Influencer Movement Builds Momentum, Trust and Results
Influencer marketing is set to become one of the biggest trends in 2020 as agencies plan to increase influencer marketing budgets substantially. The efficacy of an influencer marketing campaign is indisputable with 89% of people surveyed saying ROI is greater or comparable to other marketing campaigns.
An influencer has access to what marketers need and want – trust. The already-established social-media connection with an audience that the influencer has can project a brand to a different level. Most consumers are going to trust a person more than a brand and influencers… influence.
Starting an influencer marketing campaign should always begin with “who?” Who are you trying to appeal to? Who is your ideal customer? Once you have that in mind, you can build a persona complete with demographics, psychographics and consumption.
Demographics
Age- Gender
- Income
- Ethnicity
- Marital Status
- Parent/Non-parent
Psychographics
- Personality
- Values
- Attitudes
- Interests
- Lifestyles
Consumption
- Magazines/News Sources
- Hobbies
- Social Network Platforms
- Movies/Music
- Pets
Building a persona is going to paint a picture of whom the customer would be following and what content would lead to action. This will give you an idea of which influencer is going to be right for your campaign.
Here comes the difficult part: finding the right influencer. This requires some research to ensure the influencer and audience are relevant to your brand as well as the level of engagement the influencer receives. Look at their content to determine what the influencers’ motivations are. Are they more of a product-placement type or are they educating and inspiring? If you break down your personas into topics, you can narrow the influencer field with their motivations in mind. Collect a list of influencers to reach out to and take into account that 20-25% will respond and/or be a good fit for your brand.
As noted in our blog 2020 Digital Trends, micro-influencers are becoming more and more popular with large name brands that have had incredible success. Dunkin’ Donuts, Banana Republic, and Boxed Water saw amazing success with utilizing micro- and nano-influencers in their marketing campaigns.
- Nano: 1,000 – 10,000 followers
- Micro: 10,000 – 50,000 followers
- MidTier: 50,000 – 500,000 followers
- Macro: 500,000 – 1 million followers
- Mega: 1 million+ followers
The success can be attributed to a few reasons, one is that it is more cost-effective. The other is engagement goes up significantly.
- 1,000 – 5,000 followers – 8.6% engagement
- 5,000 – 10,000 followers – 6.3% engagement
- 10,000+ followers – 3.6 % engagement
Depending on your KPI and budget, it may prove more logical to employ the services of a smaller influencer rather than one with 1 million+ followers.
An easy way to get a look at engagement levels of Instagram influencers is to search a certain hashtag that would appeal to your persona. You can look at the content and see how many likes and comments it has received. A lot of likes and no comments would not be something that would score high on engagement levels and vice versa. Also, be modest with expectations as small businesses may not need 750 likes and 90 comments for a campaign to be effective.
Make sure your entire campaign is on the up and up. A little-known fact that evades even the influencer is that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have certain guidelines that they are supposed to follow. Only 11% of influencers are compliant with the guidelines.
The FTC and CMA dictate that influencers must let their followers know that they are advertising to them. The disclosure of the relationship with a brand must be direct and obvious. If a company has entered into an agreement with the influencer in which monetary value has been traded, the influencer must disclose that within their post. Most compliant influencers will hashtag #ad or #paidpromotion at the beginning of the post as it cannot be buried or snuck in.
When it comes to putting your brand out into the public, an influencer marketing campaign can be one of the most effective tools at your disposal. Influencers are celebrity endorsements without the million-dollar price tag. They can inject your bottom line with adrenaline or build awareness around your product or services.
Kinetic just recently completed an influencer marketing campaign in Arizona that proved to be an incredibly beneficial and game-changing endeavor for our client. Be on the lookout for our case study! In the meantime, feel free to contact us on how we can help build your influencer marketing campaign.
