Influencer marketing is a powerful marketing tool that can help eCommerce companies to grow their brands. In the last five years, Instagram usage has grown tenfold, and the platform now has more than one billion users.
Influencer agencies have seen a tenfold increase in the last year, totaling more than 1,120 in 2019. The size of influencer marketing platforms is expected to grow from $5.5 billion in 2019 to $9.7 billion in 2024.
For every dollar that businesses spend on influencer marketing, they are making five dollars and twenty cents. This was the case in 2019. The 2020 survey is out and it’s now $5.78.
That’s a killer ROI.
The Influencer Marketing Hub’s most recent study found that 91% of marketers believe influencer marketing is effective, 78% are planning to allocate a budget to it, and 66% intend to increase their spending on influencers.
If you are not already using influencer marketing as part of your advertising campaign, you should start. This guide can help you if you don’t know where to start.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is when companies use endorsements and product placement from influencers, people, and organizations who have a lot of knowledge or social influence in their field.
Influencer marketing content is a type of sponsored content that includes Instagram posts, YouTube videos, blog posts, and guest posts.
What is an influencer?
An influencer is somebody who can persuade other people to buy something because of their clout, expertise, or status. They also have a group of dedicated fans that they frequently interact with.
What are the types of influencers?
There are 4 main types of influencers. There are two types of eCommerce – Shopify and Magento. Depending on your budget, goals, and what you’re trying to sell, you’ll need to decide which one to use.
Nano influencers
These are people who have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers and are an emerging group of influencers that companies work with. It used to be recommended to work with influencers that have at least 10k followers, but this has changed. The new algorithms encourage organic growth and authenticity, so you may find many nano influencers who will get you high engagement and good conversions.
Micro-influencers
These are people with 10k-50k followers. They are considered micro-influencers and have smaller audiences. The benefit of working with these platforms is that their audiences are much more engaged, with levels of engagement typically around 8-10%. This means that people with 10,000 followers can expect to receive around 1,000 likes and comments, which is a pretty powerful reach.
Macro-influencers
These are the traditional influencers that people think of. They have a lot of followers and are very influential. Their audiences are much less engaged and more varied, which makes targeting difficult.
Though they are often overlooked, they can have a great impact on leadership. The most influential people in your industry can be found in this group. If you want them to share something, reach out to this group. Macro influencers would be your best group of candidates.
Celebrities
Celebrity influencers are extremely expensive and often out of reach for most people. These people typically have more than a million followers, but their engagement rate is only around 1%. This isn’t very helpful for a brand since its audience is so diverse.
The best way to use influencers to market a product is to have micro-influencers create images and videos of the product. The use of micro-influencers results in high engagement rates and low cost, which are better than the macro-influencers or celebs.
Where to find influencers for your brand
One of the first steps to consider when planning an outreach strategy is to identify your targets. There are many different types of influencers, from those with millions of followers on Snapchat to those who are published in well-known magazines. An industry expert or someone passionate about your niche who is also an effective influencer would be ideal for your marketing strategy.
So, where should you begin your search? What are some ways you can tell which influencers resonate most strongly with your audience?
There are a few things you can do to connect with the most important people in your field. Try some of the following methods:
1. Take advantage of social listening tools
If you’re reading this blog post, you’re already taking the right steps. Mention is a social media monitoring tool that can help you keep track of what people are saying about you online. It does this by searching the web for content that contains your designated keywords. This allows you to easily find relevant influencers and see what people are saying about your brand, product, or industry. The extra context will be useful when you’re writing customized emails to influencers.
2. Master Google’s advanced search queries
Are you well-versed in the art of Google-fu? If you cannot do something, it is time for you to improve your abilities.
By adding certain search parameters, you can improve your search results by finding exactly what you’re looking for more quickly.
You can use advanced search queries to quickly find influencers who contribute to a relevant publication.
Here’s how: 1. Establish a relationship with one or more of these editors by offering your expertise as a resource on issues related to your business. After identifying some top publications in your industry, establish a relationship with one or more of the editors by offering your expertise on issues related to your business. You can find out which blogs your customers and competitors are following by using social media, or by searching Google for [your industry or product] + “blog”.
2. After finding a blog or two in your niche, you can use the “related:” operator to find websites that are similar. This website allows you to search for related websites in your industry, so you don’t have to spend time manually finding them.
3. You can find the URL structure of the writer’s author pages by clicking on their name for each site you want to target.
4. Type “site:” into the Google search bar, followed by the URL of the website you want to search. This will bring up every page on the website that begins with that URL. This will show you every contributor who has published on the site.
Now you have a list of all the authors who contribute to the website. These people are influencers in your industry and write authoritative content.
