1. What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a formal collaboration agreement between a brand and an influencer with expertise and established trust and influence in a given segment. Through communication on social networksWhen were the first social networks created and which network was Facebook inspired by? Which networks are among the biggest in 2023? More, they can stimulate the buying habits of their own existing followers, as well as the buying habits of prospective ones.
It is primarily used on social media (especially Facebook, TikTokTikTok is a social network that allows users to create and share short videos, often with music, filters and various effects. More, Instagram and YouTube). This common form of marketing nowadays involves influencer recommendations and product placement.
You can promote the product or service directly through the influencer’s main channel. Often, however, it is a mix of approaches, where the influencer is also featured directly on the profiles of the company that has partnered with them.
2. What makes influencer marketing stand out?
The trick is that people tend to place their trust in a particular person or may find direct advertising too intrusive. An influencer can subtly create interest in a particular product. As a result, the ad no longer looks like an ad but is more about advice on how and where to buy a quality product.
Influencers test these products directly in front of their followers, creating reviews and providing information about the product’s price, advantages and disadvantages.
After reading the above, it follows that advertising through influencers is considerably more authentic than the classic banner and text format. However, it should not be forgotten that influencers must also create exciting and engaging content to attract the widest audience possible.
3. How does influencer marketing on Instagram work?
The power of Instagram needs no introduction. More than a billion people worldwide use the platform, and the number of regular users is on the rise.
To date, the platform holds as many as 25 million merchant accounts, and several global studies show that 60% of people search for new products directly on Instagram.
Companies collaborate with influencers to generate sales, increase brand awareness, and make themselves visible in a new environment, thereby attracting new fans or potential customers. Last but not least, by taking this approach, the brand’s credibility is also significantly increased.
4. Types of influencer collaborations
There are several influencer collaboration options:
- Content creation: A form of collaboration still new to some brands. Do you like the content or photos of a particular creator? Arrange for them to create it in collaboration with you. You can also then use the photos or videos from collaborations in your social media ads.
- Experience: Invite influencers to your festival, restaurant, hot air balloon ride, press conferences or any other experience you offer.
- Linking the brick-and-mortar store with the influencer: Invite the influencer to pick up the product directly from the store. He or she will be able to show their followers what it looks like. Through this experience, you’ll also build a relationship with them for future engagement.
5. Influencer competitions on Instagram
An excellent tool for increasing awareness, sales, engagement or the number of fans is an influencer competition on Instagram. How does it work?
The influencer, in cooperation with a specific brand, will announce a contest on their profile, where they will set specific conditions for participation. The most common conditions are commenting on a post, answering a question, or following a particular profile.
You can also increase engagement by asking influencers to tag their followers to enter the contest. Once the contest conditions are met, one or more winners will be selected.
Discount codes still work
We recommend using discount codes in competitions. The code can be used throughout the competition and even after the end if the customer does not win. Thanks to the competition, the code stays visible for longer, and it is also a good way of enticing people who are already considering purchasing the product or service.
6. How to set up influencer marketing on Facebook
Facebook is used by more than two billion active users worldwide, and most users spend an average of 35 minutes on the platform daily.
Influencer marketing in Slovakia thus holds enormous potential for your business, allowing you to reach new audiences, thereby increasing brand awareness.
Set realistic goals
First, set realistic goals with KPIsDefinition KPI is an abbreviation of the phrase 'key performance indicator'. The term KPIs (key performance indicators) is simply the plural of the sa... More (key performance indicators). This could increase conversion rates, expand reach or improve engagement rates. The second and very important step is choosing the right influencer. But how do you choose one?
7. How to pick the right influencer
Ask yourself a few questions to narrow down your selection:
- Is the influencer’s content related to your product?
- What overall engagement does their content generate?
- Have they previously been involved in similar collaborations, or do they have experience reviewing products?
- Are the influencer’s followers consistent with your target audience?
