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What is Influencer Marketing: An Effective Niche for Digital Marketers

What is influencer marketing

So, you have embarked on a digital marketing career. The fundamental goal of digital marketing is to promote products and services, by using online media.

And how does Digital marketing seek to achieve this goal?

By pursuing its primary objective of generating higher leads, which lead to higher conversions and thereby enhancing sales volumes.

To attain this primary objective, a digital marketer follows a coherent strategy and uses certain tools and techniques that are available.

One such important technique to achieve higher engagement with the target audience is Influencer Marketing Strategy. There are many views within the marketing community on what is this type of marketing.

Let’s dig into what is Influencer campaign and then go on to tell you how it is important for your digital marketing career.

What is Influencer Marketing?

When we are buying something the first time, we seek some kind of assurance that we are buying the right product or service.

We look up to those, with experience and knowledge about that product, for advice. This is where influencers come in.

Influencer Marketing Definition

To simply put, Influencers are the people who have a huge following on social media.

These social media influencers have the ability to convince and/or influence their followers to buy a given product or service, and become loyal customers, hence it’s called Influencer Marketing.

You would often see a top athlete or sportsperson endorsing a health food or a food supplement?

You would also frequently come across supremely fit celebrities giving lessons in Yoga, Zumba or Pilates; or those with a perfect figure, endorsing a pair of jeans or a dress.

You would also have heard about several top celebrity beauticians, with thousands of YouTube followers.

That’s what is Influencer Marketing, and this phenomenon has seen continued success and huge growth for Influencer Marketing in recent years.

Influencer Marketing has been seen to drive 11 times more ROI than traditional online marketing according to Invespcro.

Social media influencers could be used as brand ambassadors, she may be asked for product reviews or mention the brand in her social media posts.

Three key benefits of using Influencer Marketing campaigns would be –

  • you get good and focused content,
  • your credibility goes up and,
  • your brand gets exposure in the influencer’s and her followers’ entire networks

Why is Influencer Marketing to your Digital Marketing Career?

What is influencer marketing
Making influencer marketing

1.) Ensures Highly Targeted Traffic

One of the main benefits of digital marketing is to promote a brand or a product to a targeted audience. This is often done by identifying an audience using specific demographics. Yet, it is very difficult to ensure that the identified target audience is made up of genuine prospects.

In the case of Influencer Marketing, the marketer doesn’t have to specifically identify the target audience. All you have to do is to identify the right influencer.

That’s what you, as a Digital Marketer, need to take care of. You have to look at the trends in Influencer Marketing. For instance, if yours is a cosmetic product, a beautician with massive following on social media would perfectly fit the bill.

All her followers would necessarily take interest in a new cosmetic product if it is endorsed by that beautician. If it is a health food product that you wish to promote, an athlete or a gym trainer with a huge YouTube following will be the right influencer.

In such cases, you get a big volume of people who would want to try your product. This would also trigger a large volume of traffic to your website, from the social media platforms that the influencer uses.

Apart from getting a targeted audience to promote your brand, another benefit is that your audience actions are easily trackable. Website visits, social media posts or likes, all of these actions can easily be tracked with basic analytics, and these could provide useful insights.

P.S. Refer to this article to get access to free Influencer Marketing Tools.

Becoming an ace at running impactful Influencer Marketing can be a very valuable and saleable skill on your profile as a Digital Marketer.

2.) It can be Employed for Any Business

Influencers are available for almost all industry sectors. You make a food product, cosmetic product, or even an engineering or an automotive product; you would always find influencers who could be asked to promote your brand.

Similarly, if you have a services business, such as hotel or resort, cab service or even software development, you would get effective influencers.

Once you identify the right influencer, you get higher leads and higher conversions. Surely a value proposition in any marketing context.

Almost all businesses could benefit from a well-executed Content Marketing campaign. Gaining some relevant experience on this front would open up more doors than you can imagine, to further your career as a Digital Marketer.

3.) Boosts Brand Reach and Awareness

Apart from receiving high volume traffic to your website and social media pages, Influencer Marketing offers an excellent opportunity to enhance your brand reach and brand awareness.

Once an influencer creates content and includes your brand in it, all her followers would begin to recognize your brand and associate it with quality products.

As these followers share the influencer’s content with their family and friends on social media, it would further broaden your brand’s reach.

Moreover, the influencer’s followers would begin to trust your brand which would lead to a long-lasting relationship between your brand and the target audience.

If employed correctly, a successful Influencer Marketing campaign can help you get better results and derive improved RoI for the Digital Marketing budget.

You can imagine the boost your Digital Marketing career will get when you’re able to demonstrate improvement on these crucial and real performance metrics.

