If you have spent any amount of time on social media, there is a good chance you have encountered an influencer or two who specialize in influencer marketing. These are ordinary content creators who have found a way to engage with their readers/viewers – and have gained quite a following. They write blogs, create videos, or post on social media about their daily lives while subtly promoting products they use each day. Your product.
Think about it – for someone with 2 million Instagram followers to clean their mirrors with a product you created all while talking about how fantastic it works – that’s going to drive up sales even if only a small percentage of their following transition into being your customer.
Influencers are making careers out of the brand sponsorships they receive as more and more people are taking advantage of this method to meet their marketing goals. And, surprisingly, it works!
Types of Influencers
Influencers each have their own style and their own way of interacting with their followers. You can gain the best results when you work with an influencer that has your ideal following. Of course, you want to make sure they are using a platform that is beneficial, too. Influencers can appear on blogs, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and more. Where can your ideal customer be reached? And by who?
Mega Influencers. This type of influencer has a mega number of followers reaching well over a million. And most are celebrities. They may not ever talk about or have anything to do with your niche, but getting your product or service in their hands does come with a wide reach in just one post. Mega influencers may be best utilized for brand awareness campaigns.
Macro Influencers. Most macro influencers received their following from creating content on their preferred platform (or multiple platforms), commonly YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. They have grown to have between 100k and 1 million followers – and have likely reached that number with some nurturing over time. While you may want to pay attention to the engagement rate here, macro influencers will usually work well for bringing brand awareness.
Micro Influencers. If you are searching for an influencer that can help reach your ideal customer in a more focused way, you will want to consider micro influencers with their 10k – 100k followers. These individuals seem to have a very engaged audience and, if it is targeted correctly, you can really reap the benefits.
Nano Influencers (aka Brand Fans). Nano influencers are fans of brands – they may like products in a particular niche with their genuine posts, but aren’t experts nor do they come with incredibly large followings. Rather, these individuals have an average of 1k – 10k followers. If your budget is small or you want to test out the waters, this may be a good place to start.
Finding Trust with an Influencer
There are so many traits that an influencer needs – or has – to make it in their role. But perhaps one of the most important is being trustworthy. Someone can be a stellar communicator and create very engaging content, but if they aren’t capable of building trust with their followers, then they aren’t likely to have any sway when it comes to promoting a product or service. Influencers need to be transparent and authentic for this to work.
In a marketing sense, you need to have trust that your influencer will hold up their end of the agreement or contract. The fine print will lay out all expectations based on the marketing plan, such as the number of posts, the type of media to be used, the payment details, ownership of the post, and so on. You trust that your chosen influencer will follow through with a genuine, positive post that meets the expectations.
Influencer Marketing: To Pay or Not to Pay?
So, let’s get back to the reason we are here: why should you pay for influencer marketing?
The answer is simple: You should pay for influencer marketing because it is what works right now.
People spend countless hours each week on social media platforms. As long as you find the right type for your needs and work with the right marketing professionals, you may be surprised at how effective influencer marketing truly is. And that’s worth paying for. Contact us for details on how Jus B can help with your influencer marketing.
