A Simple Guide To Influencer Marketing
Marketing is a big umbrella, encompassing so many different strategies & tactics to promote and position your product or service. Public Relations, Advertising, Social Media, Branding, Search Engine Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Direct Marketing, Digital Marketing and Content Marketing…oh my marketing! Below we delve into How Influencers Help Brands by elevating their exposure.
The entire marketing process understands your customer and gets them to PAY ATTENTION! PR & Marketing agencies listen, research and strategize how to cut through the noise and communicate your brand’s identity and message. Using influencer marketing is just one tactic and depending on your business, could be one of the main objectives.
What Is Influencer Marketing?
In a nutshell, influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from influencers. These “influencers” are people who have a large and dedicated following on their social media platforms and are viewed as experts within their niche. Some are focused on motherhood and talk about anything and everything to do with baby products, kids toys, etc. Other influencers are overall lifestyle and talk about everything from food to fashion. Whatever type of influencer, brands seek their targeted audience and want to be a part of the conversation.
Influencer marketing is a form of collaboration and businesses collaborate with these influential person to promote something…a product, service, or even and advocacy campaign. Brands are attracted to these influencers because they have an established reputation for having an expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field. These people have dedicated and engaged groups of followers on social media.
What Are Influencers?
We hear this word all the time, but what does it really mean? Basically, an influencer is someone who has the ability to influence others. Social media influencers use their influence through social media and brands want to partner with them to use that influence too.
A successful marketing campaign is more than traditional media relations, so working with influencers is an important tactic.By working with the right influencer, you can reach your target audience, build trust, and drive engagement. They create original, engaging content that attracts their audience to read, watch and listen. Content is king! This content, which can be social media copy, video, audio, infographics or all of these wrapped into one, is a way for influencers to talk about your brand without “selling it.” Influencers on the other hand work hard to grow their audience (i.e. followers) so their platform gets larger and more brands want to work with them because of their audience reach. They can build a bigger audience by providing amazing content that is honest, original, visual and interesting.
It’s very important to work with social media influencers who share your vision and are on the same page regarding how you want your brand conveyed.
What Are Micro-Influencers?
These are influencers on a smaller scale. They usually have between 1,000 – 100,000 followers on social media, but instead of a bunch of sponsored ads, they promote products with authentic, visual posts. These audiences are extremely targeted and tend to have more honest engagement.
Check out this study from Markerly…as an influencer’s number of followers increases, their number of likes and comments from followers decreases.
- Instagram users with fewer than 1,000 followers generated likes 8% of the time
- Users with 1,000-10,000 followers earned likes at a 4% rate
- Users with 10,000-100,000 followers achieved a 2.4% like rate
- Users with 1-10 million followers earned likes only 1.7% of the time.
So as much as brands want that huge follower base, it’s not always the best choice. The best audiences are obviously targeted to your demographic and industry, but also ENGAGED.
How Can Influencer Marketing Help Businesses?
Influencers give your brand a real voice. Similar to working with the media to give an unbias, honest depiction of your brand, influencers are along the same lines except they are getting paid. That being said, they need to be honest about the brands they choose to work with because of their audience. So even though they are getting paid, the influencer will only choose brands that they believe in and their audience will trust.
When selecting influencers, brands need to choose influencers who are a natural fit for the brand, who create relatable content and provide better engagement. The great thing is they build fresh content for your brand, which brings authenticity since it’s not coming from your website and creates better web presence.
Overall, influencer marketing can be a great marketing tactic, you just need to do your research and find the right influencer, who speaks to the audience you’re after.
Intro To Bettie Bomb
Founded in 2005, Bettie Bomb is a Chicago Influencer Marketing Agency, offering a suite of services from trusted industry partners under one creative umbrella. PR, Marketing, Social Media and beyond…we work as an extension of your team, creating personalized campaigns, building awareness and telling your story when it matters most.
We are a Boutique Chicago Influencer Marketing Agency specializing in all things lifestyle: food, fashion, hospitality, retail, health & wellness, medical, consumer and philanthropy. Partners Rebecca Kussmann & Laura Collins work closely with businesses & organizations to target key audiences and generate exposure all under the Bettie Bomb umbrella. Work one-on-one or have us build a team. We can be BIG and we can be small…that’s the beauty of it. Small, but mighty with the ability to grow. That’s us in a nutshell.
