The Components of Influencer Marketing What Is Influencer Marketing? These individuals have influence over an audience you might be trying to reach, and can be helpful marketing to those buyers. There is some overlap between celebrity endorsements and influencer marketing campaigns. Reach: Can this influencer engage your audience? In other words, celebrity product endorsements are less about engagement and more about attaching a person's fame and name recognition to a particular brand -- regardless of who specifically follows their career. Their latest influencer campaign is rooted in the social media hashtag #LiveUnlimited, and features people who have massive social media presences. H&M has one of the largest Instagram followings of any fashion brand on social media today, due in large part to its influencer campaign with women who reflect H&M's style all by themselves. Stride Gum If anyone has figured out how to gain a loyal following on Snapchat, it's hip-hop artist and producer DJ Khaled. Working with W+K London, Stride Gum launched a Snapchat takeover campaign with Khaled last year to promote its "Mad Intense Gum" campaign. Glossier Influencers: All Women This Manhattan-based beauty startup (which was recently named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies of 2017) owes much of their seemingly overnight cult status to their ever-expanding network of super fans and micro-influencers -- those people who may have high influence, but low individual reach.
You can’t go anywhere these days without hearing about the elusive, purportedly mystical powers of influencer marketing.
But is this buzzword-laden tactic actually worth your time and energy?
According to a recent study comprised of marketers from a variety of industries, 94% said influencer marketing was an effective campaign strategy. That’s great news for marketers — right?
Not so fast. Even though a majority of marketers believe influencer marketing is a viable tactic, it’s still incredibly challenging to report accurately on influencer campaign ROI. In fact, 78% of marketers said that determining the success of influencer marketing campaigns would be a top challenge this year.
So even though the tangible benefits of influencer marketing — follower engagement, driving traffic, and creating more authentic content — seem clear-cut, there’s still a lot of progress to be made in making this form of campaign measurable for agencies and marketers.
The Components of Influencer Marketing
What Is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is designed to tap into an existing community of engaged followers on social media. Influencers are specialists in their niches. These individuals have influence over an audience you might be trying to reach, and can be helpful marketing to those buyers.
Let’s back up for a minute. How exactly do you perform influencer marketing, and how does it differ from the traditional celebrity spokesperson advertising model?
There is some overlap between celebrity endorsements and influencer marketing campaigns. But fans of influencers trust that their endorsement of a product or brand comes from a well-researched, more holistic place, rather than something as simple as a signed contract between a brand and a person of influence.
And while there is often a formal agreement in place between both parties, influencers tend to be more selective about their affiliations, choosing to partner with brands that reflect their unique personal brands and won’t alienate their followers.
With that in mind, here are four things you need to keep in mind when launching an influencer marketing campaign:
- Expertise: Would the content of your campaign be appropriate coming from this influencer, given what he or she is famous for?
- Reach: Can this influencer engage your audience? Does she specifically have reach on the social media channels where your audience spends its time?
- Demographic: Is this person’s following similar to your company’s buyer persona? Does he or she affect the same people?
- Notoriety: Is this influencer well liked? Is his/her fame split between admiration and condemnation, or are they a person of mass appeal? (The latter is what you want, so as to not alienate potential customers.)
In other words, celebrity product endorsements are less about engagement and more about attaching a person’s fame and name recognition to a particular brand — regardless of who specifically follows their career. For brands, this type of campaign is much more about grabbing the attention of a wide audience than tapping into a very specific niche.
10 Influencer Marketing Examples
To give you an idea of how brands — both big and small — are leveraging the power of influencers in their marketing efforts, we’ve put together a list of ten influencer-driven campaigns. Check them out below and decide for yourself: Is influencer marketing worth the hype?
1. Sprint
Influencers: Lele Pons, Gerard Adams, Prince Royce, Bradley Martyn, Rachel Cook
Not only did Sprint cause Verizon’s famous “can you hear me now?” guy to switch to Sprint, but the company has done a ton of collaborative work with musicians, entrepreneurs, and actors to gain the attention of a massive young audience.
Their latest influencer campaign is rooted in the social media hashtag #LiveUnlimited, and features people who have massive social media presences. The best part is these people naturally embody the appearance and lifestyle of #LiveUnlimited. Elite Daily founder Gerard Adams and internet…
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