As 2020 is here, influencer marketing emerges as a billion-dollar industry. At the same time, it is now recognized as one of the best branding strategies for businesses of all sizes. Not only big brands but smaller ones are also embracing it as a part of their marketing mix. Marketing teams are willing to allocate a significant share of their budgets towards leveraging targeted influencers because they empower businesses in the real sense. Further, influencer marketing can actually boost the impact of other digital marketing strategies as well. Before delving deeper to discover the real power of targeted influencer marketing, let us understand how this approach works for brands in the first place.
Unlocking the influence of influencers
Contents
- 1 Unlocking the influence of influencers
- 2 How to make your influencer strategy more targeted?
- 3 Establish your target audience
- 4 Choose the right influencer
- 5 Focus on long-relationships
- 6 Micro-influencers add authenticity
- 7 Let the influencers drive your campaign
- 8 Think beyond Instagram
- 9 Related Posts
Compared to the traditional approach, influencer marketing is a relatively innovative strategy. Additionally, it emerges as a viable solution for brands that are willing to think out-of-the-box and come up with new ways for building the trust of their target market. Influencers are the people who specialize in a niche and are regarded as trustworthy authorities. Simply speaking, they have real power and their word is enough to sell a brand.
Additionally, they have an extensive reach in their niche and these followers are more than willing to make a purchase decision on the basis of their recommendations. In this way, influencer marketing comes forth as an opportunity for brands to leverage the potential of social proof. Influencers help you consolidate the social following of your brand almost overnight, simply by driving a large number of targeted customers (their followers) to your social media pages.
How to make your influencer strategy more targeted?
When it comes to creating a successful marketing strategy, anything that is targeted always helps. It lets you take a laser-focused approach and invest your resources only in the right places. Obviously, you can expect better results with lesser spending and within a smaller time span. You will want your influencer campaigns to be targeted so that you may get the best results with minimal efforts. Here are some tips that can help.
Establish your target audience
First things first, you need to start by establishing your target audience. After all, you need to know who you want to influence the campaign. Only when you know the market and the segment that really matters to you, will you be able to find the right person to connect with them. This can be more complex than you think because the target audience does not necessarily imply a niche market. They may differ for different campaigns. For example, you may want to reach out to a specific demographic with a campaign or target repeat customers rather than new ones with another one.
Choose the right influencer
The foundation of a successful campaign starts with choosing the right influencer to shoulder the responsibility of promoting your products and brand. Relevance matters the most because it opens the right connections for you and adds authenticity to your campaign. At the same time, the reach and audience size are also vital. Things greatly depend on your ability to find social media influencers who are apt for your program. You can prospect them by searching online or use a tool to find ones who can make a difference.
Focus on long-relationships
Sustenance in the current business landscape is all about fostering long-term relationships, whether it is with your customers or influencer partners. Don’t just create content for the sake of selling, rather make it more engagement-focused. Brand storytelling is a good idea and this is something that a reliable influencer can do for you. The longer your collaboration with an influencer is, the better they will know your audience and campaign. Also, lasting collaborations with influencers foster the loyalty of the audience as well. If a niche expert endorses your brand time and again, their followers would definitely love it and stick with it as well.
Micro-influencers add authenticity
Without any doubt, a perfect fit between your target audience and influencer is the key to a successful targeted influencer marketing campaign. However, thinking big in terms of reach may not always be the best approach. Rather, micro-influencers with a smaller and hyper-targeted audience may be the best people to leverage for your campaign’s success. The fact that the millennial generation prioritizes authenticity over celebrity-fronted content makes micro-influencers even more important in the current context. Moreover, a smaller following is a plus point for these influencers as they have stronger relationships with a small group rather than hardly any connection with a huge following.
Let the influencers drive your campaign
Collaboration with influencers has benefits beyond just connecting your brand with the right audience. In fact, you can use their experience and creativity to create the most amazing content that resonates with the target audience. Ensure that every piece of content, whether it is a blog, a social post, or video, that your influencer shares have genuine appeal. Trust them fully because they are the best people to create sharp content that has good chances of driving audience decisions. Invite them to be a part of live sessions so that their followers see a closer connection between them and your brand.
Think beyond Instagram
When it comes to building successful influencer campaigns, Instagram is a channel that deserves to be on the top. But this does not mean that you should ignore the other channels. Other platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube are fast emerging as the key differentiators. Utilizing them as a part of your campaign is surely a smart idea because they let you extend your reach. Further, the influencers on these channels may actually ask for lower prices as compared to the popular ones on Instagram. So your ROI will climb higher with such targeted campaigns.
Making your influencer campaign more targeted definitely boosts the chances of its success. For this reason, you should aspire to reassess your existing campaign and fine-tune it with a more targeted approach. Now is the time to get started with a targeted campaign and unlock an amazing opportunity for your brand!