Influencers. We see them consistently on our feeds. It’s not just the mega celebs with a bazillion followers. We’re looking at the nano, micro and macro-influencers that are important to align with your brand (that’s influencer jargon for those with followers between 500 – 1 million followers).
Credible in their specific industry or perhaps their style of content, influencers have an access to a wider online audience, which they have authentically built over time.
Think about this. If “word of mouth” has been the most classic and traditional form of marketing. I mean, it’s been around since cavemen, right? That guy hunted in that location to find food and told his friend to go hunt over there to feed his family.
Cut to 2022. With the average person spending two and half hours on social media on a daily basis, along with a whopping 80% of Australian active users on social media platforms, Influencer marketing is the modern-day digitalised version of “word of mouth”.
Replace cavemen sounds with the love heart button. Arrow button to share. Tag a friend in the comments.
This is now the form of communication through our social platforms, of how an audience, commonly share recommendations of products and experiences that are of interest, as well as sharing to our family and friends.
A Nielsen report stated that 92% of consumers are likely to purchase from a trusted source through word of mouth. Moreover, 92% of people trust strangers over brands when making a purchase, as 84% of consumers would be more inclined to make a purchase after reading a blog. And… enter stage right, our Influencers. Our modern-day word of mouth, creating consumer interest through daily dialogue.
There’s no denying there’s been a massive shift in digital marketing. Partnering with influencers have had proven success to increase social media following, engagement and brand awareness. Ultimately, leading to the goal of generating growth of online sales.
A 2019 survey study showed that on average, with every dollar a business would invest in marketing using an influencer strategy, the business would make $6.50 in revenue. Big turnaround, right? This is because, when a consumer aligns with the brand through a personality, they will gain more trust in the product or service. Consumers view brands with more credibility and reliability. Therefore, consumers would be more inclined to purchase a product recommended by someone (i.e., social media influencers). In addition, brand awareness among potential audiences or consumers assists in building stronger relationships, when coupled with well-thought-out marketing strategies.
Take Abbie Chatfield with her collaboration with Melbourne based intimacy toy brand Vush, Rozalia Russian with Billini Shoes, along with Bec Judd with Prene Bags as perfect examples. These brands have gained immense exposure with their influencer partnerships, and so did the influencers and their own personal brands and businesses.
Getting started with your influencer marketing strategy
You’ve probably been hearing a lot about influencer marketing as of late. It seems like an open secret in the world of digital marketing; we’re all aware of how valuable it is to work with influencers and leverage their networks. But what if you don’t know where to start? What should you do first?
#1 – Set a budget for your influencer marketing campaigns
Include within the budget the products that will be sent to your influencers for promotion. By setting out the numbers, you’ll be clear on how much you’ll spend for paid influencers, along with how many influencers you’ll work with for the duration of your campaign.
Launching a seasonal product? Or promoting a timeless product? Create a list of what this package will potentially look like, and what your influencers will receive in value.
A good thing to remember is to stylise your package. Make your branding memorable, and personable. Perhaps, give them an experience as soon as they receive it. First impressions always last.
#2 – Create a brief for your social media influencers
What will you expect your influencer to create and execute for their followers? What is the intended deadline for approval as well as the date of the expected published post online? Which social media platforms will they post to?
#3 – Choose your influencer
This is the fun part, where you can get creative. You can spend hours scrolling through the multitude of opportunities that await you. Although, don’t forget to do some market research beforehand so that you can save yourself precious time later on.
Who are they? What’s their following like? How engaged are their audiences? What’s the success rate of the marketing campaigns they’ve been involved in? Is there any visual consistency between their posts and branding?
You can always browse through the usual social channels to find your influencer. Although, if you prefer a little more guidance, there are some great tools online that can help you such as theright.fit.
Aligning with the right influencer for a successful marketing strategy
Your influencer will signify and reflect your brand. It’s not always about the number of followers that Influencer has. These are the questions you need to ask:
Do their natural tone of voice and the visual creative content which they produce align with your brand’s visual identity? Being a trusted word of mouth influencer throughout their social platforms as a brand ambassador potentially for your brand, do your values align? I’ll repeat: Do your values align?
Pick influencers that genuinely love and are enthusiastic about the product or service for which your business stands for. WHY? Because consumers can see right through this. Audiences can discern whether an influencer posts merely for enterprising reasons. Forced advertisements can appear quite aggressive to the regular consumer. So when you’re partnering with an influencer make sure they’re loved up with your product. Count on their target audience to vibe on authenticity.
Keep in mind the content style of your influencer’s previous projects. Is it blogging, vlogging, reels or photography and stills? The more variety of creative and diversified their social media campaigns are, the better value they’ll bring.
Not only will they generate awareness for your brand as they share content across their social channels, but using your influencer’s creative content throughout your own business’ social media channels and perhaps EDMs will benefit your digital marketing strategy as a whole. This means you’ll have more content to work with and can build a compilation of creative marketing assets for your brand to use. Think of it as a content bank to pull assets from which will save you time and work in the future.
Ready to start looking at influencers to partner with to elevate your business online? Check out some of our Influencers, that may be perfect for your brand. Is your business within a particular niche? Check out our suggestions!
Luxe beauty space
Meet Bonnie aka Oz Beauty Expert, Victoria Meek, and Tasha Ross.
Men’s Fashion or lifestyle tailored to a male demographic
Check out Josh Dean, Tom Simpson, or Mitch Wick.
Women’s fashion
Look out for Aicha’s fashion Instagram Reels and Tik Tok Videos, Katie for body diversity, or Jessie Li for luxe content.
Health, wellbeing and nutrition
Let Olympian James, naturopath Brooke, or Commando Steve tick your boxes.
Home DIY or interiors
Aimee Stanton is your leading lady, get inspired with Gathering Walls, or how about The Block winners Sarah & George?
Whatever industry your brand fits into, we’ve got you covered. Make sure to jump here to brief your first project and begin the process of working with your perfect influencer.
Content strategy agreement
After selecting one or a handful of influencers who align with your brand, communicate to your influencer how you envision your content to be executed. Be specific about the content they’ll create through different platforms. Each social media platform has its space and own identity on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram. Allow your influencer(s) to have some creative freedom too. After all, you have picked them specifically for their style of content and their personality. Ensure your expectations are clear, right from the get-go, and run through the brief with them.
All payments and contracts are secured through theright.fit, which means you and your talent agreements are protected.
Think long term
Rather than a once-off post from the influencer’s feed, partner with an influencer that you can see working potentially alongside the brand on a continued partnership.
Do your best to limit one-time influencer campaigns if you’re looking at executing successful marketing strategies. Work with the influencer to have consistent posts of the product. For example, will you want them to post consistently spread out over two weeks, over a month or even three months?
Depending on your brand, perhaps you’ll have annual or seasonal product launches. Consistency is key. Work with your influencer on campaigns that may arise from a long term partnership. The audience and consumer would want to see the influencer use the brand or product over time. In this case, your goal is to entrust and build the credibility of your brand through the consistent use by your influencer. So, certainly think, long term.
If you’ve reached this part, it certainly sounds like influencer marketing is the next step for your company’s marketing strategy. Find talent that’s right for your brand. From a range of exceptional content creators, theright.fit has a network of talent across Australia to get your brand out to a wider reach and a larger online audience.
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