Brands trust influencer marketing because it works. According to the State of Influencer Marketing Report 2021, influencer marketing is worth $13.8 billion this year. Although it can be tricky to make sure you are generating the right kind of buzz around your brand. For brands and influencers, creating influence over the masses is not as easy as it sounds.
The right kind of influencer marketing comes with the right strategy. You cannot be raving about the new Spectrum Gold package if your audience is a bunch of high schoolers.
They simply do not care about that and they can directly communicate through Spectrum phone number and can get all the details. Therefore, knowing your audience and setting the right goals is vital for your campaign to be successful.
Here is the Holy Grail for making the right influencer marketing strategy:
#1: Understand Your Audience
Your audience is your biggest resource. Hence, knowing and understanding how your audience receives your content is very important. Therefore, a very keen eye on your insights can be vital. Make sure that you know what kind of people follow you. Your followers’ interests, age, gender, sexual orientation, and location are what will define your content.
For instance, if your audience comprises mainly of young adults, then posting about property investments might not resonate with them. You have to keep an eye on what works and what doesn’t. If you keep posting stuff your audience is not interested in, you will lose them.
Also Read: 4 Easy Steps to Reap the Benefits of Instagram Marketing
#2: Choose Your Fighter Carefully
It might not be Tekken, but you still have a choice to make. You do not have to make your presence known all over the internet. Well, not at first. If you are starting, pick a social media outlet that you work best with. The kind of audience you want to attract may influence your choice. Let’s say that you want to focus on new mommies. If you find that most of them don’t use Twitter, you don’t have to be on Twitter.
Sticking to one or two social accounts will help you focus more and build a better audience. Quality over quantity, always.
#3: Pick a Niche
Most influencers understand this very late in the game, but you cannot be an expert at everything. While trying to fit into multiple niches may increase your chance of paid gigs, it won’t be effective. Being an influencer is more about just nailing paid campaigns. If your audience stops relating to you, it is over.
Picking one niche means you can truly own it. You can choose something you are good at or have first-hand experience with. For example, if you are a gym freak, post about fitness brands. In this way, you know what you are talking about, and your audience will see it.
#4: Work on Engagement
Engagement on posts is the currency influencers deal in. The more engaging your posts are, the better it is for you. If you have five hundred thousand followers and only get a few thousand likes on your latest post, there is something wrong. Either you are not targeting your audience correctly, or you are not posting engaging content.
Pictures, videos, and stories help a lot with engagement. You can keep your audience engaged with live transmissions or Q&A sessions. Sharing something unrelated to marketing a product can also help. It adds a humanizing factor to your blog, and people will relate more to it.
#5: Pick Brands with Same Values as Yours
Influencer marketing is all about your image on social media. You need to make sure that the brands you are working with have the same values as you. If you preach something online and then do the total opposite of it, you will lose credibility.
For example, the famous skincare influencer Cassandra Bankson religiously preaches vegan and cruelty-free products. She only talks about and recommends products and lines that follow this. If one day she promotes a brand that is not cruelty-free, it will end up hurting both her and the brand’s image.
Also Read: Strategic Thinking and Decision-Making – The Skills for Tomorrow
#6: Reach Out to Other Influencers
A well-connected influencer community understands their competition in a friendly manner and also network themselves. Therefore, you should start connecting with the influencers that work in your niche.
After a while, planning a collaboration with other influencers can help all parties involved. Being in the same niche means you have the same kind of audience. Hence, the partnership will work for both audiences and have a better reach.
Expand your horizons and think more about just the number of followers. Put your heart and soul into your work, and don’t be shy to try new things. In the end, if you build your brand the right way, followers will come on their own.
