How to Drive Revenue with Influencer Marketing

Did you know influencer marketing is the fastest-growing online customer acquisition method? Surprising, isn’t it?

The rapid proliferation of social media has made influencer marketing campaigns much more prevalent, niche, and accessible. By adopting this new avenue, businesses could boost their content’s reach and achieve higher engagement with the target audience, driving more revenue.

A recent study conducted by McKinsey shows that a recommendation from a trusted source is 50% more likely to lead to a conversion. Another research from Variety found that 70% of teens trust influencers more as compared to traditional celebrities. Better stop right here before spilling more beans, and let’s put some light on what influencer marketing exactly is.

What is Influencer Marketing?

According to Hubspot, “Influencer marketing uses top content creators, specialized in their respective niches, to help you improve brand awareness, increase traffic, and drive your brand’s message to your target audience.”

In simple words, influencers are the people who help you take your brand to the target audience and drive revenue in a quick time.

What Is the Objective of Influencer Marketing?

The top goals of influencer marketing for businesses are:

1. Ensuring highly targeted traffic
2. Boosting brand awareness
3. Reaching new audiences
4. Generating sales and conversions
5. Improving customer satisfaction

The Invespcroresearch says, “Influencer Marketing has been seen to drive 11 times more ROI than traditional online marketing”.

What Is an Influencer?

Influencers are the individuals who have the power to affect the purchase decisions of your target audience with their authority, knowledge, and position in a particular domain. The influencers have a large number of followers in a particular niche and are actively engaged with their audience.

So how to leverage this treasure tomb of influencer marketing and drive more revenue?

In this edition, we are going to discuss the best practices for influencer marketing strategies for popular platforms and share tips to drive revenue with this amazing marketing tool.

Before we embark on our journey, you must remember that the key to a good strategy lies in understanding different platform habits. You will get the best response only when your content is in line with your target audience’s expectations on the particular platform.

Cited by 92% of marketers, Instagram was the most important social network for influencer marketing in 2018. With 77% support, Facebook stood at the second position, closely followed by blogs with 71%.

Let’s start with Instagram

Influencer Marketing: Instagram

You will be amazed to know that 75% of Instagram users initiate a purchase following a sponsored post, whereas 60% get info on a new product on Instagram. eMarketer research predicts that the Ad revenue of this popular social platform will touch $10.87 billion by 2019.

Is Your Brand Fit for Instagram?

A variety of industries are successfully leveraging the Instagram platform to grow sales. These encompass fashion, food, travel, fitness, tech, healthcare, dating app, and others. An expert in the domain says, “When framed correctly and paired with an appropriate influencer, any brand could be successful on Instagram”.

Tips to Make Sponsored Instagram Posts Successful

1. The post should seem like the brand naturally fits into the influencers’ life.
2. Pitch a unique idea that teaches the users something new or a humorous post
3. Try quizzes and giveaways
4. You may ask users to tag friends or give an opinion

How to Find the Right Instagram Influencer for Your Brand

In order to find the right Instagram influencer for your brand, you should keep certain things in mind. Note that any popular influencer with a large number of followers will automatically not be a perfect choice for your brand. You should consider the following:

1. Is Instagram influencer a good match for your brand
2. His/her Instagram engagement
3. The number of followers
4. Quality of the followers
5. The content posted by the influencer so far
6. The reach
7. Your budget

Facebook

Facebook is considered the most influential social channel with 19% of consumer purchase decisions. The number of Facebook users grew by 48 million to 1.45 billion in the first quarter of 2018.

You will find influencers across a range of industries and interests. These include models, fitness and health gurus, DJs, journalists, foodies, personal finance experts, parents, gamers, environmentalists, and many others.

Tips to Make Your Facebook Sponsored Post Successful

1. Your post should encourage discussion or prompt users to share their opinions and experiences
2. Sponsored content should appear more like traditional advertisements
3. Content from non-celebrity influencers should have a clear mission or focus, such as parenting, health, fitness, food, etc.
4. Influencers should share their thoughts, ideas, and opinions openly
5. The post should be aligned with your existing page’s content and tone

How to Find the Right Facebook Influencer?

Finding the right Facebook influencer to promote your brand could be hassle-free if you equip yourself with the right and adequate information beforehand. Here are some suggestions:

1. Use Google
2. Use Social Listening
3. Conduct Keyword Search
4. Leverage Influencer Discovery Tools
5. Conduct Hashtag Research
6. Develop Long-Term Relationships with Influencers

YouTube

If your target audience is Gen Z or Millennials, there is no better option than YouTube. Pew Research shows that YouTube has 94% of 18- to 24-year-olds in the U.S. The study also reveals that 73% of American adults use YouTube, wherein 60% are on Facebook.

Most interestingly, Google research says, “7 out of 10 teenage YouTube subscribers relate better to their favorite YouTube creator than to traditional celebrities, and 40 percent of millennials feel that their favorite Youtuber understands them better than their friends.”

Is Your Brand Fit for YOUTUBE?

It has been noticed that other Than Facebook and Instagram, Youtube also has the opportunity for brands irrespective of their industry. When it comes to the length of the video, the top overall YouTube videos clocked in at an average of eight minutes long, and the Facebook videos were an average of three minutes long.

Tips to Make YouTube Influencer Videos Successful

1. Influencers are human. Therefore, the videos should not shy away from being genuine and open
2. Content should be inspiring and attainable to viewers
3. Your videos should be product reviews, tutorials, or experiences
4. It should blur the line between paid and editorial

Blogs

Blogs are another very powerful platform for influencer marketing. 71% of marketers say blogs are the most important influencer network, up from 48% last year. The top five reasons why you should invest in blog content for influencer marketing are as follows:

1. Blogs drive search engine optimization (SEO) benefits
2. Long-form content helps establish trust
3. Drives traffic to the website
4. Blogs have a longer lifespan
5. Helps measure conversions, referrals, sales, leads, and ROI

Tips to Make Influencer Blogs Successful

1. The blog should tell a story or share some information; it may also include anything actionable
2. An influencer blog should share candid opinions, details from their lives
3. They should talk to readers like a friend
4. Use clear and focused, appealing visuals

Who Are the Top Influencer Bloggers?

Well, influencer bloggers come from every niche. These bloggers are renowned for their impeccable knowledge, expertise, taste, and eye for a particular domain. They write to inspire diverse audiences. Since these people are genuine, they are central to various influencer-marketing campaigns.

Some of the top bloggers are:

• Arianna Huffington – Huffington Post
• Pete Cashmore – Mashable
• Michael Arrington – TechCrunch
• Peter Rojas – Engadget
• Rand Fishkin – Moz

How to Kick-Start Your Influencer Marketing Campaign

So we have learned about the top social platforms. Now let’s check how to kick-start your influencer campaign.

1. First, you have to define and determine your goals.
2. Do a lot of research to understand your potential influencers’ audience, mission, and aesthetic
3. Don’t ignore the trends
4. Take a look at your competitors
5. Interact with the influencers, and explain why should they work with you
6. Plan your content hook
7. Be ready to allow the influencer editorial freedom
8. Measure your success against clear KPIs

Conclusion

Influencer marketing is one of the best ways to expand your reach in a quick time. If you can choose the right platform and align the right influencer for your business, success is guaranteed. Before taking a call, you can always get in touch with a digital marketing agency for an expert opinion.