Influencer marketing

Content

• What is influence marketing?
• Features of influence marketing
• Steps of influence marketing
• How to choose an influencer
• Collaboration formats
• Effectiveness analysis
• Platforms for collaboration

What is influence marketing?

Influence marketing is a strategy for promoting products and services through influential people and opinion leaders. These leaders include not only celebrities, such as actors, athletes, and musicians, but also experts in various fields, such as doctors or economists, who actively share their opinions on social media. They have an audience that trusts their recommendations.

On a global level, the most influential person is Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, who has over 500 million followers. This makes him attractive to many major brands seeking collaboration. Influencers are also popular bloggers who have achieved success solely through internet platforms. In Russia, the terms "influencer" and "opinion leader" are often used interchangeably, and in this article, we will adhere to this approach.

Features of influence marketing

The main principle of influence marketing is its unobtrusiveness and native quality. While direct sales can sometimes work, information about a product is much more often presented in the form of a recommendation, making it more acceptable to the audience. Thus, advertising focused on an influencer's opinion is perceived by followers much more positively than traditional advertising.

An important feature of influence marketing is the ability to reach a target audience that is already interested in the product. For example, brands producing fertilizers can achieve significant success by placing their ads in the accounts of bloggers who are passionate about gardening. Additionally, influence marketing allows for tracking audience reactions, which helps advertisers assess engagement through likes, comments, and reposts, as well as respond quickly to the needs of the target audience.

Steps of influence marketing

To ensure that influence marketing yields the desired results, it is important to develop a strategy and action plan in advance. The stages of this process can be represented in the following steps:

1. Define the goals, objectives, scale, and budget of the campaign. It is necessary to clearly determine what you want to achieve with influence marketing, whether it's increasing brand awareness, boosting sales, or enhancing engagement.
2. Find and select influencers. Influencers are categorized based on the number of followers:
   • Mega-influencers: over 1 million followers.
   • Macro-influencers: from 100 thousand to 1 million followers.
   • Micro-influencers: from 5 to 100 thousand followers.
   • Nano-influencers: up to 5 thousand followers.
3. Decide on the format of collaboration. This could be a one-time placement or a series of integrations with a blogger who will regularly mention your brand.
4. Develop and conduct an advertising campaign. It is important to consider the influencer's communication style so that the advertisement appears organic.
5. Analyze effectiveness and draw conclusions. Use metrics such as reach, engagement, and website clicks to assess the results of the campaign.

How to choose an influencer

The choice of an influencer depends on your budget and goals. If you need reach, it's better to collaborate with well-known personalities. If the budget is limited, consider nano- and micro-influencers, who have closer relationships with their audience. You can search for suitable bloggers manually through social networks, using hashtags and recommendation features.

It is also useful to utilize special services for analyzing bloggers, such as trendHERO and HypeAuditor. Before starting a collaboration, be sure to request the influencer's account statistics to ensure their activity and audience engagement.

Collaboration formats

There are several formats for collaborating with influencers:

• One-time placement: publication of a single post or story.
• Series of integrations: ongoing collaboration with a blogger who will share content about your product.
• Barter collaboration: providing a product in exchange for advertising.
• Payment for placement: the most common format, where bloggers receive money for advertising.
• CPA: the blogger receives a percentage of product sales.

Effectiveness analysis

After the advertising campaign is completed, it is important to analyze the results. You can use promo codes to track sales. Evaluate effectiveness based on metrics such as reach, engagement, and website clicks. This will help you understand whether you achieved your set goals.

Platforms for collaboration

Choosing a platform for placing advertisements is also important. Let's consider several popular platforms:

• TikTok: suitable for a young audience, with entertaining themes.
• Instagram: despite blocks, remains popular among youth.
• YouTube: ideal for detailed product demonstrations.
• Telegram: a wide variety of active channels available for placement.
• VKontakte: many thematic groups suitable for various businesses.

Each of these platforms has its unique audience and formats, so it is important to choose one that aligns with your goals and objectives.