If you are on any social media platform, you cannot escape influencer marketing.

We are seeing more and more sponsored posts on our profiles time and again. And by the looks of it, it is only likely to grow more. 

You can see influencers promoting shoes, makeup, home decor, or even luxury cars they are driving across different channels. From feed posts to Instagram stories, TikTok to YouTube videos, they are everywhere.

Genuine influencers are only there to help people find the right brands and brands to find the right audience. Influencers post about their favorite brands and products they love. Yes, they do certainly hope for a brand collaboration in the later years, however, initially, it’s purely done out of love for the brand. There are no monetary benefits for an influencer till the brand doesn’t reach out personally, yet they put in their time and effort. 

The word ‘influencer’ might seem like something that is being thrown around a lot lately. It is because of its increasing number.  

Yet, there are many challenges that brands face and even some influencers face to some extent – authenticity. 15 years back, when PayPerPost started to pay bloggers to get branded content, experts were skeptical. The main reason being realness and authenticity. It was considered to look a little too promotional. This is something that individuals still haven’t managed to escape. 

But when done right, influencer marketing offers more benefits than losses. 

The only thing brands need to understand is the fragility of influencer marketing. It must be done carefully and in a well-planned manner. No decisions should be taken throughout the process of influencer marketing. 

So, what exactly is influencer marketing? 

Influencer Marketing 

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Influencer marketing is a marketing strategy that brands use to promote their products on a large scale with the help of recommendations/endorsements from influencers on the web. You can find a plethora of influencers on social media in today’s time. These are the people the audiences look up to. 

These influencers aka content creators are often approached when brands want to expand their reach. Thus, it is basically done when they are looking to make more of the audience aware of the brand. However, this can also lead to conversions. 

Think of influencer marketing as a referral but on a larger scale. 

Influencers share their personal life snippets and stories about their days. They try to naturally fit and promote the product. This helps others understand how your brand’s product will make their lives easier when it’s used in real life. However, as a brand, you can also ask your influencer partners to promote your brand openly. 

Things have vastly changed for influencers and content creators from 2006 till now. Back in the day, it was a great side income source, no doubt, but never enough to be converted into a full-time source. In today’s time, influencers are paid well enough to consider this as a full-time role, thus, you can consider these influencers as your marketing partners altogether. 

Of course, there are other forms of paid advertising, such as PPC campaigns. There are even ppc optimization tools that brands can use to ensure campaign optimization, but these can only help to a certain extent. For your consumers to connect with your brand, you need to humanize your brand, and influencer marketing is perfect for that. 

You have plenty of social channels at your disposal, each famous for different influencers and industries. If you are looking to promote your brand using videos, TikTok and YouTube are the way to go. But if you wish to share long-form educational posts, you should opt for Facebook or LinkedIn or even blogging! 

Instagram is the place where you get little of everything – photos, videos, guides, and even stories to share short life stories. This platform is mainly ideal for eCommerce.

So, why exactly should you be thinking of working with an influencer?

Benefits Of Influencer Marketing 

If you are not sure why you should consider getting a digital content creator on board, here are a few reasons.

Reach and expand the target audience

One of the biggest challenges faced by any brand is reaching potential customers. Now, if you are not able to tap into the right market segment, making sales will become tricky.

Influencer marketing can do wonders in this case. You just have to find the right influencer for your brand vigilantly. If you select an influencer from your niche, make sure to consider more than the follower count. Sneak a peek at their engagement rate because this will directly affect your offline marketing campaigns too.

In addition to these efforts, your influencers can use well-organized flyering campaigns to increase your brand’s visibility. By integrating these distribution strategies, which you can learn more here, you can ensure that your message reaches the intended audience, creating a cohesive and effective marketing mix.

You must understand you will be able to reach the audience and reap its benefits only if influencers are actually ‘influencing’ people. If an influencer’s followers are not connecting or engaging with the content being put out, the entire purpose of the partnership will get dissolved. 

You must also check for the kind of audience that an influencer has and if it is the right audience for your brand. This is a very crucial step, otherwise, you are at risk of targeting the wrong segment. 

This form of marketing is also beneficial for those looking to expand their reach. Find those influencers that have a genuine following that truly prefers engaging with the content being shared with them.

If such an influencer promotes your product, your brand becomes visible in front of thousands of different individuals that might or might not be your customers already. 

