In today’s world, where digital marketing has become an essential element in boosting your sales and brand presence, many people complain about seeing too many ads in a day. Around 66% of consumers said they are overwhelmed by too many online marketing messages, and as good as 20% of consumers have stopped using a brand because of excessive ads. A solution to make you’re your brand doesn’t fall prey to these “ad fatigue” is Influencer Marketing.
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So, is it the same as Word of Mouth Marketing? No, there is a real difference between Influencer marketing and WOM. Influencer marketing engages key individuals to leverage their influence among friends and family; WOM is an actual avenue by which this communication occurs. We can say that influencer marketing involves word of mouth marketing activities but not all WOM marketing is driven by influencer campaigns.
In the present context, an influencer is someone who has the power to influence the perception of others or gets them to do something different. As more and more people are shifting to social media platforms, people share their experiences with their circle of friends by uploading posts, pictures and videos. People also share and inform others about their purchasing decisions. Influencers can be Celebrities, customers, employees, thought Leaders or ordinary people but influencers have a wide reach and credibility that becomes a value proposition for companies to drive sales and increase site traffic.
Influencer marketing is a strategy that businesses use to promote and market their products by partnering with influencers. Brands select those influencers which can align with their core values and can authentically promote the brand products. Brands prefer to select and work with influencers whose followers match with the brand’s target audience.
Types of Influencers by Reach
| Type | Followers |
| Nano | <10K |
| Micro | 10K – 100K |
| Medium | 100K – 1M |
| Mega | 1M+ |
How does Influencer marketing work?
The prospect of marketing has changed significantly, and consumers regulate what they wish to see. If a brand wants to be a part of consumer conversations, it must play by the consumer’s rule.
Influencer marketing is a form of engagement where brands connect with the ones who have prominent social footprints. Authentic content creates trust. Consumers drift towards digital influencers because they value content created by them. Brands generate and leverage the strategic relations with these influencers and incorporate their messages into their content. It is an organic way to reach consumers through a trusted source. Of course, to make the most of this opportunity, brands have to allow influencers to stay true to themselves when working on sponsored content. This ensures the content looks authentic.
Getting Started
Before you start about anything concerning Influencer marketing, there a few things that help you set the stage. As a brand, you need to determine these three things: know your audience, set clear goals, and define the metrics for success measurement.
Once you determine these three essentials, its time to follow a step by step approach:
- Plan your influence marketing strategy
- Identify and select the most relevant influencers.
- Design your content collaboration and campaign workflow. Great content is the key to leveraging the most out of your collaboration. It should be compelling to the target audience, authentic to the influencer’s work, and deliver your brand’s objective.
- Your marketing doesn’t stop with the content being posted online. It’s essential to build a content strategy to extend the usefulness of your content. It is a good idea to use this influencer content in quotes and testimonials. The content can be shared in your brand’s newsletter.
- We use different methods and metrics to monitor and measure the effectiveness of these campaigns and use this data to optimise the influencer marketing efforts.
Influencers and Influencer marketing are here to stay. But the world of how influencer marketing looks and works have been changing; hence the brands need to be ready and updated for these changes. Apart from the unique considerations of working with influencers, it remains the same as most marketing campaigns. Researching, setting a budget, determining goals, findings your media(influencers), and lastly review and revise are always a part of this process.
Once you get a hold of it, you may start creating various types of influencer marketing campaigns. The success of these campaigns varies from brand to brand. It is essential to keep on reviewing and working on it, just like any other digital marketing campaign.
Example of Influencer Marketing
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