Team AdfluenceIf there’s one buzzword around the marketing industry right now, it’s Influencer Marketing. And Instagram, in particular, is climbing the popularity charts rapidly. A study conducted by Quintly showed that Instagram has the highest follower growth rate out there in addition to having the highest engagement rate. If this isn’t enough to sell Instagram’s case to you, a survey conducted by Hashoff also showed that 91.9% of the 150,000 surveyed influencers treat Instagram as their primary platform, giving you the largest possible pool to pick from. The best part is that according to Statista, their market size will only grow in 2019, that too to a whopping $2.39 billion.
So, if you’ve been contemplating whether or not to jump on the Instagram bandwagon, the answer is a resounding YES. But not so fast. There are some things you need to know before you make that leap, and lucky for you, we’re here to give you pointers that are critical to the success of your marketing strategy.
Every influencer isn’t right for you. Here’s how to pick the right one.
Picking the right influencer for your brand is an important decision, for which you need to put in a lot of thought and consider several parameters. Here are the ones we rank pretty high.
Quality: When it comes to quality, we’re talking about everything from visual to written content. The big, the small and whatever fall in between – tonality, language, aesthetics, even grammar – has to be scrutinized closely. One bad quality post is enough to ruin your impression in the market, so make sure you do your due diligence by studying the work of the influencer in depth before you partner with him / her.
Statistics: Numbers may not always tell the truth, but if you know how to read them properly, they can be quite revealing. ROI, click-through-rate, and conversation rate are just some of the stats you should demand from the influencer you’re thinking of collaborating with. By themselves, each metric means very little, but together, they give you insight into whether you’re tapping into an active (thereby, real) audience or a passive (thereby, fake) one. Let’s face it; you don’t want an influencer without influence, do you?
Relevance: The next and most important thing is relevance i.e. whether or not the influencer creates content or operates in a niche that’s in line with your product and brand. For instance, if you’re selling rucksacks, it makes no sense to collaborate with a makeup guru, no matter how huge her following. Similarly, it won’t make sense for an organic cosmetic brand to partner with someone who has an audience of travel enthusiasts. However, bring the makeup guru and the eyeshadow palettes together and pair the traveller and the rucksack company together, and you’ve got two perfect marketing matches.
Tell Me What You Want, What You Really, Really Want
Setting goals is an integral part of any marketing campaign. It could be any goal – increased website traffic, more sales, lead generation, boosted visibility, more followers – but it’s got to be specific and well-defined for two reasons. One, it helps you pick an influencer that’ll get you to your goal; two, it gives you a metric through which to measure the effectiveness of your campaign.
Once your goal has been fleshed out, the next thing to do is measure the campaign’s performance accurately. If your goal was to get more people talking about your brand, then you should be looking at engagement rates, social media impressions, or follower growth. However, for a goal like increasing sales and revenue, your key performance metrics are click-through rate, total basket value, and conversion rate.
Pro Tip- Instead of waiting till the end of the campaign to analyze data, keep tabs on it from the very beginning, so that you can keep tweaking the campaign and see what brings in more results.
There’s No One Campaign to Bring Them All
There are 7 main kinds of influencer marketing campaigns, each with a different kind of purpose and a different goal. For the advanced class, check out The 7 Types of Influencer Campaigns that Can Give Your Marketing Strategy the Extra Boost. But for now, here’s a quick glance at the campaigns that are proven to work well for brands:
Giveaways are great for increasing brand awareness and help boost engagements on both your page and that of your influencer’s.
Affiliate Marketing is an excellent way to drive sales and get people to notice you, while building a network of loyal marketers who work for you.
Social Media Mentions is perhaps the simplest strategy of all. Your influencer will mention you in a caption, tweet or tag you in a post, and voila, engagements plus content that you can repost.
Event Marketing may not show an immediate boost in sales, but it builds an emotional connect and puts you across as a genuine and authentic brand.
Social Media Takeovers basically involves the influencer posting on the brand’s social media accounts and interacting with their followers. This can help increase engagements and keep the audience interested with fresh new content.
Long-term Ambassadors create a loyal audience and also spare you the headache of repeatedly recruiting new influencers.
Sponsored/ Guest Blogs involves the influencer writing the occasional piece for your website or blog, thereby creating long-standing content that’ll promote you in a way that is genuine and unbiased.
Let’s Talk Money
Got your eyes on the perfect influencer but scared that hiring them might burn a hole in your pocket? Well, chances are that’s probably true if the said influencer has millions of followers and a high ROI. But in reality, there isn’t a sure shot way of knowing until you approach them.
The average influencer charges 15-20 paise a follower, but this isn’t as straightforward as doing simple Math. There are plenty of other variables that an influencer will consider before coming up with a price. For instance, if you want a static post, it’ll cost way less than if you ask for a GIF or a video because they require more inputs in the form of video production, editing, animation, and so on. Rates also tend to vary based on the quality of an influencer’s posts.
Remember, hiring an influencer isn’t like visiting a salad bar where you can pick 7 ingredients and pay for what you bought. Good work comes at a cost, and when negotiating with influencers, you should factor in the three things that will determine how much they charge – followers + engagement + content creation. And, if you want your brand’s name to shine, then you gotta pay.
But the good part is that, as a brand, your arrangement with an influencer can extend beyond monetary reimbursement. A lot of influencers, especially the ones who are trying to establish themselves, are often happy to work for freebies, discount vouchers or invites to events, etc. For instance, you can send a collection of your clothing to a YouTuber for free and in exchange, they will do a video hauling the pieces and reviewing them. A win-win because your brand gets attention for the lowest possible price and the influencer gets content for a video along with free stuff.
In the end, just remember the three golden rules of influencer marketing:
- Be true to your brand
- Dare to be original
- And trust your influencer
We know the last is a bit hard because brands tend to have trouble relinquishing control. After all, you’re leaving the image of the brand in the hands of a stranger, even if he/she is a well-known celebrity in their circle. But trust their judgment. They do this day in and day out and they’re expert marketers in their own right. At the same time, don’t be afraid to communicate your needs to your influencer and discuss candidly what you’re expecting from them. As in any business partnership, transparency always leads to great and strong relationships and honestly communicating your expectations and opinions of the influencer campaigns will drive your engagements and sales to the zenith.
