In today’s marketing campaigns, brands need to think of all the ways in which they can reach their target customers. This means analysing all the opportunities and seeing where their marketing budget is best spent.
With social media now a big part of people’s lives, influencers can have a big part to play by placing products in front of their followers.
Let us take a look, then, at how you can integrate influencer marketing into your business strategy.
Looking at Your Marketing Options
Before you start your marketing campaign, you need to look at what avenues you can take to get the best from your strategy. This means looking at where your audience are and how you can reach them effectively. You should also think about what products or services you can match to the right advertising option.
Traditional forms of advertising such as outside displays, TV advertising, and magazines can be effective ways to reach a broad group of people. However, this almost certainly means you will also be reaching people who won’t be part of the demographics you wish to target.
This is where partnering with a suitably qualified and experienced influencer marketing agency can really help. Such a company will help you match the right influencer with your brand.
Understanding Your Audience
Once you have identified the right areas that you wish to target through market research, you will need to think about your brand’s audience. It is important to take the time to analyse your audience demographics, interests, and behaviour. As an example, if you are trying to sell clothing for outdoor use, you will want to target those who work outside, or those with a love of the outdoors.
Another question that you need to ask yourself is: where are the customers going online? You need to discover where your type of customer visits online, which could encompass certain social media platforms, group chats, Facebook groups, and more.
By doing this, you will also be able to better understand what types of marketing and advertising are likely to work the best. Furthermore, you will be in a better position to begin identifying the influencers who are best placed to help your brand achieve maximum impact among the right people.
Choosing the Right Influencer
Not all influencers are the same. This means you need to know which ones you want to work with. There are a number of factors that may guide your decision.
You will need to find an influencer who will use your products and who will be able to give a fair and honest opinion of them. Other factors that you will need to consider include:
- Relevance: Does the influencer match your values as a company, plus, does their content fit in well with your products? If you have a company message, does the influencer fit in with this as well?
- Reach: You don’t always need an influencer who has an especially high follower count on social media, but you will want someone who can reach a large number of people. You will also want to know if their followers engage with the influencer and are interested in what they do.
- Authenticity: Does the influencer seem authentic and genuine in the content that they produce? And does their content meet the values that you have as a brand for your own customers? As an example, if you are a company that caters to families, then you will want to partner with a family-friendly influencer.
- Location: If you are trying to grow your business into other areas of the country or other countries, then you will want to find influencers that are located near those areas, or that have a large following in those areas.
If you use an influencer marketing agency, they will be able to help you to match the right influencer to your brand and products. They will also be able to show you any previous marketing campaigns they have coordinated in the past, and how successful those initiatives were.
Measuring The Success
Once you have begun working with an influencer, it is important to be able to measure the success that the campaign is having. There are a number of metrics that you can use to measure the success of your campaign, encompassing such factors as:
- Reach: How many people have been exposed to your brand campaign through the influencer’s content?
- Engagement: How many followers commented, liked, or shared the content?
- Return on investment: How much money in sales has this campaign generated compared to the money you have spent on the marketing?
- Conversion rate: How many people who saw the content subsequently made a purchase from your brand?
Once you have analysed the data, you will be able to better appreciate whether this campaign was a success, and what you can do in the future to make it even more impactful in all the right ways.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing is fast becoming a big opportunity for businesses to get their products or services in front of the right people. By taking the right steps to take advantage of it, you can help ensure your brand and products enjoy a stronger profile online, and are viewed more favourably by the kinds of people to which you wish to appeal.