Thought the glitzy and glamorous world of influencers and media advertising wasn't a good fit for your company? Well, you were mistaken. However, we do not blame you for making this error. After all, if your company offers more 'typical' services or goods, you may have thought, "and why would my firm need the guidance of a trendy young internet star?".
However, before ignoring the concept of influencers, consider what your company requires to grow and survive. For example, you must sell 'in-demand' services or products and ensure that your consumers want to continue purchasing in the future.
So let's begin by understanding influencers, because once you understand what they stand for, you will see how they can be effective tools for increasing your business's sales and consumer engagement online.
Continue reading to learn about more influencers or jump right to why and how you should utilise them to promote your business, no matter what industry you're in.
What exactly are influencers?
The clue lies in the name: being an influencer necessitates the ability to represent anything. Their supporters, in turn, are individuals who are inspired by whatever that person represents via their digital platform and associated content.
So, who exactly are these influencers? According to Am Golhar, founder of Abstract PR and one of the panelists, there are approximately "1.1 million influencers in the world."
But how do companies sort out the good influencers from the bad?
Find the most suitable influencer for you
“Out of this vast number of influencers, there are businesses that fake their number of influencers. But there are also legitimate influencers that can add real value to a brand. It’s one thing looking at an influencer with a huge following, but what are they promoting and can it add value to your business” These are the questions you need to ask yourself first.”
According to Golhar, if a firm wants to try out the services of an influencer, it should look for one with a highly focused following rather than someone with a large fan base, but why?
“If you’re a UK based business, it’s better to look for an influencer with a smaller following but whose main audience is in the UK, as there’s no point going for a global influencer whose main audience is in the US if you’re a UK based SME.”
What is it that makes influencers influential?
It all revolves around the content they create; that's what makes or should make influencers truly persuasive in terms of business growth. Below is what the second panelist, Influencer's Ben Jeffries, founder of the UK influencer marketing company, had to say about it:
“I prefer calling influencers influential content creators. They are influential because of the content they create, and attached to this is the level of user engagement, and the greater impact their content creates over the number of followers they have”.
As per Jeffries, it all boils down to the level of influence your desired influencer has over a specific category of the market and whether or not that segment of the market is effective to your industry.
How can companies use influencers to increase sales?
Dhillan Bhardwaj, CEO and founder of youth clothing brand Ratchet, shares his thoughts on how resellers can best leverage influencers:
“An estimated 2.96 billion people use social media around the world, any business worth their salt needs to tap into that.” Dhillan Bhardwaj, Ratchet clothing
Bhardwaj echoes Jeffries' earlier remarks, “It’s about the value and quality of the influencer and not just how many followers they have,”
“You need to ensure that they stimulate active and regular engagement, and this includes things such as likes, comments and reshares online. Avoid getting seduced by influencers with large numbers of followers, there’s been a lot of coverage about influencers buying followers, so prioritiseAssessing the levels of active engagement they have with users instead.”
“It’s not possible for ANY brand to be successful in the future without social media.” Dhillan Bhardwaj
What is your key performance indicator?
Before your firm collaborates with an influencer, you must first determine what your end goal is. Do you intend to increase brand awareness or boost clicks and profits? Depending on your true objective for using an influencer, you must then consider the four different kinds of influencers available and evaluate which type is the best for your company's needs.
- Nano - 1 to 10,000 followers
- Micro - 10,000 to 100,000 followers
- Macro - 100,00 to 1 million followers
- Hero - More than a million followers
These various types of influencers each possess their own set of advantages and disadvantages, so choose wisely, advises Jeffries:
“For example, hero and macro influencers are great for giving brand awareness and name affinity to a business because their audiences are so vast. However, you need to look at their audience and relate it to the outreach of your own business.”
“For example, it’s better to go for a smaller influencer with a more concentrated audience and CPM (cost per mile) if you’re a smaller business too, as you’ll get a much more effective KPI driven campaign as a result.”
Conduct research on the influencer
Lauren Tickner, a YouTube entrepreneur and podcast professional, believes that buttering up influencers requires patience and effort. This begins, she says, with conducting research on the specific influencer before approaching them:
“Avoid doing a copy and paste job when making contact with influencers, as that will turn them right off. If you find a great influencer, do some research into their content. For example, check out their youtube videos and see what they’ve been talking about.”
“Comment on the pieces of information your business found interesting and say why you liked it. This will make an influencer feel cared about and valued and will make them more likely to give you a better rate for their content.”
“Linked to this initial research is finding out who your customers are following online, whatever influencers they are following are the influencers that you should be making contact with.” Lauren Tickner
Why could it be important for businesses to use influencers?
In short, these influencers have spent a long time cultivating their audiences, which means they have earned their supporters' trust. And if your research indicates that these fans are your ideal clients for your business, Jeffries says, why wouldn't you want to utilise them?
“It’s marketing 101, it’s about advertising your goods and services to people, but in a place where their main attention is.”
“People spend about 8 hours a week on social media on average. That’s a huge amount of our collective attention and businesses need to tap into that,” he continues.
Influencers are popular among Generation Z, and potentially they could be your future customers
Based on information gathered by the entire panel, approximately 71% of Gen Z online users have a tight connection with at least one influencer.
This means they have developed a high level of trust with these influencers and are therefore more likely to believe in the worth of the products and services that they highly suggest.
Furthermore, Gen Z is a significantly more 'reactive' digital user than earlier generations; they adore YouTube and consume content on it at a much higher rate. This means that when influencers endorse products and services on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram, their followers are more likely to respond, according to vlogging specialist Tickner.
“Businesses need to transition into social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram if they haven’t done so already.”
“They need to engage with these platforms, as this will be the way that businesses engage with the next generation of consumers. Without doing this, businesses can’t hope to grow and accelerate in the future.”
