Our Comprehensive Guide to Influencer Marketing

An Introduction to Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a modern take on the celebrity endorsement. We all can remember how, not so long ago, advertising for luxury goods or cosmetics would include some famous backer. While that hasn’t gone away completely, nowadays brands like to use everyday people to market their products and services. Typically they have a significant following on social media and are seen as knowledgeable about their specialty. Here are some resources to help you get started on leveraging this new yet old type of marketing for your business!

The Top 20 Influencer Marketing Statistics You Need to Know in 2020

Did you know that brands are spending big on influencer marketing? They are, and that’s largely because of the huge successes that have been seen through this approach. In fact, most brands intend to increase their influencer marketing spend, with some brands like Estee Lauder planning to devote most of their marketing budget to it. Considering that influencer marketing generates 11x the ROI of banner ads, this isn’t surprising. It works well in multiple segments: Millennials, professional audiences and business buyers all respond well. However, you do need to watch out for fakes and frauds. Some people will buy followers and engagement, or will fail to follow legal guidelines. Don’t get your brand taken advantage of by unscrupulous actors.

(Influencer) Marketing in the Age of Influence: What You Need to Know to Succeed

This post is basically an explanation and overview of my new book, The Age of Influence. Essentially, I felt that after talking so much about LinkedIn and other networks, it was time to talk about the hottest emerging trend we call influencer marketing. My thesis is simple: all businesses should be doing some degree of influencer marketing, because it is an incredibly powerful tool with excellent ROI. Besides giving you an idea what’s inside my book, I give you some tips for formulating a good influencer marketing plan. Then, I give a few of the brief reviews I’ve received.

20 Influencer Marketing Trends to be Realized by 2020

My colleague Raymond Morin gives us some predictions for this year. Essentially, he sees a change in how influencer marketing campaigns are to be structured. Rather than just pitching stuff, influencers will likely use more video content to teach you about a product. Another trend that he sees is a shift to using employees as influencers more often. Data should become more central to influencer campaigns, including through targeting and performance metrics. Finally, the gig economy will have a profound impact because influencers will be seen as running a business.

The Different Types of Influencers That Exist

While most of us know what influencers are, you might not be aware that there’s more than one type of influencer. According to one classification system, influencers are ranked by the size of their following. However, another way to define influencer types is through their relationship to a company or brand. Let’s look at this a little more closely.

Deciphering the Five Levels in the Pyramid of Influence in Influencer Marketing

For an interesting approach to influencers, Raymond Morin developed a pyramid that corresponds with Maslow’s Needs. Essentially, the idea is that what most of us call influencers are the top of the pyramid: people who are thought leaders, guests or bloggers, and keynote speakers. These correspond with the goal of self-realization. However, beneath that there is a wide variety of influencer sources that match our more pressing needs. For instance, data security and personal branding answer our need for safety. At the same time, social media meets our need for community. In order to become a social media influencer, you have to climb the pyramid from the most basic needs to the most advanced. In that way, you can reach out to those who might want your help.

How to Make Millions with Macro Influencers

According to Natalie Weber, it’s possible to make millions of dollars by leveraging the power of macro influencers, who are also called celebrities. This is an advantageous strategy because you can reach a whole bunch of people fast. It also works because macro influencers have a reputation to protect, so if you’re trying to launch a new line it’ll lend you some credibility. Enhanced data points and influencer expertise are also advantages. However, not everything about working with macro influencers is good. For instance, they are expensive to work with and it takes a long time to get them to engage. Influencers at this level tend to be fussy, and there’s a significant risk to your reputation if they are involved in a scandal. It can also bite you if there ends up being something wrong with your product and people complain. Finally, engagement rates are low due to the influencer’s broad fan base. Be sure to consider if this is an issue for your brand before considering hiring a macro influencer.

The Rise of Niche and Micro Influencers

Here’s another discussion of small-audience influencers by Raymond Morin. Basically, these small influencers come in two types: niche influencers, and micro influencers. Niche influencers chase a certain market. They might have a larger following, but they’re all centered around specific interests. For instance, they might have an arts and crafts blog or enjoy luxury travel. Micro influencers have a few hundred to a couple thousand friends, family, and networking contacts. Morin’s point is to be careful which ones you choose. Some of them will create buzz around your product, but no brand loyalty and the demand goes away with the buzz. On the other hand, others are highly effective. You’ll also want to make sure that an influencer is someone that won’t ruin your brand image, for example, by getting involved in scandals.

