Influence – it’s a concept fundamental to advertising. Behind all the fancy designs, engaging stories and carefully crafted copy, the end goal is always to influence your audience into considering your product or service. It’s why spokespeople and expert recommendations have been powerful promotional tools for so long and why influencer marketing has become a dominant vehicle for promoting brands. Influencer marketing is inescapable in today’s media landscape and many companies have found success leveraging it. Is it the right fit for your brand? Find out in this Rivers Agency guide to influencer marketing.
The Basics of Influencer Marketing
It’s said that word-of-mouth, an individual recommending an item or service directly to another person, is advertising in its earliest form. Influencer marketing is a modern-day application of word-of-mouth, capitalizing on the social media following of popular personalities, known as influencers. These influencers will recommend a product or service, and their authority as an expert or thought leader will grant legitimacy to the endorsement. The goal of influencer campaigns is typically to raise brand awareness, with the opportunity to also boost conversions and sales.
Depending on the audience you’re trying to reach, the most popular platforms for influencer marketing are Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. Influencers can publish their content via blogs, videos, photos, social media posts and more. The method is so popular now that nine out of every 10 brands use influencer marketing in some way.
Why You Should Consider Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a booming industry, on pace to generate $16.4 billion this year. There’s no shortage of influencer personalities available either. If you’re a small business, numerous locally based influencers could have a following in your area. It can be a relatively low-cost endeavor that, by some estimates, returns an equivalent earned media value of $18 per dollar spent. In most cases, you only need to send your influencer a sample(s) of your product/service for them to feature, and a prompt for them to craft their message. This creates a regular pipeline of testimonials and user-generated content, assets which are invaluable to successful promotions.
Make Friends and Influence People
If you’ve determined influencer marketing is a good fit for your brand, you need to start the search for your influencer(s). This can be done on your own or through an agency with an influencer customer relationship management (CRM) platform. If you choose to find these individuals yourself, you will need to browse accounts and reach out to people directly via email or direct message. Compared to using an agency, this approach can save on costs, but it also elevates the risk that you make a deal with an influencer that you’ve not been able to thoroughly vet. Agencies with access to platforms like Blog Meets Brand, Julius, Klear and Traackr give you access to thousands of local and national influencers, along with engagement statistics and content summaries that you can use to inform your decision.
When considering influencer marketing, be mindful of the fact it requires a great deal of trust between the two parties; the brand has little control over the influencer’s execution of the paid content, outside of approval and rejection, and no control over their content outside your collaboration. You will need to research the influencer’s past content and keep up with their future content to ensure it aligns with your brand’s values.
If you want to be at the forefront of advertising landscape and give influencer marketing a shot, you’re going to need a smart, savvy team to be successful. Rivers Agency is a full-service advertising agency that’s thrived in the ever-evolving marketing landscape for more than 30 years. We’re ready to help you launch your next influencer campaign. Let’s get started today.