Cast your minds back to when you were at school. The cool kids always got imitated by the rest. They’d wear a new coat one day and sure enough, a month later everyone had their own matching coats (it’s always amused me how we refused to wear the school uniform properly because we wanted to ‘express our individuality’ but we were more than willing to copy others to help us fit in).

As unflattering as it might sound, we all act like sheep at times. We can be influenced and we are happy to follow others.

This is important for marketers. Influencer marketing is big and it’s growing.

Authenticity

Influencer marketing works because it is done by people like us or, at least, people we aspire to consider like us.

An influencer is very definitely not the company. If a shower cleaner company tells me that their product cleans showers the best, I’ll dismiss it – of course they are going to say that! But if an influencer tells me that that shower cleaner is the best, I will listen. I have already invested in them, identified shared interests and characteristics, and I feel I know them. A company might mislead me but my friend, the influencer, wouldn’t.

This level of authenticity is really valuable in marketing: it requires careful nurturing over a long time to build a personable relationship with followers.

Types of influencers

Influencers come in all sizes. Mega influencers (think of the Ronaldo or Ariana Grande types) have millions of followers across their social media platforms and can command huge sums of money for marketing. Although they may get a lot of attention, they are not necessarily the best type of influencer for you. For example, paying Ronaldo to say that your sports shop in Oxford is the greatest for trainers may make you feel special but the reality is that most of his followers can’t get to Oxford even if they wanted to. It’d be more effective to use an influencer from the Oxford United team, most of whose followers will live close enough to the shop to shop there.

At the other end of the scale are the Nano-influencers who have in the region of 10,000 followers. This is where it gets much more interesting for charities and small businesses as these influencers have carved out focused and engaged niche audiences which could align with your offering. Not only that but they also appear much more authentic and relatable than the likes of Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber.

Influencer Vs celebrity endorsements

It is easy to confuse influencers with celebrities who will endorse your business or charity but there is a key difference. The impact of influencers can be measured.

George Clooney  famously advertises Nespresso and he brings a certain sophistication to the brand but it is almost impossible to say exactly how much value he adds to the Nespresso brand.

An influencer’s impact however, can be closely tracked. The number of likes they get, the amount of time viewers watch their video, what percentage of followers click the affiliate link through to your website, and so on. Aubrey manages these relationships and tracks the results so that your marketing is efficient and powerful. Get in touch if you would like to find out more about how we can help you with your marketing strategy.

Influencer marketing how-to

If you want to give influencer marketing a go, here are some important steps that should make sure you tick off.

1. Research the audience – You should know your target audience by now, if not, have a look here. When you are happy with your target audience, look for influencers whose target audience overlaps significantly with yours.
2. Align values – Don’t allow yourself to skip this step! Understand your values and discuss these with the influencer. If they don’t match up, don’t force it. Authenticity is key so find someone who can embody and promote your values.
3. Plan – This is the details stage where you will discuss how the influencer will promote your work, timescales, payments and so on.
4. Measure – We have seen how easy it is to track the impact of your influencer marketing, so make the most of the opportunity to measure and assess the impact.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing is a growing marketing channel. Make the most of it by following the guidance in this blog.

When we entered the Covid lockdowns, we couldn’t get to the shops. This is when influencer marketing boomed. Without being able to smell, taste, touch, see or hear the products we were buying, we turned to influencers to experience them vicariously through the influencers.