asking yourself when you embark on your first influencer marketing campaign and there are plenty of great tools out there to get your teeth into, but here are some handy pointers from Kalli Soteriou, Head of Social & Content at www.10yetis.co.uk to help you on your way.
Insta-greatness!
In terms of choosing the right channel to use for your company, Instagram seems to be the most popular, with a whopping 93% of brands using the channel as their primary platform for influencer marketing campaigns; meanwhile, the use of Facebook and Twitter is considerably declining.
However, just because Instagram is the channel of choice for many consumers, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s right for your brand. It’s important to consider your demographic and target consumer – if they’re not on this channel, then there’s no point investing budget into promoting a product to an audience that isn’t going to buy it.
Are influencers truly influential?
The risk with influencers is – and has always been – are they really that influential? There are a couple of key considerations to take when exploring true influence. Firstly, using third-party apps and tools has enabled influencers to build their followers and engagement at a much faster pace – but true success still relies on sharing great content, that captures their audience consistently in order to maintain their influence.
So there is a risk that brands could potentially align themselves with people that have either faked their true
With 70% of millennials stating that they would trust an influencer over a celebrity, you can hardly afford not to engage in their services; but forming a partnership with an influencer that has ‘faked it until they made it’ could actually create an absolute mess for a brand that has spent many years (and money) building up their profile.
Scoping the influencer network
After influencer fraud dominated the media headlines in 2018, we are very careful as an agency with who we put forward to brands to form their influencer marketing activity and use a mixture of tools, as well as experience, to determine whether they are the right fit, while ensuring that they have not ‘bigged up’ their true influence. A great tool for businesses is Hype Auditor, which analyses the influencer’s channels and their true impact.
This is a great starting point for businesses to get to grips with what true influence looks like. Another way to safeguard influencer marketing campaigns, and support influencer outreach, is to use tools such as Tribe or The Influence Room, where the influencers have already been and you can see their results. Essentially, it’s a case of being savvy with it and making sure you choose influencers that have the genuine pull that your brand needs to achieve your marketing goals.
Take it to the next level
While previously the focus for brands embarking on influencer marketing campaigns has been the tough task of identifying who to work with, this year digital marketers will increasingly realise that they need to be considering not who they work with but how they work with them. Look back at all of the influencer content you’ve consumed these past years. Which have really stood out? Likely it’s those that bypassed the ‘in your face’ marketing and opted for a more creative, organic approach. Activating influencers in interesting ways will help brands cut through the noise on over-saturated channels and create more sophisticated content in a less superficial way.
The undervalued influencer
An influencer need not be a social media whiz with tonnes of followers; your customers are the most powerful influencers out there! We’ve worked with a number of fashion brands, (such as Superdry) exploring the use of social listening among consumers to not only uncover a hidden audience of fans and convert them to followers, but also to engage consumers who may not even be aware of the brand and start to build loyalty.
Interacting with consumers in this way will not only help to extend your content’s reach and engagement, using social listening to create special, memorable experiences for consumers will make it likely that you convert that engagement to sales. A little random act of kindness goes a long way!
While influencer marketing is here to stay, it is likely to evolve even further in 2019, so brands must evolve with it. Most importantly, it’s crucial to remember that success is more than just engagement – it’s about instilling credibility and authenticity as this is ultimately what is going to give you real influence over consumers.
