When any business decides to take part in marketing, it is essential to follow specific marketing strategies by acknowledging the present market trends.

The marketing technique of social media influencer marketing has taken the global economy by storm. Such is the sheer power and dominance of social media in the current day and age.

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As of 2020, Influencer marketing has overtaken print format of marketing

If you can get an influencer who has a large audience to promote your brand, then your services will attract more attention.

Considering various marketing strategies, influencer marketing falls in one of the top categories. The benefits of influencer marketing are:

• Reaches more authentic audience
• Trust building for your brand
• Increase in site visitors (traffic)
• Increased social media followers
• More leads
• Increase in Sales

Brands consider influencers over celebrities because influencers tend to have a more genuine audience which they have earned gradually with time.

Popular influencers on social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc. have several million followers. This audience becomes fertile for the brand when exposed to these platforms.

Image source: https://influencermarketinghub.com/the-rise-of-influencer-marketing/

The basic step to make use of influencer marketing is by paying them for posting about your product or service on their pages. The aspect is known as sponsorship or promotions.

You don’t need influencers with millions of followers to do your promotion. Nano influencers have also generated favorable results for several brands with high ROI rates.

40% of people use ad-block options. This aspect has contributed to the immediate growth of social media influencer marketing.

Benefits of opting for influencer marketing

The best part of influencer marketing is that the company concerned doesn’t have to identify the target audience.

All you must do is present your brand in such a way that it adds value to the viewers. There are various benefits of influencer marketing which are as follows:

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1. Builds trust and reliability!

The most essential aspect of influencers is that they have a ready-made audience. It means the audience is under the supremacy of the concerned influencer.

People follow these influencers because they trust them, and they count on their opinions and recommendations.

When influencers promote a particular brand, the audience is more receptive.

The followers engage with the activity of the influencer and your brand gets included in this engagement.

It is possible that these visitors will get compelled by the influencers’ technique to allure them into buying the product.

2. Relevance and Focus

Influencers with a target audience whose niche coordinates with your brand will channel your message to a relevant audience. The main reason why influencer marketing can produce high ROI is because of its relevance.

For example, the target audience of a cosmetic brand will be interested in the aspect of makeup and cosmetics.

When you partner with a beauty blogger, the chances of you reaching the right audience increases. These people are more likely to be in your field of products.

When you reach such people with your product, the chances of them buying becomes higher as compared to the generic audience.

3. Influencer Marketing is not “Pushy”

Influencer marketing is more practical because they aren’t pushy. The content of an influencer is by choice of the viewer. They choose to see what the influencer is creating.

When a brand uses this platform to promote their product via an influencer, people don’t perceive it as pushy.

When you compare influencer marketing to an ad, it is much more effective.

According to research by IAB, two-thirds of purchasers are using ad blockers on their smartphones and computers. Hence, influencers authentically displaying your product are much more acceptable.

4. Cost-Effective

Influencer marketing need not be expensive. Unless you are looking for celebrities. However, with influencers, the target audience is concise and not generic.

So, choosing celebrities over influencers can be a wrong move because even though it will reach a large audience, the conversion rate is minimum.

Whereas, micro-influencers can give you more profit. Their followers might be lesser than celebrities, but they are relevant and more focused as well as engaging.

According to a study by WebFx, influencer’s charging goes from $250 to $750 depending on the engagement of the post.

They even work for free on occasions for an exchange of free services and products from your brand.

Image source: https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-2019-benchmark-report/

5. Drives Conversions

Brands make close to $7.65 from each dollar that they spend on influencer marketing. 81 percent of consumers purchase products that are shared on social media platforms.

This way you drive conversions along with quality leads.

One of the most popular ways to increase conversions is by consolidating a call-to-action on promotional posts. Various posts share discounts and codes online. This way, they add value to the clients.

Things to look at before hiring or partnering with Influencers

Hiring an influencer can bring a huge change in your marketing strategy. Doing it in the right manner is necessary.

Many things can go wrong if you don’t conduct thorough research. Hence, before hiring an influencer or partnering with one there are certain questions you must be able to answer

A. What do you hope to achieve?

Deciding on your goals is the first step before you go for a campaign or choose an influencer. Identify your company goals and formulate strategies to fulfill the said goals in the long run.

Your goals can be according to your organizations’ requirement or some of these given below:

• Brand awareness and growth in brand reach
• Increase in social media followers and more brand presence on these platforms
• Growth in sales and conversion rates
• Promotion of a new product
• Boast and make people aware of an upcoming event
• Drive traffic to your social media accounts and website

Your goals will guide you to pick the right influencer for your business. Different influencers are experts in different fields.

