Influence marketing consists of contacting influencers or groups of influencers as the image of the brand. Each new product or service that you put on sale, each event or each new information that you want to make known, you do through these people. It is widely used in beauty products and cosmetics.
What is an influencer?
Person who stands out in social networks in which he has created a community, expresses his opinions or promotes products and exerts a great influence among the people who know him.
Types of influencers
Celebrities, Youtubers, Bloggers, Twitter users, friends.
Why influencer marketing?
- There is more credibility in the message.
- There is more connection between user and brand.
- Recommendations are more credible.
What is influencer marketing used for?
- Launches of products or services.
- For events.
- Attract new customers.
- Loyalty customers.
- Gain followers through social networks.
Word of mouth has always been one of the most effective marketing methods. If this concept is transferred to the digital age, Influence Marketing is born. It is based on the same technique since there are influencers who have many followers who are aware of their networks most of the time or have a community, therefore they help to promote the brand and make it grow.
Benefits of using influencer marketing
Gives greater confidence. Consumers trust people more than brands, in fact, in the Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising report, it is said that 78% of Europeans trust the recommendations of people they know and 60% trust the recommendations from reviews posted by online influencers .
They have the power of conviction
Influencers, as we have mentioned before, have a community in which they have great influence, since they are people who attract a fairly large audience, as they are accessible people with whom you can contact them by direct message or through comments, it is all easier and credible.
Content creation
There are influencers of all kinds, fashion, restaurants, beauty, sports and all of them, sometimes with a mix of everything, so they do exhaustive research on the people who follow them and thus generate content based on user preferences, in occasions influence much more than the brand when making a purchase.
How to implement a marketing strategy with influencers
The first thing is to start from a correct planning and organization, that is why we must look for the people of influence that are most in line with our brand, we can do this search through hashtags, or keywords.
Once we have located the influencers that we want to be part of our brand, we have to somehow get them to promote and mention our products or services.
Good results are also achieved by inviting influencers to events, webinars or demos organized by us.
Ways to create collaborations with influencers
- If you already have the right people for your brand, all you have to do is contact and reach an agreement.
- It depends on the brand, some strategies or others are used and it also depends on the person of influence.
- Give away products in exchange for exposing them on social networks.
Some brands choose to give away products or services to the influencer for free or at a deep discount in exchange for an agreed number of posts. For example, a clothing company can give an influencer 3 free pieces in exchange for a few social media posts. Always clear mentioning the brand.
This is the most common way to create a collaboration. It is important that you make clear from the beginning the type of photo you want to be published. It is always recommended that the agreement be carried out in writing to avoid misunderstandings.
Discount codes
It is also one of the most common forms of Influencer Marketing and you are also offered a discount code to give to your followers. .
The brand and the influencer agree that for each purchase made the influencer receives a certain percentage. It can also be done for each click that the user makes on the sponsored link. It depends on the brand and the agreement.
Influencers usually receive a discount as well, usually higher than what they offer. Or they even get the product for free.
Brand ambassadors
It is about using an influencer or a group of influencers as a brand image.
Each new product that you put on sale, each event or each new information that you want to make known, you do it through these people. It is widely used in beauty products and cosmetics.
These tend to be the types of collaboration agreements that have the highest cost . They are long-term agreements, not for specific campaigns. When this type of collaboration is usually carried out, all kinds of strategies tend to be applied: discounts, raffles, gifts, etc.
For example, the nocco brand often does this kind of strategy, taking photos in gyms with its collaborators in order to promote the brand.
Other influencer marketing tools
- Live Unboxing : Send your products to an influencer in the mail and ask them to make an unboxing video. Unboxings are usually very popular, depending on the type of audience, and the followers of the influencer. It is often used a lot on YouTube, although now it is also done on Instagram or IGTV stories. Just because of the curiosity of the users, many visits are usually obtained, as we have seen many influencers in their featured tab have Unboxing of different brands, it can be beauty or restaurants.