How to Make – or Break – Your Brand with Micro Influencer Marketing

Micro influencers are the hottest trend in marketing right now, but that doesn’t mean they are always your best option. Natalie Weber is an expert on helping brands find and work with micro influencers, so she’s seen both the successes and the failures. First, how do you “make” your brand with them? By taking advantage of their high level of engagement with followers. Specifically, the good ones have high engagement and conversion rates, making you money. They’ll also offer lots of enthusiasm, accessibility, and a wonderful return on investment. On the other hand, you can “break” your brand with the wrong influencer. This happens when they are inexperienced and don’t have enough reach. In those situations, you can help them gain experience through helping them design and execute the campaign, which in turn expands their reach. However, if the problem persists, cut them loose.

Influencer Identification

It’s one thing to talk about the importance of influencers, and another to know where to find one. Worse, once you’ve found an influencer you’ll need to determine if they’re likely to be the type you need before contacting them.

The Struggle is Real: Finding Influencers That are Right for Your Brand

Before you set out trying to find the right influencer, it’s important to think about how many people you want to reach. Are your advertisements being ignored? This isn’t uncommon nowadays, and influencers help you cut through the noise. However, be careful because doing influencer marketing the wrong way can be disastrous for your brand.  So, when you find potential influencers in your field, the first step is to figure out how effective they are going to be. Too many influencers buy engagement or followers, leading to wasted money for marketers. On the other hand, AI-fueled analytics tools are helping marketers find the right fit. They will tell you what an influencer is interested in, their follower counts, engagement rates, and overall effectiveness. In addition, with AI you can get a view of their personalities and whether or not they’re likely to get involved in scandal. My best advice is to make use of these tools, because this is the best chance to have a successful campaign with the right influencer.

How to Easily Find and Connect with Influencers on Twitter

For Twitter-specific tips, check out this post by David Boutin. Before contacting anyone, your first step is to decide what kind of influencer you need. This includes the size of their influence, what they’re interested in, and more. Then, use the Twitter search function to find people that fit your target profile. Hang out in Twitter Chats with appropriate subjects, because influencers do this as well. Don’t forget to use non-Twitter influencer discovery tools. Once you’ve found the right person, it’s time to engage. You’ll want to follow their profiles, and then engage with their posts so you stand out. First, provide them value off of Twitter, and then suggest a collaboration. The key is to engage in reciprocity so that the relationship is mutually beneficial.

How to Engage with Influencers

Especially after they’ve become established, influencers have a lot of people contacting them about business opportunities. For that reason, you can’t just swoop in and get their attention. Relationships have to be “warmed up” first. These posts will give you some specifics on how to accomplish this.

12 Relationship Building Tactics That Get Influencers Attention

As Dave Schneider points out, the first trick to working with influencers is building a relationship. So, he gives twelve tactics to try. Some are standard, but others more unique. For instance, responding to a question from their audience isn’t the typical approach, but you’re establishing your knowledge of their area of expertise. Leaving reviews for their book or podcast is another unusual tactic that also works. Meeting them in person or endorsing them on LinkedIn gives something of value and builds a personal connection. Similarly to reviews, consider becoming one of their case studies or write a testimonial. These techniques help them with their marketing before you’ve even asked for help with yours.

How to Approach Micro Influencers to Create Content for Your Brand and Replace Your Content Studio

As influencer marketing becomes more mainstream, it’s becoming more expensive to do. However, influencers have a great advantage over some other forms of advertising: they can create their own content. Better, user generated content means that you don’t have to pay your staff to put in some studio time. In fact, this is an excellent option because it helps align content with the consumer mind and scales creation with the added bonus of superior quality content.

So, with that in mind, how do you approach influencers? I recommend that with micro influencers you try services like Trend. These are marketplaces where micro influencers look for work, and they have to pass a vetting process. They deal with a lot of the logistical details, so that you can spend time doing other things.

How To Invite Influencers To Guest Post On Your Blog

If you want to work with influencers in a different way, Dave Schneider suggests you try having them guest post on your blog. However, there’s a trick to getting people to agree to this. The hard part, as always, is finding the right people. Once you’ve done this, consider sending them a proposal or pitch for the project. Then, email your prospect and continue to follow up until the post has been written. In other words, sometimes all you need to do is ask.

How to Compensate Influencers

If you want to work with influencers, their services won’t be completely free. Some influencers work in exchange for free product or service, while others want cash. There’s also a group that wants both product and cash, as well. Here’s how to approach the compensation question.

A Practical Guide on How to Reward Influencers

If you’re talking about money, Natalie Weber has some things to consider when setting a price. For one thing, you need to consider the value of an influencer, which is determined by their analytics. You’ll also want to consider their talent level. Other considerations include exclusivity, experience, specifics of the campaign, and the type of influencer. Once you have a value, think about the various compensation options: cash up front, commission, free product, collabs or a product line, events, discounts, and exposure. If they do especially well, consider a “bonus” of some sort. Also, there are cash “going rates” for various types of content on different platforms, if you’re going the cash route.

