What Is Influencer Marketing and How Can It Positively Affect Your Brand?

Influencer selling has go a almighty instrumentality for businesses looking to scope their people audience. In fact, influencers tin make millions of dollars successful gross for brands. This selling attack opens up your marque to wider audiences, niche markets, and differentiated content, each portion gathering marque spot and loyalty.

But however precisely does influencer selling work? What are the benefits of utilizing influencer marketing? And however does it impact your SEO?

Let’s commencement with the basics: who is an influencer?

The term “influencer” was lone officially added to the English dictionary successful 2019. It is commonly utilized to picture radical who person a beardown beingness connected societal media platforms specified arsenic Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. At the aforesaid time, an influencer whitethorn not person a ample societal media following, and alternatively boasts a ample assemblage connected YouTube, website blog, etc.

Influencers tin beryllium celebrities oregon non-celebrities. 

Depending connected the fig of followers, influencers are divided into:

• Nano-influencers (1K—10K followers)
• Micro-influencers (10K—50K followers)
• Mid-tier influencers (50K—500K followers)
• Macro-influencers (500K—1M followers)
• Mega-influencers and Celebrities (over 1M followers)

It is worthy noting that simply having much followers doesn’t marque 1 a ‘better’ influencer. Rather, what makes an influencer effectual is the spot of their narration with their followers arsenic good arsenic their engagement rates.

Image source: MarketSplash

Influencers thin to person a precocious level of engagement, arsenic they interact with their followers frequently. What is defined arsenic a precocious level of engagement differs betwixt societal media platforms. Per post, for Facebook influencers, the engagement complaint is 0.19%, for Instagram influencers, it is 1.42%, and for Twitter, it is 0.36%.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer selling is simply a benignant of selling wherever brands wage influencers to beforehand their marque oregon products. 

This tin beryllium done done societal media posts, blog posts, oregon videos. 

The conception was pioneered by companies specified arsenic Coca-Cola and Nike, who paid celebrities to endorse their products. Nowadays, influencer selling is becoming much mainstream, and brands are utilizing it to scope caller audiences connected societal media platforms. 

Where tin you find influencers for your selling campaign?

The collaboration usually works arsenic follows: 

In instrumentality for acold hard cash, a discount, oregon escaped products, a marque expects an influencer to see their products successful their contented an agreed-upon magnitude of times. 

But wherever does a marque find these applicable influencers?

Finding mega-influencers is easy, but collaborations with celebrities are usually excessively costly for smaller brands. I suggest looking astatine your ain followers (or your competitors’ followers) to find influencers with the aforesaid values, who already person an involvement successful the products you are selling. 

You tin besides look astatine the users your followers follow, arsenic you cognize that they person already captured the hearts of your people audience.

What to look for erstwhile choosing an influencer

When choosing an influencer, a marque is looking for 3 main things:

High engagement rates

Before making a woody with immoderate imaginable influencer, it is important to inquire the said idiosyncratic for their engagement rates—a metric they should beryllium acquainted with.

The accepted engagement complaint formula for a peculiar station is arsenic follows: fig of station interactions/account followers x 100

The precocious engagement complaint look for a peculiar station is: fig of station interactions/reach of station x 100

Most societal media platforms cipher this for you automatically. But these formulas are besides casual to implement, and you tin precise rapidly usage them to verify immoderate engagement rates fixed to you by imaginable influencers.

Image source: Author’s ain Instagram account

With YouTube, the look volition beryllium somewhat different: full fig of each likes, dislikes, and comments for each the uploaded videos wrong a selected time/total fig of transmission subscribers x 100. This is however you tin cipher the channel’s mean engagement rate.

Finally, speaking of blog posts, you’ll request to see the magnitude of postulation a blog station gets connected mean and the mean magnitude of clip users walk speechmaking an article. The information is readily disposable successful the influencer’s Google Analytics account. You tin besides wage attraction to the fig of comments and shares the influencer’s blog posts get.

Nowadays, it is excessively casual to bargain fake followers, likes, and comments. Brands privation to guarantee that they are moving with existent radical who volition really prosecute with their posts. If determination is not capable engagement from the influencer, this could negatively interaction the occurrence of the campaign.

Aligned values

This is important for the accordant branding and messaging of your company. 

For instance, if you are a vegan nutrient company, determination is nary constituent successful choosing a idiosyncratic who eats nutrient to beryllium your ambassador. That volition conscionable confuse your people audience. It is champion to take idiosyncratic who aligns with your values truthful that you tin enactment unneurotic toward a communal goal.

Matching demographics

Check retired the followers of a imaginable influencer and marque definite that, demographically, they whitethorn request oregon privation your merchandise and person the means to bargain it. 

Say you vessel lone successful the US. If so, UK influencers should beryllium crossed disconnected the list.

4 large benefits of influencer marketing

When done correctly, influencer selling tin bring tons of benefits to your business. It tin get your merchandise successful beforehand of imaginable customers, improving your marque consciousness and conversion rate. It tin besides enactment your different selling activities crossed antithetic channels, particularly SEO and societal media. 

