According to Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia, influencer marketing especially on Instagram is the second most underpriced marketing tool at the moment (the first being Facebook Ads).
This post is written to provide you 4 key things you need to know about influencer marketing.
1. Not how many followers, but how loyal their followers are
Engagements is the name of the game. Don’t be fooled when you find an influencer with 50k followers on Instagram. The metric you should look at is their follower to like ratio.
If it is 100:3, it has a decent engagement rate. The higher the better.
Also look out for how many comments are left per post and notice if the influencer replies to the comments.
You would always want an ambassador that is community driven.
2. Don’t put all your money on just one influencer
If you have the marketing budget, spend on more than one influencer to stage the network effect.
The rationale is simple. If you see just one celebrity using a product, it might be just that one celebrity who likes it. If you start noticing 3 celebrities using the same product, you would start to gain interest. If you notice 10, you would be more compelled to join the bandwagon.
It’s better to start a movement than to do just a shoutout.
Also, be sure to do the campaign within a tight period of time to maximize awareness. A slow spur over time would not have the same effects as a sudden burst of publicity.
3. Leverage influencer aggregator platforms
Sites like FameBit is like a marketplace for marketers to shop for influencers. It saves a lot of time and provides the data you need to make a decision i.e. categorical sorting and cost per engagement, etc.
4. Use a specific code for each influencer to track effectiveness
Using specific codes for each influencer is an easy way to determine which influencer provides the best ROI for you over the others.
This can be in the form of a unique link or unique coupon code e.g. yourcompany.com/tim or coupon code tim026.
In conclusion, when doing influencer marketing, be sure to:
1. Gauge engagement of followers over number of followers
2. Invest in more than one influencer
3. Use platforms such as famebit.com to streamline the selection process
4. Use codes to track performance of influencers.
