Influencer Marketing: How to Do it Right

• Contest Factory
• April 4, 2023

Marketing has certainly been through a revolution ever since the internet hit the internet! Entrepreneurs were unleashed to dream, design, build, and market their masterpieces. Adding web 2.0 provided further mind-blowing opportunities for the technology-hungry audience growing globally. This rise of individual ability to make a name and breakthrough big brands advertising has never been so present as now. And thus, influencer marketing has been born. Let’s review how influencer marketing works, who are the top influencers to watch, what influencer marketing costs, what influencer marketing is doing for top brands, and where to find influencers for your brand.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketers provide or do several things for brands, including:

1. Promote products or services: Influencer marketers promote products or services on behalf of brands to their own audiences on social media, blogs, and other digital channels. This can help increase brand awareness, drive sales, and generate leads.
2. Create content: Influencer marketers create high-quality, engaging content that resonates with their audiences and aligns with the brand’s messaging and values. This can include sponsored blog posts, social media posts, and videos.
3. Increase brand visibility: Influencer marketers can help increase a brand’s visibility and reach by leveraging their own audiences and social media channels. By partnering with influencers, brands can tap into new audiences and increase their reach on social media.
4. Build brand trust and credibility: Influencer marketers can help build trust and credibility for brands by promoting their products or services to their audiences. This is especially true for micro-influencers, who have smaller but more engaged audiences and are seen as more authentic and trustworthy by their followers.
5. Provide valuable insights: Influencer marketers can provide valuable insights into their audiences, including demographics, interests, and buying behavior. Brands can use this information to create more effective marketing campaigns and tailor their messaging to better resonate with their target audience.

Overall, influencer marketers provide a valuable service to brands by helping them reach new audiences, increase their visibility, and drive sales. By partnering with influencers, brands can leverage the trust and credibility that they have built with their audiences to achieve their marketing goals.

Top Social Media Influencers

Some of the top influencer names come as no surprise – and that’s exactly why Influencer Marketing is so popular! If you know, you know. The top earning influencer marketers can vary from year to year and depend on a number of factors, including their audience size, engagement rate, and industry. Here are some examples of top earning influencer marketers:

1. Kylie Jenner: With over 270 million followers on Instagram, Kylie Jenner is one of the most influential people on social media. She is known for her makeup and skincare brand, Kylie Cosmetics, and has earned an estimated $590 million from her company.
2. Cristiano Ronaldo: The professional soccer player has over 240 million followers on Instagram and has partnered with a number of brands, including Nike, Herbalife, and Clear Shampoo. He is estimated to have earned $70 million from social media sponsorships in 2021 alone.
3. Kim Kardashian: With over 250 million followers on Instagram, Kim Kardashian is one of the most recognizable influencers in the world. She has partnered with several brands, including Skims, KKW Beauty, and Lumee, and is estimated to have earned $17.5 million from social media sponsorships in 2021.
4. Jake Paul: The controversial YouTube personality has over 20 million subscribers on his channel and is known for his boxing matches and pranks. He has partnered with a number of brands, including DraftKings and Fashion Nova, and is estimated to have earned $14 million from social media sponsorships in 2021.
5. Charli D’Amelio: The 17-year-old TikTok star has over 120 million followers on the platform and is known for her dance videos. She has partnered with several brands, including Hollister, Morphe, and Dunkin’, and is estimated to have earned $10 million from social media sponsorships in 2021.

Popular Social Media Campaigns

There are many successful influencer marketing campaigns that have generated significant results for brands. Here are a few examples of popular campaigns with results, according to case studies:

1. Daniel Wellington: The watch brand partnered with micro-influencers on Instagram, offering them a unique discount code to share with their followers. This led to a massive increase in sales, with the brand selling 1 million watches in just one year and generating $230 million in revenue.
2. Glossier: The beauty brand partnered with influencers on Instagram to promote its new line of products. This led to a significant increase in sales, with the brand selling out of several products within just a few hours of the campaign’s launch.
3. Old Navy: The clothing retailer partnered with a group of influencers to create a “bigger than us” campaign, encouraging followers to share photos of themselves wearing Old Navy clothing. This led to a massive increase in brand awareness and engagement, with the campaign generating over 1 million user-generated posts and 6.5 billion impressions.
4. Airbnb: The vacation rental platform partnered with influencers on Instagram to promote its new Experiences feature. This led to a significant increase in bookings, with the brand reporting a 500% increase in revenue in just one year.
5. H&M: The fashion retailer partnered with influencers on Instagram to promote its new line of clothing. This led to a significant increase in sales, with the brand reporting a 32% increase in revenue in just one quarter.

These are just a few examples of successful influencer marketing campaigns, but there are many others that have generated significant results for brands. The key to success is to carefully choose the right influencers, create engaging content, and measure and optimize the campaign for maximum impact.

Influencer Marketing Costs

So now you know who is elite – you can imagine how the pricing works. The more valuable you / your audience is, the more it will cost. Of course, niche relevance is important, so don’t feel beholden to popular names if it does not support your brand.

