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Why Companies Should have Influencer Marketing as Part of the Growth Strategy
Influencer Marketing – content-based marketing with profiles, bloggers and youtubers has become a buzzword and a well-discussed topic lately and when it comes to new channels and power shifts, there is often a lot of uncertainty and unanswered questions. I will try to sort out these question marks by going deeper into Influencer Marketing and giving concrete tips on how you can avoid mistakes when testing yourself.
According to a study by Collective Bias, consumers are 10x more likely to buy a product from an influencer who is not a celebrity, but a person who has built up his followers organically over time. After analyzing over 1000 publications, we can vouch for the fact that this study is really true.
Prioritize engagement before number of followers
Many companies believe that reach is the key to a good result. This can be true in several traditional media such as TV, Radio and banners – but when it comes to marketing with influencers, it does not work quite the same way. The match is really A and O to succeed. Prioritize profiles with a high level of commitment as this usually correlates with good click statistics and interactions. High range does not guarantee the effect, but of course something that is interesting to look at as well.
There are great influencers who have very good commitment – even if it’s a bit like finding a white moose in the woods (hehe). The problem is that these profiles are often in high demand, which greatly increases prices. Learn to research and identify influencers with a high level of commitment. It is also important to look at the comments (many international comments = spread reach or purchased followers = money in the lake for the brand).
You calculate the commitment as follows: likes + likes / followers * 100.
Another tip is to look at the distribution between followers / followers – if a profile follows a lot of people, it is likely that it may be purchased followers. See examples below:
Influencers tend to follow 1-5% of their total following. If someone has much higher than that, it is probably about growth manipulation or growth hacks with bots that provide fast growth without loyalty or engaging followers.
Treat Influencer Marketing as part of your marketing budget
Influencer Marketing is something that requires time and commitment and often from several people at the company. There are partners who can spread your message via influencers, but it is important that you make sure to measure and follow up the results. Influencers are often very good at creating nice content, so be sure to reuse the images in their own channels, on the website, etc. to optimize ROI and increase the association between the profile and your particular brand.
Release the reins (when it comes to creativity)
I understand that this can feel difficult or a little scary … but all Influencer Marketing is about is credibility. You must give the creator space to create the content in their own way. Do not make too many demands on exactly how that post should be designed – instead give guidelines on what you want and the tools required in the form of information about the products and the brand. This channel is more like a review than a purchased format where you can check just about everything. You order the profile / blogger’s skills and should trust that he knows what content best engages his followers.
4. Think long term, not a campaign
If you expect to see a big increase in sales after just one month, you definitely need to rethink and lower your expectations. As with everything in life, good results come over time, not after a campaign. Sure, you can get good results quickly, provided you have already built a very strong brand (that people are already inclined to buy your products) but for you to really succeed you need to test different profiles and niches, measure new customers and their repurchase rate in the long run. Compare the loyalty between the customers who come from influencers and other channels.
Companies that use Influencer Marketing will realize that it takes time to expand the reach of their brand, but once it does, you will see a huge increase in brand awareness. For those of you who are in a competitive industry, it is a golden opportunity to get loyal followers, who learn more about your products.
5. Consider micro-influencers before premium / celebrities
Are you prepared to pay $5-10 thousand for a publication on Instagram and blog, with an influencer that you are a little unsure is right for your brand? Ok – try it! But if you are not, invest in micro-influencers instead. Micro-influencers (profiles between 10-80k followers) have a strong and more personal relationship with their followers – and their engagement levels are on average 3x higher than larger profiles. In addition, you spread the risk to many more people.
6. Set clear goals and follow up (!) The result
What exactly is the goal of your campaign; is it brand spread, engagement, new followers, content for own channels or sales? It is of course possible to combine different KPIs, but set goals and follow up your efforts on an ongoing basis. If sales are the main goal – tips are to use UTM links for each influencer (see example below) so you can easily track the results in Google Analytics. Another is to use link shorteners (eg bit.ly) to make the links look good and discount codes to track conversions directly at checkout.
Some final tips to maximize the impact of your Influencer Marketing beyond the actual publications:
All publications that you do with influencers should end up under one and the same #hashtag because it becomes like a community and makes it easy for new customers to find you and get inspiration from others who use your products.
Reuse images produced by influencers on your website. Consumers prefer to take inspiration from your existing customers and influencers. Check out services such as. Olapic where you can choose which products to download under a specific hashtag and to which product page. This has proven to be very effective in increasing the conversion rate for many companies.
