Social media and the Internet have changed everything, including marketing and advertising. Getting your product or brand in front of your customers’ eyes is more competitive than ever; thousands of brands are vying for the same screen time from the same audiences, making it difficult to get any significant attention. Commercials, billboards, and radio ads just don’t work the way they used to; these days, it’s all about influencer marketing.
For both businesses and influencers, influencer marketing opens up a new area to make successful partnerships and get ahead of the competition. In this article, we will tell you everything there is to know about influencer marketing: what it is, how it’s the best option today, and how you can get the most out of it, as a business or an aspiring influencer.
Influencer Marketing for Businesses
Why does your company need influencer marketing?
The younger generations don’t respond to the same ads that were most effective in the 20th century; TV commercials and billboards don’t draw as much attention as they once did. These days, millennials and Gen-Xers are focused on their smartphones, tablets, and laptops, spending several hours a day on social media. According to one survey from Collective Bias, 70% of millennials say that their buying decisions are regularly influenced by online influencers.
So what are influencers? Influencers are social media celebrities. These are usually young adults who have a large follower count on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. Comedians, models, and gamers are the most common types of influencers.
And while their celebrity status might be confined to the Internet alone, their influence is still a force to be reckoned. In some cases, their influence is more substantial than traditional celebrities, with 30% of consumers reporting to trust influencers more than celebrities with product decisions. This is because they feel they can relate with influencers more.
How should your company get started with influencer marketing?
1) Define Your Goals
Figure out what you are trying to achieve. This means you need to have an intimate understanding of your expected customer demographics, your ideal buyer persona, and how much you are willing to invest into an influencer marketing campaign.
It won’t be fair to the influencer if your expectations are to triple your product sales but you aren’t willing to invest enough time or money into the campaign.
2) Find the Right Influencers
While it’s possible to spend several days going through YouTube or Instagram searching for the most relevant and popular influencers in your industry, there’s no guarantee that you can find the best influencer for your product or service, or if that influencer is even accepting new partnerships.
You can skip the research part of the equation and go straight to an influencer marketing platform like NoxInfluencer.com. NoxInfluencer has several great features that make connecting with the right influencer a breeze. One of these features is the Ultimate Influencer Database, which has over 100,000 relevant social media influencers.
And sifting through these 100,000 influencers is easy with sophisticated search criteria, allowing you to key in on the perfect influencer in terms of demographic, interests, location, and keywords.
Another feature offered at NoxInfluencer is what they call the Customized Influencer Recommendation Engine. This engine allows you to input your preferences and instantly bring up the influencers that match with your needs best.
3) Collaboration Details
After you have chosen the influencer you want to connect with, it’s time to discuss the collaboration details. An influencer marketing campaign can be as simple as a few dollars for a shout-out on their next post, or a several thousand dollar campaign to create original content like music videos or games.
The type of campaign you would like to have is entirely up to you, and whatever your influencer agrees with. If this is your first time in the influencer marketing world, you might be tempted to keep it simple and pay for a cheap shout-out. But remember: you get out of it what you put in. The more you invest, the more successful your campaign.
4) Analysis
No influencer marketing platform is complete without a set of advanced tracking analysis tools. You wouldn’t want to spend money on a campaign with results that you can’t track. With NoxInfluencer, the platform offers several analysis tools. One of these tools is real-time results tracking, which tracks the performance of the sponsored or promoted content and measures its total impact on your audience.
Another reliable tool is customizable export reporting. After a certain amount of time, NoxInfluencer can confidently measure the ROI of your campaign. It helps you figure what works and what doesn’t work, and what needs to be adjusted with your next influencer marketing campaign.
Influencer Marketing for Influencers
How do you start your own influencer marketing business?
1) Start From Scratch: Figure Out What Works
If you already have a sizable audience on social media, than you already know all about producing content and building your follower count. But if you are starting from ground zero, then there are a few things you need to figure out. Firstly, you need to determine what kind of influencer you want to be and what kind of content you want to produce. Are you a comedian, a model, a gamer, or something else? What can you create that audiences want to watch while still being both unique and interesting?
Figure out what your audience wants to watch, and start perfecting the type of content you produce. This doesn’t always mean to start creating what’s most popular; it means to find something original and new about yourself and exploit it.
2) Regularly Publish High-Quality Content
Now that you have identified the type of content you can create, it’s time to start publishing this content. And this is where most people fail: they stop after their first few weeks or months publishing content, because they get discouraged when they do not see immediate results. The harsh truth is that it takes a long time of consistent high-quality content.
It is becoming more and more difficult to be a less popular creator on YouTube and other platforms, with less benefits coming your way. The best way to go about it is to treat it as something you love to do. Don’t begin with just money in mind from the start; make your content because you like to make it.
3) Engage and Build Relationships
Creating content is just half of the job of an influencer; the other half is building a community. This means engaging with those who want to connect with you. Become a person, not just a face behind a camera. Reply to comments, create a forum, respond to Tweets, go to social media-centered events; become a true influence in the community that you are a part of.
Other influencers will appreciate the role that you are trying to play and they might help you by giving you shout-outs or collaborating with you on projects. Being an influencer is all about influencing: you have to make a difference in your community.
4) Find Business Partnerships
After you have built a sizable following and you are an active and known presence in your community, it’s time to start using that influence for influencer marketing. Look for businesses that are relevant to your audience. Remember: choosing the right businesses is crucial; if you partner with businesses that aren’t related to the interests of your audience at all, you risk alienating a large portion of your audience and ruining the relationships you built.
So how can you find the perfect businesses to partner with? Try reliable influencer marketing platforms like NoxInfluencer. NoxInfluencer has several features that make it easy for influencers to find suitable businesses. One feature allows you to discover new brands to partner with by browsing through hundreds of brand, while discovering the latest brands every week.
On NoxInfluencer, you have the option to work directly with brands. This means you have complete control over your projects, choosing which brands to partner with and which to reject. NoxInfluencer makes it easy to keep track of all your sponsorships, content, and pricing. This platform protects influencers first and foremost, making sure that they never get sucked into bad deals that they don’t want to do. Payments are also quick and easy, sent directly to PayPal as soon as you have finished your terms of the agreement.
Influencer Marketing: Marketing of the Future
Influencer marketing is still in its infancy, and many brands have yet to tap into the great opportunities offered by influencers. If your business can start partnerships with the right influencer with your next campaign, you might see an audience boost unlike ever before.