For building awareness around a new product launch, selecting an influencer who does giveaways and organizes various contests is imperative.

Once you establish your goals, the whole process becomes easier.

Image source: https://influencermarketinghub.com/the-rise-of-influencer-marketing/

Marketers spend close to $25,000-$50,000 on an average on every Social Median Influencer marketing campaign

B.What type of influencer do you want to work with?

Not every influencer is the same. Different types of influencers have different demands and requirements. Their engagement rate depends on the number of followers they have.

According to this number, you can bargain the price you have to pay for each sponsored post. The top 3 categories are as follows:

• Micro-Influencers:

Micro-Influencers are the ones with the lowest number of followers in this category. The number can fluctuate between 100 – 10,000 followers on a particular social media platform.

The engagement from their followers is high because every single follower is earned.

• Macro-Influencers:

Macro-influencers is an upgrade from micro-influencers. The follower count varies from 10,000 – 999,000. These influencers charge a substantial amount as they have a higher engagement rate.

• Mega-Influencers:

Mega influencers boast a following of over a million followers on any social media platform. Mega influencers are celebrities because of their popularity in the real world as well.

They are expensive because of their content has a wide reach and gets the most engagements.

C. What is your budget?

Each group of influencers has its pricing policy. Deciding how much your company can spend on these influencer campaigns is important.

Before partnering with an influencer, make sure to formulate a specific budget to avoid financing issues.

Try to get an influencer with a relevant audience as well as the one which will bring the most engagement to your brand. This will help you in transforming visitors into potential customers.

d.Who they have worked with in the past?

Learning about your influencers’ past projects is essential. What if they have worked for your competitor?

Well, to prevent that a quick check on all their sponsored posts will not harm. You will gain information about their background.

At the same time, it is a good prevention method to see if they haven’t partnered with anyone doing inadequate things in the past.

Sometimes an influencer’s audience changes so to make sure they are relevant to your product at present. Learn about all their sponsored posts and take notes on the ones which were the most successful.

Learn about what content was the most people favorite and shape your campaign accordingly to gain maximum success.

As of 2020, around 40% of active Twitter users purchased specific products depending upon the tweets.

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How can you increase your marketing ROI via influencers?

There are multiple ways to increase your marketing ROI via influencers. Influencers are different from celebrities. They interact with their audience every day and there is a form of a relationship they share with their audience.

Influencer marketing can be highly useful to generate ROI because the audience will listen to what the influencer is recommending. This audience can be converted into loyal customers with time.

Facebook is the most popular and productive platform for implementing Social Media Influencer marketing strategies

Image source: https://www.digitalauthority.me/resources/influencer-marketing-guide/

The top 3 strategies to generate ROI via influencers are as follows:

1. Let influencers review your products 

One of the most common strategies used by brands is by giving their products to the influencers. Then they are asked to review it on their channel.

Usually, the influencer is given the product for free in return for a review, but some macro-influencers impose certain charges.

There are many unboxing videos online which show an influencer receiving a product which is followed by a review session.

One thing which you need to keep in mind is that some influencers online have built their platforms for reviewing products (like tech influencers).

2. Let influencers conduct giveaways and contests!

When you collaborate with a social media influencer, you look for innovative strategies to promote your business. Giveaways and contests are some of the most liked ones by the consumers.

It engages the audience into participating in contests and enticing them with goodies and prices which are your products.

Gradually, the word spreads across and awareness is created which benefits both the influencer and the brand.

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For influencers, it brings them more followers and fans whereas your brand generates leads and there is a rise in sales. A well-executed contest or giveaway can be a win-win technique.

To have a successful giveaway you must plan the contest accordingly where the rewards are alluring, and people feel elevated to participate.

3. Create your social media base via influencers.

Having your own social media presence will give you a wider audience to target in different ways. Gaining loyal customers or followers on social media is not easy, for that your content must be top-notch. But via influencers, you can promote your page and gain followers.

More than 71% of marketers believe that Social Media Influencer partnership will help the business to grow.

Asking the influencer to plug the company social media page to avail of further updates is a productive strategy. This way you have more visitors on your page, and you gain followers from the relevant audience.

You can announce the winners on your page, this way the participants will have to follow you to know the results.

Conclusion

The traditional way of conducting business is no longer relevant. People are ready to make educated purchase decisions. Instead of spending your money on paid ads, start investing in influencer marketing.

Create a connection with influencers and bloggers to get exposed to a new audience. Organize a contest to increase your engagements.

Follow the trends online and create innovative videos and show off your product on different platforms.

Use social media as a bridge between you and your customers. Make wise decisions and see your business reaching milestones.