Influencer Marketing Strategy 101

If your business is considering influencer marketing as a digital marketing strategy, there’s a lot you need to understand to expertly execute your campaigns. First, let’s cover the very basics…

What exactly is influencer marketing?

To best answer that, you’ll need to understand what a social media influencer is: a user on social media who has established a large audience (beyond their real-life connections) and has the power to persuade or inspire others because of his/her authority, popularity and reach. Influencer marketing, therefore, is a type of online marketing that incorporates user-generated social media content from influencers to promote a brand.

Influencer marketing can vary in myriad different ways, too–from the type of influencer (i.e. micro vs. macro audience, niche industry or area of interest, location) and type of content produced (i.e. still images, videos, stories, or live) to the platforms used (i.e. Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter). Learning about all the various options within influencer marketing will be extremely helpful when strategizing for your own brand. 

What are the benefits of influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a wonderful tool for increasing brand awareness and driving online engagement. In fact, 80% of marketers find influencer marketing effective, and 89% of marketers say the return on investment is comparable to or better than other networks (source: Meidakix). 

Why does it work so well?

Influencers are successful because their followers see them as an authentic public figure, so promoting items or services online comes across as genuine word-of-mouth suggestions. 

Since today’s society has moved from television-based to social media-based advertising, 70% of teenagers trust influencers rather than traditional celebrities and 86% of women use social media in order to make purchasing decisions (source: Digital Marketing Institute). Because so many demographics are seen on social media, influencer marketing can be successful in many different niches.

Beyond the Basics: Leadership Objectives

Beyond the basics, you need to identify and understand your organization’s greatest opportunities and strategic initiatives. In other words, what are the GOALS of incorporating influencer marketing into your strategy and how will you MEASURE success?

We have 6 leadership objective questions (and sub-questions) we work through with our clients and that we outline in our influencer marketing DIY workbook for emerging brands.

Here’s 3 of those to get your hamster wheels moving:

1.What are the company’s goals for influencer endorsements? This could be a combination of user-generated content creation, increase your following, boost sales, etc.

2.Where is your product distributed and sold or your service delivered? Are you brick and mortar? Virtual or e-commerce? Combination of both? Where in the U.S. or globally do you serve? This will determine where your influencers should reside, whether you’ll use promo codes, affiliate links, how you’ll distribute product/coordinate logistics, etc.

3.What does success look like for this program and how and where will you measure it? See question #1. What metrics will you track to know if you’ve reached your goals? Where and how will you track the metrics to analyze the insights and make informed decisions for future programs?

Grab your brand team and set aside a couple of hours to brainstorm these leadership objectives. By the end of your brainstorming session, you’ll be ready to start your influencer marketing campaign off on the right foot and know where you’re headed and why.