Influencer marketing is a growing industry and is expected to grow even more in 2021. In 2016, the industry had a market size of $1.7 billion and may reach $13.8 billion in 2021. The reason for this incredible growth is that consumers are more trusting of stories told through influencer campaigns, whereas they are losing trust in traditional advertising direct from customers.
It taps into several cognitive biases including the ‘Social Proof’ bias which causes you to trust someone else’s opinion and the more someone has influence, the more you trust what they say. Another powerful psychological trigger is the ‘Liking’ bias, making you say ‘yes’ to people you already like. 90% of people believe influencer marketing to be an effective form of marketing, so as a small business you should start taking advantage. [source]
Who Are You Influencing?
The first step to creating effective influencer marketing campaigns is to know who you’re targeting. Use your customer persona or create one that includes your target customer’s age, gender, location, interests, social media platforms they use, education level, income level, occupation, marital status, and any more details you can think of. Remember this is your ideal customer, not every single customer, so it doesn’t matter if your products and services target more people, the aim is to just have a main ideal customer to focus on.
IF you have multiple customer personas in your business, then write out the details for each one of them before you start your influencer marketing campaigns. You can then target the platforms, influencers, and partners that will reach your target customer.
Target Micro-Influencers for Higher Engagement Rates
Micro-influencers often have more engaging communities and therefore can earn you a greater ROI on your marketing budgets. Small influencers will more likely work with you as an affiliate and will often charge much less for sponsorships than larger influencers while achieving higher engagement rates.
There are three strategies and tactics we recommend for starting your influencer marketing campaigns, and we’ll mention them in the second part of this two-part post.
If you want to get started immediately and you’re ready to begin your influencer marketing campaigns, then reach out to one of our marketing strategists at The Archangel Group and we’ll help you set up your influencer marketing campaigns.
