influencer marketing

6 Tips for Developing Your Influencer Marketing Strategy

  • On : May 10, 2021

As an industry set to balloon to nearly $7.4 billion in value on Instagram alone, influencer marketing is showing no signs of slowing down in 2021.

The partnership between content creators and businesses has helped brands connect with customers on a more precise scale than ever. The value and size of this industry would have been entirely unimaginable 10 years ago, but with the advancement of technology and social media, influencer marketing has become in its own right, a legitimate force to be reckoned with. With this information on board, you might be wondering “how can I achieve my business goals with an influencer?”

To help, we’ve shared our 5 best ways you can develop your influencer marketing strategy in 2021.

Clarifying Your Goals & What You Need an Influencer For

You’re bound to be disappointed after investing a sizeable budget into an influencer strategy if you haven’t distinguished what it is you want from an influencer. It’s important to remember that influencers have 2 key areas of strength when it comes to marketing, with the first obviously being an increase in brand awareness.

Harnessing the followers of creators on Instagram and TikTok can offer great exposure for your brand and push your products up into the consideration set of prospective customers. The other overlooked aspect is engagement. Audience engagement is the most desirable asset of influencer marketing, as content creators can evoke a wide array of reactions from emotions to ethics. The flow-on effect of engagement won’t just see a boost in your follower count but will lead to greater brand penetration.

Because of these benefits specifically, it’s important to only consider reaching out to an influencer if it is in line with the needs of your business and whether it’s the right strategy for you.

Understanding Your Target Audience

Choosing the right influencer will be a difficult task if you haven’t put yourself in the shoes of your customers. By looking over your customer segments, you can create customer profiles and personas to make sure you’ve developed a complete picture of exactly what customer will use your product and what they like, you can then begin the process of research.

Finding an Influencer & Platform That Matches Your Brand

The best influencer may not have the most reach or be the most affordable to be the right fit for your business. It can be a difficult thing to quantify, but the best influencer you will be able to find will match your market, your design and key messaging. The right candidate will be an individual that:

  • Broadcasts an identity that aligns with the values of your brand
  • Targets the segment you’re most interested in
  • Is trustworthy and has a history of building strong, positive relationships with brands
  • Has a proven track record of increasing engagement with brands and products
  • Has developed a likeable and personalised relationship with their viewers

Collaborating > Dictating

Influencers are usually successful because they are highly creative people who have a wealth of understanding about social media trends, because it’s their job. As we have previously stated, marketers need to exercise trust with their influencers once they’ve been asked to assist your campaign, to ensure they can make the best content possible to align with your marketing objectives. Instead of communicating specific marketing objectives such as “we need to increase website conversions by 20%” just keep a brief list of all the bases they have to cover and let them go for it.

Building a Longstanding Relationship

Thinking a bit larger, your brand can fully harness the power of influencer marketing by building a relationship with them instead of booking them for a single set of ads. When you engage in the conversation and create a friendly relationship with your influencers, they’re more likely to enjoy working with your brand and are inclined to put more of themselves into the content they curate for you. This can also reduce the cost involved, as influencers that enjoy working with your brand will see it as more of a fun opportunity to help a partner instead of a one-off job to pay the bills.

Measuring Results & Developing Insights

The great thing about digital campaigns is that they’re rich with information because analytics allows you to develop insights and attribute direct cause and effect relationships to ad campaigns. If your influencer is on Instagram, the site has inbuilt analytics that your influencer can show your post reach on their page compared to yours. If you’ve set up analytics through Google, you’ll be able to track conversions too. TikTok on the other hand is a bit trickier. Luckily most professional influencers will have a TikTok Pro account, so you won’t have too much of a headache there.

So now that you have all the information to start your influencer marketing campaign, what are you waiting for?

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