- Giveaways: Organize a giveaway with your influencer. Ask them to display the prize and ask participants to follow your company page and comment on a post to be entered into the draw.
- Tutorials and reviews : Depending on the products, tutorials and reviews can help you increase sales of your product. If you think users need to see how your new release works, ask an influencer to explain it, it will have a bigger impact than doing it yourself.
Origins and history of influencer marketing
Although we currently associate influence marketing with new technologies, the popular influencers from YouTube, Instagram, tiktok etc.
This marketing technique was already used years ago to spread awareness about brands and influence consumers through famous people.
It is possible to affirm that, indeed, what has changed is the type of influential person due to the change in trends and use of media, but influencer marketing continues to have in common with its antecedents the fact of using recommendations from well-known people, admired and trusted to convey brand values.
How and when was Influencer Marketing born?
It could be determined as the beginning of Influencer Marketing in the digital environment in 2010. Since 2005 the blog format was booming, but it did not experience its strongest growth until after a period of approximately 5 years. Once the influencer profile was created in the digital environment, influencer marketing grew with Social Networks.
Under this premise, the influencers sector began with blogs, later passing through platforms such as MySpace and, in general, with the first channels where content could be posted on the web and users could easily give opinions. .
Today, from our point of view, the most powerful social networks are Instagram and YouTube, since they are the most visited and where you can find more people of influence for your brand.
Influencer Marketing Forecasts in 2022
As we all know, the coronavirus greatly affected the marketing and advertising sector. The advertising sector suffered especially from the effects of the pandemic due to its mandatory lack of activity. Even so, there were people who did better even in the middle of the pandemic since we were all calmer at home and checking social networks, therefore there were millions of people doing sports at home, healthy food recipes.
Podcast
Lately this term called podcast has become very fashionable and more and more people have one.
A podcast is a periodical in audio or video that can be downloaded from the Internet.
The podcast is normally directed by a presenter, different collaborators and interviewees, who, over a period of time, expose and develop a specific theme to form different episodes that run on that or several subjects.
The advantages of the podcast are mainly the fact that finding methods to streamline and easily digest the content is a good solution.
Texts require special effort and attention, and although videos, a very popular content format that is widely accepted, require visual and auditory attention, the effort is less, since you don’t have to read.
Merging the advantages of text and video formats into one have been the keys to developing podcasts, since although listening attention is required, content can be consumed anywhere and at any time, even while performing other tasks. simultaneously, since it is the format that interferes the least and is the best alternative to learn about new topics and broaden knowledge.
Why have a podcast?
The most important reasons to have a podcast and thus create simpler and easier content in a new way are the following:
- They bring words to life . Texts can be colder and more impersonal, while podcasts break these virtual barriers: they give you a voice and bring you closer to the readers of your blog or to the customers of your business.
- It helps you network . Interview podcasts are popular, less and more dynamic than those conducted through the text-only format. They will help you forge alliances and get new contacts, more efficiently and productively.
- It doesn’t take time. The podcast is a format that can be listened to at any time and at any time without interfering with other activities and tasks.
- It is more economically profitable . Creating a podcast is more affordable than creating content in any other format. It is only necessary to have the correct sound equipment and the basic mastery of some audio editing tool.
- There is less competition . Just as there are countless blogs and YouTube channels, the same amounts of podcasts are still not registered, especially in Spain and Latin America. It is worth seizing the opportunity.
In summary, today both small and large companies use influencers to boost their brand, many influencers today reject gifts because they have a representative and that is why many companies opt for micro-influencers who perhaps have fewer followers among them. 1000 and 10k but have a strong community that doesn’t put the company or the brand at a loss as some small businesses can’t afford to constantly give away products.
If you are thinking of promoting your brand, one of the most feasible marketing strategies is this, always having a business plan, objectives and having previously detected the needs of the brand.