6 Influencer Strategies Every Marketer Needs to Know
I’m sure you’ve heard that for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, businesses are gaining $6.50 in earned media. However, have you been wondering which influencer marketing tactics they’re using to drive such remarkable success?
Today, marketers and businesses are busy learning about the most effective influencer marketing tactics that can help them boost their campaign ROI.
With the growing popularity of influencer collaborations among brands, it’s becoming increasingly important to know the right influencer marketing tactics.
The following statistics will give you an idea of how marketers are using influencer marketing to amplify their brands’ presence.
- 77% of marketers use influencer collaborations to drive engagement.
- 89% of marketers use it to create authentic content about their brand.
- 56% of marketers use it to drive traffic to their websites.
- 43% of marketers use it to reach younger audiences who detest traditional ads.
In this post, we’ll take a look at what influencer strategies you NEED to know to amplify your brands’ presence.
1. Establish Your Goals
The first step to execute a successful influencer marketing program is to set your goals and clearly define what you wish to achieve. You need to work out which metrics you will use to measure success based on those goals. This helps you get a clear idea of what you need to do in order to achieve your goals.
Another thing that needs to be defined well in advance is your target audience. Your target audience is based on the type of product or service you are looking to promote.
Which demographic is most likely to be interested in what you’re selling? What are the likes, dislikes, and preferences of your audience? How can you present your product or service in a way that would align with their preferences and interests?
The goals and intentions for launching influencer marketing campaigns may differ from brand to brand. But most marketers work with influencers to accomplish the following goals:
- Develop a strong bond with the customer
- Increase sales
- Generate quality leads
- Increase brand awareness
2. Leverage Mico-Influencers
You must be aware of a category of influencers having a lesser number of greatly engaged followers called micro-influencers. According to research by Experticity, 82% of people are more likely to follow a micro-influencer recommendation.
Image via Experticity
Micro-influencers are capable of building stronger connections with their audiences because they have a smaller following. And because of this, their followers are way more engaged and are more likely to trust their recommendations.
That is why working with micro-influencers can be a good tactic to help you run a successful campaign. Another reason why you should consider micro-influencers is that working with them is cost-effective too. In fact, 87% of them charge less than $500 per Instagram post.
Leveraging micro-influencer collaborations is a promising influencer marketing tactic that can help you efficiently engage your target audience.
3. Work With Influencers Who Love Your Brand
If influencers are already talking about you without any sponsorship, it means that they’re fond of your brand. This means that they already have an interested audience who are likely to receive your message well.
And what could be a better tactic to ensure the success of your campaigns than partnering with these influencers? If you ask them to promote your brand, you will have a better chance of generating maximum campaign ROI.
You can work with influencers to promote products that you’ve already developed. But why not get influencers involved in developing something entirely new? This is exactly what BECCA Cosmetics did when they partnered up with Chrissy Teigen to create a new highlighter palette.
The model posted a video on Instagram announcing their partnership and gave a sneak peek of what they’re doing. She also talked about how she has been a fan of the brand’s highlighters. This video has generated close to 5 million views.
She also updated her fans about the launch of the palette and encouraged them to check out the brand’s official website for more details. This post has received more than 140,000 likes and several comments.
4. Collaborate with Influencers Long-term
Effective and efficient collaboration is extremely crucial to driving the best results. And finding influencers who can be your brand ambassadors, in the long run, is a successful influencer marketing tactic.
Many popular brands have been collaborating with the same influencers on all their campaigns. They don’t treat such associations as one-time transactions. Of course, provided that the influencer’s interests and niche align with the brand.
Tammy Hembrow, Instagram model and businesswoman, has been promoting Women’s Best, a sports nutrition brand, since 2016 when she posted her the first branded photo on Instagram. Since then she has posted a total of 35 photos on her Instagram with the product in hand and the discount code in her caption. Her loyalty to Women’s Best brand over the last three years has proved to be incredibly beneficial to their brand awareness.
Taking a cue from them, focus on building relationships with your influencers. Strengthening your relationships with influencers is one of the most effective influencer marketing tactics.
Long-term partnerships help you get more people to trust your brand and products. You can also share affiliate links or coupon codes with influencers to help them encourage more people to buy your products.
5. Build a Marketing Strategy Around Influencers
Marketing can involve several strategies, but is it worthwhile to incorporate influencers throughout your marketing strategy? It certainly looks that way.
Google Trends shows a marked increase in influencer marketing and a decrease in print advertising searches in the past 5 years.
Gymshark, for example, has a marketing strategy that is centered entirely around their influencers. They even invite influencers to their stores to meet their fans. This tactic helped the brand take influencer marketing to the next level. They made influencers meet their customers for real.
Gymshark’s complete focus on leveraging influencers helped them grow from $0 to $1.5 million in just two years.
You should incorporate influencers throughout your marketing strategy to improve ROI. This influencer marketing tactic is likely to amplify your promotional initiatives.
6. Challenging Your Influencers to Be Creative!
The beauty of influencer marketing lies in the content that influencers create. Influencers are talented individuals with the ability to create something magical.
The obvious benefit? It saves you and your team immense effort and time in brainstorming and coming up with creative ideas.
So, what is the influencer marketing tactic that you’re essentially employing here?
Providing your influencers ample creative freedom is a proven tactic. A Crowdtap study found that 77% of influencers prefer working with brands that provide creative freedom.
Let’s face it, influencer marketing is the new wave in the digital marketing industry. It’s not just the lifestyle, fashion, and beauty industry that benefits from influencer marketing. Everyone does. And if done well, your community of influencers can take your brand to new heights.