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Influencer marketing has become a full-time career over the years as Instagram has kept evolving.
In recent times, social media influencers used to take perfectly shot photos to use for their feeds but nowadays, most have turned over to casually taken photos giving a more comfortable feel to the audience.
There are different social media influencers in different apps such as Instagram and Tiktok.
Influencer marketing is a very versatile occupation. One has to keep up with the trends, what’s cool and what’s not and what is out of fashion. One day practice or a type of clothing is considered stylish, the next day it is not.
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How to create influencer marketing strategies:
a) Where and how to come across influencers and how to pay them:
The best way to get social media influencers is by doing your research and comparing notes. It is best done by getting the app you would like to use and going through it. It is best to decide on one network to work on and may choose to expand their network later on. The brands or brands being advertised should at least have some online presence which will in turn get the message.
It also depends on what industry you want to get influencers in, for example, either a YouTube audience or an Instagram audience. This is because the influencers are different for each industry and work differently and get paid differently as well.
Also when getting social media influencers, either you would like to get one with a massive or medium following.
b) Setting up a budget and management for Influencer Marketing
It is very important to create a budget to work with or you may go overboard with your spending. Time is also a very important aspect of influencer marketing. This is because one has to plan the strategies you would like before approaching a social media influencer. One has to also follow up on the influencer for any adjustments in strategy. Influencer marketing is a very hands-on marketing strategy thus you will have to follow up once more to ensure they are working on your brand and also to try and correct any errors that might be in the strategy.
To avoid all of the above, one could easily hire an influencer marketing agency that does all this for you, all you have to do is have a rough idea of your strategy. The agency does the bulky research for you and coordinates all the hands-on part of the project.
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c) Goals and message to be sent across by influencers
The common reasons to get a social media influencer are to promote brand awareness and to increase the sales of the brand. For you to get the goals of the project, you have to find out what the brand needs and the target audience of the brand as well.
Some brands usually want to into-operate a new target audience thus decides to involve social media influencers to help them reach the audience they would like to reach.
Other brands reach out to social media influencers when they want to test out a new product and would want feedback on it. Social media influencers get the engagement the brand would require to get the feedback of their new product.
Another importance of setting goals is to come up with the structure of the whole project given to the social media influencer and the message to stick to.
d) How to reach and contact influencer
Research is your best friend. When researching, it is important to keep in mind the goals of your project, the type of influencer needed with the number of people following them with the size of the audience, and the engagement you’d like to get.
What should you look for in an influencer?
· What does the influencer normally post about? It is related to your product? Why this is important is because, if they already post about food, it means they already have an audience for your food product if you are dealing with food.
· Are they legit or just fraudsters trying to succeed in the influencer market? It is important to go through their posts to be able to see and compare their following to likes ratio. If it does not make sense, RUN!
· Have they worked with similar brands? What was the outcome of that project? It is important to vet the influencers as well because they are an investment.
e) Go through your influencer marketing strategy
It is important to have pre-set dates on where you want the progress to have reached by then. That is important to keep track of the campaign and the results coming from the campaign. It is important to note though that the campaigns can be successful or not and one should be mentally prepared for either of the two options. If it is successful, that is good, if it is not, it does not mean one has to stop, all they have to do is review their methods.
Conclusion:
Marketing to consumers is tiresome as compared to getting someone to do the work for you. The influencer market remains as versatile as ever but what remains is constant is its growth. It provides an alternative to other marketing methods limitations thus providing solutions to setbacks produced by other marketing strategies.