3. Stalk social media for leads
There are two ways you can find relevant influencers on social media. Find people who are talking about your brand or product. To connect with influencers, look for ones who are already talking about your brand or who are talking about related topics. If you can find influencers who have a shared interest in your brand, you can connect with them and start a conversation. There are two types of influencers – those with a large following, and those with a more niche audience. You can find them both online and offline, but you need to know where to look. Here are a few ways to find quality influencers on social media:
- Peruse your own list of followers for highly engaged fans and customers
- Check out your competitor’s followers (and who they’re following back)
- Look for anyone who is being discussed by top brands and trusted publications
- Search for hashtags related to your niche, business, or product type
You should look out for users who are active and have a lot of followers. They should also share content that is relevant to your business and interact with their followers.
Building a list of relevant, high-value contacts
When selecting an influencer to work with your company, evaluate whether their personality meshes with your brand values. Do some introspection and figure out why you want to be associated with this person. Would they be a good spokesperson for your business in your opinion? Do you really believe in what you’re selling?
Where to find influencer email addresses
If you are looking to partner with an influencer, you can easily find their contact information online.
First check the “Contact” section of their LinkedIn profile, their Twitter or Instagram bio, and the about page of their website. Your search might turn up someone who knows the person you’re trying to reach, and who can introduce you.
An alternative is to look to Google for help. A quick search using any of these formulas in someone’s email can sometimes dig up results you wouldn’t otherwise find:
- [first name] + [last name] + email
- [first name] + [last name] + @[domain]
- [first name] + [last name] + @[domain] + email
If an email address cannot be located, Hunter can be employed as a data-scraping tool. Influencers who are open to partnerships usually don’t try to hide their contact information.
More than just collecting emails is needed to build an effective outreach strategy.
Be sure to include the influencer’s full name and social media account information next to their contact information. I would also suggest saving the person’s professional title or company name, what social media platform they use, and how large their audience is (if that information is visible).
Your contact information collection will grow over time. You’ll want to keep it organized and stored safely, even if it’s just a simple spreadsheet.
Make sure you create separate columns for each of the following bits of data:
- First name
- Last name
- Email address
- Link to their social media account, publication, website, or portfolio
- Title or role (if you’re approaching someone who’s part of a larger organization)
- Number of followers or potential reach
After your list is complete, transfer it to a CRM software program to monitor your contacts and begin your marketing efforts.
A robust CRM makes the entire outreach process simpler. Tagging your contacts in Propeller CRM allows you to organize and access their information more easily.
You can use these tags to select contacts for a specific campaign based on custom criteria, like which platform the contact is most active on or how big their audience is. This means you send a message to visual influencers with over 50,000 Instagram followers, for example, or send a brief message with a discount code for trying your product.
Types of influencer marketing campaigns
1. post a photo on Instagram 2. put a video on YouTube 3. use Snapchat Some of the most effective influencer campaigns for your brand include posting photos on Instagram, putting videos on YouTube, and using Snapchat.
Video product review
Review videos are an effective way to promote your brand or product. You can make an engaging review video as an Instagram story or YouTube video. An influencer using and sharing their thoughts on a product is much more effective than just seeing the product.
Youtube and Instagram influencers are very good at reviewing products. Other social media platforms, like TikTok and Snapchat, could potentially be just as good.
Giveaway
One way to increase engagement is by running giveaways. Many brands host giveaways with a group of influencers. Influencers post pictures of themselves with the product and ask their followers to follow the brand in order to enter the giveaway.
Hashtag campaign
You can create a successful social media campaign by focusing on a specific hashtag, and then enlisting the help of influencers to promote the campaign. This technique is used by National Geographic often, which is why they were the first brand to reach 100 million followers on social media.
The National Geographic Society has been focusing on developing relationships with influencers for a number of years. Coca-Cola did a famous campaign to celebrate International Women’s Day that received over 3.5 million likes on that day.
Unboxing
Unboxing videos are super powerful, especially on YouTube. Brands spend thousands of dollars on product reviews and this is effective. Unboxing videos get hundreds of thousands of views. Recently uploaded videos tend to have a lot of views.
Social media takeover
A takeover is where an influencer would take over the brand’s social media platforms for a day, or even just an hour, and post content on their behalf. One of the best ways for brands to work with influencers is through a takeover, where an influencer would take over the brand’s social media platforms for a day, or even just an hour, and post content on their behalf. Influencers get access to a brand’s account and post on their behalf to promote the brand. A story takeover is where one person takes over another person’s Instagram account for a day and posts stories from their own perspective.
UGC campaigns
You can promote your brand by asking your customers to create user-generated content. This refers to images and videos that show the customer using the product. Brands use influencers’ content to promote their campaigns.
The future of influencer marketing
A decade ago influencer marketing didn’t exist. There was no effective way to make money from social proof or social networking online except through ads. Digital marketing has changed dramatically through the years.
In the next few years, more powerful tools will be available to help businesses measure the ROI of their influencer marketing campaigns and automate brand awareness.
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