How you can use digital influencers for your small/medium business
For a business to see success in the modern world, they must find ways to use the internet to target and reach consumers. Initially, standard online marketing was done through interruption advertising such as web banner’s and imbedded video advertisements (Backaler, 2018). Though these forms of marketing are still popular, the digital world is now seeing the rise of influencer marketing which uses individuals on social media to market products. These individuals must have a platform such as a blog, YouTube channel, or Instagram page that have a following. Influencer marketing has been proven to be a great form of marketing because it provides a spokesperson that consumers trust (Backaler, 2018). With the new age of social media and its millions of users, your small and medium enterprises too can reap the benefits of this hot new trend.
You might be intimidated by the massive paycheck mega influencers charge such as Kylie Jenner’s estimated cost of $1 million per sponsored Instagram post (Mejia, 2018). But are these Macro influencers the only avenue for successful influencer marketing?
Targeting Nano and Micro Influencers.
A common misconception of influence marketing is that to be an influencer, one must have a huge following. If a company has a huge marketing budget, they might be interested in hiring a celebrity as an influencer. Though celebrities do have a large influence on the perceptions of their fans, it can be obvious when they are promoting a product for a quick cash grab. This ideal has given rise to the micro and nano-influencers who might only have a following of a thousand people. See the breakdown of Influencer tiers here.
(Mediakix, 2019)
Even big companies such as H&M exemplifies the benefited of micro influencers through their new campaign which targets smaller influencers to promote their brand. According to H&M, this focusing on micro-influencers has increased their engagement form influencers to 294.1 per mention (Dan, 2018). This trend is great news for you as small business owner if you don’t have the capital requirements to hire larger influencers.
Couple of men is a great example of a micro influencer with under 44,000 followers that H&M used for an Instagram campaign. Click here to check out their page:
Too see some examples micro influencers used by big brands check out these Instagram posts:
Why Instagram is the Best Platform is Best for Influencing?
With an estimated $1 billion revenue from influencers, Instagram remains the most popular social media platform for influencer marketing. According to Brandwach, about 70% of the most popular hashtags are associated with a brand (Fields, 2019). Because Instagram is so polluted with influencers pushing products, it is important for your influencers to differentiate their advertisements by to seeking out unique ways to capture audiences. You can do this by asking your influencers to promote their product through Instagram stories rather than traditional posts. According to Instagram, brands see a 75% completion rate of Instagram stories posted relating to their content, providing a more interactive experience for consumer rather than scrolling by a traditional advertisement. With its recent updates, these Instagram stores which were once only available to view for 24 hours can now be permanently saved on an influencers page (Fields, 2019). Other platforms might work well with you company (such as blogs and podcasts), but Instagram still remains the most popular.
To see some examples of some smaller brands using micro influencers on Instagram, check out these posts:
How to attract your influencers without financial compensation
The best way to attract influencers to promote a brand is to offer financial compensation. If you own a business that is trying to use multiple influencers, financial compensation can be unrealistic. Thankfully, there are a plethora influencer who will promote products for just recognition. These influencers are attracted to the idea that promoting a company will help advertise their own brand and increase their follower base. Offering influencers access unique information such as new products, sales, and offering discounts on products will attract loyal and personable micro and nano-influencers to your company (Dada 2017). This allows a mutual beneficial relationship where the popularity of the influencer grows along with your business.
Neli Zapryano is a great example of one of these micro influencers who is teaming up with smaller businesses to gain the benefits of influencing without getting payed. She is a relatively new blogger seeing successes as an influencer with her fashion blog Defined Fashion (Zapryano, 2019)
Click here to check it out
Negative aspects with Influencer marketing
Though influencer marketing is a great new trend for businesses to reach new consumers, it’s imperative that you vet influencers carefully before attaching your brand to these individuals. It is also important to note that not all businesses always see a massive result when using influencers as a marketing strategy. You must make sure to set a straight forward agreement with your influencers in order to avoid any unwanted association to your brand.
This blog was done as a part of a digital marketing assignment by a student.
References
Backaler, J. 2018, Digital Influence: Unleash the Power of Influencer Marketing to Accelerate Your Global Business, Springer.
Dada, G. (2017). ‘What Is Influencer Marketing and How Can Marketer Use It Effectively?’ Forbes. November 14, 2017. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2017/11/14/what-is-influencer-marketing-and-how-can-marketers-use-it-effectively/#64f2231e23d1 [Accessed: 3/3/19]
Dan, S. (2018). The 6 Best Social Media Campaigns That Created Trends in 2018. [Blog] TalkWalker. Available at: https://www.talkwalker.com/blog/best-social-media-campaigns [Accessed 3/1/19]
Fields, M. (2019). Top Social Media Platforms For Influencer Marketing [Blog] BrandChamp.io Available at: https://brandchamp.io/blog/top-social-platforms-influencer-marketing/ [Accessed 3/3/19]
Malambo, A. (2018). ‘How Small Businesses Can use Influencer Marketing in 2019’. Business Achievers. 14 December 2018. Available at: https://www.business-achievers.com/general/how-small-businesses-can-use-influencer-marketing [Accessed: 2/29/19]
Mediakix Team (2019). What Are Mid-Tier Influencers?, Mediakix. Available at: http://mediakix.com/2019/01/what-are-mid-tier-influencers/#gs.bXLRWo0n [Accessed 3/5/19]
Mejia, Z . (2018) ‘Kylie Jenner reportedly makes $1 million per paid Instagram post – here’s how much other top influencers get’. Make it CNBC. 31 July, 2018. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/31/kylie-jenner-makes-1-million-per-paid-instagram-post-hopper-hq-says.html [Accessed: 2/29/19]
Zapryano, N. (2019) Defined Fashion [Blog] Neli Zapryano Available at: http://nelizapryano.com/