There are countless influencers on the market now willing to offer their followers a credible review of your product or service.
Before you decide whether to approach a micro-influencer or a macro-influencer, you should be clear about what you expect from this collaboration. More brand awareness? More orders? Content creation? More followers?
Based on this, you will be better positioned to decide which influencer to choose depending on their fan base.
8. Types of influencers
Influencers are divided into two main groups according to their size: macro-influencers and micro-influencers.
Macro influencers
Macro influencers can be celebrities, athletes or well-known personalities who have already attracted larger audiences. They usually become brand ambassadors, helping boost sales, and are less risky for big brands.
These influencers have somewhere between 50,000 and 500,000 subscribers. For those with 500,000+, we can speak of mega influencers. These are usually world-class celebrities.
Micro-influencers
The second category is micro-influencers. Their number of followers is dramatically lower, but their advantages are that they are often cheaper and have greater availability.
The number of subscribers for micro-influencers ranges from 10,000 to 50,000. A sub-category is the nano influencer, whose subscriber count reaches only up to 10,000, but a more significant number of micro-influencers with the right chemistry can rival even macro influencers.
Once you’ve chosen an influencer, you can start building your campaigns. Like on Instagram, this can take the form of a competition or a paid campaign where the influencer tests a product on their profile. The resulting video is then advertised to a selected audience.
Facebook lives as an effective format
A great way to gain engagement organically is through Facebook lives. The influencer can share their experience live, making the sharing much more authentic, translating into audience engagement with the post.
However, don’t forget about videos. The number of video content consumers on Facebook is growing. It’s yet another opportunity to get your message in front of your desired target audience. Let relevant influencers tell your brand story.
9. What is TikTok influencer marketing?
TikTok is the third most popular network in the world, and its growth continues to be on the rise. Recent studies say that the largest age group frequenting this social network is between 17 and 30.
TikTok is mainly dominated by short, funny and original videos. These are complemented by channels with educational content, which is becoming increasingly popular.
Interestingly, paid advertising on TikTok is not something you can find easily, at least as far as Slovakia is concerned. So how can you advertise on this platform? The solution is influencer marketing.
However, care must again be taken here to select suitable candidates. TikTok offers a vast potential audience of new customers for small and larger companies, but influencer selection is closely related to this.
With the right strategy and ideal content, an influencer can captivate a given audience quickly, as the algorithm promotes high-quality and original content.
This can be in the form of filmed storytelling, which is very popular, reviews, or just simply by using the product in everyday life and informing your “bubble” about it.
10. What is the origin of the term influencer, and who exactly is one?
The word “influencer” is based on the term “influence”. In this case, it refers to the influence on purchasing decisions by a well-known person. These can be personalities from sports, cultural or business sectors.
All influencers have one thing in common. Each of them has its circle of fans with common interests.
How to sell with influencer marketing
An influencer can sell your product to their audience, literally just by word of mouth. It becomes an almost natural purchase, but with the difference that the product or service was not recommended by a friend but by a popular internet celebrity, whose word you are definitely not indifferent to.
Example: You have a problem with acne, suddenly spot a product you’ve been “eyeing up” for a week and are considering buying it. Then you go on TikTok, Instagram or Facebook and see a review of it by your favourite influencer, who happens to be full of praise for it. Now ask yourself. Would it influence your buying behaviour?
11. Is influencer marketing in Slovakia worthwhile?
Over the last few years, Slovaks have become accustomed to this form of marketing, and an increasing number of companies are using influencers as they become aware of their selling power. In the vast majority of cases, the goals are clear at the beginning of the collaboration – increasing sales alongside promoting brand awareness.
We recommend establishing long-term collaborations where influencers become brand ambassadors, which builds greater trust with consumers.
From our experience, there is no one formula that will work for every brand. It all depends on what product or service you offer.
