Influencers: A Practical Guide for your online business

First of all: what is an Influencer?

The most common picture that these words summon is a celebrity sponsoring an item via their social channels. Due to its nature of immediacy, Instagram is perfect to act like a billboard showing directly to consumers the advertised product and people tend to associate the channel to Influencers by default. In reality, all social media channels have their famous Influencers, and it’s not rare that they are very popular on more than one platform.

Whatever media an Influencer picks to express themselves, however, in the last years it has become a usual practice for brands and businesses of various size to look at these people as an effective way to quickly reach a vast audience. If you ever thought about hiring an Influencer to sponsor your business, you are in good company. It has been estimated that 49% of entrepreneurs hired or plan to hire an Influencer during the last year. The Asian market is particularly enthusiastic about Influencers and the percentage of brands which invested in this type of advertisement almost doubles: 78%.

Digital marketers like the Influencers model because they help to spread the content. With “moving a content” we mean that Influencers show their audience the product marketers want to advertise, describing in their way why they think it’s a good purchase to do. Online being seen is what adds value to your brand, and these people can display a brand or an item quite easily.

First of all, let’s see what types of Influencers you can find online.

• Celebrity Influencers: the most famous group, formed by V.I.Ps. such as actors, musicians, and so on. We also put in this category social media stars, people who got so famous online that they started to build a side business related to their online activity. Example of this can be the Italian makeup blogger Clio Zammateo, who began her career filming makeup tutorials online and now runs her makeup brand, she had her tv — shows, and a top-rated blog. Celebrity Influencers counts millions of followers and proposing them to sponsor your product is going to cost you thousands of dollars. For example, asking the actor and YouTube celebrity Cameron Dallas to sponsor your brand in a single post is going to cost you around 14.000€.

Advantage: they have a huge audience, so whatever you want to advertise is going to be seen by thousands of thousands (if not millions) of potential buyers.

• Macro Influencers: with a pool of audience that usually starts around 130.000 and up followers, macro Influencers aren’t that much less famous than V.I.Ps. And they surely are well-known inside the online community. A good example is the YouTube channel Rachel and Jun, where this Japanese/American married couple talks about life in Japan both for locals and foreigners. They have more than 2 millions of subscribers, and their videos are considered a great resource of information and fun.

Advantage: if you want to contact one or more of these Influencers, be ready to pay, but most understand that their loyalty doesn’t go to the brand they are promoting, but to their audience. This doesn’t mean they’re going to do a great job sponsoring your brand, but they can choose not to continue the collaboration if a better opportunity arises or if they think your values don’t align with theirs. However, if you can afford to hire one, you’ll have the advantage to have an impressive amount of users visualising your product.

• Micro — Influencers: these are ordinary people who got pretty famous using their social media. They focus on a particular industry, and they collected a passionate audience. Even if they are not V.I.P., they still are famous in the part of the online community interested in the main subject of their blog or YouTube channel. Their followers’ numbers aren’t enormous — usually between 1.000–3.000 people) — but they’re actively interested in hearing about a specific subject. A good example is the case of Tom’s of Maine, a brand producing personal care products using natural ingredients only. They chose to launch a digital marketing campaign partnering with local Micro — Influencers, guessing — rightly — that these people’s followers identify themselves as “normal audience”, meaning they’re not interested in eccentric beauty products, but something more suitable for an everyday beauty routine. Therefore, they’re responsive in following the advice of a Micro — Influencer, perceived as someone who is their peer.

Advantage: these Influencers are cheaper to hire than stars and V.I.P., but whoever follows them is actively interested in the subject. Their fanbase wants to hear more about whatever topic the Micro — Influencer is talking about. An entrepreneur only needs to find the Micro — Influencer whom interests align best with the product they are meant to advertise.

• Bloggers: they aren’t always active on YouTube, but the posts on their blogs are much longer than a quick Instagram shot out. These type of Influencers, however, are handy when people search for reviews about a product or a traveling experience. Bloggers who review and talk about traveling and living in another Country are also very popular among online users.

Advantage: hiring a blogger gives you two options. You can ask them to host your banner to promote the brand, or you can send them one item of yours to test and review. If you do so, be ready that there is the risk, they won’t like it, and they’ll write a report accordingly. Their range of price can vary depending on how famous they are.

