- In 2021, the Influencer Marketing industry is expected to reach $13.8 Billion.
- In 2019, the average business was seeing an ROI of 520% due to Influencer Marketing.
Influencer Marketing in the last few years has seen a meteoric rise. With the Pandemic pushing the move to a more digital world, competing with other brands has become even more difficult.
Defining Influencer Marketing
Influencer Marketing is one of the many avenues in Social Media Marketing. As its name implies, a brand will compensate an influencer for advertising its product or service.
However, what makes Influencer Marketing unique is the close connection between follower and creator. There tends to be a high level of trust between the two, which brands will use as a channel to introduce their product.
Influencer Marketing versus other Digital Marketing Strategies
In the grand scheme of Digital Marketing, compared to other avenues such as PPC, CPM, or even CPV. Influencer Marketing is much more powerful in that the trust is already there.
One of the difficulties of selling a product or service is that consumers must have confidence in buying. The Influencer sidesteps that issue since most people following the influencer trust them to vet the products or services.
It is not a surprise that consumers do not enjoy ads, and some even go to the lengths of setting up ad blockers. Unfortunately, ads are unlikely to reach these prospects. Influencer Marketing circumvents that issue since you cannot automatically block a person’s post.
At worst, the ad will generate awareness of the product. The best scenario is that the ads lead to a conversion.
Discovering If Influencer Marketing Is Right For Your Business
Finally, we set out to answer, which is, determining the effectiveness of Influencer Marketing. So the first question you will need to ask yourself is what products or services your company offers and how they may tie into a particular niche.
In other words, what industry are you in, and who is your target audience.
Targeting Your Audience
Knowing who your target audience is one of the most crucial aspects of Marketing in general. This fact stands true, especially in Digital Marketing. To decide on which influencer to work with, determining what customer you are aiming for is crucial.
Nothing says tone-deaf more than a meat-producing company working with a vegan influencer. So make sure to understand who your targets are before moving on to deciding what influencer to partner up with.
Locating Your Influencer
Deciding on who to work with can make or break the campaign. Ideally, it is encouraged to partner up with an influencer with experience working with other brands, especially if it is your brand’s first time.
An experienced influencer simplifies the process, and as a brand, you can view the influencer’s past work and how they have generally done when it comes to engagement rates and such.
It is also possible to reach out to previous brands that worked with that influencer and ask how their experience was to understand the future partnership better. There have been some frauds so try to stay clear of headaches like that by carefully vetting your influencer.
Measuring KPIs
Another essential factor in Influencer Marketing and Digital Marketing are KPIs or Key Performance Indicators. After deciding on the above, figuring out your short-term and long-term goals will improve your chances of a successful campaign.
Many Marketers like to employ a “set it and forget it” tactic. Checking in on how your campaign is doing every four days to weekly will give insightful information.
If the Influencer campaign is not hitting KPIs discover the reason behind it. If they are hitting KPIs, what made it so successful? Understanding what works and does not work is one of the cornerstones of successful Digital Marketing.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Influencer Marketing is one of many avenues of Digital Marketing. Diversifying the channel of communication with customers can be beneficial to your Brand.
But do not overdo it when you are first starting; stick with one and slowly work your way around. Dipping your toes in everything may overwhelm you and produce negative results.
When deciding how to begin in Influencer Marketing, first determine your industry. With the industry in mind, who is your ideal target audience? Next, discover the influencer that specializes in your industry, vet them properly to avoid deal-breaking issues.
Lastly, figure out what your KPI will be before beginning the campaign. Finally, check back often to analyze how successful or unsuccessful the influencer campaign is going. These are the steps in which you can determine if Influencer Marketing is effective for your brand.
To learn more check out International Institute Of Digital Marketing™
About the Author
An Diep is an Digital Marketing Analyst at International Institute of Digital Marketing™.