Niklas Hartmann has held the position of managing director at ReachOn for more than 8 years. The influencer marketing expert is responsible for the influencer and Instagram marketing department. He wrote the book “How to Become a Successful Influencer” which was released by mitp publishing house.
Trust in companies, ads and brands hit rock bottom a few years ago. According to Edelman’s trust barometer, people’s confidence in firms and their projects had dropped for ten years in a row. This is one of the reasons why many decision-makers invest in influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing allows brands to personify their content.
Let’s be honest here. One crucial truth is:
People trust other people. You have better chances to sell your product to a friend than to a stranger online. The same concept applies to influencer marketing.
High-quality influencers have forged a close bond with their followers over a long time. They enjoy the immense trust of their subscribers.
As a consequence, followers purchase products and services on influencers’ recommendations.
Influencer marketing in its current, sophisticated form feels like a new marketing method. However, in the 1940s political communication scientists developed a concept, called the “Multistep Flow Model.” It stated that a majority of individuals are influenced by leaders and other individuals.
Thus, the precursor for influencer marketing was laid much earlier. Nevertheless, social media and the corresponding influencer marketing are much younger disciplines.
Influencer marketing is worth it. According to Techjury.net, the average return on investment for every dollar spent on influencer marketing is $6.50. This is an incredible value.
Before companies can start profiting from this marketing method, they must comprehend the different steps of an influencer marketing campaign. These five actions are:
Develop a strategy
Find appropriate influencers according to your campaign goals
Pitch to influencers
Negotiate as if your life depends on it
Analyze your campaign
Influencer Marketing Strategy: A Key to Your Success
Why is a goal-oriented strategy so crucial for influencer marketing success? Well, you need to realize which goal you want to focus on. Otherwise, you cannot achieve anything at all. Do you intend to utilize influencer marketing for:
sales increases
name recognition
engagement
or reach?
Each of these goals has ramifications on the subsequent steps. For instance, if you focus on sales increases, you will concentrate on the most popular social media platforms such as Instagram or TikTok.
If you want to reach journalists, Twitter might be a good choice. In addition to your influencer marketing aims, your audience is crucial as well.
Therefore, ask yourself the following questions:
Who are your current customers according to your purchase history?
Do you have different audiences or one single group interested in your product/service?
What is the average age/location/gender of your demographic?
Do you intend to tap into new target groups on social media?
Find high-quality influencers
Influencers with high engagement rates are difficult to find. Extensive research is necessary to achieve your aims.
Opportunities for action are using hashtags, clicking on a similar profile button, a quick search on Google or Bing as well as asking business partners for contacts.
The easiest way of finding influencers is by letting social networks display similar profiles. For example, you can click on the blue button with a downwards arrow on Instagram. As soon as you have done this, Instagram will display similar profiles.
In addition, influencer agencies can aid you in finding worthwhile influencers.
Pitch to influencers
Influencers get dozens of emails daily. If you want to distinguish yourself from the crowd, you need to stand out with a personable approach.
You should catch the influencer’s interest by:
using their name in the subject line or creating an otherwise interesting subject
paying them a compliment or two in the email 😉
displaying that you have engaged with their content
finishing the email with a call to action
It is recommendable to include such a text in the email’s body:
I especially liked your post from 5 days ago. Your picture in front of the Eiffel tower is outstanding.
Moreover, I would personally include calls to action in bold letters. Let’s say you want to collaborate on a story. Then you could end the email with:
Is a story collaboration interesting for you?
This particular procedure allows you to focus your reader’s attention on the action you want them to take. In this case, it is a story collaboration.
Influencer Negotiation 101
Without a well-thought-out negotiation strategy, you will pay higher prices, achieve fewer results and become completely dependent on some of your highest-achieving influencer contacts.
This is a horror scenario for every company. Therefore, you need to regularly approach new influencers to decrease your reliance on them.
In addition, you can negotiate better prices and take higher risks in a negotiation. Why? You have many influencer options to choose from.
Additional tips are:
Realize long-term cooperations with successful influencers. They will offer you better prices.
Propose a lower compensation, if possible. Most people are open to negotiations.
Propose the first pricing offer. Scientists have shown that the first open influences the whole negotiation process.
Campaign Analysis
To improve subsequent influencer collaborations, it is crucial to draw conclusions from previous campaigns. Hence, it is recommendable to note down what improvements or flaws you have noticed.
These questions could help you in this endeavor:
How many results/sales/registrations have happened during the campaign? Is this more or less than previous collaborations?
What thoughts come into mind when you think about improving future campaigns?
Did the influencer’s audience fit your customer base? Have you achieved your planned campaign results?
In Conclusion: Influencer Marketing at a Glance
Influencer marketing enables persons in charge to grow their sales, augment their brand awareness and realize other marketing aims as well. With our step-by-step guide, you can definitely improve your chances of success.
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