A decade ago, the scope of influencer marketing strategies was limited to celebrities and a few well-known bloggers. But, now you can see that anyone can be an influencer which has an impact on the growing number of social media influencers to meet a wider target market. Now, it’s almost impossible not to see some form of influencer marketing strategy when browsing social media.
Because in general, the target market for influencers is social media platforms as the latest marketing technology and social media user bases from various parts of the world. No matter what social media platform you use, influencers will make product marketing efforts according to their business niche. Influencers will always find new ways to promote their business dynamic creative optimization products or other people’s business products on their favorite social media platforms.
For example, in the form of traditional posts (Instagram carousel feeds, Instagram content marketing) to Stories, Instagram Reels, and TikTok video content which is always popular for video marketing. This makes influencer marketing a promising form of online business marketing or digital marketing. So, if you want to increase your business conversion rates and your company’s brand value, it’s time to try this type of marketing.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that promotes products using endorsements from an influencer. Influencer itself refers to someone who is influential and is seen as an expert or trend setter in their market niche. In other words, influencer marketing is a mix of old and new marketing tools.
The reason is, this type of marketing requires the involvement of influential public figures and places them into modern content-based marketing campaigns.
Influencers or content creators will generally use social media platforms, blogs, or even podcasts as their marketing media. Influencer marketing is part of a brand awareness campaign that also helps businesses generate business conversions and sales. Until now, marketing strategies using influencers are increasingly effective and are the mainstay of many businesses.
This is influenced by the high level of trust and loyalty that social influencers build with their followers (customer loyalty) to facilitate the consumer’s browsing experience (customer journey). Moreover, their form of marketing serves as a form of social proof to potential customers of your brand. How to Develop an Influencer Marketing Strategy
How to Develop an Influencer Marketing Strategy Just like any other marketing strategy, an influencer marketing program refers to deliberate targeting and planning. Your business development strategy isn’t going to find strategic success by simply sending out free stuff to everyone you know and then asking them to promote your quality products. You need to implement some strategic steps to create influencer marketing. Some of them are as follows.
1. Research Platforms and Influencers According to Your Niche
As with any strategy, doing research is the most important step. Select the platform you want to focus on as a marketing medium, for example social media Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Meta, blogs, podcasts, and others. It doesn’t matter if you currently only focus on one platform first, because later you will have the opportunity and opportunity to expand the marketing stages of your business to other platforms. After that, do in-depth research on the industry you are in. For example, if your company or brand is in the beauty and fashion industry, take advantage of digital media such as Instagram and YouTube.
During the research, you can also while considering the type of influencer market you are interested in. Are you looking for influencers from public figures and celebrities with a large following? Or micro influencers with less than 2000 followers?
It doesn’t stop there because you have to choose an influencer who fits your business niche. That is, whether the influencer is in the same field or interest as your business. For example, if you are a food & beverage business owner, then look for influencers whose main content is food. Like chefs, food bloggers, or people who like culinary tours and upload their activities on social media or blogs.
2. Define an Influencer Marketing Management Budget and Strategy
Once you have some decisions about what you should have to start influencer marketing, you need to create a budget for your business promotion. Also be sure to consider time in planning, executing, and reviewing your influencer program. Unlike automated advertising strategies like Google Ads, influencers are human and often work closely with other brands.
So that some influencers can make mistakes such as not posting endorsement content on time or placing the account tag and call to action (CTA) according to what you requested.
3. Define Your Goals and Promotional Message
The two most common reasons to use influencer marketing are to increase brand awareness and increase sales. However, instead of setting that target as your goal, it’s more effective to start your strategy by meeting your brand’s needs. Maybe you want to increase your customer base to be youth centered. Or you want to expand to a new user group with a new product. Or you want to skip the trend and leverage influencers to talk about your brand values.
You need to know that influencers have the ability to reach a very specific audience. Instead of relying on thousands of followers as the ultimate form of marketing, influencers will help you ensure a highly targeted audience will be attracted to your products so they can immediately engage with your content. As a bonus, influencers will help your business increase your business’ customer retention rates.
4. Contact Influencers
In connection with the first point, make sure that the influencer is really a trusted influencer and can work professionally.
How to? It’s easy, look for influencers who provide clear contact information and can definitely be contacted at any time. If you are looking for an Instagram platform-based influencer, the partnership contact information is usually listed in the influencer’s Instagram profile bio.
After that, then you can communicate your intentions and goals to contact the influencer, namely an invitation to collaborate on endorsements and other business promotion activities. Even if your influencer marketing campaign is ongoing, you should still monitor and measure the progress of your promotion.
Closure
Influencer marketing provides you as a business owner with a cutting-edge, practical and easy solution that enables your company’s marketing team to achieve its revenue goals. Because influencer marketing involves brands collaborating with online influencers to market one of your products or services.
In all cases, true influencers will develop a reputation as experts in their field. They are the people who provide answers to your questions and needs as those who use their services. If you are successful in choosing the right influencer for your brand, then you have the opportunity to connect with many potential customers (lead generation) that you previously could not reach.
