Influencer campaigns
Influencers are changing the way brands communicate with their audiences. Third-party endorsements have long played a key role in consumer marketing strategies but social media has evolved this significantly. Having several bloggers, YouTubers or heavyweight Instagrammers promoting your brand is likely to generate widespread awareness. Read more below to find out more about influencer marketing and how we can help.
Why work with influencers?
The primary goal of marketing activity is to influence an audience. What this influence looks like depends on the brand, the target audience and exactly what the brand wants that audience to do. Brands attempt to reach, engage with and, ultimately, influence their audience in numerous ways, just as they’ve done for decades.
The truth is that today’s general public is less easily influenced by traditional marketing efforts. Studies show that younger generations have developed a so-called ‘blindness’ to online advertising so brands must think innovatively about their marketing strategy. Influencers act in a similar way to brand ambassadors, whereby a trusted individual amongst a certain target audience directly or indirectly promotes a brand or product to that audience.
This is why social media influencing has become such a potent tool in online marketing in the last few years.
Influencer marketing agency
Influencer marketing should play an integral role in the promotional activity of certain brands, but knowing exactly where to start and how to structure an effective campaign is tricky. Influencer marketing can also be extremely costly so it is crucial that it is executed with a defined strategy.
JC Social Media works alongside a range of influencers to deliver clients a cohesive social campaign to generate positive return on investment. Influencer marketing has shown to be one of the most effective forms of digital marketing for certain brands and when backed up with a strong social presence and branding, the results are compounded.
Working with influencers to market your brand
Influencer marketing, utilising social channels such as Instagram and YouTube brings the power of ambassadors to far smaller companies as well as offering larger companies a new line of attack. However, coordinating one-off or ongoing influencer campaigns can be tricky and time-consuming, especially if you’ve not done it before. It’s certainly something you can try yourself, but we recommend reading this blog about influencers, first. Outsourcing the campaign management may be a the right option, especially if you’re looking for other aspects of your digital marketing looked after too.
Who are the influencers?
Influencers utilised by brands in their online campaigns tend to have large and loyal social media followings. Combined with a brand’s own social media influence, leveraging third-party influencers helps them reach new audiences and achieve a new level of brand trust and endorsement.
Some influencers have a significant number of followers on one or several social networks, or they may have a widely-read blog. Blogger outreach is perfect for less visually-engaging products or those that require more technical explanation.
So how does it work?
Essentially, brands pay for an endorsement from these influential accounts. The rate per post depends on how many followers the influencer has, how much engagement their posts receive and which sector they operate within. Exactly when and how an influencer will post depends on the brand and the aim of the campaign. This is where an influencer agency helps you generate maximum return.
What makes influencer marketing so effective?
For established brands looking to reach new audiences or (re)build trust; third-party endorsement is a crucial element of social advertising. For new brands, influencers help them reach tens of thousands of accounts they might take years to reach through their own endeavours.
The success of influencer marketing is generally measured through reach and engagement over the chosen network, say, Instagram. By keeping other marketing activity controlled, it is relatively straightforward to measure the sales impact.
Does size matter?
Your influencers don’t need to have millions of followers to be effective. In fact, the most important metric is engagement. Some influencers have only several thousand followers but enjoy super-high engagement rates and their audience may be incredibly niche and valuable.
Effective influencer campaigns tend to utilise a range of influencers with a complementary audience size and demographics.
If you’re considering a digital marketing campaign, let us know your requirements and we’ll create a winning plan.