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4.) Improves Customer Satisfaction

Marketers are gradually realizing that consumers need to be engaged during the entire cycle from brand awareness to purchase to after-sales service and until the customer buys a replacement product.

It can play an important role in this whole cycle. Influencers have a large volume of followers who trust the influencer. This builds customer loyalty which is more desirable than mere customer satisfaction.

When the customers have trust, they buy the product of their own volition and are more likely to remain loyal to the brand.

In such a situation, the customer would tend to justify his/ her own choice of the product rather than blame the seller for having hard-sold a product to an unsuspecting buyer.

Also, a customer would likely revert to the influencer in case of product quality or a service issue, and through this channel, she may receive a faster and more favorable response.

Utilizing and optimizing your Influencer Marketing as an informal customer reach-out platform could be a very strategic value that you can contribute to your company, going beyond your obvious scope of duties and firmly establishing you as a valuable contributor to the firm’s marketing initiatives.

What is influencer marketing
Influencer marketing wins customer trust

Also, a customer would likely revert to the influencer in case of product quality or a service issue, and through this channel, she may receive a faster and more favorable response.

Utilizing and optimizing your Influencer Marketing as an informal customer reach-out platform could be a very strategic value that you can contribute to your company, going beyond your obvious scope of duties and firmly establishing you as a valuable contributor to the firm’s marketing initiatives.

5.) It’s Economically Sensible

As for online promotion, paid ads rule the roost, be it Google search or social media ads. But paid ads are so ubiquitous and widespread that most people subconsciously ignore them. This is called “banner blindness”.

Infolinks, a digital advertising platform, deduced from a survey that only 14% of respondents could remember the previous ad they saw or identify the product being promoted. Paid ads may continue to struggle with this handicap.

Influencer Marketing, on the other hand directly addresses a very willing audience. It is also being likened to arbitrage because there is a large supply of influencers but not all are currently being utilized.

This means the cost of buying an influencer promotion is below its real value, because of the supply-demand imbalance in the market.

It not only beats paid search when it comes to being economically sensible but is also more cost-effective than organic search and email marketing.

Tomason Research has found that for every $1 spent on Influencer, a business was able to earn $6.50. In fact, 13% of businesses earned $20 or more. This cost advantage is in addition to acquiring more targeted customers, whose conversion rate is likely to be much higher.

If you are a small brand you anyway need a small influencer who would not be very expensive. If you are a large and renowned brand, then the influencer would stand to gain with the association and would promote your brand with greater zeal.

Steps of making an Influencer Marketing Strategy 2022

The Influencer Marketing Strategy Pdf that industry experts suggest talks about the following steps that best influencer marketing agencies use –

1. Finding relevant Influencers in Your Industry:

To create a strategy, you need to know who you will be targeting. This can be done by conducting research on the various platforms that your target market is active on and finding out which influencers they follow.

2. Shaping the Conversation:

Once you have identified the influencers in your industry, it is time to start shaping the conversation. This can be done by engaging with them on social media, commenting on their blog posts, and sharing their content.

3. Owning Your Niche:

It is important to establish yourself as an expert in your field before you start reaching out to influencers. This can be done by creating compelling content, speaking at conferences, and being active on social media.

4. Targeting to Influence the Influencers:

The goal of any influencer campaign should be to influence the influencers. This can be done by creating content that they will want to share, offering them exclusive access to your product or service, and engaging with them on social media.

5. Doing What is relevant to You, Not Your Peers:

It is important to remember that what works for one company might not work for another. While it is helpful to look at what your competitors are doing, you should always tailor your strategy to fit your own brand and goals.

6. Building a Happy Community:

The key to any influencer content marketing strategy is building a happy community. This can be done by providing valuable content, engaging with your audience, and responding to their feedback.

7. Being Genuine, Accessible, and Responsive:

The most important thing to remember when working with influencers is to be genuine, accessible, and responsive. This means being authentic in your interactions, being available when they need you, and being quick to respond to their questions or concerns.

8. Being Patient:

Building a successful influencer strategy takes time and patience. Don’t expect overnight results; focus on building long-term relationships with the influencers you work with.

Influencer Marketing Examples

1. McDonald’s Influencer marketing example

In 2015, McDonald’s launched an influencer marketing campaign in France that found success by targeting popular bloggers and YouTube personalities.

The company gave the influencers free meals in exchange for them creating content about their experience at McDonald’s.

This campaign was successful because it resulted in over 18 million impressions and helped to improve McDonald’s brand image.

2. Nike Influencer marketing work

Nike is one of the most successful companies when it comes to influencer marketing.