Create valuable partnerships 

In the world of business, building a solid network has perks that nothing else can surpass. 

When you approach an influencer with a deal, that’s a step towards building valuable partnerships. If things go your way, you have a chance to become a major part of the lives of many followers of that influencer. This certainly brings an improved ROI.  

Once you manage to build a strong relationship with an influencer, it will go a long way. In fact, your brand might even get the attention of other influencers in the same niche. 

It’s suggested to find compatibility with more such influencers. It will further help expand your reach and generate more sales. 

If you see, influencer marketing is truly a win-win strategy for all. 

Boost brand awareness 

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Influencer marketing is primarily undertaken to make the audience aware of your product. 

Yes, brands can make use of their social media platforms to do the same. But the traction they get and the scale at which your brands get attraction are simply mind blowing with influencer marketing. 

Think of these influencers as a reliable medium to reach your audience and tell them about your product. Moreover, when an influencer talks about your brand, it has more impact. 

This is because an influencer’s followers look up to them for recommendations and suggestions. They think of them as their friends. Now, if a friend or someone we trust has a suggestion to make for us, we mostly tend to go for it without giving it a second thought. 

Thus, while the main goal is definitely boosting brand awareness, often influencer marketing can also help in lead generation and conversion. 

Induce trust and establish leadership

Trust is what helps sell a product. 

If your users/customers can’t trust you, they won’t buy from you. And before they can trust you, they want to be able to understand why you’re better than others. 

When you get an influencer on board, their recommendation can do wonders for your brand. It induces that sense of trust among the audience that you are searching for.

Moreover, if an influencer is using your product instead of your competitor’s, this will also help establish your brand as authority. 

They can put your offers in the spotlight, start a trend with your brand, and grab all the attention you need. 

Drive conversions and generate qualified leads 

We have already discussed how influencer marketing strategies are a great source of brand awareness. 

Now, if this strategy is planned well and if you select the right influencers for your brand, you can easily drive conversions and sales. Many social media users look up to these influencers to get recommendations and referrals. 

This makes it a little easier for influencers to be more persuasive and generate leads. 

Another good thing about influencer marketing is the authentic and real feedback they can share by observing the consumer patterns. 

If your product isn’t performing well in the marketplace, your influencers can inform you about the same. You can then use this new information to research more and make the necessary changes. 

So, yes, influencer marketing has a plethora of benefits. This marketing strategy can do wonders for your brand. If you are all set to begin your influencer marketing journey, here are a few trends that you should have at your fingertips. 

Latest Influencer Marketing Trends  

It’s best to keep up with the trend if you wish for your efforts to reap the desired rewards. Here are a few of the common ones. 

• A mix of micro and macro-influencers 

Gone are the days when follower count mattered. 

As the number of influencers increase, so does the amount of shady practices. This often means gaining ‘fake followers’. Practices like follow4follow or paying to follow a page are making it difficult for genuine followers to get the attention they deserve. 

Often, accounts have a good number of followers, however, what they lack is engagement. With poor engagement, you won’t be able to bring the traction you are hoping for. Thus, you need to be very careful when identifying influencers. 

What you should be checking is the engagement rate, what are the followers talking about, and what kind of relationship the influencer has with the followers. Mostly micro-influencers are seen to have a great rapport with their followers. 

Micro-influencers are those that have followers in hundreds and thousands. These bring high engagement and make the collaboration work for you. Thus, many brands are now using a mix of good and relevant micro and macro-influencers. 

• Video marketing 

Video marketing is among the most popular forms of content that is being used by influencers in today’s time. 

Videos are entertaining and have the capability to keep a user hooked for a longer period of time. Social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok have further made video marketing more popular. 

Another important thing to consider is the algorithms of social media platforms. Most algorithms require your audience to spend a certain amount of time on the post to figure out if it’s relevant and valuable for them. If your post surpasses the requirement, there are chances it’ll be more visible to users with similar tastes.

Videos aid in that. Since videos require a user to play and actually watch the videos for a few seconds, it helps you achieve what algorithms are looking for. 

Another reason why videos are famous is that they are the ultimate source of entertainment for many. Entertainment is one major reason for using the web for many users. Influencers you choose can actually create an elaborated review of your product and help your customers learn more about your brand. 

This will help you bring more traction and work in your favor when it comes to the algorithms. 

This is why there are plenty of brands that are using videos in today’s time. 

