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When the 2000s came so did the rise of the internet. The internet gave companies and brands the opportunity to explore and take advantage of the new market. Now, the rise and popularity of social media have allowed bloggers and influencers the platform to engage in influencer marketing advertising. This has developed a mutually beneficial relationship between companies and influencers, which elevates the brands of influencers and companies alike.
What is an Influencer?
As defined by the Influencer Marketing Hub, an influencer is someone who has the power to affect the purchasing decision of others because of their knowledge, position, platform and/or relationship they have with their audience. They have a following in their distinct niche, which can range from Tech, Gaming, Food and Drink, Beauty, and/ or Fashion. The size of the following varies from influencer to influencer and depends on the topic of their niche.
Influencers can help brands establish a relationship with an audience that can help them accomplish their marketing objectives since their followers look to these influencers in social media to help them with their decision-making in what are the best products or services to buy.
Is Influencer Marketing Here to Stay?
Before influencers, companies were more inclined to use celebrities for their marketing, from Beyoncé to Britney Spears being paid advertisers for Pepsi, social media has given companies another channel to market their products more affordable to the entire world. According to a We Are Social 2019 report, 3.5 billion people are social media users which is 45% of the world’s population.
Based on industry projections, influencer marketing advertising is set to grow to approximately from $9.7 billion in 2020 to $13.8 Billion in 2021. Clearly influencer marketing advertising is not going anywhere anytime soon. According to the 2020 report, the top spending industries are Tech, Gaming, Food and Drink, Beauty, and Fashion. These industries spent $825 million in YouTube sponsored videos combined and garnered over 6.4 billion views
Brands that Invest in Influencer Marketing
The highest spending brands on YouTube include Honey, Audible, Skillshare, Squarespace, and Bang Energy, which have invested in a combined $368 million in YouTube influencer marketing. Their sponsored videos amassed 3.2 billion views from 1,838 influencers and 6,525 videos. The highest-spending spot is Honey, and they invested $62.7 million in influencer marketing advertising and this is just on YouTube alone.
Which Campaign Objective is Right for You?
The campaign objectives vary from brand to brand and what a brand deems which campaign is needed for to sell a certain product or service. There are four types of campaign objectives: branding and awareness, contest/giveaway, download or install, and limited time offer, with a majority of campaigns using limited time offer and less than 1% of companies used a contest or giveaway.
In addition to campaign objectives, there are also four main ways advertisers choose to engage their product all of which are the calls to action. The calls to action fall under four main categories which either ask the consumer to click the link in bio, follow a direct purchase page, enter the giveaway, or fill out a contact form. These options give you the avenue to direct consumers to further information or a place to go to buy that product.
Research shows that click a link in the bio and a direct purchase page makes up almost 100% of sponsored videos on YouTube while entering a giveaway or fill out contact form trail behind with less than 1%. Data supports that brands also favor direct calls to action that they can track, and measure return on investment of influencer marketing on YouTube.
Interested in more YouTube influencer marketing data? Read the research overview here, or download our full report here.
What Content Type is Best for You?
There are different content type videos you can do that will allow the influencer to engage with your product or service better. Dedicated videos are videos where the influencer dedicates the entire video to promote your product or service. There are integrated videos, where the influencer integrates or casually drops in their sponsorship and then they resume whatever topic they are doing in the video. An intro card is when the sponsorship is presented at the beginning of the video whereas the end card is when the sponsorship is presented at or towards the end.
As mentioned in the 2020 report, integrated content continues to be the dominant content type with appearing in 59% of videos from the top brands and intro cards coming in second. The Gaming and Food and Drink industry almost exclusively used one type of content with Gaming using dedicated videos and Food and Drink using integrated content.
Looking to run an epic influencer marketing campaign to take your brand to the next level? NeoReach has the best experience in creating viral campaigns that convert on social media. Sign up here!
Different Influencer Levels and Why a Brand Would Work with Each
Influencers can be categorized in a variety of ways such as type of content, the level of influence but the most common way used by most brands is by follower count. There are four general influencer levels: mega, macro, micro, and nano influencers.
Mega-Influencers
Mega-influencers are the biggest type of influencers with a vast number of followers on their social media networks. While each mega-influencer is different one common view is that all mega-influencers have no less than a million followers on at least one social media platform.
Many mega-influencers can also be celebrities, who were already famous for other things like an actor, musician, and/ or athlete. Lately, we have seen influencers amass over a million followers on multiple social media platforms with just influencing. It’s not surprising for a mega-influencer to become a celebrity through their content from social media especially with the rise of TikTok.
In 2017, the American Influencer Awards were founded to recognize and award those in the social media influencer industry. Even the People’s Choice Awards has now added a “Beauty Influencer of Year” category. Because their influence is so massive, many mega-influencers end up launching their own brands that is why only big brands with massive budgets should approach mega-influencers for influencer marketing. Mega-influencers know the power of their platform, therefore, charge very high prices and brands should only approach these influencers with their budgets in mind. Many influencers of this magnitude, if not all, will probably have a manager or agent making marketing deals for them.
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Looking to work with a mega influencer on your next campaign? Check out this blog for everything you need to know when working with an influencer talent agency.
Macro-Influencers
Macro-influencers are influencers that have garnered a significant following and are doing very well in their area of expertise. There is more macro-influencer than mega-influencers so for many brands they are easier to find and due to their smaller, yet impactful following, brands are more likely to reach out to these influencers. It’s also easier for brands to reach their target market.
Macro-influencers are right under mega-influencers and more accessible to a lot of brands. Their followers can be anywhere between the beginning stages of 50,000 all the way up to just under a million. Macro-influencers can be celebrities too, like athletes, musicians, or even actors just on the lesser-known scale. Even though these macro-influencers are also celebrities, brands are less likely to work with these Macro-influencers because they haven’t built an interactive following who will be directly influenced to buy a product.
