What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer Marketing (IM) is when brands collaborate with people who have high-impact conversations with that brand’s target audience, on a digital or social media platform. An influencer may be a photographer on Twitter, a relationship guru on Facebook, a tech reviewer on YouTube, or a bread facer on Instagram. Yeah, that’s real.
Why Should You Care?
If you’re a brand, or an agency working for a brand, we recommend implementing an IM plan, with an allocated budget each year, as a component of your overall marketing strategy (as a reference point, according to a report by emarketer, the average share of IM budgets is about 10%).
In one example, Quay Australia collaborated with an Instagram/YouTube influencer Desi Perkins, a once-freelance makeup artist, to come up with their fourth line of sunglasses called QUAY X DESI. This collaboration is the longest lasting collab that Quay has ever done – longer-even than the one with Forbes “Youngest Self-Made Billionaire” Kylie Jenner! Desi Perkins – with her 3.8 million followers on Instagram & an average retail price of $60/piece – translates to a big chunk of sales for the brand.
Okay, You’re Sold. Here Are 4 Essential Steps:
- Identify the right influencer for your product/service
The influencer has to be an expert who has cultivated a following of loyal content consumers over the years. They are trusted entities who are (or want to be) fully aware of the product they are advertising. - Foster a trusting relationship with the influencer
Influencers prefer to work with brands who are loyal followers of their content – it’s a two-way street! Engage with their content, get to know them first before asking them to advocate for your product for a price. - Measure performance and traction
Keep an eye on the quality of the audience an influencer is bringing in. Calculate the number of pieces of content produced and assign a value to each piece of content you’ll be receiving. It may be a good idea to collaborate with micro or nano influencers as they have better control and understanding of their audience. Generate an influencer rubric that calculates the engagement rate for the influencers. - Optimize!
Create ‘influencer only’ landing pages and assign unique URLs that can correctly attribute sales/conversions to IM. Calculate the number of sales you earned from your influencer’s unique discount code and divide it by the dollars you spent on the campaign.
Ready to run your own campaign? Mittcom has the capability to curate and scale up influencer marketing campaigns, tailored to you. Write to us to find out more!