• Realness and authenticity

The web was once a hub of pretense. Not anymore. 

Today, the more real and authentic an account is, the better. Authenticity is the way to go for many. 

Now, to keep the account authentic and real, many will also share a few things they didn’t like about the product. And that’s completely okay. 

This is mainly because this helps the audience understand it’s not all scripted. It makes it real. If a video or a post shared by an influencer seems phony or scripted, it will be perceived as an advertisement and if the product has some problems, mostly will add the word ‘misleading’ to it. This can take the whole campaign down the drain and hamper your reputation as well as your relationship with the influencer. 

Thus, it’s best to let an influencer review the product if they genuinely like it. If they do, it’s best to keep it real and talk about things they genuinely find good and inconvenient. 

• Long-term relationships 

Approaching and converting an influencer takes effort. It’s a time-consuming process and requires the right messaging to make you outshine others in their inbox. 

Thus, once you have an influencer on board, it’s best to keep them around for as long as possible. Gone are the days when hopping from one influencer to another was considered a go-to strategy as a means to expand the reach. Today, it’s best to build strong and long-term relationships with a handful of influencers that fit well with your brand and you both. 

When you have influencers with you for longer, they slowly get a better understanding of your brand and your product. 

Over time, they can genuinely start sharing actual reviews and recommendations with the audience. This brings the traction that you have been in search of, sometimes even more. 

• Diversity and inclusion 

2020 saw a rise in social activism. This led to the lack of diversity in influencer marketing gain the unwanted spotlight. Several brands were held accountable for unfair plays. 

Consequently, today, influencer marketing is slowly getting more diverse and inclusive. 

Individuals from different sections of society are being approached by brands for sponsorships. 

But as a brand, this isn’t enough. 

While influencer marketing is witnessing the difference being made, it is important for brands to consider making diversity and inclusion a major part of every aspect of the business. 

Thus, you should consider working with diverse influencers while making your products and brand as a whole more diverse and inclusive as well. 

• Value-driven content 

Customer habits have changed. 

Their purchase decision is no longer directed by urgency or limited edition. They want value and authenticity. 

It’s about going beyond algorithms now. It’s no more just about doing SEO keyword analysis by using tools like Rankwatch to be able to rank on top. You might rank but if you are not providing value, you won’t be able to survive for long. 

Your influencers should be sharing how and what they feel about the product, no doubt. But they should also talk about how it’s helping solve problems and target the pain points of consumers. It’s best if influencers could keep things real when it comes to promoting your brand. 

This type of content is value-driven. It’s not about how expensive or cheap the product is or how an influencer is promoting it. It will be about how it helped an influencer solve a similar problem that a user is facing. 

How To Create Influencer Marketing Strategy In 2022 

You know the kind of content that you should be putting out, but how do you plan for it? Just like for any other marketing strategy, you have to be methodical and thorough with every step you take. Here’s how you can do it. 

Define your goal 

Every marketing strategy starts with a goal, I’m sure you are well aware of that. 

Before you hop on influencer marketing trends and strategy, make it a point to define your goal. It could be anything. It’s true the ultimate goal is to generate sales, but there are other goals that influencer marketing can help achieve easily. These include: 

Brand Awareness:

Brand awareness is the first stage of a sales funnel. This is where the customer’s journey starts. Till the time your audience is not aware of your brand, how can they possibly make a purchase? Thus, it is among the most crucial steps of every journey. 

You can bring relevant influencers onboard for this stage of the funnel. If they have a good engagement rate and a great rapport with their followers, the chances of brand awareness turning into sales are also high. 

Also, this is the time when you should be talking about the benefits, uses, and versatility (if any) of your offer. 

Expanding Reach: 

Suppose you are now at a stage where you want to find more individuals that fall under your target group. Influencer marketing can definitely help. 

It’s a great strategy to tap into the social circle of influencers. Unlike giveaways or contests, where you can reach the social circle of your audience, in influencer marketing, recommendations by influencers often help you reach thousands of their followers that can definitely work in your favor. These can bring desired results and help improve sales as well. 

The more people know about you, the higher are the chances of improving your return on investment. 

Lead Generation: 

You could also keep lead generation as your ultimate goal. 

Influencer marketing is a great way to boost your lead generation efforts and convert leads into sales. You can make use of this strategy to establish a nurturing campaign. With influencers, help your prospects learn more about what you are selling. 

