If you’re looking to grow your business this year and feel like you’re constantly trying to come up with new marketing strategies, then I’d suggest you keep reading. The influencer marketing industry was worth $8 billion in 2019 and is projected to be worth as much as $15 billion by 2022. Companies are rapidly jumping on board with influencer marketing campaigns due to the great success that’s been seen from others, so we would recommend that you consider it too.

What is influencer marketing?

If you’re totally new to the industry then you’re probably wondering, what exactly is influencer marketing? It’s a social media marketing technique, working with influential social media profiles to promote your product or brand. I’m sure you will be aware of celebrities being hired to promote products online, but instead, brands are moving towards influencers. This is because consumers have indicated that they often believe celebrity endorsements to be unauthentic, and to feel too much like an advertisement. So, consumers will turn to influencers for recommendations, believing that their public opinions are much more trustworthy.

How to find influencers

When you are ready to start searching for influencers to work with you, it couldn’t be any easier! You can look for influencers directly on social media platforms, but this can be rather time-consuming and not provide you with some essential data. We would recommend that you use an influencer marketing platform like Heepsy, where you can find influencers by using specified filters to match your needs.

The key to success with influencer marketing is to ensure that your campaign goals are clearly defined before searching for influencers. Some of the most common objectives seen from influencer campaigns are to increase brand awareness, improve brand engagement, grow content creation, and produce conversions. However, these goals are best achieved when being considered in-depth prior to your influencer search.

It is important that you also clearly define your aims in terms of budget and target audience. With an identified budget in mind, you will be able to better understand what level of influencer is affordable. Additionally, identifying your target audience will make the search a lot more straightforward by looking for influencers with followers that match the demographic of your target audience.

Below is an example of how this search can be conducted through Heepsy. If you have identified that your budget will allow for nano, micro, or medium influencers — then you can filter this as shown. If your target audience is women in their 20s and 30s, located in the US, then you can filter as shown.

What do influencers post?

If influencer marketing is completely new to you, then you’re probably wondering what these influencers will post. There’s a lot more information provided on this within our influencer marketing guide but generally, influencers will post photos and/or videos either using or showing a product from your brand. Depending on whether you go for Instagram influencers, YouTube influencers, or other social media platforms, the type of content will vary.

Instagram is the most popular social media platform for influencer marketing considering the app is highly visual. There are different media types here including posts, stories, reels, IGTV, and IG Live. There are benefits to each but to briefly explain:

• Posts can be photos or videos, typically used to show attractive products, for giveaways, and when you want to share the content on your own account.
• Stories are less expensive as they only appear for 24 hours. These are great for a more natural approach, often showing a product in action.
• IGTV is perfect for fully descriptive content, for products that need that bit of extra information. Influencers can do tutorials and demonstrations.
• IG Live enables great interaction with followers so that influencers can do Q&As, live events, and show true reactions.
• Reels is the newest addition to Instagram. These are great for a quick before and after look, a step-by-step guide such as a recipe, or a trailer type of video.

Thinking about results

There is extensive evidence to show the success that businesses are having with influencer marketing campaigns, just look at the year-on-year investments being made in the industry! Statistics suggest that businesses are making $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.

Before estimating your results, it’s important to think about your investment in the campaign. To do this, you will need to consider how many influencers you plan to work with, and the fee that you will be paying for this. Knowing the type of influencer you hope to hire, so nano or micro, for example, you’ll be able to establish an estimated monetary cost of this. This will include the cost of the product that you’ll be sending to the influencer, any additional fees that they or their manager charges, as well as shipping costs to get your product there.

With all of the above in mind, when it comes to estimating the success of your campaign, this might take a bit more time. Considering all of your key objectives is what will determine the success gained through the delivery method of these goals. Your results can be calculated by looking at:

• reach — how many followers do the influencers have that will hopefully see the content?
• media type — which will you use? For example, posts are of higher value than stories as they are more likely to be viewed.
• impressions — this can be calculated by looking at the number of followers, and the media content used to establish how many people your campaign is likely to reach.
• interactions — how many times has the content been liked or commented on? This is the engagement from consumers that analytics tools can assess.
• clicks — how many times have links been clicked? This is when users follow through the links on an influencer’s content.

We would recommend using online tools to measure the ongoing results of a campaign, such as Instagram Insights and Google Analytics. There are some really great tools out there, and we would suggest checking out the 8 best tools for influencer marketing for some ideas.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you have learned some more about how taking the leap into influencer marketing can really help grow your business in 2021. It may seem daunting at first, but with a bit of research, it’s definitely one of the best ways to get results with little investment.

If you head over to Heepsy, there is plenty more information, and we can help to get you started on your first influencer marketing campaign!