How to Boost Your Marketing ROI with the Help of Influencer Marketing.

LET’S START WITH A DEFINITION

What is Influencer Marketing, and How Does it Work?

Influencer marketing is a strategy that focuses on engaging and interacting with people who have influence and can sway the purchasing decision of their audience.

A person gains “influence” by establishing expertise in a particular area, either organically through their social media following or by working together with an established brand.

Influencers are paid to promote products or services on their social media channels, usually in exchange for money, though a third of brands offer influencers free products instead of money.

The company’s goal is to grab the attention of the segment of the influencer’s audience that overlaps with the brand’s ideal customer and get them to take a specific action. That could mean engaging with the content in some way such as clicking on a link, going to an influencer’s sponsored blog post, or heading over to the company’s product page. 

Brands can dramatically increase their campaign ROI by including influencers and sponsored content in their omnichannel marketing activations.

IS IT EFFECTIVE?

How Effective is Influencer Marketing? 

In 2022, influencer marketing outperforms other forms of marketing in terms of ROI.

According to Adweek’s  2018 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, the top three reasons marketers hire social media influencers are: to reach a new audience, increase brand awareness, and generate leads.

• Influencer marketing is very effective in generating new leads. According to a recent survey, 90 percent of marketers believe influencer marketing to be an effective marketing tactic.
• Also, influencer marketing works for driving traffic and sales to your website.
• Influencer marketing ROI is also higher than any other form of marketing because it is cost-effective and provides valuable exposure. For every $1 invested in influencer marketing, you’ll receive a return of roughly $5.78.
• Influencer campaigns drive brand awareness, helping consumers recall your brand and your campaigns. Influencers command loyal followings that are actively engaging with their content. They also act as brand advocates, often sharing how they use your product or service in their everyday lives. 
• If done well, influencer marketing can help create a positive perception of your brand among potential customers and drive more qualified leads to your website through the shared links.

GETTING BETTER RESULTS WITH INFLUENCER MARKETING

Ways Boost Your ROI with Influencer Marketing

There are many ways to keep your ROI growing after you start implementing influencer marketing into your campaigns. Many companies have found success using one or more of the following ways to amplify their results.  

1. Choose the right influencers.

When selecting influencers to work with, make sure to choose those whose audiences are engaged. 

Influencer marketing works best when partnering with influencers whose followers have a high probability of being interested in the products and services that you’re offering. 

To reach many people, choosing to work with an influencer can help solidify your brand awareness among a new audience in a cost-effective way. 

If done well, working with the right influencers will help bring your campaign to the next level and can even boost your influencer marketing ROI.

2. Establish clear goals and objectives for your campaign.

Your marketing goals matter. Having a specific goal in mind will help you measure your campaign’s success and determine whether or not it was successful. A marketing campaign with a clear objective allows you to better plan out your influencer marketing strategy and allocate resources.

For example, your goal could be getting more website traffic or driving sales. Once you have determined this goal, you can then determine the influencers that will help you best achieve this goal and how much you’re willing to spend on your campaign.

3. Develop a paid influencer marketing campaign strategy.

Organic reach is at an all-time low, and while influencers are particularly good at generating engagement and outwitting social media algorithms, in order to reach your campaign KPIs, your team will probably need to deploy paid influencer marketing tactics alongside your organic campaign.

The good news is that whitelisting your influencer marketing campaign doesn’t require a whole lot of additional money. Most agencies will have your whitelisting budget built into your existing campaign budget. 

4. Give influencers a map for creating the best content

Influencers are expert storytellers. So, working with your marketing team to craft the right story with the right message and tone will be critical. Our team typically creates a strategy deck and influencers create content around the brand-approved concepts we present in the deck. 

If you’re wondering how to unify and tie together the creative assets influencers produce for influencer campaigns, creative concepts is a great way to do it.

5. Measure your success.

Your influencer marketing campaign won’t be sustainable if you aren’t measuring its success to determine whether or not it’s working, and what might need changing. We have influencer marketing case studies of pivots we’ve had to make during live campaigns to ensure we reach and exceed the guaranteed metrics for campaigns.

Which metrics should you track? Depends on the goals of your campaign. For instance, to check on the effectiveness of a brand awareness campaign, you’d track things like reach/impressions, likes, comments, brand mentions, saves, shares, follows, profile visits. 

So, be sure to keep track of the right metrics so you know if your campaign is moving in the right direction. 

6. Continue the conversation with influencers.

One of the influencer marketing trends we pointed to in our recent post on what’s hot in our space was that brands would seek to build long-term partnerships with influencers, beyond just a single campaign activation. 

That’s a smart move, actually. Once your campaign has ended, you want to continue engaging with your influencer partners and sharing their content, especially the ones you intend to partner with for future campaigns. 

Continuing the conversation with influencers and going after long-term partnerships will help your brand in a couple of ways. One, you’ll get the chance to stay top-of-mind with an influencer’s audience. Second, the collaborative synergy between the creator and your marketing team will improve. Also,  you’ll be able to launch future activations faster because the influencer will have a better idea of what you expect and you’ll know what to expect from the influencer.

Marketing is a continuous process that happens across different channels. Find ways to simplify the process of partnering with a creator by building a good relationship with people who have worked on your previous campaigns. Speaking of…

7. Create an ambassador program.

An ambassador program is great for reaching a larger audience while also providing your customers with an incentive to talk about your brand. By creating a program that provides rewards, you can incentivize people to recommend your products and or services.

You can also opt to increase your influencer marketing budget and work with micro-influencers. This will entail working with influencers who have a smaller number of followers, but this may yield stronger engagement and more targeted traffic.

8. Integrate influencer marketing with other marketing strategies.

Influencer marketing doesn’t operate in a vacuum! Your influencer marketing efforts should be part of a larger digital marketing strategy. So, don’t think of your influencer activations as their own thing. They should be part of a bigger thing. Integrate influencer partners into existing campaigns and maximize their exposure by taking advantage of any current promotions or discounts that you may be running.

For example, many product marketers find great success by taking advantage of a more traditional strategy – affiliate marketing – to market their products. 

If you have an affiliate program set up, you can allow your influencers to sign up and start promoting your product right away. This is effective for lead generation and for increasing positive word-of-mouth referrals from happy customers.

LET’S TALK ABOUT THE BENEFITS

Here are the Legit Benefits of Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing encompasses all forms of online word-of-mouth recommendations. The most effective influencer marketing campaigns are built around relationships between content creators and their audiences.

• Influencer marketing can be used to drive traffic to your website or social media channels, increase brand awareness and create more conversions.
• Encouraging influencers to share your content will help you boost site traffic, get more attention on social media, and entice prospects into purchasing products or services.
• Influencer marketing is also great for making your content seem more popular and for getting people to engage with your content.
• If you’re working on a tight budget, influencer marketing could be the perfect way for you to get great results without spending a fortune.
• It enables marketers to get access to influential brand advocates who have their own following loyal to them. This marketing method is effective in building a reputable and authentic brand reputation and earns the trust of consumers.