Social media is playing a significant role in our lives and businesses are utilizing social media marketing techniques to level up their game. Today, social media channels like TikTok and Instagram have become popular to such an extent that they help businesses create and maintain their online popularity and credibility.
With the emerging trends of marketing on social media, several marketing approaches have been introduced. Among them, the most effective one is influencer marketing. It helps your business or brand to get immediate recognition, creating brand credibility and awareness.
Through this comprehensive guide, we are going to cover the ideas, including what social media influencer marketing is along with its possible types. You can also explore helpful tips for establishing the best influencer marketing strategy.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a way of collaborating your brand with an online influencer to market your products or services. At the fundamental level, influencer marketing is described as social media marketing where influencers endorse or mention your products in their feed, stories, or advertisements. Influencers are individuals with a dedicated following on social media channels – like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or others. They are also known as experts in their field or niche.
Influencer marketing is based on the trust that social influencers build up through their social followings. Endorsement of your products from them is considered social proof, helping enhance your brand’s recognition.
Unlike well-known celebrities, influencers can be anyone, anywhere. What makes them influential or different is their large following on social media channels. An influencer, for instance, can be a popular makeup artist on Instagram, a respected marketing giant on LinkedIn, or a tech vlogger, sharing insightful information with his or her viewers. In every industry, there are plenty of influencers – you just need to find them.
Some influencers come with millions of followers, and others come with only a few thousand. What makes them popular or influential is their reputation as a professional or expert in their fields. What you need to do is find a professional or expert influencer quite relevant to your field or niche. They will not only market your services or products but also guide you on how to bring improvements to your services.
Experts researched and revealed potential statistics related to influencer marketing, helping you know its value in the market. Here we come with the recent stats, inspiring you to start influencer marketing for your brands.
- In 2023, influencer marketing was expected to reach $21.1 billion – 29% up from the previous target which was about $16.4 billion.
- It is revealed that businesses are making $5.2 ROI for every $1 they spend on influencer marketing. However, the businesses that come under the top 13% are generating $20 or more in revenue for every single dollar they spend.
- According to a Google search report since 2016, it’s been revealed that 465% of searches are increased for the phrase, “influencer marketing”.
- 90% of respondents from the survey answered that influencer marketing is more effective compared to other social media marketing strategies.
- Around 67% of brands use Instagram as their influencer marketing tool. Instagram has become a more reliable and credible source for influencer marketing in the last few years. Collaborating with an influencer on Instagram will help you increase Instagram likes and views on every single post or reel.
- In the last five years, around 1360 influencer marketing focused agencies or platforms have been introduced in the market.
Types of influencer marketing
Collaborating with an influencer having millions of followers may be a dream for many businesses. But, having influencers with a large community may sometimes be not good for your business. Some influencers have large following spanning across different regions. Others have limited followers but they are more relevant and engaged community.
So, before choosing the right influencer you must know what type of influencer can be the best in terms of range, reach, engagement, and cost. Let’s delve into the discussion of several types of influencer marketing approaches or influencers that are influential.
1. Mega Influencers
Mega influencers come with a massive following – with millions of followers. These influencers often include famous actors, actresses, musicians, sportspersons, and other public figures. Their status allows them to fascinate a large audience.
Collaborating with mega influencers can help your brand get unparalleled exposure, but collaborating with them can be quite expensive. Moreover, their audience is quite broad. So, the engagement rate may not be as high as smaller or regional influencers can do for you. Luxury brands that are targeting worldwide audiences may get benefits from mega influencers and they can also afford them.
2. Macro Influencers
Influencers with a few million followers from specific regions are macro-influencers – established reputable positions in their respective niches. Macro-influencers usually earn their reputation by consistently giving quality content and maintaining engagement over time.
Macro-influencers can help you get a more targeted audience compared to celebrities because their follower may share common interests. Indeed, collaborating with macro-influencers may offer your brand a substantial reach, but it may also relatively be costly. Brands, line startups looking for immediate recognition in a particular region, hotels, airlines, and other non-profit organizations can get benefits from macro-influencers.
