Influencer Marketing: Types, Tools, And Tips

Influencer marketing is a specific approach to increasing your brand's social media exposure.

It is also known as:

• sponsored content
• collaborating

There is "no one-size-fits-all solution" for implementing this marketing strategy. However, with the correct planning and analysis, almost any company may profit from influencer marketing. Let's look at how to make the most of a social media influencer program.

It may appear like social media influencer marketing is a new concept recently gaining traction. However, influencer marketing has been around for 15 years. PayPerPost, the first marketplace to pay bloggers for sponsored content, was met with a lot of "buzz" when it initially started. However, because blogs are primarily thought of as online diaries, many experts doubted that including ads or sponsorships in the material would feel genuine.

That is still a problem for today's influencers. However, there are several benefits for those who can successfully advocate products or services while being genuine and honest. First, people prefer to purchase from people they "know". If they like someone, they're more inclined to believe their recommendations.

"To be an influencer, you have to love people before you can try to lead them," John Maxwell explains. You have influence even if you just have one follower. You've generated interaction if you obtain one like on your post. It's crucial to remember anyone may be an influencer! Let's see what it takes to be successful!

What Is Influencer Marketing?

A social media influencer is someone who uses social media to exert influence. Influencer marketing involves employing an influencer to promote your products or services.

Influencer marketing is a method for firms to advertise their products on the internet. They obtain endorsements or recommendations from influencers and content providers. Most influencers are found on social media and blogs. However, other producers such as podcast broadcasters can also be considered influencers.

Influencer marketing is frequently used as part of brand awareness initiatives resulting in significant conversions and purchases.

Although influencer marketing began in 2006, it has evolved significantly over the last 15 years. Facebook and Twitter were still in their infancy, but Instagram wouldn't make its debut until 2010. Influencers were originally (mostly) bloggers who shared personal experiences and marketed things they utilized daily.

In today's digital age, social content providers with specialty audiences may frequently provide greater value to companies. On social media, influencers have devoted and active communities of followers.

In the past, more than two-thirds of marketers in the United States employed influencer marketing. In 2022, that figure is predicted to rise to 72.5 percent. In 2021, TikTok was on par with Facebook as an influencer marketing tool. Instagram is still the preferred medium for social influencers.

In 2021, 93 percent of marketers in the United States utilized Instagram for influencer campaigns. Keep an eye on TikTok, though. Only 16 percent of marketers in the United States were expected to use TikTok for influencer marketing in 2019, while 68 percent plan to do so this year.

Types of Social Media Influencers

• Nano-influencers: 10,000 followers or fewer.
• Micro-influencers: 10,000 to 100,000 followers
• Macro-influencers: 100,000 to 1 million followers.
• Mega-influencers: 1 million+ followers.

How to Build an Influencer Marketing Strategy

It's time to start with a strategy now that you've decided to include influencer marketing in your overall marketing. Building a marketing plan may guarantee that you're being comprehensive and deliberate. With a marketing plan, you'll know what you want to achieve with influencer marketing and have a system to track your success.

Document Your Goals and Key Performance Indicators

When it comes to influencer marketing, there are a variety of objectives you may set for your campaign. While the most obvious benefit is increased sales, engaging with influencers may provide more benefits to your company than simply increasing sales in the short term.

Here are some goal suggestions:

• Building Brand Awareness
  • When you work with influencers, you're putting your business in front of thousands of individuals who may never have heard of it before. They're learning about your firm from someone they can trust, so they'll be eager to learn more about it or follow you on social media.
• Attracting a New Target Market
  • There's no better method to influence your target consumer than to collaborate with an influencer. Be aware that convincing the influencer your business is appropriate for their audience will need a bit more effort. Because they've worked so hard to build their following and gain their trust, influencers are typically protective of their followers. However, if you collaborate with the influencer to develop a solid advertising strategy, they may be able to assist you in reaching a new market.
• Facilitating Lead Generation
  • Finally, influencer marketing may aid in acquiring additional leads and consumers. Depending on your product, you may want your influencer relationship to direct their followers to learn more about your company. Or you may link the influencer immediately to your e-commerce store to begin selling.

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

It's time to determine your key performance indicators or KPIs once you've established your goals. KPIs are metrics you'll follow throughout your campaign to analyze afterward and assess how successful the goal campaign was. For example:

• You may measure visits to your website or social media followers to increase brand recognition.
• You will want to track how many people sign up for your nurturing sequence. Sales can easily be tracked with unique links for influencers or a special promo code.