The company has worked with a variety of influencers, including athletes, celebrities, and social media personalities.

Nike’s influencer plans have been successful because they are able to target a wide range of consumers and have a positive impact on Nike’s brand image.

3. L’Oréal Influencer marketing ROI

L’Oréal is another company that has found success with influencer marketing.

The cosmetics giant has worked with a variety of well-known influencers, including Kim Kardashian and Karlie Kloss.

L’Oréal’s influencer campaigns have been successful in generating a good return on investments as well as long-term relationships through influencer collaborations.

They focus on creating long-term relationships with the influencers they work with. This has helped to build trust and credibility for the L’Oréal brand.

Types of influencers

There are a variety of different types of influencers that companies can work with. Some of the most popular types include:

1. Celebrities:

Celebrities have a large number of followers and are able to reach a wide audience.

They can be expensive to work with, but their endorsement can have a significant impact on your brand.

2. Athletes:

Athletes are popular influencers because they are often seen as role models.

They have a large number of followers and are able to reach a wide audience.

3. Social media personalities:

Social media personalities are popular because they have a large following on social platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat.

They are often more affordable to work with than celebrities and can reach a large audience.

4. Bloggers:

Bloggers are popular because they have a loyal following of readers.

They are often seen as experts in their field and can provide valuable insights to their followers.

5. Journalists:

Journalists are popular because they have a wide reach and are often seen as credible sources of information.

They can help to build trust and credibility for your brand.

Popular Influencers in the World

Chiara ferragni

An Italian blogger who is a businesswoman, model, and fashion designer known for collaborating with fashion and beauty brands through her blog The Blonde Salad. She was ranked first on the Forbes “Top Fashion Influencers” list in September 2017.

Huda Kattan

Makeup Artist & Blogger @huda & Founder of @wishfulskin- She has about 50 million Instagram followers and her net worth is $510 million, according to Forbes. She was also ranked as one of America’s Richest Self-Made Women.

Kayla Itsines

She is co-founder of Sweat and co-creator of High Impact with Kayla. She is also the creator of a series of fitness ebooks titled Bikini Body Guides as well as a meal-planning and workout app Sweat with Kayla

Some of the other such popular influencers are Cameron Dallas, Zach King, Lele Pons, etc.

Effective Influencer Marketing Platforms

There are a variety of different platforms that companies can use to connect with influencers and optimize influencer marketing strategy presentations. Some of the most popular platforms include:

1. Influenster:

Influenster is a platform that helps brands connect with influencers.

The platform provides a database of Influencers, as well as tools to help brands identify the right Influencer for their campaign.

2. Influitive:

It provides a database of Influencers and allows companies to identify Influencers by topic, audience, or location.

The platform also provides tools to help companies connect with Influencers and measure the impact of their campaigns.

3. BuzzSumo:

Opt for it to find Influencers by topic or keyword.

The platform also allows companies to identify Influencers by their social media following, as well as the engagement they generate.

4. InfluencerDB:

Using it allows companies to connect with Influencers and measure the impact of their campaigns.

The platform provides a database of Influencers, as well as tools to help companies identify the right Influencer for their campaign.

5. Klear:

Choosing this one gives companies access to a database of Influencers, as well as tools to help companies connect with Influencers and measure the impact of their campaigns.

Instagram Influencer Marketing Strategy Tips

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms and is a great platform for influencer campaign.

There are a few things to keep in mind when using Instagram for influencer campaigns-

1. Use hashtags:

Hashtags are a great way to reach a wider audience on Instagram. Use relevant hashtags to reach users who are interested in your product or service.

2. Use Influencer Shoutouts:

Influencer shoutouts are a great way to promote your brand on Instagram. Influencers with a large following will post about your brand to their followers. This can help to increase brand awareness and reach a larger audience.

3. Use Paid Advertising:

Paid advertising is a great way to reach a larger audience on Instagram. You can use paid ads to target users who are interested in your product or service.

4. Use Influencer Stories:

Influencer stories are a great way to promote your brand on Instagram. Influencers with a large following will post about your brand to their followers. This can help to increase brand awareness and reach a larger audience.

5. Use Influencer Live Videos:

Influencer live videos are a great way to promote your brand on Instagram. Influencers with a large following will post about your brand to their followers. This can help to increase brand awareness and reach a larger audience.

Benefits of influencer marketing

There are a number of benefits that come with influencer marketing. These benefits include:

1. Increased brand awareness:

Influencer marketing can help to increase brand awareness and reach a larger audience.

2. Increased sales:

Influencer marketing can help to increase sales and conversions.

3. Improved SEO:

Influencer marketing can help to improve your website’s SEO. This can lead to more traffic and higher rankings in search engines.

