Online presence is increasingly becoming a norm, making influencer marketing an indispensable strategy. As an organization, do you want to partner with an influencer? That's not easy to arrange yet. You can read everything you need to know about influencer marketing in this blog.
Before I tell you more about influencer marketing, it's helpful to know what influencers actually are. An influencer is a person who has a number of followers on an online platform, such as YouTube, TikTok or Instagram. If an account has a lot of followers, it does not immediately mean that this person is an influencer. Influencers, in fact, mean influencers. They create content about a passion or interest, which makes the audience see the influencer as credible.
There are different types of influencers, based on the number of followers:
- Mega-influencer: Mega-influencers are the most famous, but also the most expensive to work with. These influencers have more than a million followers, and are usually celebrities. Their audience is too large to reach a specific audience.
- Macro-influencer: Macro-influencers have between 100,000 and one million followers. These influencers often owe their fame and high number of followers to posting online content.
- Micro-influencer: Micro-influencers have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers. These influencers fall into a certain category and therefore have a specific target audience. They are often seen as experts in a field and they are therefore trusted by their followers.
- Nano-influencers: Nano-influencers have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers on their socials. These influencers have a strong connection with their followers, making their followers highly engaged.
Influencer marketing is a form of marketing in which brands collaborate with influencers. Influencers serve as role models for their followers and, as a result, they influence their buying habits. By partnering with an influencer, brands can promote their products or services to a targeted audience and benefit from the credibility and reach of the influencer.
Influencers create content where they present the product or service to followers in an authentic way. This can be in the form of a sponsored post, product reviews or sharing experiences with the product. The idea is to pique the interest of the followers, get to know the product and eventually buy it.
There are several reasons to use influencer marketing:
- Increase reach and visibility: Influencers often have a large number of followers and a specific audience to reach. By working together, you increase your visibility among the audience.
- Build credibility and trust: Recommending a product or service, is more credible than an advertisement. People often trust the opinions of the influencers they follow.
- Targeted: Influencers often know who their audience is, and where their interests lie. If the influencer focuses primarily on sports, chances are their followers will find this interesting as well. By partnering with an influencer who has the same target audience as your product or service, you can make targeted marketing efforts.
- Creative content: Influencers focus on creating content. You can benefit from the creative and engaging content they create about your product. They put your product in a positive light in a unique way.
- Increase engagement: If the influencer is promoting your product, this can encourage followers to give likes, share the post or even actively participate in discussions about your brand.
Now that you know what kinds of influencers there are and why you can use influencer marketing, it's time for the next step. Which influencer do you deploy next? First of all, make sure you choose an influencer that has the right target audience for your product or service. In addition, pay attention to your goals, but your budget and type of content also play a role in choosing an influencer. Below I have listed the types of influencers with their advantages and disadvantages.
- Advantages: They have a wide reach, are well-known, and your product or service is publicized to a large audience.
- Disadvantages: They are expensive and less personally involved with their audience.
- Why deploy: If you want to reach a large audience and have a large budget.
- Advantages: They have a wide reach and are still well-known, they focus more on a particular topic, and they are more affordable.
- Disadvantages: They are not cheap, and less personal than mirco- and nano-influencers.
- Why deploy: If you want to reach a wide audience but can't afford mega-influencers, and if your brand fits the topic the influencer is focusing on.
- Advantages: They are more engaged with their followers, more focused on their audience and often more affordable than mega and macro influencers.
- Disadvantages: They have a smaller reach than mega- and macro-influencers.
- Why deploy: If you want to reach an engaged audience within an
particular subject, and if your budget is limited.
- Advantages: Followers are highly engaged, they have a strong personal connection with their followers and are usually affordable.
- Disadvantages: They have a small range.
- Why deploy: If you want to reach a highly engaged and targeted audience, and if your budget is limited.
Now that you've gained a deeper understanding about influencer marketing, it's time to get started. Have fun!
