The world of influencers can be challenging to get your head around. Even once you’re familiar with influencer marketing and how it can benefit your brand, selecting the right ambassadors for you can be challenging. As always, we’re on hand to make your life easier. So, in our latest post, we’re breaking down everything you need to know about understanding influencers.
Types of Influencers
First and foremost, it’s essential that you understand the difference between micro and macro-influencers. While you might see someone on Instagram with 1 million followers and instantly think they’re a perfect choice. However, you certainly shouldn’t be overlooking those will smaller followings AKA micro-influencers.
Micro-influencers
There are many definitions to separate the two. When it comes to micro-influencers, we define them as everyday people with a decent-sized following (up to 50k). These followers are likely engaged because their content revolves around a particular passion or niche, e.g. fashion, travel or beauty and anything in between.
While some brands will often overlook bloggers with smaller social followings, you might be missing a trick. Because they have a smaller audience, they can often display higher engagement rates. This is because they’re genuine, trustworthy and relatable. Therefore, when it comes to promoting your brand, you may see better results when you choose to work with those with a smaller but more engaged audience.
Furthermore, the cost associated working with individuals with smaller followings is often a lot less, ultimately providing much higher value to your brand.
Macro-influencers
Macro influencers are accounts with tens of thousands of followers. These types of accounts are sometimes covering broader subjects, with individual content targeting different audiences within separate posts. They may be a big brand, an established blogger or a celebrity that’s become a household name.
While you can reach the masses with these individuals, there are some cons that you should consider before investing sizable chunks of money into working with them. Nowadays, consumers have become savvier to the world of marketing, meaning that they don’t also trust the content produced by these accounts. Because of this, engagement rates can be lower than what smaller accounts would see, yet they cost significantly more.
With that said, it wouldn’t be right to tar all these individuals with the same brush. If you’re lucky enough to choose a macro influencer that genuinely aligns with your brand and its values, it can work wonders.
When it comes to selecting the right picks for your brand, you need to be aware that there are pros and cons for each.
What to Look for:
Thankfully, we’re on hand with some pointers so that you know what to look out for when you’re making your selection:
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Engagement rates
If you’re simply looking at followers when it comes to selecting individuals to work with, you’re already setting yourself up to fail. At the very least, you need to consider engagement rates too (there are plenty of programs that will help you do this easily). Beyond engagement rates, you need to consider their audience, and if your product will appeal to them.
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Brands they’ve worked with before
Another important consideration is to do a little bit of research into the brands they’ve previously worked with. It’s no good promoting a fast-fashion brand with a blogger that’s worked with only slow fashion brands previously. While you might see some results, likely, the interest of their audience won’t align with what you have to offer.
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Track record
Beyond checking engagement rates and looking into brands they’ve worked with, you should ask influencers for some key stats or case studies. At the very least, they should be able to provide some basic figures that you can review before partnering up with them. While they may not have access to in-depth reports, they need to offer some results for your consideration.
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Are they truly a good fit?
If you’ve done your due diligence and narrowed down your choices, you need to step back and ask if your choice is truly a good fit for your brand. Remember, influencers become an extension of your brand. Sometimes they can be a consumer-first contact with you, so, you want them to echo your message and values.
We know, it’s a complicated game. If you’re not up to the challenge, Conversion Digital is. Get in touch to see how we can help you with your strategy today.