Influencer marketing is on the increase, and we think it’s an important of your social media strategy, and we’re going to uncover why you should be investing in it in 2022.
What is influencer marketing?
For those that don’t know what influencer marketing is, we find this quote from the team at Hootsuite put it perfectly:
“Quite simply, an influencer is someone who can influence others. In influencer marketing, that influential person collaborates with a brand to promote something. Celebrity endorsements were the original form of influencer marketing.
But in today’s digital world, social content creators with niche audiences can often offer more value to brands. These people have dedicated and engaged groups of followers on social media.”
You probably weren’t aware of the different types though, were you? Let’s break it down…
Nano-influencer: This is someone who has an established online presence but has less than 10,000 followers.
Micro-influencer – This is someone who has a loyal following online and has between 10,000 and 100,000 followers.
Macro-influencer – This is similar to a micro-influencer but has between 100,000 and 1m followers on social media.
Mega-influencer – These are the celebrities and large personalities that we all refer to as ‘influencers’. They have over 1m followers on social media and a very loyal fan base.
How influencer marketing works
As influencer marketing has grown, it has evolved in the way each type of influencer works in terms of relationship and pricing.
To put it into simple terms, if you were to work with a selection of micro-influencers, they will charge you for their time to create content and post it on their platforms – such as Instagram or TikTok. If you’re selling a product, you will most likely be required to ‘gift’ you the product you’re asking them to promote.
However, they are opportunities for brands to develop relationships with influencers – who in turn become ‘Brand Ambassadors’. This means that they align to the same visions as the brand they are working with, and the influencers feel their message is important to promote to their followers.
We have found this graphic from socialladderapp.com is a great visual representation of an influencer and a brand ambassador:
The rise in trust for micro-influencers in SMEs
For SMEs who have an online presence, such as a website, sometimes find it difficult to present their competency or build trust quickly. This is where an influencer can help you.
By promoting your brand to their follower-base, an influencer can help build credibility and trust by working with the brand to understand how to resonate with their audience.
This doesn’t necessarily mean working with beauty gurus on Instagram or TikTok either. We’re specifically talking about influencers who have a larger following on platforms such as LinkedIn or a business network of some kind.
They may be an industry leader or just someone you look up to, but finding opportunities to collaborate with them will support your efforts of brand awareness and will help spread your message to an audience who trusts who they follow.
The ‘always-on’ method to influencer marketing
According to an article from Forbes about experts predicting influencer marketing for this year:
“Social commerce will be the big trend in micro-influencing in 2022. All social platforms are investing heavily in commerce tools, and brands are hungry to connect influencer investments to purchase intent… impact in driving shifts in purchase intent and conversion will be significant…”
This suggests to us that influencers are becoming a huge part of the marketing funnel, which is something that is taught to many marketers when they are trained (including us!).
However, tracking how successful influencer marketing is becomes difficult if you do not subscribe to a piece of software that can measure this data.
Influencer marketing works similarly to the marketing funnel in the sense that it adopts an approach like this:
- Awareness – building of trust and credibility
- Consideration – keen for more information and social proof
- Conversion – where a sale is made
Working with influencers will require an ‘always-on’ strategy in order to achieve this success. Where budget may be concerned, working with the same influencer or group of influencers throughout the year will be a good way to keep the trust building with their followers.
We can help with all of this from research to sourcing influencer and developing a strategy for your ‘always-on’ campaigns. Get in touch with us by calling 01386 576682
