Influencer marketing has become a buzzword in digital marketing these days. It is an exciting and essential marketing method in today’s world. It works as one of the effective and strongest ways for building brand awareness and conveying the brand message to the target audience. It improves brand authenticity considerably which will lead to increased sales. Since people consider most influencers as someone among them, there is a trust factor between influencers and followers which will benefit brands.
In the current scenario, the role of influencer marketing is growing day by day. Businesses are increasingly engaging influencers for promoting their products or services. From macro-influencers to micro-influencers, every social media personality is recommending brands relevant to their target group these days. The influencer marketing industry must have reached $16.4 billion-worth industry in 2022.
To make the most out of influencer marketing, you need to work with the right influencers. Given the growth of influencer marketing, there are a lot of fake influencers as well. Moreover, the influencer you work with should align with your brand values. Brands may end up spending thousands of dollars if they choose to work with the wrong influencer. If you are wondering how to make sure you are working with the right influencer, we have got you covered. Here are a few tips to help you choose the right influencer for your brand promotion.
Start with The Groundwork
Before you choose the influencer, it is important to understand the influencer marketing industry in general. All influencers do not work the same way nor do they give equal benefits. Based on the audience size, influencers are classified into five categories such as mega-influencers, macro-influencers, mid-tier influencers, micro-influencers, and nano-influencers.
Generally, mega-influencers will have more than one million followers, micro-influencers will have between 10,000 to 50,000 followers, macro-influencers will be those with 5,00,000 to 1 million followers, and mega-influencers are people with more than 1 million followers. Influencers with a fan following of 50,000 to 5,00,000 are classified as mid-tier influencers.
Not to mention, influencers with more fan followers will charge more. However, you don’t need to work with macro-influencers to reap the benefits of influencer marketing. Some nano-influencers have better credibility than celebrity influencers and macro-influencers. They have a deeper connection with their followers which will help to make the marketing efforts more effective.
Know Your Target Audience
Regardless of the marketing activity you do on social media, the first step is to identify your target audience. The same applies to influencer marketing. To find the right level of influencer, you should have clarity of your target group. It becomes much easier to choose the right influencer when you know your target persona well. Ideally, you should work with an influencer who shares the values and syncs with the core characteristics of your target group. You should consider the basic demographics such as age, gender, location, language, interests, and more, when you shortlist the influencers for your campaign.
Choose The Right Platform
Most of the successful influencers will have built a strong reputation on one of the social media platforms. While some followers have huge followers on Instagram with their short videos, others might focus on long videos on YouTube. They may not even have a presence on Twitter or LinkedIn. The takeaway is the influencers you choose should have a strong reputation in the social media platform that you are primarily focusing on.
When you know who your target audience is, it becomes much easier to choose the right platform for your campaign. And you can choose the influencers accordingly. Choosing the platform will help you further narrow down the list of prospective influencers for your campaign.
Fix Your Budget
Unfortunately, there are no standard charges for influencer marketing. When you initially hire influencers, it can be a bit complicated to understand the rates for hiring influencers. The rates vary depending on several factors such as the follower size, experience, the platforms that they are focusing on, the content type they create, demand for the influencer, engagement rates, industry, and more. However, influencer marketing is still one of the most cost-effective ways among social media marketing activities.
As mentioned above, macro-influencers will charge you more than micro-influencers. Once you figure out how much you can spend on influencer marketing, you can shortlist the type of influencers you can work with.
Relevance is Prime
Often, you may get tempted to hire an influencer who has millions of followers or a celebrity who has risen to fame recently. However, it may not be the right strategy for hiring a social media influencer. To improve the ROI of your influencer marketing, you should work with an influencer who aligns with your brand values and connects with your target audience.
Furthermore, people will more likely listen to an influencer who has domain expertise in the product or service they endorse. Simply put, a food vlogger would be a good choice for a company that manufactures chocolates. In a nutshell, you should look for an influencer who has authoritative expertise on the product or service which you want to promote.
Know Your Influencer
It indeed takes time to build a quality relationship with an influencer. Before you start your association, you need to reach out to them and ensure that you and the influencer are on the same page for promoting your brand. The influencer you hire is going to represent your brand, talk about it and contribute to your brand positioning. Therefore, you should work with an influencer whose have similar brand values. Make sure you understand the type of content they do, the tone and voice, aesthetics, techniques, value systems, etc. before you go for a deal.
Get in Touch
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