Influencer marketing has become the go-to tool for brand positioning in the market. In this article, we'll teach you how to use it effectively to improve your business's performance.
The technological advance of our days advances at an exponential rate. This has turned the Internet into a fundamental need for all organizations, to the point that any person in the modern world has a digital footprint registered on the world wide web platform (www) and most of these footprints, on social networks where day Hundreds of millions of direct interactions are shared every day.
These interactions have created new advertising and marketing tools that both companies and individuals have been able to take advantage of, thus turning social networks into powerful tools for information and customer acquisition; And is that how many of us have not managed to contact old friends unintentionally through social networks?.
From digital marketing came influencer marketing
These communication channels offered by social networks have highly relevant advantages for companies. Its accessibility, its affordability, its scope and its impact on users, create the necessary digital environment so that marketers feel like "fish in water" to promote their companies.
However, we have observed how the dynamics of the digital world have constantly evolved and demanded from companies new ways of promoting themselves, creating various marketing modalities dedicated to meeting specific objectives according to the goals proposed by each of them. Thus, digital marketing opened up a range of possibilities coupled to each communication channel that was opened in the world of cyberspace and currently, there is one that sets the standard in the promotional field: influencers.
If you're interested in learning more about this, we invite you to read about marketing trends that will strengthen your tools.
Pre-Marketing
The Influence
Before delving into influencer marketing, we need to talk a bit about how those around us influence our decision making to understand the essence of this type of marketing.
For example, many of us before buying a new product on the market or changing the provider of a service such as laundry or hairdressing, we always consult the opinion of our relatives in order to know their experience or the quality of the new product or service to hire and it will be their recommendations that will determine our final decision.
We only make this type of interaction possible according to the type of trust that we develop with these people; Thus, it will be easier to let ourselves be influenced by family and friends whose opinions can have a high impact on our decision-making power and we must limit that this dynamic also occurs vice versa, that is, our opinion can influence the decisions of others.
The Influencers
In the world of cyberspace, these types of interactions also occur and this is part of the exponential rise in the use of social networks. On the Internet, these relationships are facilitated given the versatility of the digital communication channel and companies, aware of this, have effectively exploited it not only to make themselves known, but also to position their brands in the markets.
Not only companies make use of the digital media of cyberspace; also, there are people who have dedicated themselves to developing their persuasive potential and who do it either as a hobby, because they are figures recognized by the majority or because their work demands it. These are called: Influencers or Influencers.
We can say that this qualifier is used to name people who are dedicated to the use of social networks or other types of digital media to gain popularity through the publication of their knowledge or opinions such as youtubers or bloggers, their ways of life as renowned artists or athletes, their job objective as journalists or simply people with particular attributes that generate the attraction of a large number of followers.
By virtue of this, influencers develop a great influence on their followers that allow them to intervene in their decision-making power and be excellent marketing promoters.
influencer marketing
Whatever the size of the company or enterprise, they have been forced to use different marketing tools to face their competitors and one of these is influencer marketing.
Through it, companies make sure not only to make their brand known to the public, but also to position it in the market in a natural and spontaneous way through the influence that certain people can exert on a large number of potential customers.
If you want to learn about the scope of this tool, we invite you to read our article on marketing actions.
In this sense, and given that the advertising strategy is based on the recommendation of influencers about the brands of a company or enterprise, a new form of marketing is being developed that is based more on establishing a relationship between the public and its product than simply a commercial campaign.
Within the great variety of marketing, influence marketing has stood out in a good way by virtue of the humanization that is given to brands, products or services, since the public, being influenced by people who enjoy great popularity, perceive the strategy as consumption suggestions made by human beings with whom they share the same hobbies, the same senses and even the same inconveniences of daily life and not as automated or mechanized corporations.
We invite you to read our article on the types of marketing , where you will find the tools that best suit your company.
What does it take to do good influencer marketing?
a good influencer
As we have seen, basically the primary tool required is to have a good Influencer; This will determine the scope you want to achieve to position your brand in the market.
Influencer-product relationship
However, it is necessary that the influencer has some kind of relationship with your company or venture. Thus, you can ensure that the connection with the target audience is made naturally and spontaneously, that is, if your company's sales product is sporting goods, you should look for an influencer who is characterized by being an athlete or sports lover , so that when recommending your product, it looks comfortable with the use of it.
target of influence
Another aspect to consider is that you must establish the objectives that you want to achieve with influencer marketing; this will allow you to select a particular type of influencer.
SEO
If what you want is to make your brand known and position it in the market, you will have to resort to famous people who identify with your brand naturally.
Consolidation
But, if what you want is to strengthen the quality of your brand or product, it will be necessary to have the participation of expert influencers in the field of your offer.
Increase
If the objective pursued is to increase your clientele or win the purchase intention, you can use influencers who have a track record and experience with your brand.
You must bear in mind that whatever the influencer you choose, you must make sure to establish a relationship of trust or familiarity with it, since it will depend on how natural and spontaneous the public's connection with your brand or company will be.
Choose the right influencer
Once you have determined how to do influencer marketing, you need to make sure you choose the right influencer. To do this, you will have to carry out a little field work to ensure the fulfillment of your objectives.
