By Tiffany Day
Influencer marketing has been on the rise since 2006 when PayPerPost launched their first Influencer Marketing Platform. Since then, more than 500,000 people have joined different social media platforms to take their shot at this growing marketing strategy and personal income stream.
So, What Is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer Marketing is an advertising strategy brands and/or companies use that promotes their product across social media platforms using what is often referred to as influencers.
Influencers are the social media users that have built a reputation and relatability in their field of expertise, also known as their niche.
These influencers have carefully curated their social media presence to reflect a specific style, message, and personal brand. This makes it easy for them to build a strong following and influence their followers’ purchasing power.
Why Do Brands Work With Influencers?
As the number of influencers has increased on social media platforms over the years, the number of brands willing to work with influencers has also increased.
80% of brands have found influencer marketing to be an effective form of promotion for their brand. Likewise, 89% of brands find their ROI (return on investment) higher than traditional advertising used to promote a brand and its products.
This is because the influencer used for promoting these brands have built an incredible amount of trust and loyalty with the people who choose to follow them through their curated content.
This trust and loyalty are known as social proof and the more social proof an influencer has, the easier it becomes for that influencer to promote a brand’s product and see sales made by their followers as a result.
Do You Have To Have A Big Following To Work With Brands?
Similar to traditional marketing strategies, with influencer marketing, brands are focused on the return on investment when choosing who to work with. This is why for years, brands would reach out to influencers with large followings with the hope of increasing the marketing campaign’s overall reach and likelihood of making sales.
Over the past few years, companies have noticed a greater return on investment from their micro-influencers. A micro-influencer is an influencer with a social following between 10k-50k. micro-influencers usually have a hyper-engaged audience which results in more sales as their followers have grown to trust the micro-influencer more, over a bigger influencer who is seen as a “celebrity pushing products for money.”
This shift in audience purchase behavior has made companies look more into an influencer’s engagement rate and sales conversion over an influencer’s follower counts or view counts. So no, having a large following is not as important as having a loyal and engaged following.
How Do I Position Myself As A Valuable Influencer Brands Want To Work With?
Suppose you want to work with companies and make being an influencer a paid job. In that case, you have to make sure you create quality content that speaks to a specific audience with a niche topic.
Once you understand your audience and their needs, research companies that you feel will align well with your personal brand. When doing this research, look to see what influencer’s the company has worked with before, which will give you a better idea of the type of content the company is looking for when choosing influencers to work with.
Just make sure when agreeing to work with a company, you think about your audience first. Ask yourself, “Will this company and/or product benefit my audience?” and “Would I purchase this item if I were not being paid to promote it?” If you answered no to either of those, you might want to skip doing the brand deal.
At the end of the day, saying yes to every company that wants to pay you can hurt the trust you have built with your followers. This is especially true if the company does not align well with your personal brand, causing you to lose engagement and future work.
Last, you want to make sure you are building an authentic relationship with your followers. This means interacting with them in your DMs and comments. Show up regularly with your content, and get to know them as much as they are getting to know you.
In Closing
If you are looking to get into influencer marketing, start building a strong following in your niche. Then ensure you have a consistent aesthetic that attracts brands and carefully choose who you work with to keep your audience’s trust along with landing brand deals in the future.
But to take out the guesswork on what to charge brands now, make sure to check out Your Values in your Social BlueBook Dashboard today.