• Professional Influencers: despite their name, “professional” doesn’t identify who works and earns money being an Influencer, but an Influencer who is a capable specialist in the field they talk about on their social channels. A good example is Alison Green, founder of the blog. Ask a Manager. Ms. Green is a manager herself, and she advises on different situations that can happen in workplaces. The audience that follows her is other entrepreneurs who want to learn how to navigate problems in the workplace or advice about colleagues.

Advantage: searching a collaboration with these type of Influencers has the strength to be of promoting an item to an audience that has high chances to be interested and spread the word among other professionals. The essential factor in succeeding with this type of Influencers is offering them a product which will add value in the professional field they’re working.

• Brand ambassadors (also called brand advocates): some of them don’t even think to call themselves Influencers. They’re very normal people whom followers aren’t more than 800–1000. They usually post a lot about their lives or a particular interest, are very passionate, and they do it mostly for fun. Even employees at your own business can become brand advocates. Every time they post something business related to the social networks they are talking in good terms — hopefully — of your business and spreading the information among their followers.

Advantage: hire one, and you can acquire an enthusiastic audience to talk about your product. You will also have the benefit that — wrongly — a lot of brands don’t think a little pool of people is enough to pay for advertisement. So you won’t have a lot of competitors while proposing your offer. If your brand sells a product that can interest them, you’ll have the opportunity to talk to people genuinely interested in your business. The chance to convert them into paying customers is pretty high.

Now that I showed you how many differences lay under the generic term “Influencer”, let’s see why hiring one could be a good move.

What is a brand really paying for when hiring an influencer?

• A good Influencer can communicate well: they didn’t gain followers talking to themselves, but being able to offer valued content for their users to consume while listening to them. 79% of people who use social networks both for work and for fun admit they are more willing to subscribe to a channel or an account when the person who runs it answer questions or quote followers. Think about it: many online celebrities often ask in the comment section of their post or video what people would like to talk about next and they always have a consistent response.
• It generates sales: we already wrote that Influencers move your content, pushing it towards people that could be interested in it. Therefore, if you have picked the right person to advertise your product, a person who has an audience interested in your item or field, you have a fair number of possibilities that some of them will convert into customers. These are the results of a recent survey we did:

Would you follow an Influencer’s suggestion to buy a sponsored item you’re interested in? (1000 Respondents)

Yes, I often trust the ones I follow to advise me something I would like (30%)

No, I prefer to research other information / I decide all by myself (28%)

It would help me decide, but only if the business which produces the item provided other information via other platforms as well (website, digital marketing campaign, social channels) (42%)

• They help you create brand awareness: you want customers and potential ones to recognise your logo and what do you sell. Having someone talking about your product will undoubtedly expand both your fame and your sales, especially if this someone is an influential voice in the market you compete in. This operation will also drive more traffic to your website, increasing the possibility to convert the leads into buyers.
• An Influencer stimulates engagement: it’s basically half of their work engaging with the followers. The 69% of clients between 21–31 years old admit they felt more comfortable asking questions about a product in an Influencer’s post. In a range of people between 32–50 years old, 49% of them declared online reviews from a strong personality have an impact on what they purchase. If you wish to increase the engagement and help the lead to reach your website, consider opening a social channel where the Influencer is, if you don’t have one already. In this way, the potential buyers can click on the tag redirecting to your account and there finding links to your website, besides more details about your brand, philosophy and products.

Now that we’re at the end of this trip into the Influencer’s reality, some considerations are in order.

The first one is not to forget to treat Influencers like any other professionals you would contact for a partnership, so a contract of a formal agreement of some sort is the best move for the both of you — if you don’t want to deal with this part, contact a Digital Advertising Agency like Targeto and let us represent you.

The second factor you should keep in mind is deciding what do you want from an Influencer: a commercial partnership or a simple review of your product?
If in the first case you’re allowed to suggest the advertisement — its length, or when it will be aired — when you ask for a review the Influencer usually does that for free or almost, that can vary from person to person, in exchange of a sample of what you want them to sponsor. In this case, the Influencer will publish an honest review, and you won’t be guaranteed to have a positive review.

Before we leave, remember: if you want to hire an Influencer, choose someone who aligns with your views and brand values, who has a strong reputation online in the market/industry you’re interested — a good one, of course — and not forget that they’re just one asset to be considered in a more complex marketing campaign.