Influencer Marketing Guide

Influencer marketing has become a trendy phrase. But what stands behind it? Everybody knows who an influencer is – a popular person with thousands or even millions of followers on social media. To use this popularity to your advantage, you need to follow some rules and guidelines. As influencer marketing has become increasingly popular, every new business is willing to start their marketing actions by cooperating with social media stars. This is not necessarily the best course of action. Influencer marketing can be a little dangerous if it is not used wisely. In this article, we will cover the most common mistakes and highlight the best road to take.  

What problems might you face in terms of influencer marketing?

A lack of promotion or communication 

It is a killer for every kind of marketing. Clear and transparent communication is a must-have if you want influencer marketing to be effective. You need to stand up for your goals and let the influencer know what your expectations for the campaign are. Consider the following situation: a publication on an influencer’s social media accounts showed up, but it didn’t give your business the expected results. You still have to pay the influencer, even though you didn’t earn as much as expected from the campaign. Did it pay off then? Definitely not. The whole situation would not have arisen if you had previously agreed with the influencer that you will pay a different amount of money depending on the results.  

Wrong choice of influencers

The numbers speak for themselves: 60% of respondents have considered influencers’ content while shopping. But what you should do to choose the right influencer to have an impact on your customer? Check them profoundly and wisely. We live in an era of fake accounts and bought followers etc., so quality and values are more important than numbers in some cases. That’s why you should stop requiring a minimum of 15k followers when 5k real ones will generate better conversions than the 10k fakes out of the total. Choose an influencer by their complex statistics or check them out on your own via tools such as Social Blade, or Influencer Marketing Dashboard in NapoleonCat. 

It is also essential in terms of increasing brand awareness to remember who your target is and what kind of business you run. For a shop in a small town, choosing a “big influencer” who doesn’t even know that said town exists wouldn’t be the right solution. Don’t you think that consumers there would appreciate a more local influencer, who knows the city inside out? We are sure about it. 

How to choose the right influencer?

It may not be a piece of cake, but there are some rules and guidelines to follow. Working with influencers can be a real pain in the neck if you don’t choose them wisely. We have prepared a few steps to help you with influencer marketing campaigns.

• Start looking for an influencer in their natural habitat, which means on social media. Take a closer look at their feed. Check out what products they promoted lately (were they from your competitors?), does their feed involve many promotional posts, and do they promote similar values to yours (e.g. healthy lifestyles)? Social media influencers are often an open book; all you need to know about them is right there on their feed.
• Numbers are significant, check statistics – reach within your target group, engagement rates and the engagement loop (does the influencer encourage their followers to join in with further discussion?)
• The influencer has to reach the proper target audience, otherwise, it wouldn’t make any sense to collaborate with them. Don’t buy a pig in a poke, do some research before putting money on the table. 
• Location is such an essential factor. Delivery of your products takes time and money. The further an influencer lives away from you, the more money and time it may take to get things done. Moreover, for local businesses, local influencers can hit the bull’s eye.
• Draw your attention to language and the way the influencer communicates with their followers. Do they use harsh language and post controversial content? Are they able to bond with their audience? Look closer to the aesthetics of their account. It should be in sync with yours if you want them to also reach your target audience.
• One of the criterions for choosing an influencer should be publicity. Is personal branding important? Are their communities developed? Cast a glimpse over all of their social media accounts and their performance. If you find influencers who seem like the epitome of your brand, you will be onto a winner.

If you have answered all of the questions above, then you are ready to choose a successful influencer. To help them meet your needs, you can create some blurbs, note a “to-do list”, and share your ideas. Brands don’t always do this, and so not every influencer marketing campaign ends how they imagined. It can be very profitable to help the influencer with understanding your products and creating more engaging content.

How can RocketLink boost influencer marketing?

If you are wondering how RocketLink can help you to cooperate with influencers, well here we are. Thanks to RocketLink you can attach UTM tags to links that you share with influencers. These will be irreplaceable in terms of conversion tracking, and are useful for reporting, optimizing and analyzing your campaigns too. UTM tags are also handy when it comes to measuring the influence of a campaign. You will have a point of view on the whole situation. Additionally, once you use retargeting pixels while cooperating with an influencer, you will be able to target your ads precisely to people who clicked your links before. Link retargeting may come in handy, after finishing the influencer campaign.

Can influencer marketing be effective? Of course! Is it for every business? It certainly could be, if companies know how to do it properly. It takes some time to learn how to make a successful influencer marketing campaign. With our guidelines, you have some of the basics to get started.