The process of developing an influencer marketing campaign can be overwhelming, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the social media landscape. To better understand influencer marketing, here are a few frequently asked questions and answers:
What is an Influencer?
An influencer is a social media user with a higher than average following who influences the opinion of those in their community. They might be YouTube stars, television personalities, or the face of last year’s viral video. Whatever their claim to Instagram fame, industry and community members listen to their opinion and follow their online activity. We estimate that about 10% of Instagram users are considered influencers.
How Can Influencers Help You?
Influencers offer several benefits to businesses looking to boost their brand and expand awareness.
- Improve credibility: If no one’s heard of your company, consumers are less likely to trust your product or service over name brands. Influencers with thousands of followers and real credibility online (often verified by that blue check mark!) can encourage their own followers to trust your brand while sparking the spread of word of mouth marketing.
- Increase your reach with native advertisement: The effectiveness of advertising has diminished, especially given the widespread use of ad blockers. Consumers are more likely to buy into a product if they’re introduced to the brand via an Instagram post from their favorite YouTuber or magazine article from a trusted publication. Not to mention, as of now, Instagram is the most popular social platform among millennials – a class with immense buying power.
- Solidify your brand: It’s important that your business embody a singular emotion, experience, or personality to effectively resonate with a target audience. Pairing your product with an influencer who already has a recognizable brand that aligns with your company values, solidifies your brand in the minds of consumers looking for products that resonate.
- Generate content & improve SEO: The content created by influencers becomes your content once your name, brand, service, or product is mentioned. From the time influencers publish an Instagram post, consumers will be searching for your company elsewhere online.
What Types of Collaborations Can I Have with an Influencer?
Sponsored posts are the most common. Your company can sponsor an influencer’s post by paying them to either discuss your brand in a video or mention your product in the caption. Tip: Give influencers the freedom to customize their content because their brand matters too! You can also send influencers products to sample for reviews and invite influencers to your events, while encouraging them to discuss the event on their platform. Influencers can design a product for your line and can create content for your platform before sharing it with their own online audiences. Giveaways – when influencers enter their followers into a drawing and give away your product for free – are another common collaboration. If you’ve developed a long-term relationship with influencers, it’s common for them to become permanent sponsorships!
How Much Does Influencer Marketing Cost?
Costs of collaborating with an influencer vary, usually depending on how many followers an influencer has or how significant their reach is. For instance, influencers who earn six- and seven-figure salaries may charge $200,000 for company sponsorships. If you’ve got a tight budget, don’t fear. Most influencers don’t have as hefty a price tag. If you’re working on short-term collaborations, you might pay $5,000 for a series of five to ten posts. If the influencer is smaller and you’re only requesting one post, you can get posts for free in exchange for your product. And if you’re looking for a long-term collaboration, create a contract that includes multiple deliverables over a long period of time.
What Factors are Important When Searching for Influencers?
Heepsy allows you to filter influencers by the most important factors: theme (“category” or “tag”), followers and following, engagement rate, and location. An influencer’s theme should match that of your brand, or at least remain relevant to your target audience. An influencer should also have a following that matches the type of reach you are realistically aiming for based on your budget and campaign goals, influencers should have high engagement rates with their followers for maximum brand exposure, and, if you’re organizing an event, the exact location of your influencer is especially relevant.
How Can I Measure the Success of My Campaign?
While it’s difficult to measure the exact amount of exposure your brand has gained from partnering with an influencer, you can measure impact by the number of clicks in a URL and the number of likes on a sponsored post.
We hope this answered all of your pressing questions on influencer marketing! For more information on influencers, check out more blog posts from Heepsy!