How Marketers are Calculating Influencer Compensation Based on Performance

Besides upfront payments, there are ways to compensate influencers based on performance. In order to do this, you’ll need good analytics-and be trustworthy enough that influencers will take the job. Once you agree upon pay by performance, there are two basic ways to do it. First, there’s commissions, which is commonly used with affiliate marketers and similar. Some brands also pay per conversion, which is convenient when the main goal of the campaign is lead generation.

Influencer Marketing Industry Issues

It's safe to say that things aren’t always as easy as you’d like them to be. With the influencer marketing craze, there are regulatory, financial, and public relations considerations. These can cause problems with the influencer, the brand, or both.

Three Major Challenges of Influence Marketing for Companies

In a European study, marketers were asked what their challenges were in influencer marketing. The results are reported by Raymond Marin. Essentially, the challenges come in three types: influencer identification, developing lasting relationships with influencers, and evaluating the return on investment. This study was conducted in the UK, France, Belgium, and Spain. We’ve seen similar answers in the American market as well, showing us that the same problems seem to be concerns worldwide.

6 Influencer Marketing Challenges Facing Public Relations Departments

From a PR perspective, influencer marketing presents its own challenges. For instance, we have to build (and maintain) the public trust. You’ll also want to choose influencers who encourage brand loyalty and build long term relationships with them. Don’t leave upper management in the dark about your social media campaigns and get their approval for influencer initiatives. Finally, let your brand ambassadors (including employees) generate and distribute their own content.

How to Find Out If An Instagram Influencer Has Fake Followers or Not

While many influencers will have a small number of fake followers, if there are a lot of them you need to be careful. The best way to know if an Instagrammer has bought followers is to see if they have a bunch of bots. For instance, bots have profiles that don’t look “real,” or lack activity on the network. Check to see if the followers have their own engagement, and if their geographic location makes sense. Has their following grown in an organic pattern, or is there a huge spike? Automated tools are your best friend when trying to demonstrate an influencer has real followers and genuine engagement.

Fake News: The Hidden Face of Influence Marketing

Fake news may be something we talk about a lot these days, but it’s a problem for much more than the actual news industry. Rather, fake news impacts the influencer marketing industry through fake reviews and fake opinions. Basically, this means that influencers “recommend” something they don’t really believe in so they can cash in. With social media, this is a lot worse because people want to get attention. Of course, sometimes people get caught and pay the price. Always be careful what you read online.

Influencer Marketing Tools

If you’re going to do influencer marketing right, you’ll need some tools. From discovery help to success measurement, there’s always a way to improve the odds of getting the right results from your campaign.

The Definitive List of 64 Influencer Marketing Tools for 2020

This one’s a huge list, so I am just going to tell you the types of tools you can find here. In short, just about anything. For instance, I talk about how to work with those of us who blog. Of course, classic tools are listed too. I have a section on social listening tools, influencer finding tools, agencies, marketplaces, and much more. So, if you are wondering where to start, check this one out.

The Top 15 Influencer Marketplaces for Your Next Influencer Campaign

Speaking of marketplaces, there are 15 of them that are noteworthy. Each has its own flavor, and some specialize in a specific type of influencer. Some of them let you deal directly with the influencer, while others act as a go-between. Other differences include the hoops you or the influencer have to go through, their payment structures, and methods of matching people with brands.

How to Become an Influencer Yourself

Becoming an influencer is a great way to make money…if you can pull it off. Here are some ways of accomplishing that goal.

How To Become A Social Media Influencer and Make Money From It

After talking about what an influencer is, I give my step-by-step method for achieving influencer status. First, find your niche. Then, pick a social media channel and develop your content strategy. Distribute your content and grow your following. Making money can be done a few ways. Sponsorships are an easy one, and require you to produce high quality content for brands. Webinars are a good option, as are affiliate marketing, consulting, and several more.

New Data Helps You Measure Your Instagram Influence – and Hints at How to Become an Instagram Influencer

Knowing how influential you are on Instagram is important. But first, know your niche because the metrics required for effectiveness depend heavily on competition. Then, take the industry-specific benchmarks and use them to fuel your growth goals. To become influential quickly, choose a less competitive niche, create awesome content, and use analytics to boost your effectiveness and adjust as you go along.

Want to Become an Influencer? Start Blogging

If you want to become an influencer, Dave Schneider recommends blogging. It’s actually pretty easy. First, start that blog and produce quality content for it. Have a winning strategy to collect loyal followers who will read your content regularly. Consider collaborating with other bloggers, and then expand onto social media. Finally, scale up your content and blog when the analytics say that you’re ready to achieve more. Over time, you’ll increase followers and build a sphere of influence.

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