Influencer Marketing: What Is It and How Do You Do It?

When people are presented with too many options, or contradictory online reviews when comparing products, they turn to their friends and family for recommendations.

This isn’t new, in fact, most marketers already know that 90% of people trust suggestions from family and friends when considering a new purchase. Similarly, 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision.

People generally like to base their purchases on information from people they know and trust. However, with the growth of social media, and the concept of the “social influencer”, the circle of people we trust has grown to include celebrities, our favourite industry experts, and athletes. In this post, learn more about influencer marketing and whether this marketing technique works for your brand.

 

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing follows the idea of celebrity endorsement and positions it into a content-driven marketing campaign. An influencer marketing campaign, hence, is the process in which a brand uses familiar and popular personalities who have direct influence over their target markets to promote a brand.

Influencers themselves can range from the mega-famous to more niche circles, and even pets. However, finding the right influencer for your brand doesn’t necessarily mean finding the most famous person. It’s about finding the person your audience trusts and using their influence to promote your brand effectively.

Successful influencers have built an established relationship with a specific demographic and seek to leverage this relationship to promote a brand in a specific way.

 

What influencer marketing is not

Don’t mistake influencer marketing for the following things when creating your campaign:

 

• Influencer marketing is not simply about paying someone to say good things about your brand because of their audience. Influencers are people who have spent a lot of time growing their organic following and curating their own brand and will be naturally protective over what they choose to endorse.

 

• Influencer marketing is not about quick results. In fact, just because you’ve found yourself an influencer, doesn’t mean that their following will automatically gravitate to your brand or products. Instead, you should focus on building trust by demonstrating your credibility as a company and thought leadership within your industry.

 

How to find the right influencer for your brand

For smaller businesses, manually searching for your influencer can be the best option. When looking for niche-specific influencers, start by creating an Excel spreadsheet. You’ll want to include specific columns regarding key information. The columns will likely include:

 

• Name
• Influence market, including specific niche
• Total followers per platform (or the platforms most used by your audience)
• Social links
• Pros of working with them
• Cons of working with them
• Contact information
• Additional notes

Then, you’ll want to select around 20-25 influencers to include on your spreadsheet and evaluate them from there. You can identify your top influencers by checking out keywords associated with your brand, related hashtags, or mentions of your brand. Then check out the platform your target audience uses the most and determine the content that has the most engagement. Who has shared and engaged with the publications? Who has the greatest possible reach on the most popular platform for your target audience? This type of questioning will help you narrow down your list and find the best possible option for your brand.

 

How to create an influencer marketing campaign

Before you find an influencer, before you start creating content, you’ll need to set your influencer marketing campaign goal. Your goal should be divided into three parts:

 

1. The influencer’s demographics
2. What the influencer will help you do
3. How the influencer will help you do it

Once you’ve set your goal, you’ll be able to discern:

 

1. The influencer you’ll partner with
2. The type of content and the amount of content they’ll create
3. The desired result of the campaign
4. Which platform(s) to use