The very premise of influencers is that they’re real people: influencer marketing revolves around what they say, and how they say it, comes with a personal touch and genuine motivation.
The potential value of influencer marketing is indisputable — according to the Influencer Marketing Hub, for every $1 you spend on influencer marketing you make $5.20 in profit, with the top quarter of businesses earning $20 or more. Then again, it’s not quite a set-it and forget-it strategy: how you actually get to this revenue forms the basis of a burgeoning industry. Luckily, it’s also the subject of this blog. Here are a few ways to make the most out of your influencer marketing.
Find the right influencer
The first step might seem like an obvious one, but you’ve got to start with the right influencers if you’re going to see a return on your investment. This means influencers who are relevant to the market you’re approaching, engaged with by your consumer base and, naturally, willing to represent your brand.
This latter point is a key factor in influencer marketing. If you’re having to do too much legwork in negotiating with influencers, that might be an indication that they’re just not that into you. Instead, if you can, try and find influencers that are already talking about you. If they’re already showing genuine interest before a partnership, they are far more likely to genuinely recommend you, and a genuine recommendation is far more appealing to consumers.
Give them agency
The inclination to set up a rigorous framework for how your influencers market your product is understandable, after all you want to have control over your marketing, but micromanagement is a serious hurdle for influencer marketing. The very premise of influencers is that they’re real people: what they say, and how they say it, comes with a personal touch and genuine motivation. If you try to mess with that by giving them a script to follow and a format to stick to, you’re taking away the one thing that makes them effective marketers.
Sophie Turnball, a brand builder at Write My X and BritStudent, says, “Allow your influencers creative freedom when promoting your products. They know their audience better than you do and will be able to come up with something engaging for them, if allowed the agency. They might just surprise you and come up with something effective you could never dream of.”
Make them the trunk, not a branch
Often companies fail with influencer marketing because they don’t give it the resources to flourish effectively. They think of it as a small addition to their marketing strategy, don’t give their influencers the input or time, and inevitably don’t see results.
“Influencer marketing takes work,” says Jessica Burns, a marketing blogger at Australia2Write and NextCoursework. “Think of it as a small side project and it will only earn you small side dividends. Focus on it as the main thrust of your marketing and you will see the benefit.” Take fashion brand Gymshark for example, who grew their business to $15 million in 2 years using only influencers to market their products.
Make new influencers
If your influencer strategy needs shaking up, try making your consumers into micro-influencers. Focus only on celebrity influencers and accounts with millions of followers and you risk making your product into something unattainable for the majority. This works for some products — there is definitely something to be said for pushing prestige — but it neglects the huge impact the regular consumer can have on promoting your products.
Use your social media presence to put the customer center stage. Ask them for advice and opinions on your products, send out testers, or do like Dove and put out a call for consumers to model their products. Influencers are not a rarified breed, it’s anyone who can influence someone else to purchase something. When it comes to our current consumer-focussed economy, that can be anybody.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing is still relatively new, so these tips set to influence perspectives. The one thing that will always serve you well is experimentation: try out new strategies, new people, new ideas, and keep what works.
Freelance contribution especially written for Find Your Influence by Beatrice Beard.