Incorporating influencer marketing into your content strategy

Influencer marketing is on the rise, but do you know how you can use it to promote your brand?

have you ever seen a character from your favourite TV series drinking a Coca-Cola? This type of advertising, called product placement, is the origin of today's influencer marketing according to Gerardo Sordo, CEO and founder of the Mexican company BrandMe. The difference between the two strategies lies in the distribution channel, as we have moved from films, series or video clips to social networks.

So... What is influencer marketing? It is a commercial action that can enrich a brand's content creation through collaborations with public and influential figures. In this way, the company positions its messages in the digital world through the social profiles of influencers who transmit trust and credibility to their followers. In this sense, they must also be related to the brand's services and products: if you sell pyjamas, look for fashion profiles.

Influencer marketing can therefore offer a valuable reach for your business because it allows you to reach your potential customers through content created by people they admire. If you think you can take advantage of this strategy, read on to find out all the details.

Types of influencers

The objectives you set, taking into account the budget and the product to promote, will guide the choice of the type of influencer your campaign needs. Maybe, instead of using the person with the most followers in the sector, you can get a greater benefit with a micro-influencer who has a very high level of engagement. Therefore, it is important to know all the types of influencers that exist:

• top celebrities- they have more than 30 million followers and a global reach.
• celebrities: They have more than 1 million followers and are recognised for their talent offline.
• top influencers: Like celebrities, they have more than 1 million followers. The difference is that they did become known on the Internet.
• macro-influencers: They have between 100,000 and 999,000 followers thanks to their work on social networks. They are relatively well known by society and their audience is growing gradually.
• micro-influencers: They have between 10,000 and 99,000 followers and are considered content creators for a more segmented audience.
• crowds: They have between 300 and 9,000 followers. They offer a very niche reach, but are the most likely to sponsor products.

Steps to find the ideal influencer

The most difficult task in influencer marketing is to find the protagonists of the campaign. It is not enough to contact the first one you find: you have to carry out an exhaustive search that will allow you to choose the ideal influencer for each promotion. To do this, do not hesitate to follow these three steps:

1. study the budget: to check how high up the pyramid of influencer types your company can go, you need to establish the budget of the campaign. This is also useful for designing the promotion model: is it better to invest in one celebrity or many micro-influencers? With all this in mind, you can start looking.
2. search on social networks and the Internet, using keywords related to your brand or product. Some examples would be: fashion, video games, cinema, travel, etc. Make these general searches, but also more specific ones: shoes, Minecraft, Spanish cinema, European travel, etc. Also, remember to take advantage of the option offered by social networks (and Instagram in particular) to consult profiles related to an account that you find interesting. In turn, in search engines you can make queries such as: "Spanishinfluencers on fashion", "most populargamers in Spain", etc.
3. create a list of influencers. When you have finished your research and you are satisfied with the results, it is time to organise the influencers in a list. Include data such as the number of followers, their specialisation, the type of content they create, the platform where they have the greatest impact... Everything you can think of. From there, you can choose the most suitable ones for each specific campaign. Moreover, as you collaborate with them, you can determine whether you obtained the expected benefits to work with them again in the future or discard them.

Types of influencer marketing partnerships

Most influencers are experts in content creation, so collaborating with them is an almost certain guarantee of quality and effectiveness. With proper supervision, you can take advantage of the content they generate about your brand to position yourself and reach a wider audience. But... What kind of content are we talking about? Thanks to the diversity of formats and dissemination channels, collaborations offer many possibilities. Let's take a look at them one by one:

• review: This is about showing the experience they have had with the product or service, talking about its features, benefits or shortcomings.
• mention: Here, the influencer only mentions the brand in some of their content. It requires a call to action to be more effective.
• recommendation: The aim is to find profiles that really admire your brand so that they can recommend it to their followers in a natural and sincere way.
• lookbook: Like a recommendation, but focused on the world of fashion.
• favourites: In this case, the influencer makes it clear why a product is fundamental to their lifestyle.
• tutorial: This consists of explaining how a product works in a didactic and entertaining way, very common in the world of make-up and technology.
• gamePlay: Like a tutorial, but focused on video games, gamers show their followers how they play.
• comedy sketch, used to promote a product through comedy.
• tikTok or Reel: This is about taking advantage of the new successful formats on social networks to promote oneself, preferably in collaboration with influencers who have a large following, as the aim is to generate an immediate and far-reaching impact.
• unboxing, one of the most popular formats, consists of opening the product package and showing it while the influencer comments on it.

At this point, let's review. Keeping in mind the objective of the promotion (improving the brand image or increasing sales of a product), set the budget and create a campaign adapted to it. To do this, create a list of influencers and assess what impact or reach you would like to achieve. From there, choose the most suitable profiles (or singular, if you choose to invest in a celebrity) and determine the type of collaboration, the format and the broadcasting channel.

That's it, you're ready to publish the promotion! And then, what should you do?

Measure the impact of the campaign with these metrics

Indeed, the last step is to measure the results, just as you would do in any other marketing strategy. The difference lies in the type of metrics that allow you to demonstrate the effectiveness of the campaign. Let's take a look at the most important ones:

• potential reach: this is the sum of all the influencers ' followers
• real reach: This is the sum of all the impressions obtained by the campaign content.
• engagement: This is the sum of all the interactions that the content has obtained, i.e. the sum of likes, comments or the number of times it has been shared.
• engagement rate: This is used for each influencer. It is obtained by dividing the engagement of their content by their number of followers. Then, multiply the result by 100 and you get the percentage. The higher it is, the higher the engagement of that profile.
• cost per engagement (CPE) is the division of the cost of the campaign by the engagement. It can be used in general and for each influencer. This way, you get the price of each interaction.
• cost per acquisition (CPA) is the division of the cost of the campaign by the number of new leads or products sold, thus, you get the price of each lead or sale.
• cost per click (CPC) is the division of the cost of the campaign by the number of clicks to the link you placed in the promotion. Thus, you get the price of each click.
• other metrics: For example, demographic data to consult the origin of the users, the distinction between genders, the average or most repeated age, etc. These data are usually offered by the social networks themselves.

Through this essential analysis, you can check what has worked, what hasn't or what you can improve for future campaigns. In addition, you will be selecting the profiles that offer the most attractive results. As you can see, influencer marketing offers another way to create content that promotes your brand and its products or services. Do you dare to try it?