The majority of marketers (over 90 percent, in fact) have worked with social media influencers in the past to expand their reach and grow their brands.
Have you been thinking about utilizing influencer marketing? Are you unsure of how to incorporate influencers into your overall digital marketing approach?
If so, keep reading. Listed below are some top influencer social media agency strategies that are highly effective.
Why Use Influencer Marketing?
Some marketers are eager to use influencer marketing but aren’t sure how. Others are still on the fence about whether or not this particular social media marketing strategy is worthwhile.
If you fall into the latter camp, here are some benefits of influencer marketing that might change your mind:
Increased Engagement
Influencer marketing is a great way to get your products or services in front of a larger audience. When you work with someone who has already earned the trust of their following, people are going to be more inclined to look up your brand and check out what you’re selling.
Research shows that influencers can generate higher rates of user engagement than content that a brand publishes itself. The average engagement rate when working with influencers is 5.7 percent. In contrast, the average engagement rate for branded content is just 2.3 percent.
Increased Conversions
Not only does influencer marketing lead to higher engagement rates, but it also leads to increased conversions.
When they start partnering with influencers, many brands notice an uptick in their sales and improvements to their bottom line. If you’re looking to make your brand more profitable (and what business owner isn’t?), influencer marketing is a great option to consider.
Great ROI
Just how effective is influencer marketing? Most businesses see significant returns on their investments from partnering with influencers.
According to one report, businesses earned an average of $5.20 for every $1.00 spent on influencer marketing. Another report showed that the ROI could be as high as $18.00 for every $1.00 spent.
With numbers like that in mind, why wouldn’t you want to start making influencer marketing part of your digital marketing plan?
Influencer Social Media Agency Strategies
Okay, you’re convinced that influencer marketing is worth investigating. Where to do you begin, though?
Here are some of the most effective strategies that social media agencies like ours swear by:
Set Clear Goals
Start by figuring out what you want to accomplish with your influencer marketing campaigns. Is your goal to build brand awareness? Expand your audience to include an older or younger demographic?
Setting goals first will help to guide your decisions moving forward. For example, let’s say you want to appeal to a younger audience. If this is the case, you’ll want to make sure you’re partnering with an influencer whose audience is made up primarily of younger people.
Identify Your Message
Next, think about the kind of message that you want influencers to deliver about your brand. It’s not enough just to pay someone with a lot of followers to say whatever they want about your products or services.
Think about how you want them to talk about your brand and identify any key points that you want them to be sure to include when talking about it (e.g., you only use sustainable materials in your packaging, your product is 100 percent organic, etc.).
Consider Different Types of Influencer Marketing Campaigns
There are lots of different ways that influencers can showcase your products or services and present them to their followers. The following are some of the most popular types of influencer marketing campaigns you might want to consider using:
- Gifting: Giving away free products or services to an influencer so they can review or mention them
- Guest Posting: Contributing to an influencer’s blog
- Sponsored Content: Paying to have your brand featured on an influencer’s blog or social media platform
- Contests and Giveaways: Asking an influencer to share your contest or giveaway event with their followers
- Takeovers: Allowing an influencer to have control of your social media accounts for a pre-determined amount of time (usually no more than 24 hours)
- Affiliates: Providing influencers with a code that gives them a percentage of the sales they help to drive
Partner with Micro-Influencers
When they’re first getting started in the influencer marketing world, a lot of brands make the mistake of only going after partnerships with influencers who have hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of followers.
It’s important to note that partnerships with micro-influencers, people who have smaller followings (10,000 to 100,000 followers), can often be more effective.
Micro-influencers might have a smaller reach, but they also have more targeted and loyal audiences. Their audiences also tend to have higher levels of engagement. As a result, they’re more likely to check out the brands their favorite influencers are promoting.
Working with micro-influencers is usually more cost-effective than partnering with folks who have massive followings, too. If your brand is working with a limited budget, this can be a better option to consider.
Work with a Social Media Agency
Finally, don’t underestimate the value of working with a social media agency.
When you partner with an agency, they can handle various parts of the influencer marketing process for you. This includes finding influencers who are a good fit for your brand and who are interested in building a genuine relationship with you (rather than having a purely transactional interaction).
A social media agency can also help you to decide which types of marketing campaigns will be most effective. They can then measure the results of these campaigns to better inform your decisions in the future.
Start Using Influencer Marketing Today
As you can see, there are lots of influencer social media strategies that you can start using to build your brand and increase your reach.
If you’re daunted by the idea of implementing these strategies on your own, don’t forget that working with a social media agency can help. At Socialistics, we do all of the hard work for you so you can focus on other aspects of your business.
Contact us today to learn more about our influencer marketing techniques or to set up an appointment for a consultation.