As you can see, goals are the foundation of every excellent plan.

Understand the Influencer Landscape

Before you start working with influencers, you need first to get a good understanding of the landscape. There are many styles of influencers, from Nano to Mega-Influencers, to consider. In general, you should avoid celebrities since their fan bases are so enormous their engagement rates are low, even though their followings are typically high.

Before approaching someone to pitch your company, observe the influencers to see how they promote products.

Connect with Influencers

There are various ways to locate influencers that will work for your company. However, it would help if you started by looking at other people in your sector. You'll learn who your rivals are collaborating with and what size influencers they're targeting. Then you can decide if you want to hunt for folks with similar-sized followings or something completely different.

You may locate tools that can assist you in uncovering influencers in your niche, depending on the platform you want to market on.

How to Find Influencers

InfluenceGrid can help you locate TikTok influencers, while Awario can help you find influencers across several platforms. You may also use hashtags to discover influencers who are posting sponsored content.

You might also begin with your current followers.

1. Select a couple of the people who are already fans of your business.
2. Then, look through the other accounts they're following to determine if any influencers are among them.

This is an excellent approach to locate someone already targeting your market.

Measure Your Results

It's easy to get caught up in vanity metrics such as likes and comments when launching an influencer campaign. For example, you could be impressed by the sheer number of likes your influencer can build up if they have a far greater following than you. However, to assess a campaign's performance, you must first comprehend its worth in terms of return on investment (ROI).

• One technique to track an influencer's visitors to your website is Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters. They can assist in determining the level of involvement received by the campaign. You'll get a clear image of the outcomes if you provide each influencer with their own unique link with UTM codes. You may then calculate the effect on your bottom line.
• Giving influencers their own discount code is another simple approach to keeping track of the purchases they bring in.
• You'll get free insights for both feed and story posts if you utilize your influencer campaigns' branded content tools on Facebook and Instagram. These may be accessed using Facebook Business Manager. You might ask the influencer to offer specific information on their post's reach and interaction levels.

Four Reasons Why Influencer Marketing Will Continue to Grow

Influencer marketing is hot right now, and it's not going away anytime soon. In fact, it's far from its potential. Brand-building influencer marketing programs are so pliable. You are able to create around your target audience and in your voice.

1. More people are becoming influencers
2. Influencer marketing agencies are growing in popularity
3. There are more content options
4. Influencers are showing more of their reality

Influencer Marketing Tools

It will only grow in popularity in the coming years. Now is the perfect time to learn about influencer marketing trends and plan to implement them into your own marketing strategy.

Now that you're ready to get started with influencer marketing, here are some tools to make it easier.

• Hootsuite
• Right Relevance Pro
• Fourstarzz Influencer Recommendation Engine
• Insense
• Trufan
• Facebook Brand Collabs Manager

Influencer Marketing Industry Platforms

Want to use an influencer marketing platform to connect directly with influencers?

Some of the best include:

• AspireIQ
• Upfluence
• Heepsy

What Will Happen With Influencer Marketing in 2022?

2022 has been a record year for influencer marketing. What kind of records will we set, and where will influencer marketing creative economy go?

• More purpose-led campaigns with influencers as partners, not human billboards
• The rise in offline community engagement with creator communities
• The continued emergence of virtual influencers
• A line between reality TV celebrities and genuine creators
• Agencies hiring influencers to work with influencers

Wrapping Up

Influencer marketing is here to stay, and it'll only get more significant in future years. Working with influencers may help e-commerce firms achieve their goals, no matter what they are.

Influencers may help you:

• build a following
• increase sales
• spread the word about your company

Whatever the case, now is an excellent day to begin planning your influencer marketing approach!

It's nearly impossible to look at social media without coming across influencer marketing. Influencers are flaunting their latest delicacies, outfits, beauty products, and travels wherever you look. Truthfully, this is only the beginning.

Influencers are always coming up with new methods to be sponsored on their favorite platforms, from standard posts and the ever-popular Instagram Stories to extended films on TikTok.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to adopting this strategy, but with proper preparation and research, virtually any organization may prosper. Remember, people like to buy from others; therefore, they are more likely to trust their suggestions if they like someone.

Want to learn how to build your personal brand on social media? Talk to one of our growth specialists at gardenpatch today!