What is an influencer?

An influencer is someone - or as we’ll learn, sometimes something - who is able to use their social following and personal brand to encourage other people to do, buy, or use products they endorse.

The two most common business models for this are, 1) openly sponsored product placement or 2) Products are given for free in exchange for a positive review or simply using or wearing the item in front of their fans.

All influencers have sizable social-media followings, but not all influencers are humans, in fact there are animals (especially dogs) and even AI influencers too!

Whichever type of influencer is right for you business, NVIGOR can source them, liaise and negotiate with them on your behalf, and co-ordinate their role in your marketing mix.

What exactly is Influencer Marketing?

The concept of paying those whom other people want to emulate i.e. sports stars, actors, TV personalities etc., is nothing new. However, social media has created a sub-genre of this called influencer marketing. Influence marketing is where brands collaborate with individuals who have a significant online following to promote products or services. Sometimes this can be extremely niche and their following may only be a few hundred or thousand people. These influencers create ‘authentic’ content that often resonates with their followers (your target audience) thus driving engagement and brand awareness for you. This can often be more effective than traditional forms of advertising.

3 Big Benefits of Influencer Marketing

1.    Build trust: Influencers have already established credibility, engagement, and trust with their followers, so an endorsement from them pushes your target right down the customer journey instantly, they may even buy immediately following a plug. 

2.    Improve brand awareness: The right strategy and influencers can expand your reach and online positioning, encouraging more people to engage with you directly – and who doesn’t want more loyal followers?

3.    Enrich your content strategy: An experienced influencer can provide you with inspiration for new content ideas, helping to fill any gaps in your campaign plan and even help you create the content itself.

What size influencer is right for me?

Influencers come in different sizes depending on how many followers they have. They’re called a variety of names, but let’s say an influencer with <10,000 followers is a ‘nano-niche’ and >1M is essentially a ‘celebrity’.

You might assume that bigger = better, but this doesn’t always logically follow. 

Some markets a niche and very lucrative because they’re sub-genres and have cult followings, if a famous youtuber starts promoting this merch, it’s just as likely your original fans will call you out on this, yelling, “sell-out” (in the worst sense) from the top of their keyboards. 

Conversely, if your product has mass-market appeal, it’s just awareness is currently low because it’s new, then a celebrity influencer would be a much better fit than an army of nano-niche ones.

What makes a successful influencer marketing campaign?

Authenticity is the basis of any successful influencer marketing campaign. Forming relationships with influencers who are already relevant to a brand’s message is vital. 

Influencers might be popular for their content on gaming, cooking, exercise, healthy eating - you get the idea.

●    Penetrate new markets – it can be hard to crack into long established or crowded markets (think whey protein & sportwear) that usually requires millions of pounds just to scratch the surface of the public consciousness. If an influencer decides to wear your brand on camera, however, you might just find yourself with more demand than you can fulfil. 

●    Instant social media following boost (without paying for fakes!) - Influencers talk about you and get their audience's interest in your brand, so their followers are likely to start following you too.

●    Get genuine feedback on your product – not only is the influencer usually the epitome of your target customer who will have valuable insights into where you sit in the marketplace and where your product could be improved, their followers are more likely to have an earnest dialogue about your product with the influencer, than they would be if you asked them for feedback directly.

●    Bring new content to your audience - They'll have a fresh perspective on your brand and can offer creative ways to promote your products in ways no-one else would imagine (not that they’re all going to be good ideas, which is why they need managing!)

Conclusion

To sum up, influencers help you raise awareness and build trust, offer great ROI, and back up various digital marketing strategies you already have in place, like content and SEO. If done in the right way, with the right management and monitoring, influencer marketing can transform your business almost overnight – but it might require a few weeks and months of planning first!

Brands and companies alike often struggle to find the time to search for the perfect influencers for them, let alone forge lasting relationship as well as create beautiful content; fortunately, NVIGOR has been through this process many times with an array of products and industries. We will help you shortlist, interview, onboard, train, facilitate, mediate, negotiate, and remunerate your new influencer, and do everything we can to realise the value from the partnership.