4. Greater trust and credibility:

Influencer marketing can help to build trust and credibility for your brand. Influencers are seen as experts in their field and can help to build trust with their followers.

5. Cost-effective:

Influencer marketing is a cost-effective way to promote your brand. It can be less expensive than other forms of marketing, such as paid advertising.

How to pay influencers

There are a few things to keep in mind when paying influencers:

1. Influencer fee:

The influencer fee is the amount of money that you pay the influencer for their post. This fee can vary depending on the influencer’s following, engagement, and reach.

2. Commission:

A commission is a percentage of sales that you pay the influencer for each sale they generate. This commission can vary depending on the product or service being sold.

3. Sponsorship:

Sponsorship is an agreement between you and the influencer where you pay them a set amount of money to promote your brand. This agreement can be for a specific post or series of posts.

4. Product or service:

You can also pay influencers with products or services. This is a great way to promote your brand and get exposure to your product or service.

Improving your social media marketing with influencers

There are a few things you can do to improve your social marketing with influencers:

1. Collaborate with Influencers:

Collaborating with influencers is a great way to promote your brand on social media. You can collaborate with influencers on posts, videos, or live streams. This can help to increase brand awareness and reach a larger audience.

2. Use Influencer Tools:

There are a number of tools that you can use to help you connect with influencers and measure the impact of your campaigns. These tools can help you find the right influencers for your brand and track the performance of your campaigns.

3. Reward Influencers:

You can reward influencers for their contributions to your brand. This can be in the form of discounts, free products, or exclusive access to content. This can help to increase brand awareness and reach a larger audience.

4. Plan Your Campaigns:

Planning your campaigns is a great way to ensure that you are getting the most out of your influencer marketing efforts. You can plan your campaigns by setting goals, researching influencers, and creating content calendars. Planning your campaigns will help you to maximize the impact of your Influencer Marketing.

5. Be Active on Social Media:

Being active on social media is a great way to connect with your audience and build relationships with influencers. You can be active on social media by posting content, engaging with users, and sharing your brand’s story. Being active on social media will help you to build trust and credibility with your audience.

Influencer marketing strategy template

  • Setting Goals
  • Finding influencers
  • Creating content
  • Engaging with your audience
  • Measuring results or track influencer plan growth and success rate

Craft a Winning Strategy for Influencer Marketing Strategy up your sleeves, if you don’t have it done already!

Influencer strategies with their core advantages of targeted audience, enhanced brand reach, effective marketing plan, influencer outreach, lead generation, and customer loyalty, has proved to be an important strategy for any digital marketer to achieve her marketing goals.

Influencers act as brand ambassadors and optimize all kinds of digital and affiliate marketing campaigns.

Once a digital marketer has adequate experience in identifying the right influencer and working with her over a period of time, it would prove an important part of work experience, which is sure to further her career in a favorable manner.

So what’s your Influencer strategy? How do you plan to make it successful?

A comprehensive Social Media Marketing course will be the perfect influencer marketing strategy course for you to learn and execute influencer marketing campaigns successfully.

Influencer Marketing Strategy FAQs

Question: How much should I pay an influencer?

Answer: The amount you pay an influencer will depend on many factors, such as their following, engagement, and reach. You can expect to pay more for an influencer with a large following and high engagement than you would for an influencer with a small following and low engagement.

Question: How can I find influencers for my brand?

Answer: There are several ways to find influencers for your brand. You can use social media tools, such as Hootsuite Insights, to find influencers in your industry. You can also use Google search to find influencers who have written about your industry.

Question: How can I measure the impact of my influencer marketing campaigns?

Answer: There are several ways to measure the impact of your campaigns. You can use social media tools, such as Hootsuite Insights, to track the performance of your campaigns. You can also use Google Analytics to track the traffic generated by your campaigns.

Questions: What are the risks of influencer marketing?

Answer: There are a few risks associated with influencer marketing. These risks include working with fake influencers, paying for fake followers, and being scammed by Influencers. You can avoid these risks by doing your research and working with trusted Influencers.

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Avatar of ritu jhajharia
Ritu Jhajharia
About the Author Ritu Jhajharia Founder – Rolling Circle Pvt Ltd | Communications Consultant | Aspiring Writer Ritu has dabbled into various roles across functions in marketing, brand management, communication, public relations, content management, consulting, technology & entrepreneurship for over a decade. She is currently working as a full-time entrepreneur heading her venture Rolling Circle Pvt Ltd, an Integrated Marketing Communications firm. She likes to help growing start-ups with marketing strategy and thought leadership via content. She likes to write on various topics, is a successful blogger and is an avid traveler.

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