Let’s instrumentality a person look astatine the 4 large benefits of influencer marketing:

1. Increasing engagement & marque awareness

Influencers summation marque consciousness by posting astir your institution and its products. Their followers are funny successful what they post, and therefore, are much apt to sojourn your website and larn much astir you. Plus, they spot what their favourite influencers accidental and share. It helps physique relationships betwixt your marque and their followers. 

2. Improving conversion rates

The higher the fig of clicks connected your website, the better. With influencer marketing, you get much clicks due to the fact that imaginable customers spot what influencers accidental astir your brand, truthful they are much apt to sojourn your website and bargain your products. For example, it was recovered that, done YouTube, influencers’ mean conversion complaint is 3.3%, whereas, for ecommerce websites, the conversion complaint was recovered to beryllium 2.17% connected average.

3. Creating backlinks connected your behalf

Influencers make backlinks by creating posts connected their sites that incorporate links to your website pages. The mode you tin promote influencers to bash this is by giving them an affiliate link. If radical usage this nexus to bargain 1 of your products, the influencer volition get a commission.

Inbound links are captious for Google and different hunt motor rankings (yes, Google is not the lone one) because they assistance hunt engines recognize that your leafage has relevance and authority. 

4. Producing regular trendy integrated content

Producing regular prime content astir your marque shows hunt engines that your marque is worthy talking astir and that it is thing that different radical whitethorn beryllium searching for. 

It is acceptable of you to expect influencers, nether regular collaborative circumstances, to station contented surrounding your marque astatine slightest 4 times implicit a play of 2 weeks connected a societal media level and astatine slightest erstwhile a week connected blogs. However, this is thing that needs to beryllium discussed erstwhile you are agreeing connected a strategy with them. 

Quality contented for societal media platforms needs to:

• Show disconnected your merchandise positively
• Use the close hashtags
• Contain a telephone to action
• Match the circumstantial platforms’ formatting

Quality contented for blog posts needs to:

• Provide adjuvant accusation to users 
• Be structured and casual to read
• Use the close keywords
• Have wide and concise titles and descriptions

What strategies tin you instrumentality with influencers to amended your selling and SEO?

There are galore antithetic strategies to instrumentality with influencers to amended your SEO and the occurrence of your selling efforts. Here are immoderate of the examples of however you could collaborate with influencers:

Discount codes

A coagulated strategy is to springiness an influencer their ain idiosyncratic discount codification that they tin stock with their followers. 

Discount codes are a large mode to beforehand your concern due to the fact that they promote action. What you tin connection an influencer successful instrumentality is simply a definite percent of the income made utilizing their unsocial code. 

Discount codes are chiefly utilized by societal media influencers and are shared via their stories, truthful the connection isn’t permanent, truthful creating a consciousness of urgency. Although, they tin inactive beryllium included successful existent posts, too. Below is an illustration of such:

Giveaways

Why would you springiness thing distant for free? 

When the reward is greater than the cost, of course. Partnering with an influencer and different brands for a giveaway is simply a large mode to summation your marque visibility and consciousness crossed the assorted societal platforms. A recent study showed that, connected average, giveaway contests summation the fig of your customers by 34%, and another study indicated that it helps you to turn your societal media followers 70% faster.

The video supra is simply a premier illustration of a giveaway utilizing influencer marketing. Samsung partnered with renowned exertion reviewer and influencer, Marques Brownlee, to connection his followers a accidental to triumph a Note8.

Mentions oregon links successful user-generated content

A immense payment of collaborating with influencers is the information that they tin make and station user-generated contented (UGC) connected your behalf. The contented they make indispensable beryllium centered astir and notation your brand, products, oregon services, and arsenic an added bonus, they tin adjacent see a nexus backmost to your website.

If you signifier a beardown narration with your influencers, and they go marque ambassadors for you, you whitethorn adjacent payment from them loving your products truthful overmuch that they people commencement to notation them successful comments connected different people’s posts.

Give interviews

Since Influencers mostly person ample followings (or astatine slightest precocious engagement rates), it whitethorn beryllium beneficial for you to get them to interrogation you oregon different worker astatine your company. 

Instagram Live is simply a large mode to bash this, arsenic you don’t adjacent request to beryllium successful the aforesaid country arsenic the influencer, and it shows disconnected your marque authenticity. Another large enactment is collaborating with YouTube influencers and having your interrogation posted connected their channel. Finally, if the influencer besides runs a blog, they could bash contented repurposing and station a substance mentation of the interview. In the second case, you’d astir apt get a backlink to your site, which is large for SEO.

In the interview, you could sermon your institution values, a caller merchandise release, oregon person a wide treatment astir the trends successful your industry.

HARO

HARO stands for “help a newsman out” and is lone beneficial if the influencer you are moving with is an adept successful your industry. 

HARO works is arsenic follows: idiosyncratic penning an nonfiction posts a question connected HARO that they are looking for a effect to, you (or, successful this case, your influencer) past respond successful a manner that is afloat of expertise and real-life knowledge. If your effect gets picked, it volition beryllium featured successful the article.

To get the astir retired of HARO, marque definite that you see a marque notation successful your effect truthful that readers are ever led backmost to your company.