3. Micro-Influencers
Micro-influencers with short (10,000 to 100,000) but highly engaged followers are considered the rising stars in influencer marketing. These influencers have a strong presence on specific social media channels, including Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Marketers usually love working with micro-influencers. The reason behind this fact is that they captivate a niche and have a dedicated audience because of creative content. As well as this, they can have genuine interactions and relatable recommendations.
Another thing marketers love about micro-influencers is that they are quite affordable compared to larger influencers. Having a few thousand followers does not mean that micro-influencers are ineffective. Studies have shown that micro-influencers have a 60% higher engagement rate compared to macro-influencers. As they are specified in their niche and followers, they can provide businesses with 20% more conversions.
4. Nano Influencers
Now come nano-influencers – having followers up to 10,000 in numbers. They have fewer followers but they are strongly connected with their audience. It becomes possible because of their authentic engagement and personable content.
Nano-influencers are considered the ideal option for businesses looking to target specific communities or regions. In 2023, around 39% of brands have chosen nano-influencers.
The best recommendation is to start influencer marketing with Instagram or TikTok, as these are the most influential platforms. Establish your brands’ social media accounts and start collaborating with influencers, it will also help you gain more TikTok followers or Instagram followers, helping you reach a more targeted audience and engagement.
How to create the most effective influencer marketing strategy?
Today, almost all types of social media channels are incredibly involved in influencer marketing. These channels, including Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc., have their own set of influencers according to specified demographics.
But, like any other marketing strategy, influencer marketing requires deliberate targets and planning. Strategic success does not only rely on sending free things to your friends circles or acquaintances. You need to follow proper guidelines for better results instead. Here we come with the most effective influencer marketing strategy, proposed by experts, helping you get maximum benefits.
1. Specify your goals
First of all, you need to specify your goals or targets. The basic purpose of collaborating with an influencer is to reach his or her audience or followers. So, you must know about their audience. Like, as what particular region the audience belongs to, what interests their audience usually shows, what ages their followers are, and other possible stats you think necessary according to your business or niche.
If you want to target an audience from a particular region, consider influencers who have recognition in the targeted region. If you want to show your services worldwide, start collaborating with macro or mega influencers to get worldwide engagement.
2. Consider the three Rs of influencer marketing
Experts reveal that influence is made up of three basic components – relevancy, reach, and resonance.
An influencer who is quite relevant to your niche will share relevant content with the specific or targeted audience. It will help you get more conversions and brand recognition.
Reach is the number of users your services or products will get while collaborating with a particular influencer. Remember that it does not matter if the audience is smaller, it must be highly engaged and relevant to your niche.
Resonance means the potential engagement level, the influencer creates with an audience that is interested in your services or products.
3. Do research to find influencers
You have obtained enough idea of what your targeted audience is and in what regions you want to show your content. Now, start finding the best influencer for you. Finding a quite relevant or suitable influencer can be challenging.
You must evaluate the influential rate or influencers. Check out if they have organic followers or target audiences through fake sources. Influencers with fake likes or followers may not help you reach your targeted audience. For this purpose, you can get help from professionals – who will evaluate whether an influencer is real or fake.
4. Outreaching influencers: How to contact them?
If influencers are showing similar interests relevant to your services or niches and have an organic audience, you must reach out to them. Send them a proposal with a clear message and goals. Also, ask them for their fee and the criteria they follow to endorse your brand.
Contact them in a professional manner, through text messages, emails, or calls if possible. Do not ask such questions that will make them disturb and they will think you are spammers.
5. Start collaborating with them and measure results regularly
Now, start collaborating with them. The nature of the content can vary according to your niche or brand. If you want to make a video message while collaborating with influencers, try to find a unique idea to grab the attention of users.
If you just want to add a text or image message, create an attractive message that will surely attract the audience and they will stop scrolling to find out more about you.
Conclusion
As social media popularity is increasing, it is also bringing the latest ways of marketing your brands. Influencer marketing is one such example. Indeed, it is considered the most influential and steadfast way to get instant recognition among your targeted audience. What you need to do is to choose the best influencer type with an effective strategy. The above-given discussion will help you get maximum results.