Build Relationships With Influencers, Not Businesses [Infographic]

Shane Barker — July 24, 2017 Follow @shane_barker

— July 24, 2017

Influencer marketing is a type of digital marketing that can help brands connect with their target audience through influential people. Influencers are individuals who have a large number of followers on social media. Those followers trust them for their knowledge and expertise in specific industries or niches.

Brands partner with these influencers to increase brand awareness and establish trust with their target audiences. Influencer marketing can also help brands build their social media following, promote product launches, improve engagement, and increase conversions.

Many marketers still have not mastered the art of influencer marketing, and continue to make some of the most common mistakes. How can you take full advantage of this powerful marketing channel?

In this post, you’ll learn ten of the most important things you should know about influencer marketing for a successful campaign.

#1: Relevance is More Important Than Reach

When choosing influencers for your campaign, your focus should be more on the relevance than reach.

Suppose you want to use influencer marketing to promote your new pet care product line. In order to reach as many people as possible, you partner with a model who has over a million followers on Instagram. The fashion influencer posts a photo of herself with her dog wearing a collar from your brand.

Although the post may get a lot of likes and comments, it’s unlikely to reach a substantial number of people in your target audience. As a fashion influencer, the majority of her followers are likely more interested in fashion and clothing than pet care products.

It would be more effective to partner with an influencer who specializes in pets. Even if they have far less followers, the followers they do have will be much more relevant. Reaching a more relevant audience will help boost engagement and increase conversions.

#2: Smaller Influencers Drive Higher Levels of Engagement

Mega-influencers and celebrity influencers with hundreds of thousands, (or even millions) of followers generally have much lower engagement rates than smaller influencers.

So if the goal of your influencer marketing campaign is to drive engagement, you should consider partnering with mid-level or micro-influencers. Since their audiences are smaller, it’s easier for these types of influencers to connect with their followers on a more personal level, more often. That helps increase engagement on the content they post.

Also, mid-level and micro-influencers are typically experts in a specific niche. As such, they have a better understanding of the products and services related to that particular niche. Their product reviews and recommendations are valued and trusted by their followers, since they are coming from experts.

#3: Let the Creative Genius of Influencers Flourish

An influencer’s followers are used to the unique style and tone of that influencer’s content.

If your brand tries to interfere too much with an influencer’s creativity, the content they create for you may seem inauthentic and overly promotional. As a result, the content will fail to win the trust of the influencer’s followers.

You should always allow influencers at least some creative freedom. When they can infuse their own style and voice into the content, it will be more interesting and appealing to their audience.

If you want to learn more, check out the following infographic from influencer marketing agency HireInfluence.

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