Paid media or earned media, what works better for boosting ROI? This has been one of the oldest discussions in the marketing world and includes a key topic called ‘influencer marketing’. So what is influencer marketing? It is a process that helps identify, research, engage and support individuals who are capable of developing high-impact conversations about your products, services and brand.
Influencer outreach programs are fast becoming an indispensable tool to modern digital marketing strategies. At present, the value of influencers to brands is extremely significant. These are the people who are successful in delivering accurate and timely social chatter to engage customers on a consistent basis.
With the aid of influencer marketing, brands are able to bring about unification of their marketing, sales, PR, digital marketing, social media and product through powerful relationship-based communication. Companies who have been undertaking influencer marketing report that it has immense impact on marketing potential as well as ROI.
Maximizing the benefits of Influencer Marketing
Here are a few ways in which you can take maximum advantage of influencer marketing to grow your business and improve ROI.
1. Define your target audience
The first and foremost step in influencer marketing is identifying and defining your target audience. It is critical to understand who has an impact on how they assess, identify and purchase your product/service.
2. Search for relevant content creators
The next step in influencer marketing is looking for high-quality influencers. This could be a time-consuming process; but completely worth it since you get valuable content from these industry experts.
Do an online research to find relevant influencers. In influencer marketing, you need to meet your audience exactly where it is. For example, if you’re on the lookout for millennials, LinkedIn might be a great platform to connect with your influencers. Similarly, if your aim is to look for a younger audience, say 18 to 25 year olds, then Snapchat could be the best place to begin your search.
3. Keep a track of influencer opportunities
For influencer marketing, you need to be highly proactive. This means tapping in and monitoring everything that’s happening around you (in real time!). Your marketing team will have to identify the topics that are being covered by target influencers and also keep a track of things which are currently engaging your audience’s interest.
4. Start engaging
Once you’ve identified the relevant topics and powerful influencers, it is time to begin building relationships through some simple steps. These include sharing, following and getting linked to your target influencers. This will help in developing a fruitful association over a period of time.
Influencers: The Life of Inbound Marketing
According to recent studies, the information available on social media has an impact on the decision of 75 percent of B2B buyers. Even though traditional advertising and outbound marketing methods will continue to have an influence, the relationship strengthening potential of modern inbound marketing techniques such as influencer marketing will likely offer improved yields to businesses.
Here are a few tips when looking for influencers to promote your brand or product/service:
- Avoid considering just the number of followers when assessing the power of an influencer. A lot of times, small and mid-size influencers may have quite high engagement rates, more than those who have several million followers.
- Make sure you browse through the content being generated by the influencer. An influencer’s voice needs to complement your company/brand’s personality.
- Each influencer may demand different compensation. When approaching an influencer, give them details about your brand and campaign. Try and understand their personal interest so that you can arrive at agreeable terms and devise a contract that is mutually beneficial.