Influencer Marketing and Its Importance
Influencer marketing predates social media. Anyone with the ability to influence public opinion could and was utilized to promote companies, political agendas, and other matters. The strategy is still practiced today in the form of influencer marketing strategies. While social media did not invent influencer marketing, it did pave the path for the emergence of thousands of new influencers and massively enhanced the reach of existing influencers. These individuals with enormous social followings have become one of the most key ways for us as customers to learn about new items, read reviews, and discover new ways to use them. Influencer marketing is a terrific approach for marketers to not only reach new audiences, but also to stay competitive in the ever-saturated internet world.
People Trust Influencers
When people choose to follow influencers on social media, it's because they like their personality, agree with their ideals, and/or respect their viewpoints. As marketers, we can take advantage of this existing trust by collaborating with influencers. Consumers are introduced to our products by people they trust through these collaborations. Of course, this strategy only works when your brand's personality and beliefs are in sync with the influencer's. Inconsistencies have the potential to alienate rather than entice consumers, so do your research and locate an influencer that is a good fit for your company.
Research Before Launching Your Strategy
Before you launch an influencer campaign, think about the objectives you want to achieve. Is it your website or your Amazon Brand Store that you wish to send traffic to? Is it your primary goal to raise brand awareness or to enhance sales? Influencers can help you achieve all of these objectives! When you're starting a new campaign, make sure your guidelines and standards are tailored to your objectives. If you want to boost traffic to your Amazon Brand Store, for example, ask influencers to include a link to it in their profile and to mention Amazon in their post. These minor adjustments may be made to suit any aim you may have, and they will make a significant difference in the success of your marketing efforts!
Is the influencer a good fit for your brand?
We've already discussed how crucial alignment is for engaging audiences, but it's also critical for maintaining your brand's integrity. It's critical that the content influencers post reflects your brand's identity. Consumers may be confused or turned off by an influencer who does not match your company's image, and your brand's reputation may suffer as a result. If you want to increase sales and visibility for your Amazon listings, look for influencers who have their own Amazon Storefronts. These Amazon pages, similar to Amazon Brand Stores, allow users to share specific products by linking directly to the listings. Influencers can organize their store through several parts based on categories, uses, seasonality, and so on. This makes it simple for customers to find and buy your products directly from the influencers.
Is the content of the influencer of exceptional quality?
When influencers promote your items, their work becomes a representation of your business. Only work with influencers who provide high-quality material to maintain your brand's image. This is a crucial component of planning your influencer strategy. How many likes, comments, shares, and other interactions do they get? Though it depends on your objectives, you'll want to collaborate with influencers who have high engagement rates in most circumstances. Influencers with thousands of followers but low interaction levels are not unusual. This shows that the influence has less influence; a large portion of their audience does not care enough about their material to engage with it. Although a huge audience means more visibility, it is the rate of engagement that is linked to high conversion rates. As a general guideline, a rate of 2% to 3% engagement is usual, and a rate of 4% to 6% is regarded good.
What social media channel does your target audience use?
For example, your target demographic might be most active on Facebook, YouTube, or LinkedIn. Instagram, on the other hand, is most likely the platform you should use to its greatest potential. In compared to other social networks, Instagram has a 3.21% engagement rate, whereas all other social networks have a 1.5% engagement rate. The higher the number of engagements on the platform, the more consumers are actually consuming the content being posted. Instagram is probably a good option for you, but do your homework and find out which site is most popular among your target demographic.
What does your marketing budget look like?
Prices fluctuate since there are so many various sorts of influencers who target different audiences. While some influencers with massive followings may price $5,000 for a single post, most influencers charge less than $250 per post on average. Your goals and budget will determine how many and what kind of influencers you recruit. If you have a limited budget, you'll want to work with nano and micro-influencers (1,000-10,000 followers) and include fewer deliverables. Hiring mid-tier or macro-influencers is a good option if you want to hire fewer influencers with larger audiences. These influencers have a bigger number of followers (50,000-500,000 for mid-tier and 500,000-1,000,000 for macro) and higher levels of engagement, helping your brand to gain more visibility. Working with major influencers gives you a lot of exposure, but they target a more homogeneous demographic than if you hired a lot of smaller influencers. If you don't have the funds to hire influencers, another option is to use product exchange influencers. This campaign is exactly what it sounds like: the brand delivers free product samples to influencers with tiny followings in exchange for a post. Despite their tiny size, these influencers frequently have a larger grassroots following. When you work with a group of product-exchange influencers, you can achieve significant results. Your plan should, once again, be guided by your objectives. It may take a few tries to come up with the best plan.
Tracking Your Influencer Marketing Strategy Success
Tracking attribution can be tricky with influencer marketing since it can take numerous encounters across multiple channels before a shopper converts. It is, however, critical that you be able to track the results of your campaign. You (and your boss) need to make sure you're getting the most out of your marketing budget. If you can’t, then you’re simply guessing. Fortunately, there are a few ways to manage influencer marketing attribution.
Using the Amazon Attribution Program
The Amazon Attribution program is one approach to measure the success of your influencer marketing. This Amazon Advertising platform gives marketers visibility into how their off-Amazon marketing methods, such as search, social, video, and email, affect purchasing activity and sales on Amazon. This tool allows you to track click-throughs, page views, conversions, purchases, and more per campaign, allowing you to correctly attribute success to each plan. You may establish a unique trackable link for each ASIN for each new campaign or plan, which you can then distribute to influencers.
Track Engagement Manually
It's critical to track interaction on both your own social channels and the social channels of your influencers in order to determine the success of your marketing activities. To determine the campaign's effectiveness, track engagement levels (likes, comments, shares, saves, impressions, and clicks) before and after the campaign.
If there were any changes:
When did it happen throughout the campaign?
Was it because of a particular influencer's post?
What was this influencer's role in bringing this about?
Have they reached out to a certain population that might be interested in your product?
Analyzing these figures will enable you to make better judgments in the future and assist you in selecting influencers who will be more effective in reaching your goals.