In the last decade, influencer marketing has become one of the most important and effective strategies within digital marketing. This type of marketing is based on collaborating with social media influencers to promote products, services or brands.
It is a strategy in which brands partner with people who have a strong presence and credibility on social media. These individuals, known as influencers, have the ability to influence the purchasing decisions of their followers due to their knowledge, authority and relationship with their community. They operate primarily on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Twich, and their content can range from photos and videos to blogs and podcasts.
How does an influencer marketing plan work?
This type of advertising strategy can transform the way brands communicate with their audience. Implementing this type of campaign involves several key steps:
- Influencer identification: It is essential to find influencers relevant to your niche and whose audience matches your target market.
- Audience assessment: Analyze the level of engagement (interaction) and authenticity of the followers of the selected influencers. It is no secret and many of us know it, many years ago, it became fashionable to buy fake followers and that led to the boom of many profiles on Instagram. Over time, it has been seen who really had a loyal audience and valuable content and who did not.
- Establishing objectives: Clearly define what you hope to achieve with your campaign, such as increasing brand awareness, generating sales, or improving interaction on social networks.
- Developing the strategy: Specify how the influencers will collaborate with your brand, including sponsored content, giveaways, product reviews, among others.
- Creating content: Collaborate with influencers to create authentic and attractive content, giving them creative freedom. The way to work with an influencer is very diverse and will also depend on the reputation of the brand and how small or large it is. Despite giving the influencer freedom to generate the content, it is always advisable to define a script or briefing that helps them with the execution of the content. This will ensure the success of the collaboration.
- Monitoring and measurement: Evaluate the performance of the campaign using key metrics to make adjustments if necessary. For this, it will be very important that point 3 is well defined.
- Ongoing relationship: Foster long-term relationships with influencers for more authentic and effective collaborations.
Authenticity and Credibility
Influencers’ authenticity and credibility, stemming from the trust built with their audience, is a key advantage in influencer marketing. The new transparency law, which requires declaring whether content is a paid collaboration, may seem like a hurdle, but it actually reinforces this credibility. By being transparent about collaborations, influencers demonstrate honesty and ethics, which strengthens the trust of their followers and benefits both them and the brands they work with.
Extended Reach
Collaborating with influencers also allows brands to significantly expand their reach. Influencers have established audiences that can include thousands or even millions of followers. By partnering with influencers, brands can reach these followers and access audiences that may otherwise have been unreachable. This is especially valuable for introducing the brand to new market segments and increasing overall brand awareness.
Creating User-Generated Content
Another major advantage of influencer marketing is user-generated content. Influencers create authentic and engaging content that can resonate better with audiences than internally created ads. This content can then be repurposed into a brand’s own marketing campaigns, providing a constant stream of fresh and relevant material that can be shared across a variety of platforms. The authentic nature of this content often makes it more effective at capturing consumer attention and interest.
Improves brand ranking
Mentions and links from influencers can also improve a brand’s search engine ranking, known as SEO. When an influencer mentions a brand and provides links to their website, this can increase the brand’s traffic and online visibility. Search engines view these mentions and links as indicators of relevance and authority, which can help improve a brand’s ranking in search results, making it easier for more people to find the brand online.
Challenges
Despite its benefits, influencer marketing presents several sticking points:
- Selecting the right influencer: It is crucial to ensure that the influencer’s values and audience align with those of your brand.
- Measuring ROI: Assessing return on investment can be complicated and is not always related to the bottom line. This will depend on the previously set objectives (brand awareness and audience growth, page views, product sales, etc.).
- Content control: Finding a balance between the influencer’s creative freedom and brand control is essential. That’s why it’s important to work with a briefing with the content creator and build the relationship based on it. This way, everything will be in writing and both parties can ensure that the collaboration is fulfilled from start to finish.
- Reputation risks: Influencers are human and can make mistakes, which could negatively affect your brand’s reputation. This is one of the main fears of brands and the bigger the brand, the more careful they are when looking for profiles of interest. They often avoid controversial profiles.
Influencer marketing is a powerful tool that should be considered in any communication strategy, allocating a part of the department’s budget to it. It is capable of improving brand visibility, generating community and increasing sales. In particular, the cost to the company is usually very low compared to the income generated by these actions. To maximize the benefits of this strategy, it is essential to approach influencer marketing with a well-thought-out plan and a clear understanding of your goals and success metrics.
