Influencer marketing is one of the most buzzed about marketing practices right now (it pulls up over 11million Google results!). It seems that every company with a product to sell is interested in getting into the game – but what is it, and is it actually right for your product?
What Is An Influencer
First thing’s first – what the heck is an influencer?! Well – the easy answer is that they’re people with large social media followings. They may be celebrities (Oh hi, Kim Kardashian!), but there’s an entire subset of “celebrity” now that is basically people who’ve made careers out of promoting themselves on social media (Oh hey, Kylie Jenner!). Bloggers, YouTubers, Instagrammers, and Snapchatters are considered influencers. You’ll notice that one of the common threads here is that these platforms are highly visual. Other social media platforms, like Facebook and Tumblr, don’t tap into the influencer market quite as well. That’s because the content there isn’t as visual as, say, Instagram, which is literally just photos and videos.
How Do You Know If Influencer Marketing Is Right For You?
Getting your products into the hands of the “right” people can make or break your brand in a single Instagram post. However, that can be incredibly costly. It’s rumored that Kylie Jenner – a veritable queen of social media – charges $1million per sponsored Instagram post. Yeah. That’s an insane amount of money. Especially for a company that wants to reap the benefits of influencer marketing but also wants to – you know, not go bankrupt. In fact, shelling out that kind of cash to an influencer and making your product go viral overnight can backfire. There are brands that after a huge surge of seemingly overnight success (example: Issa, the brand that made Kate Middleton’s dress when she announced her engagement to Prince William) end up struggling because they can’t keep up with the influx of orders and demand. In the end, their companies end up in a bit of trouble – having to sell or shut down because the success was simply too much.
So, if you don’t have a $1million marketing budget but you do want to give influencer marketing a try, what to do you? All is not lost!
Micro-influencers
One of the most important aspects of influencer marketing isn’t just someone who has a huge following, but someone who has an engaged following. Someone with 100,000 followers with posts that are never getting likes or comments isn’t going to be able to command a high fee (or really any fee) for sponsored posts. Sure, they have a lot of followers but without the engagement there’s no guarantee anyone is even seeing their content or whether their audience will care about their product recommendations.
However, if there’s an influencer in your vertical or with a following that matches your target demographic that are always loving their content, they could be exactly what you’re looking for! Even if their follower count is relatively low, a high engagement rate means that their followers are interested in their content and will take their recommendations seriously. It’s unlikely that they’re going to charge thousands upon thousands of dollars for the post, and their engaged audience will absolutely see your product and be intrigued. These are the types of influencers you may want to target.
Interested in learning more about leveraging influencer marketing for your business? Contact us today!