Influencer marketing has become one of the ultimate digital marketing tools for brands and businesses. As the use of social media grows, the fundamental ways to monetize these platforms for success is detrimental to businesses.
Instagram has grown to become one of the most used social media platforms and continues with its success. From this, Instagram influencers have risen. Influencers are regular Instagram users that grow and maintain a large following, have a well-established credibility, and have a unique ability to influence their audience.
From a marketing perspective, influencers have the power to influence your audience into becoming potential customers.
In this blog you’ll learn:
- What is an Instagram influencer?
- Why are Instagram influencers important?
- The types of influencers
- The value of influencer marketing
- How to create an influencer marketing strategy
What Is An Instagram Influencer?
Instagram influencers is a user who has established a level of credibility, trust, and following with their audience. With the personal brand and niche that they are able to create, they can promote brands, services and products that are related to their lifestyle – one that resonates well with their following.
Influencers are able to become successful based on their authenticity in addition to the consistency of branding and messaging they are conveying to their audience. The ultimate goal of influencers is to monetize through brand sponsorships and partnerships. On the other side, the benefit for brands is to drive brand awareness, lead generation and conversion.
Why Are Instagram Influencers Important?
When dealing with the success of your business, finding new and creative ways to reach your audience digitally can be challenging in today’s fast paced and constantly changing social world. As a business owner or marketer, it’s important to note the statistics of each platform and work off your audience and their preferences.
Instagram has seen dramatic growth over the past years. As it becomes increasingly difficult for businesses to have their digital presence felt, brands continue struggling to navigate and connect in new ways with their target audience.
Influencer marketing is a technique which can help businesses achieve their goals. Influencers are a great way to build brand awareness and generate revenue quickly.
The Types of Influencers
There is more than simply one type of influencer. The different types range in following, expertise, and price when it comes to collaborating.
- Mega – These are those with an extremely large following. They typically have more than 1 million followers on at least one of their channels
- Macro – These influencers have a following range of somewhere between 100K and 1 million
- Micro – Their following ranges from 1K to 100K, however they gain a fairly large following
- Nano – They have a small number of followers – they have more than 1K followers on at least one platform
The Value of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing can be extremely effective for any brand or business that is looking to gain reach fast. Depending on the extent and the type of influencer marketing that you choose to create a partnership with, this technique of marketing can be quite cost-effective.
Not only is influencer marketing not perceived by consumers as advertising, it also guarantees a large reach to engaged audiences that trust the influencer. If that’s not enough, influencer marketing is growing at a faster rate than digital ads are.
While the value of influencer marketing can be high, you want to ensure that your business values and goals align with the selected influencer and their audience. Selecting this technique requires time and research like any other marketing resource.
How To Create An Influencer Marketing Strategy
When creating your strategy, it’s important to understand that this campaign, like any other campaign, requires research, time, and effort.
- Find influencers that align with your brand and your goals
When you select the platform in which you’re going to create this strategy, you want to ensure that it is one where you have a presence or you are looking to expand. Here you also want to look into the different types of influencers – your budget will be determined off of your selection.
- Set a budget and management strategy
As mentioned previously, your budget is dependent on the influencer type that you choose. You also want to factor in time for planning, execution and reviewing your plan. The more time you dedicate to your strategy, the better the outcome will be.
- Decide on your goals and messaging
When you’re specifying your goals and finetuning your messaging it’s important to remember that influencers have the ability to reach very specific audiences. This means that you want to make sure that the influencer you select has the target audience that you require to meet.
In regards to messaging, you want to ensure that you’re allowing the creativity of the influencer but not having them post something that is unrelated to your campaign.
- Review & refine
With any other campaign you’re going to want to continuously monitor and measure what is going on. However, unlike advertising campaigns that automate analytics, influencer marketing is done through careful monitoring and following up.
Influencer marketing is a great option to expand and gain traction quickly. By conducting efficient research, understanding the types of influencers, and how to structure your influencer marketing strategy, you will be able to run an efficient and effective campaign. RTOWN can help you further understand what influencer marketing can give you and how it can benefit your business. Contact us today and let’s set up a meeting to discuss your goals!