The cost of social media influencers can vary widely depending on a number of factors, including the size and engagement rate of their audience, the type of content they create, and the duration and scope of the campaign. Some influencers may charge a flat fee for their services, while others may charge based on the number of views, clicks, or conversions that the campaign generates.

According to a 2021 report by Influencer Marketing Hub, the average cost for an influencer post on Instagram is $300 to $1,000 per post for micro-influencers (10,000 to 100,000 followers), $1,000 to $5,000 per post for mid-tier influencers (100,000 to 500,000 followers), and $5,000 to $100,000 per post for top-tier influencers (over 500,000 followers).

Brands should carefully consider their goals and budget when deciding whether to work with influencers and should work closely with the influencer to negotiate a fair and effective compensation package.

Influencer Marketing Brand Value

And while considering cost – of course you must consider the value – what is your brand looking to gain when hiring an influencer – they should be able to tell you how their audience responds. While Beyonce may drive awareness, Kylie Jenner may drive activation. You want to be sure your goals and tactics are aligned as awareness widens your top of funnel and requires more ad funds to push the leads through the funnel, while an activation leads to direct behavior, whether email acquisition or sale – it’s a result with a value that does not require an additional ad spend.  And finding purely activation influencers is like the elusive Unicorn.

The revenue generated by influencer marketing can vary widely depending on several factors, such as the industry, the size and engagement of the influencer’s audience, and the specific goals of the campaign. However, influencer marketing has been shown to be a highly effective form of marketing, with some studies indicating that it can generate a significant return on investment.

According to a study by Influencer Marketing Hub, the average earned media value (EMV) for every $1 spent on influencer marketing was $5.78. This means that for every dollar spent on influencer marketing, brands were able to generate almost $6 in earned media value, which includes social media mentions, shares, and other forms of engagement. This is a positive ROI with the basic ROAS (Return on ad spend) metric requires a 4X ROAS to be considered profitable. Nice return here on influencer data.

Another study by Linqia found that 39% of marketers plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2023, indicating that it’s a growing and increasingly important part of many brands’ marketing strategies.

When working with your influencer, you can provide exact tags for landing pages that will attribute their efforts so you may see traffic data tagged with their referrals. Of course it cannot all be tracked as some people will hear it on the radio or see it and go to your site later and the tracking is not available for folks just going to your site from brand recall – that’s valuable enough on its own and you will start to notice larger volumes of unknown traffic and this is your key – you know, it’s not magic – influencer marketing works.

While it’s difficult to provide an exact figure for the revenue generated by influencer marketing, it’s clear that it can be a highly effective way for brands to reach their target audiences, increase brand awareness, and drive sales.

How to Find an Influencer for Your Brand

There are several ways that brands can find marketing influencers and micro-influencers:

1. Social media platforms: Brands can use social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok to search for influencers and micro-influencers who are relevant to their industry or niche. Brands can search for popular hashtags or keywords related to their products or services to find influencers who are already talking about similar topics.
2. Influencer marketing platforms: There are many influencer marketing platforms available that can help brands find influencers and micro-influencers for their campaigns. These platforms often allow brands to search for influencers based on various criteria, such as follower count, engagement rate, and demographics.
   1. AspireIQ: AspireIQ is an influencer marketing platform that helps brands find and connect with influencers across various social media platforms. The platform offers features like campaign management, influencer discovery, and content tracking.
   2. Upfluence: Upfluence is an all-in-one influencer marketing platform that helps brands find influencers, manage campaigns, and track performance. The platform offers a database of over 4 million influencers and includes features like audience analytics and influencer outreach tools.
   3. CreatorIQ: CreatorIQ is a cloud-based platform that helps brands manage and optimize their influencer marketing campaigns. The platform offers features like influencer discovery, campaign management, and performance tracking, and includes a database of over 5 million influencers.
   4. Traackr: Traackr is an influencer marketing platform that helps brands find and connect with influencers across various social media platforms. The platform offers features like influencer discovery, campaign management, and performance tracking, and includes tools for measuring influencer ROI.
3. Referrals: Brands can also ask for referrals from other influencers or industry professionals who may know of relevant influencers. This can be a great way to find high-quality influencers who are already trusted by others in the industry.
4. Brand ambassador programs: Brands can create their own brand ambassador programs, where they work with a select group of influencers or micro-influencers on an ongoing basis. This can be a great way to build long-term relationships with influencers and to create a consistent stream of content.
5. Outreach: Brands can also reach out directly to influencers or micro-influencers who they think would be a good fit for their brand. This can be done through social media, email, or other channels. When reaching out to influencers, it’s important to be clear about what the brand is looking for and what the influencer can expect from the partnership.

Overall, finding the right influencers or micro-influencers for a marketing campaign requires research, patience, and a willingness to experiment and try new things. By carefully selecting the right influencers and creating engaging content, brands can leverage the power of influencer marketing to drive sales, increase brand awareness, and build long-term relationships with their customers.

Now that you have a comprehensive guide on what influencers do, how they do it, what it costs, where to find influencers, and the value they provide – you are set to reach out and do a test for your brand to understand what level of influencer you need and what goals you want to accomplish. Be sure to compare influencers to get an understanding of costs and benefits as well as their working style. You want someone similar to your brand.