Influencer marketing is taking ecommerce by storm. With Instagram, YouTube and reality TV stars gaining such an impressive social media presence, more and more brands want to work with them to promote their products or services.
Whether it’s hiring one influencer with a million followers or many smaller influencers with a few thousand followers each, we’re seeing more and more brands taking advantage of social media’s huge influence on society. Are you?
In this post, we’ll explore how to promote your brand using influencers and whether it’s the right option for your business.
What is influencer marketing?
The term influencer is still relatively new – or at least it is with its current meaning. In short, an influencer is someone with a lot of online followers, who is influential when it comes to the actions and choices of those followers. Their followers will latch onto the things they wear, products they use and even the places they visit.
As a result, social media influencers have a huge role in entertainment and marketing. And a number of brands are making the most of their huge presence by promoting their products on influencers’ channels.
If implemented correctly, influencer marketing can transform a company’s sales and growth. The return on investment gained from influencer marketing can potentially be much higher than other forms of marketing. But getting it right every time can be difficult, and one mistake can be costly for your business.
Choosing an influencer
Influencers come in all shapes and sizes. They’re not just celebrities, who have gained fame through TV, films or music. They can also be ordinary people who have built up a large social media following by posting unique, original content that appeals to their audience – whether that’s great photos and videos on Instagram or just interesting tweets on Twitter.
While normal celebrities can provide great exposure for your brand, influencers may be more useful as they target a specific audience. That’s why choosing your influencer is so important. When doing so, there are a number of things to consider before settling on an influencer…
Target audience
First things first, you need to make sure that the influencers you work with have a similar target audience to the one you want to attract. If, for instance, you’re promoting baby clothes, an influencer with children – and who posts about it – is the best choice. They will have built up a following that’s relevant to them and the fact that they have children, so it’s far more likely their audience will be interested in your products.
Brand image
It may be tempting to send your products to any influencer you can find in the hope that they feature it in a video or image. While doing this could definitely increase exposure, you’re also opening yourself up to the possibility of being associated with a specific influencer.
If this person represents different values to that of your brand, you could damage your brand image by linking yourself to this individual and their brand. So, an eco-friendly brand might not want to have their products endorsed by a jet-setter who spends their life flying across the world, building up a massive carbon footprint.
Big or small
Because influencing is all about big numbers, it can be tempting to overlook relatively smaller influencers, with only a few thousand followers. However, these accounts can be a huge boost for your business, as their endorsements offer more weight.
Larger influencers often work with a number of brands, advertising many products on their accounts. Their followers can become almost desensitised to the constant bombardment of product placements. However, if you choose a smaller influencer, with little or no ties to other companies, you benefit from a lot more engagement.
Is influencer marketing for you?
With the right plan in place, influencer marketing can definitely be fruitful. Whether or not it’s the right technique for you, however, depends entirely on your business. At Fluid Digital, our expert social media team tailor digital marketing to your brand and target audience to achieve the best results in line with your goals. Feel free to contact us to find out how best to promote your brand online.