Influencer marketing has been proven to be successful when it comes to expanding the reach of brands on social media. But it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, and in most cases requires some research and planning.
Below we’ll show you how to make influencer marketing work for your brand, but first, let’s get into what influencer marketing is, the types of social media influencers that exist, and how to go about creating a unique strategy and drawing up a contract.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is, at its simplest, a form of social media marketing that involves a person, in this case, an influencer, who is paid to promote a brand’s product or service to their followers.
Similar to celebrity endorsements, influencer marketing is much the same but on a much smaller scale, catering to niche audiences rather than to the masses. These smaller-scale influencers often have very engaged followers on social media which tends to deliver more value to brands.
For now, Instagram remains the most popular social media platform for influencers according to eMarketer, with 80.8% of US marketers using it for influencer campaigns in 2024 as seen below.
Source: eMarketer
Types of social media influencers
When you think of influencers, do the words “Kardashian-Jenner family” come to mind?
While this famous clan certainly is among the top celebrities and influencers in the world, not all influencers are celebrities. In fact, most influencers are not widely known at all due to their niche content and follower base, which is quite effective for promoting niche products and services.
Influencers with around 15,000 followers seem to be sitting at the optimal sweet spot for marketing products and services because they have some of the highest engagement rates, making the cost of marketing for brands much lower.
Speaking of which, let’s dive into the types of influencers based on audience size.
Nano-influencers
Nano-influencers have between 1,000 to 5,000 followers each.
These types of influencers are typically easy to relate to which increases the likelihood of followers being more engaged with their content. In fact, a recent Digiday survey revealed that nano-influencers on Instagram were able to engage up to 8% of their audience compared to just 1.7% for celebrity influencers.
Micro-influencers
Micro-influencers have around 10,000 to 100,000 followers each.
Similar to nano influencers, they provide a cost-effective way for small businesses to reach their target audience and promote their products or services.
Macro-influencers
These are influencers with around 100,000 to a million followers each.
Macro-influencers have considerable reach across varying demographics and interest groups, making them a powerful channel for promoting brand messages.
Mega-influencers
Mega-influencers have over 1 million followers each.
These influencers are highly sought after by brands for collaborations and sponsored ads due to their ability to reach a massive and diverse audience.
They have the power to catapult a product or service to instant success through their endorsement or recommendation.
How to create an influencer marketing strategy for your business
1. Determine your goals
The number one goal for brands that choose influencer marketing as a strategy is to reach new audiences. This makes sense because any influencer that you partner with will introduce your brand to their followers.
Notice how the primary goal of partnering with influencers is simply to reach new customers, not necessarily make a sale right off the bat.
Driving sales comes much later and is the third most common goal of influencer marketing campaigns, after increasing awareness and product consideration according to Advertiser Perceptions, as seen below.
Source: Advertiser Perceptions
2. Know your audience
Define who your target audience is. The best way to do this is to create audience personas to make sure you understand who you are trying to reach. This could be an existing or entirely new audience. Once you’ve decided, create a similar set of influencer personas. This will help you to choose the most appropriate influencers for your goals and campaign and help you to understand the qualities that are needed in an influencer to accurately represent your brand.
3. Understand the rules
Specific rules for advertising on Instagram vary from country to country, so before engaging with an influencer, check to see the most current requirements in your area.
In general, influencers are required to identify sponsored posts. But sometimes they don’t or might do
so in a way that the disclosure is effectively hidden or incomprehensible. So just make sure that they are abiding by the rules so that your brand doesn’t get into any sort of trouble.
4. Put together a short list of potential influencers
When considering which influencers to work with, trust is key. Your audience and their audience must trust and respect the opinions of the influencers that you choose to partner with. Without trust, any results will prove superficial and you’ll struggle to see tangible results.
How can you tell that the influencer you’re considering is trusted among their audience?
You’ll see lots of views, comments, shares and likes. A good engagement rate is also an indication of a loyal following as opposed to an inflated follower count due to bots and fake accounts.
On top of that, you’ll need to find an influencer who produces good quality content with a look and feel that complements your brand. The tone should also match and be appropriate. Doing this will ensure that there is no disconnect between either party’s social media posts.
5. Reach out privately
Once you’ve narrowed it down and decided, send a direct message to the influencers of your choice. You can also email them but don’t send a generic DM (direct message) or email. If you do, it will come off as impersonal and like you didn’t carefully consider them for your campaign.
It may take a little longer to write a personal message to each influencer that you like but it will show that you are serious about the potential partnership.
When reaching out, provide as much information as you can about your brand. Tell them what you’d like to accomplish and make it clear how they will benefit, beyond receiving compensation.
6. Collaborate with your influencer to develop effective content
Before getting started on developing content keep in mind that social media influencers work hard to build a loyal following and will not accept a deal that could in any way jeopardise their personal brand. So provide some guidelines about what you are looking for and don’t expect to micro-manage the campaign.
7. Have a contract
If you’re partnering with an influencer you should have a contract in place. To give you an idea of what to consider, here is a breakdown.
Disclaimer: The below information is merely a guideline. When drawing up a contract with an influencer, always consult a social media lawyer first.
Parties
It’s important to identify the correct parties entering into the contract. It should include full legal names, addresses and email addresses for ease of communication.
Terms and termination
This section should make it clear when rights and obligations start and end. In other words, it should have a commencement date and an end date, or at minimum, a way to terminate the agreement.
Services
This section should clearly state, in full detail, the specific services that are to be performed by the influencer. This might include, for example, creating certain forms of content, i.e. videos or photographs using certain colours and featuring certain products.
Whatever the case, these services should be explained in as much detail as possible to avoid any confusion or future disputes.
Deliverables
The contract should identify in detail what needs to be delivered on the part of the influencer. This could include creating a certain amount of videos or taking a certain amount of photos per month as well as including certain hashtags in their posts.
Deliverable dates, times and locations
Specify deliverable dates, times and locations. For example, which content should be uploaded on which social media platform at what time and at which location.
Permitted use of content
The contract should stipulate the permitted use of any content created and the limitations that apply.
Brand obligations
The contract should mention any brand obligations. This may include, for example, providing a style guide and products or services to the influencer by a certain date, responding to influencer requests for approval by a certain time and date and paying the influencer the agreed-upon fees.
Agreed-upon fees and payment terms
Specify the agreed-upon fee that your brand will pay the influencer and how and when the payment will be made. Payments could be, for example, linked to the completion of certain deliverables and if so, should be detailed as such in the contract to avoid any disputes.
Legal obligations
This is the most important section and one that should never be overlooked. The contract should require each party to take the necessary steps to enable both parties to comply with their legal obligations.
The legal obligations should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis only and relevant provisions should be included in the agreement to cover any likely risks for any particular campaign.
Once you are satisfied with the terms of the contract, the next step is to ensure that the agreement is validly entered into by both parties. To do this, have each party physically sign and date the contract and give each party a copy of the legally binding document to keep and store.
And that’s it. Go out there and shake things up through a refreshing influencer marketing strategy for your brand!
