Using an influencer to help promote a brand is now a mainstream marketing practice. They are widely acknowledged to be a cost effective and authentic way to engage with the brand’s core audience. However, finding the right influencer and building up a positive relationship with them is crucial to long-term success.
According to a recent article in The Drum, the biggest challenge is for brands to understand that an influencer is not a product for hire, with ready-made results baked into the contract. The key is to find out exactly what makes an influencer and their audience tick, and see how the brand can work with this.
The first and most obvious point is to ensure that the brand’s target audience are also following the influencer on social media platforms. At least, the crossover of brand and influencer audience needs to take up plenty of space on a Venn diagram. It is possible to draw on data on age, gender, education levels, and so on to determine this.
The right target audience is more important that the number of followers an influencer has. In fact, too many followers may ring alarm bells, as this could indicate the influencer doesn’t have a carefully cultivated reach. They may have a lot of spambots and followers of other spurious origins, who do not interact in any meaningful way.
What is important is the engagement rates that the influencer achieves with each post. If their content gets plenty of likes, shares, retweets, comments, and so on, this is a positive sign that the influencer truly connects with their audience, and posts relevant and authentic content.
Finally, it may be worth seeking out niches within your own brand, and looking for an influencer who works with this. For example, if you are a tech company selling a range of gadgets, look for separate micro influencers to target each product or range.
If you are interested in student influencer marketing, talk to us today.
