Influencer Man With Glowing Social Icon

Influencers have taken the marketing world by storm. More and more businesses are using influencers to promote and sell their products or services, and now influencer marketing has become a mainstream form of social media marketing Most of us may think of influencer marketing as paid Instagram posts or sponsored YouTube videos, but it has so many more different aspects and channels that make it more than Kylie Jenner just eating Sugar Bear Hair Gummies.

But why are influences becoming the popular choice for businesses? Firstly, influencers come in all shapes and sizes which makes them perfect for brands because they are so diverse and relatable to so many. A beauty brand may employ Huda Beauty whereas a health brand could go for someone like Kayla Itsines. The options are endless for businesses, especially in an era where social media and celebrities are so dominant.

When it comes to who you want to promote your brand it is important to look at the type of influencers there are. Mega-influencers are more famous than influential. They aren’t necessarily experts on your product subject, but they definitely provide a lot of reach in one hit. Mega-influencers should be used during awareness campaigns where a broad reach is required to get your service or product in front of as many people as possible.

Macro-influencers are similar to mega-influencers, but they tend to rise to fame through the web. A great example of this is YouTubers or Tiktok stars – they would have an audience size normally between 100,000 and a million followers. A great time to use a macro-influencer is when you want to zone in on your audience based on topic, but you are still primarily looking for reach.

When you feel like you are ready to move from an awareness tactic to a more structured one, you start to consider a micro-influencer. They may have a smaller yet more invested or niche following.

Influencers then move on to advocates and referrers when you start to move your campaign from the awareness stage to the lead stage. Advocates will positively talk about or defend your brand and referrers will drive people to your site with a solid recommendation of your brand.

So, after looking at the type of influencers there are, it is important to know the type of marketing they could do for your business. When talking about the main types we tend to discuss; Giveaways, Social Media Takeovers, Sponsored Content, Brand Ambassadors, and Affiliate Marketing.

Giveaways are one of the best ways to increase engagement with your brand. This is done through utilising influencer power and features on social media platforms. Influencers promote the brand through the promise of winning a prize from the brand and on social media will ask followers to like, share, follow or comment (sometimes all four things at once) in order to be in the draw to win. The best thing about giveaways is that they bring in a large amount of brand awareness with low cost and low organisation.

If your business is looking to increase brand exposure whilst offering your audience interesting content, then social media takeovers are the way to go. When an influencer takes over they basically have free reign to pilot brand promotion via your business’s social media accounts. Takeovers give viewers a more intimate insight into the brand and help the brand build personal connections with their audience. It is important to choose an influencer that will represent your business well and has a genuine and believable connection with your brand. For example, Converse teamed up with Miley Cyrus for the release of their new sneaker collection. Their mission statement; “Converse is empowering today’s daring spirit of youth by celebrating freedom of expression through individuals and their movement(s)” perfectly aligns with Cyrus’ outgoing and expressive nature.

Partnering with an influencer to promote your product or service through sponsored content is a really smart way to produce new content and have it noticed in a over-saturated sea of social media posts. A good way to identify this style of marketing is a ‘paid partnership with …’ captioned along with the content. To ensure the post is aligned with your brand, you can give the influencer a set of guidelines of what you expect from the content. You as a brand pay for this service and the influencer then publishes this content on any of their social media platforms.

I am sure you have seen George Clooney sipping on a coffee, Nespresso to be exact, and thought to yourself, man does Clooney really just love Nespresso that much?. Well the answer might just be yes. A brand ambassador is someone who uses your product and adores it so much that they want to promote it for you! A more obvious brand ambassador is Usain Bolt for Puma. He not only promotes the brand but uses puma shoes for all his races (and we all know those pumas are winners). Your brand ambassador will share images, posts or videos that relate to your product on an ongoing basis.

Affiliate marketing is a type of advertising where an influencer promotes your product or service and will get paid or rewarded whenever a lead or sale was generated. On Instagram this might look like a story with a swipe up link to the product or service. Your brands can track where your leads are generated using UTM tags which are a snippet of code which you can attach to the end of a URL in order to track a source, medium, and campaign name.

With so many avenues available for influencer marketing it is so clear why it has succeeded as a true form of marketing. If you want to explore what influencer marketing can bring to your business request a consultation with one of our marketing team members today.

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