Make a list
The first thing will be to identify all the influencers that are related to the values of your company or that may have some kind of relationship with it. Make a list and discard those that you think may present some kind of position opposite to the objective you want to achieve.
Evaluate their trajectories
Once you have the definitive candidates, follow up on their trajectory in digital media and social networks. It evaluates their profiles, their behavior and ability to interact with the public, their seniority managing the medium, their responses to the audience and, very importantly, its acceptance by the public.
Study your audience
Do a review of the number of your followers and make an exhaustive evaluation of them, remember that in the end these will be your clients with whom you will establish a relationship of trust through your brand.
In the same way, it studies the preferences of the audience and the reactions to certain advertisements. This will give you an idea of their behavior and product consumption preferences that will make it easier for you to estimate potential consumers.
appreciate your commitment
Take a tour of the influencer's marketing posts and gauge their engagement, comfort, and recommendation of brands. This will allow you to establish the time and commitment you can have with your offer.
Follow your surroundings
Far from stalking influencers, we suggest you analyze their development environment. Studying what accounts they follow, what other influencers are related to them and what kind of events they attend will give you an idea that another audience that you have not foreseen can welcome your brand.
To delve deeper into this last point, we suggest you read about the marketing platform where you will find information that will strengthen your strategy.
What are the advantages of influencer marketing?
More and more companies are turning to this tool as part of their marketing due to its high effectiveness for launching their products or brands. Below, we present several of the most significant advantages that will leave you in no doubt about its benefits.
Reduce time spent on advertising
In the presence of the digital age, the number of people who fix their eyes on digital screens is increasing. By making use of influencer marketing, you will reduce the time you invest in building an effective advertising network, since it will be the influencer who will spend their time to make your brand known.
greater range
It is no secret to anyone that influencers can have followers from anywhere in the world. This allows a single person to take your brand not only to any part of the world but also to any social stratum. That means that your brand can have a digital presence in both Costa Rica and Spain at the same time.
The public comes to you
It may go unnoticed, but when you use influencer marketing, believe it or not, it will make the public go to you. This is because influencers, enjoying popularity, constantly increase their followers who align themselves with the same trend, so they will indirectly do so with your brand.
Increase the credibility of your brand
The popularity of influencers not only increases the possibility of persuading their followers; beyond that, it establishes a type of relationship of trust with its audience that allows them to appreciate, by recommending your product, that it meets the satisfaction of their particular needs, thus increasing the credibility of your brand.
Humanize your brand image
As we mentioned before, given the new type of social interaction through digital media by people who have some kind of relationship such as hobbies, feelings and even the same difficulties, it will make possible a more human perception of the recommendation of your company or product. by the influencer, establishing more of a social relationship than an advertising campaign.
Create your own story
Given the ability of influencers to weave their content with your brand, they create a trajectory that will evolve as it positions itself among the target audience. Thus, a story will be created among your product that will become more and more established among its consumers.
It will build the digital footprint of your brand
In the new era, the majority of the world's population has a digital footprint in cyberspace, mostly as a result of the use of social networks. Influencer marketing will ensure that your brand is registered in the search engines of the world wide web.
How do you develop an influencer marketing plan?
Define your goal
The main thing to start an influence marketing plan is to define the objective you want to achieve with it, what you really need and what you want to get from it.
sets the mechanics
This consists of defining what type of strategy you want to share with your influencer when recommending your brand; This can be through contests, recommendations by followers in exchange for your brand's products, hashtags, times when you want your product to be recommended, among others.
Contact your influencers
Remember before contacting your influencers, follow the steps that we detailed above to make sure you choose the one that can best develop with your brand.
Set up meters
Evaluate what tools you can use to measure the reach of your product's recommendation; You can agree on this previously in the established mechanics, in such a way that it allows you to measure the evolution of the recommendation of your brand by the influencer.
Monitor
Constantly check the impact of your brand among the followers of the influencer, either through their reactions or their own recommendations in the comments and interactions that are made.
Define ROI parameters
ROI, for its acronym in English (Return on investment) is the return on the investment you make in influencer marketing. In this sense, establish the quantitative parameters of the growth of your brand that you hope to obtain. Later it will help you to determine the profitability of the strategy.
Agree with influencers
To establish the commitment with your influencers, you can use one of the three ways that are most common to finalize the marketing agreement with them:
Barter
This is the most common way to establish engagement with the influencer. It consists of the brand choosing to give away products or services to the influencer in exchange for the influencer making a certain number of publications.
You must be clear about the level of reciprocity that must exist between the parties and, above all, the objective that you want to achieve. The greater the number of posts or certain strategies that you want to share through your influencer, the greater the generosity of your gift should be.
Brand Ambassadors
In this case, the brand turns the influencer into the brand ambassador. Therefore, the brand must constantly give away the influencer, generally the most expensive products in exchange for advertising.
pay per image
Here, you will need to use the image and create the channels and actions of the influencer for the purposes of promoting your product in exchange for a fee.
Let's do it
Once all the steps indicated above have been defined: Congratulations! You are now ready to carry out your influencer marketing and boost your brand.