What is Influencer Marketing?

If you’re on social media at all, it’s likely you’ve seen celebrities pop up on your feed featuring the latest fashion, beauty and health products. Those posts catch your eye because they are celebrities that you know well from television or online.

The goal of these posts is to attract you and influence your buying decision.

Does it work? Absolutely.

Influencers have become an effective and scalable marketing tactic that marketers simply can’t ignore.

Just two years ago in 2017, influencer marketing was just taking off and 86% of marketers were using it. Out of that percentage, 92% reported it to be highly effective.

The success of influencer marketing has spread, and it’s the fastest growing tactic used in digital marketing.

What It Is and How It Works

So, what is influencer marketing exactly?

It’s not as simple as having someone with a large following on social media promote products, services, and brands. The influence marketing space is still evolving, so the exact way it works is still a bit of a mystery. Fortunately, as more knowledge is gained about it, marketers can use data to deliver the best results possible.

The key to influencer marketing is matching the right person with the right product, brand, or service. That person needs to be effective in driving conversation and engagement around a topic related to what he/she is endorsing.

Influencers have a loyal fan base that can quickly be influenced by whatever they believe is truly beneficial to their followers.

Also Read: How to Spot Fake Followers on Instagram

The problem? The influencer must be believable when promoting products, services, and brands. It must align with not only what the audience may find useful, but what the influencer believes about it.

The influencer must share valuable content they generate. If there’s not enough passion in what he/she is promoting, it won’t be as effective.

Different Types of Influencers

Not all influencers are created equal when it comes to choosing the right one for a campaign.

The three categories of influencers are:
1. Micro influencers
2. Power middle influencers
3. Macro influencers

The major differences between them is how large of a following they have and how much of an influence they have on them.

Micro influencers have the most authority in a niche. Their audience may be smaller than the other categories, but their influence is high. These influencers are not as expensive as the others because of their smaller audience.

Power middle influencers have a larger audience of about 10,000 to 250,000 people. They may not be as influential as the micro influencers but they can still be effective and often already have experience promoting a brand.

Macro influencers are the best of the best and usually have an audience of over 250,000 people. In addition to an enormous following, they have a lot of influence on their followers. They, of course, cost the most because many marketers want them to sell their products, services, and brand to their fans.

What You Need for Influencer Marketing Success

Three general elements make up an influencer marketing campaign:

1. Defined objectives
2. The right influencers delivering content targeting those objectives
3. Tracking metrics to analyze campaign performance according to KPIs

When you know what you want to achieve, communicate those goals to the influencer who also has those goals, and then track the progress towards them, you will be more likely to achieve success in influencer marketing.

Also Read: What New Technologies Will Appear in 2020

Take Your Business to the Next Level with Influencer Marketing

The best way to start influencer marketing is to find a television or digital celebrity who has an audience that would be interested in your products or services. Outline the campaign with defined objectives, and then reach out to the potential influencer to see if there is interest. From there, there can be a discussion about payment for the promotion and specifics on the generated content. Tracking the success of an influencer marketing campaign is as simple as analyzing the conversions that come through and whether they meet KPIs.