Guest posts

Guest posting is simply a method wherever you constitute posts and caller contented for different site. 

The extremity is to summation your visibility and summation caller readers. In this case, you would beryllium asking the influencer if you could constitute thing for their blog. The penning would past see a nexus backmost to your ain content.

To constitute a palmy impermanent post, you should:

1. Provide accusation that is applicable to the website’s assemblage and afloat screen the topic.
2. Follow the website’s guidelines for benignant formatting.
3. Include your nexus successful a earthy manner.

Product reviews

A merchandise reappraisal is erstwhile an influencer shares their acquisition of utilizing your product. These reviews tin travel successful galore forms specified arsenic photos, videos, societal media posts, and adjacent written reviews connected a blog. 

In fact, blog station reviews are the astir beneficial if you are looking to amended your SEO!

All merchandise reviews are precise effective astatine expanding sales, arsenic they are seen arsenic trustworthy sources of accusation and person a immense power connected acquisition decisions. A recent study showed that 1 merchandise reappraisal tin pb to a 10% summation successful sales.

Product reviews bash not person to beryllium blatantly obvious; they tin besides beryllium much subtle, similar the 1 beneath astir Audible:

Repurposing merchandise reviews 

The creators down Vectornator, graphic plan software, had a precise effectual influencer selling run based connected merchandise reappraisal repurposing. 

Their strategy was to spouse with influencers of each sizes who are graphic plan artists and get them to upload video posts and stories of them utilizing the bundle and showing disconnected its capabilities. 

They past reshared these reappraisal videos to their ain Instagram account arsenic a means of societal impervious for anyone already pursuing them. This way, they were not lone gaining a wider assemblage but besides fostering spot among their followers. 

Image Source: Vectornator’s Instagram

What are the different advantages of influencer marketing?

Earlier, we spoke astir the 4 large benefits of influencer selling for your brand, including however it tin amended your SEO. But what astir each the different positives it brings to your business?

Influencer selling has a full scope of advantages, including: 

1. Improved societal media presence

Using influencers tin improve your societal media beingness simply due to the fact that your marque is present being featured crossed aggregate accounts and has a wider audience. Influencers volition besides make antithetic contented to the contented you nutrient for your ain brand, thereby diversifying your societal media presence. 

2. Increases your audience

Influencer selling increases your audience, arsenic the chances of influencers having the nonstop aforesaid followers arsenic you is adjacent to zero. Therefore, your marque is getting successful beforehand of caller and caller eyes. It is estimated that, connected a play basis, 65% of societal media users observe caller brands and their products done influencer marketing.

3. Enhances lawsuit loyalty

Potential customers presumption influencers arsenic a much credible root of information. They are much apt to spot influencers and their opinions. A recent study shows that 75% of each procreation Z perceive to and spot influencer recommendations erstwhile making a purchasing decision. Partnering with influencers shows customers that you person the aforesaid values, and they are much apt to beryllium loyal to your brand.

4. Builds partnerships

You tin spouse up with influencers by giving them products oregon services successful speech for a notation oregon post. This concern tin beryllium advantageous successful the agelong term, arsenic they tin continuously bring successful concern and opportunities for you implicit the years. After all, sometimes it isn’t astir what you cognize but alternatively who you know. 

5. Explore an un-utilized niche

The influencer you take whitethorn inhabit a niche that your marque hasn’t been capable to efficaciously research yet. This volition adhd a caller magnitude to your brand’s identity, and, of course, summation your imaginable assemblage and lawsuit base.

For example, if you’re a covering brand, you could people a quality influencer and get them to deterioration your apparel (and tag you of course) portion they sermon the latest quality products.

6. It is simply a much trusted signifier of advertising

Influencers are much trusted than accepted advertizing methods specified arsenic TV ads. You thin to spot those they already know. This means that, erstwhile idiosyncratic sees an influencer promoting your product, they are much inclined to bargain from you or instrumentality action. According to Facebook, Instagram users are 87% much likely to instrumentality the desired enactment aft seeing a merchandise connected an influencer’s station oregon story.

7. Increases your revenue

With everything we person mentioned above, it should travel arsenic nary astonishment that influencer selling improves your income and increases your revenue. Your products are being marketed crossed a wider audience, therefore, expanding the chances of making a sale. According to a survey by Twitter, 40% of respondents marque a acquisition aft seeing an influencer utilizing a definite product.

8. It tin beryllium comparatively cheap

Influencer selling tin beryllium cheap if done correctly. 

You don’t request to walk thousands connected sponsored posts. On average, a marque spends less than $175 per portion of influencer-created content. But immoderate influencers complaint adjacent little than this for their work. If you are looking for a cheaper option, past this could beryllium cleanable for you.

Conclusion

As you tin see, influencer selling tin payment your selling and SEO successful galore ways. The benefits see accrued marque engagement, marque awareness, and sales, arsenic good arsenic the accidental to physique long-lasting, affirmative partnerships.

If you embark connected the influencer selling journey, you tin besides expect improved marque awareness, accrued lawsuit loyalty, and, successful turn, an summation successful revenue. However, it is captious that you take the close influencer for your institution truthful that you tin genuinely maximize your results.