It’s no secret that social media has significantly impacted our lives, our culture and even our economy over the past decade. And one of the biggest byproducts of social media has been influencer marketing. You might think that influencer marketing is just another buzzword that advertisers are using to sell you on the latest and greatest products on the market. But in reality, influencer marketing can be one of the most effective ways that businesses can win new customers and grow their revenue.
I’ve personally experimented with influencer marketing, and I’ve seen some great results. There was a bit of a learning curve when getting started, and that’s why I wanted to share some advice to anyone interested in hiring influencers to promote their brand.
What Exactly Is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is a multifaceted and sometimes complex tactic, so let’s define it. In short, influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing where brands partner with “influencers” (i.e., people with high numbers of followers) to promote their products. For example, if you follow celebrities on Instagram, you might have seen them post about a new product, using the hashtag #ad and tagging the brand’s social media handles. The brand pays the influencer to talk about the products on social media, where they have a vast network of followers who could become potential customers.
If you’re skeptical about how effective influencer marketing is, research has already proven its impact. According to research, 74% of consumers say they trust the opinions they see on social media — including those from influencers — when deciding whether to purchase a product.
How Much Will Influencer Marketing Cost You?
Brands of all sizes, in almost every industry, are cashing in on influencer marketing. Over 71% of marketers believe that working with influencers positively impacts their business, and a whopping 86% of marketers have used influencer marketing in the past year. But despite these impressive stats, you’re probably wondering how much influencer marketing actually costs. Good question.
The price of an influencer marketing campaign varies significantly depending on the influencer and how much they charge. It can cost you anywhere between a few hundred dollars to well into the six-figure range. According to a 2018 report from Linqia, 30% of marketers said they planned to spend $25,000 to $50,000 per campaign, and 24% reported that they would spend $50,000 to $100,000 per campaign for the year.
To estimate how much a specific influencer might charge, check out Social Bluebook. This is a great resource a friend recommended to me a while back. Since influencer marketing is a fairly new space, a lot of us don’t know how much to pay an influencer for their work. Tools like Social Bluebook give us an idea of how much we should pay an influencer, depending on their size, and it also helps us ensure we’re not being overcharged. If the person in mind is out of your budget, you can also find similar influencers with a smaller reach who might charge less for an influencer campaign.
Remember Engagement Is Just As Important As Followers
So, what makes a great influencer? You might be surprised to learn that it’s not all about their followers. Engagement is another big piece of an influencer’s overall ability to help your business get new customers. In fact, some marketers will tell you that engagement is even more important than the number of followers an influencer has.
Engagement is a score that combines an influencer’s number of likes, shares, views and comments on their posts. Think about engagement as the percentage of the influencer’s audience that actually interacts with their content, rather than simply following them or scrolling by their content. Someone who has 500,000 followers but has a very low engagement rate won’t be as impactful as someone with 200,000 followers with a very high engagement rate.
You can use online tools, like Social Bluebook, to view an influencer’s engagement rate and determine how many people would actually see your product if they were to post about it. You can also get a sense of how much you’ll be paying per engagement. For reference, an average/good engagement rate is somewhere between 1% and 3%, whereas anything over 3.5% is considered a high engagement rate.
The Downsides To Influencer Marketing
Like with any marketing strategy, influencer marketing has its downsides and challenges — the high cost being the most obvious one. Although I believe the positives greatly outweigh the negatives, there are a few things you should be wary of when deciding if influencer marketing is right for your business.
If you’re tuned into the influencer marketing world, chances are you’ve heard about the growing problem of fake followers. Certain accounts on social media have skyrocketed to influencer status by purchasing fake followers, rather than growing real audiences over time. These accounts have no influence over their followers, which means your brand won’t get any results if you unknowingly partner with one. You can usually spot a fake influencer if they have an unusual follower-to-engagement ratio, have had a recent spike in new followers or have lots of irrelevant or generic comments on their posts.
One of the other challenges of influencer marketing that isn’t often discussed is the fact that the influencer space on social media is becoming incredibly saturated. At some point, audiences will become disengaged, or less engaged than they once were. No one wants to be bombarded with advertisements from the celebrities they follow on social media. And platforms like Instagram and YouTube make it easy to unfollow profiles if you’re not satisfied with their content. As a result, brands should take note of how often influencers are promoting brands’ products and steer clear of people who constantly post promotional content.
If you’re looking to take your company’s marketing strategy to the next level, think about investing in influencer marketing. I believe it’s one of the fastest and most effective ways to reach new customers, promote your products and increase revenue.