Micro-Influencers
Micro-influencers are social media creators with around 10,000 to 50,000 followers. More than likely they are ordinary people who have gained a big enough following through their knowledge in a particular niche such as beauty, travel, food, or even tech and establish their own communities through their content. Since their following size is smaller and content is directly tailored to their niche, micro-influencers develop a very devoted and personal relationship with their followers who are interested in their content or opinions creating a high engagement level.
Micro-influencers are becoming more and more common as influencers are able to build their following as more people especially since COVID-19 are requiring others to be on social media and the internet. Micro-influencers are the future as social media is becoming more segmented. You often hear people talk about the fashion side of Instagram or the food section of TikTok. People like knowing where to go to see certain content.
Because Micro-influencers have a specialty following, they are picky about who they work with. They do not want to work with a brand that does not align with their content as their followers will view them as someone who can be easily bought or change their views for money. A healthy food or fitness influencer would probably not work with McDonald’s as it will confuse their relationship with their following. They would probably work with a brand that offers healthy meal plans. Brands that reach out to influencers have to explain why their brand aligns with the influencer’s target audience, but this can be to your benefit. Working with an influencer with a hyper-specific following will make sure your product is seen by people who already have an interest in what you are selling.
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For smaller brands, micro-influencers can be your best option because they are cost-effective. Brands on a budget who are looking to get into influencer marketing can profit off of having multiple micro-influencers promoting their product to a vast amount of people in high-quality content at a lower price. Micro-influencers are the perfect balance between reaching a large target audience on social media without paying that hefty price.
Thinking about working with a great micro-influencer? Read more about the benefits of working with micro-influencers and how to find the best ones for your campaign here.
Nano-Influencers
The term nano-influencer is fairly new but they are gaining a lot of recognition. The nano-influencer has less than 10,00 followers and sometimes can even have less than 1,000. Despite them having a very small following, just like micro-influencers they have developed a niche following but on an extreme level. Because of how small their following is, they have a more devoted and loyal relationship with their followers.
Nano-influencers are considered the most powerful influencer marketing level due to this very reason. Advertisers are able to get a very specific reach when they work with nano-influencers. A nano-influencer with 3,000 followers may have the exact audience the company wants to reach as opposed to a mega or macro influencer who has a massive following, but the number of people interested in that certain niche may be very small. Another marker of nano-influencers success is the direct relationships they have with their followers. You are more likely to buy something you see a friend promote since it feels more personal, it comes off like a recommendation more than an advertisement.
Statistics prove that nano-influencers have 60% higher campaign engagement rates than other influencers and are 6.7 times more efficient per engagement. This means nano-influencers are more cost-effective than any other level of influencer.
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FAQs
1. How much should I pay influencers?
Every influencer will charge a different amount, as a brand that wants to get into influencer marketing advertising, it is important you create a budget on how much you are willing to spend. When you reach out to an influencer, they will often respond with the percentage of their engagements which what they base their rates on. What they charge will also depend on what you are asking for, is it just an Instagram post? An Instagram post and a story? An Instagram post, a story, and a YouTube video? The more you are requiring the higher you will pay.
On average, nano-influencers can charge anywhere from $10 to $100 for an Instagram post but on YouTube, they can charge from $20 to $200 per video. With micro-influencers, they can ask for $100 to $500 for Instagram and for YouTube, $200-$1,000 per video. Because macro-influencers are very broad in terms of followers, they can charge $500 to $10,000 per Instagram post and $1,000 to $20,000 per video. While mega-influencers can charge $10,000 plus per post and $20,000 plus per video.
2.How do I find influencers that align with my brand?
As a brand, it is important that you decide what type of influencers you want to work with. Asking yourself a series of questions can help narrow down your search.
- What does my brand represent?
- What does my target audience look like?
- What do they do for an occupation?
- Where do they live?
- Are they more on Instagram or YouTube? Or Both?
- What are my brand’s values?
If you have trouble answering these questions, look at your data. What product sells more than the other? Where does your customer hear about your company? Facebook or LinkedIn?
Knowing these things will further narrow down what you are looking for and will help you work smarter and not harder. Influencers are picky about who they work with but as a brand so should you. Do your research, google is your friend, try typing in “new influencers vegan food;” searching through hashtags is also helpful, the results will show influencers that in your specific niche. There are also great agencies and companies that use their research and software to connect brands to influencers and influencers with brands.
Need more help? We have a full guide to finding influencers in your industry here, as well as NeoReach Freemium, a free searchable database.
3. Once I find an influencer, how do I reach out to them?
Finding an influencer that aligns with your brand is the easy part. With influencer marketing advertising becoming an essential part of most companies advertising budgets, it can be hard to stand out against other brands fighting for influencers’ attention as well. Coming up with your own unique strategy to make a good impression and also communicate your needs is something you have to plan beforehand. Do your research on the influencer and slowly start to build up your interactions with that influencer.
Building a strong relationship is the best way to approach influencer marketing. You want to have relationships with influencers so the partnership can feel more mutual and authentic. It’s never too late, to reach out and initiating contact. Using templates is a great way to remain original and give you a guide on what to say. Influencers can tell if you copy and paste the same message to everyone, so try to tailor it specifically to them.
Maintaining these relationships over time will not only build trust with that influencer but their audience as well. Their followers will see that their favorite influencer consistently promotes this same brand then they will be more likely to purchase. Your goal should be to cultivate genuine connections, so even after a campaign tries to keep in touch and stay up to date on what they are doing. This will show the influencer that you care, and they will be happy to work with you again if the opportunity presents itself.
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References
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