The Ins and Outs of Influencer Marketing

If you are running a business, keeping your brand’s name relevant in the social media universe can be a bit of a challenge. Further, knowing what trends are working across digital platforms can be an even greater challenge. This is when influencers can come in.

So, what exactly is influencer marketing? Influencers are opinion leaders that companies plant into digital platforms, such as Instagram or Facebook, to reach an audience that they would not usually. Influencer marketing has become a cost effective way for brands to send a message to their target audience. 

With influencer marketing yielding an ROI 11X that of online display ads, more and more companies are adopting this strategy. As a business owner, it is necessary to know how to track your ROI and how to identify the exact type of influence your brand needs. 

Finding the Right Influencer to Align with Your Brand

Finding an influencer that aligns with your brand and target audience can be difficult, but it is always best to follow the 4R’s approach: 

• Relevance

  • Relevance encompasses both the pivotal influencer, his or her following, and how this target audience links with the brand and message. Influencer marketing is entirely more effective if the individual has some level of expertise in the product or brand they are marketing. For example, Christian Ronaldo can clearly excel in promoting soccer cleats. 

• Reach

  • Reach refers to the specific percentage of the target audience that will interact with the marketing message at least once. An influencer should generate exciting content to their target audience which causes them to share with others, thus generating a greater reach. 

• Response

  • The measure of response depends on the goals of the campaign. For example, if the goal is exposure or awareness; the response is assessed by measuring the interactions or engagement on the campaign content. Those actions likely indicate a higher response rate because the brand and its message have been identified. 

• Return

  • To determine which influencer to collaborate with, a brand or company must not only take into account its core goals and target market, but also projected ROI. 

Tactics for Measuring Influencer ROI 

Here are a few best practices when it comes to measuring your influencer campaign’s return:

• Measure Channel Performance 

  • An easy way to measure ROI through an influencer is tracking the sale back to that particular person. If that is possible, then it is a measurable return. Utilizing landing pages or promo codes is an excellent way to do this. 

• Determine Your Desired Outcomes

  • Determining your desired outcomes is a good way to set goals for you and your influencer: are you more interested in brand awareness or direct sales? Once your goals are set, go after influencers that have goals which align with yours. 

• Read Comments 

  • There is no better way to track ROI than to to track direct conversations from your consumers. These conversations happen between influencers and the consumers in their target audience and play a direct role in the image of your brand.

• Track Everything 

  • Track everything that contributes to the sale. This includes retweets, comments, likes, etc. Any links, in addition to promo codes or direct links from your influencers, are valuable in also tracking your SEO. 

Influencer marketing is a new and ever-changing space. As a brand starting out: define your goals, choose creators who align with your values, and track key metrics to calculate your return.