You can also ask your influencers to directly add a link to your page or website and you can take the wheel from there. 

Another reason to establish this goal is that it helps direct your messaging. Every stage in the funnel will have a different messaging and if you know who you are targeting, you can direct the messaging accordingly. 

Establish KPIs 

Once you have your goals in place, your next aim should be to define KPIs or Key Performance Indicators. 

When you perform a task, you need to check the results. One of the major reasons is to analyze if your efforts are fruitful or they need to be strategized. When you have key performance indicators in place, this analysis becomes a little less complicated. 

These are the metrics that you monitor throughout your influencer marketing campaign. It is against these metrics that you can analyze how well your campaign performs. And using a media monitoring tool can help you see the insights of your campaign.

If you’ve decided your goal is to make your audience aware of your brand, you can use the number of followers and website traffic as your KPIs. 

If your objective was generating qualified leads, you should monitor the number of sign-ups during the nurturing stage of the funnel. 

To track sales, you should give a unique URL (link) or a promo code to your influencers. This will make it easy to differentiate the sales from different influencers and even those sales you made because of your other organic efforts. 

Choose the platform 

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Once you have your goals and KPIs set, it’s now time for the most important decision – the platform. 

Every platform has a different set of leading macro and micro-influencers. You need to now decide which one(s) you are ready to go for. 

How do you do that? The simple answer is research, research, and a little more research. The first step of this research should be to identify which platform(s) will help you achieve your goals. You also need to consider the form of content that will work best for your goals – short-form or long-form? Videos or static posts? 

Another thing to keep in mind is the platform your audience is most active on. This is perhaps the most vital factor out of all. You should figure out the platforms that are known for your industry. Not every platform is for everyone. 

Let me give you an example. 

For the fashion industry, it’s mainly about visuals and appeal. Thus, Instagram would be the best channel. Whereas, when it comes to SaaS or the tech industry, you need a platform that’s more professional. That’s where LinkedIn comes into the picture. 

Select the influencers and start connecting 

Once you know which platform you are opting for, you have to now figure out the right influencer from that platform. You simply cannot work with just anyone. 

You must find relevant influencers that you know will deliver the results you expect. 

This decision also depends on the level you are at currently. If you are a small-scale business, it won’t make sense to find a macro influencer or an elite celebrity for your brand. It will be a costly affair. 

You can find micro-influencers instead. A micro-influencer is someone with around 5,000 followers. More often than not, such influencers make it a point to keep engaging with their audience. Since they’ve just started out, they put their heart and soul into offering only the best to their audience. 

Of course, as and when you grow, you can scale gradually. But initially, it’s best to start low. 

Also, you won’t always find someone who is willing to promote your brand for free. You have to keep the budget in mind when finding influencers. 

A few factors or a checklist that you should keep handy when selecting your influencer include: 

• Frequency of posting by that influencer 
• Their beliefs and values
• Whether their style suits your requirement 
• Engagement rate 
• How serious they are when it comes to their profession 
• Their past brand partnership

Once you have this in place and you know the right people you want to reach out to, it’s time to craft the right message to build a connection and pitch the partnership. 

Set a precise budget 

When it comes to influencer marketing, it’s easy to overspend. This is done all in the hopes of ensuring your campaign is performed perfectly. 

To avoid that, it’s better to set a budget. Find an estimated cost needed to spend on this campaign and stick to it. 

Once you have the budget set, you cannot just leave it and let the campaign perform, as you do with paid advertising. For influencer marketing, you should pay attention to details. Make sure your influencers are delivering what they have been asked to. 

Keep a track of how things are performing, how much you’re spending, are your influencers meeting the deadlines, and more. 

Conclusion 

Influencer marketing is one of the popular strategies that brands are leveraging. This has proven to be a great tactic when brands are at the awareness stage when planned and executed with proper attention to detail. 

You must first establish a goal and then select the influencer that you find will help you reach that goal. Don’t just select any random influencers to work with. Do your research. After that, make sure you are setting a budget and adhering to it because it’s easy to overspend. 

Lastly, keep monitoring and tracking your results. After all, without understanding how well it’s performing, how will you make sure your efforts are paying off? 

Vaibhav Kakkar is the Founder and CEO of Digital Web Solutions, a globally trusted agency with a full suite of digital marketing services and development solutions. Vaibhav believes in building systems over services, and has helped scale up agencies from scratch to niche-leaders with million dollar turnovers.