As for the length of collaboration, you can opt for:
- Short-term collaboration: Reach as many people as possible in the shortest possible amount of time. That’s why it’s a good idea to diversify your influencer portfolio.
- Long-term collaboration: When you work with an influencer over a long period of time, you end up building a fan base, as well as brand awareness and brand credibility.
- A combination of the two: You enter into a long-term partnership with an ambassador who shares your values and promotes your main brand campaign over a longer period of time. For faster targeting of a new campaign, sign short-term collaborations with smaller, one-off influencers.
12. How much does an influencer cost?
This is a question we often come across in the marketing world, but the answer is usually quite simple. Each influencer sets their own price. They can value the collaboration at 100 euros, but equally the figure can also have one zero more (sometimes even two).
Which metrics to track for influencer marketing
There are specific metrics that can tell us, to a large extent, whether a given influencer is relevant and whether the collaboration is “worth it” for the amount of money on offer. We look at metrics such as number of followers, engagement rate, frequency and quality of outputs.
Of course, the more followers an influencer has, the bigger their reach will be and, therefore the higher the price will be.
The second important metric is the engagement rate, which tells us the percentage of followers interacting with the influencer’s content. Again, the more the better. Why? As a business, you’ll want to make sure that when introducing a new product, for example, interaction is as high as possible.
How to deal in influencer marketing
You can choose to barter, which is where a company offers its products to an influencer in exchange for services rendered. Another form of payment is a regular salary, or an agreed percentage of sales for the influencer, or a combination of the above methods.
You can also offer the influencer a barter and a financial reward. Barter and a percentage of the sale is also an option. The last and quite often used form is a combination of barter, an agreed salary and a percentage of the sale.
Current trends in influencer marketing
Perhaps every company would naturally choose an influencer with thousands of followers, but this trend is gradually changing, and micro-influencers are coming to the fore. Why is this, and what are the trends in influencer marketing?
The first reason is audience engagement, which is declining significantly for larger influencers. On the contrary, we see the opposite phenomenon with micro-influencers. The second reason is the price, which is many times lower for micro-influencers.
Long-term collabs with influencers will reign supreme
A number of businesses both at home and abroad have adopted this trend. The advantage is that the collaboration is much more natural and does not have the same forceful effect as one-off collaborations. Another advantage is the possibility of a discount or extra content offered at premium prices.
Authenticity as the future queen of social networks
Forget about orchestrated promo posts and videos. Influencers are increasingly choosing collaborations in which they feel at home and where they can use the product in their personal lives, making the outputs themselves feel much more natural.
Black FridayWhat is Black Friday and when was it created? Find out why it is the biggest e-commerce event right after Christmas now. More and Cyber Monday may be sales events for regular consumers, but for influencers, it’s a chance to land that coveted collaboration, so they tend to raise the prices for their services around this time. They are always trying to attract more lucrative clients and, in this case, charging higher prices becomes a rewarding tool.
Videos are more relevant than ever before
Video production will continue to dominate in 2022. People simply love videos, and many influencers have already figured out that videos have a significantly higher organic reach. With the right creativity, your overall engagement rate can skyrocket.
The ever-increasing popularity of influencer couples
You may have already noticed that influencer couples have started to dominate the marketing sphere. The reason for this is their authenticity and the fact that the presentation of products and the brand itself is much more endearing and feels natural. Last but not least, we also have to remember that two is always better than one, which will also be reflected in the breadth of the reach.
How we choose the right influencer at Dexfinity
Before you jump headfirst into working with an influencer, there are a few facts you need to be clear about.
You need to decide at the outset how many influencers you want to reach out to as barter or paid collaborators, based on your budget and your expectations of working with influencers. Don’t forget to define who your typical customer is and how they present themselves.
The next step is to define the customer segment and the influencer characteristics that will fit into this equation.
Influencer selection based on relevant data
At Dexfinity, we work with software that searches for influencers suitable for your online store based on pre-agreed criteria. In order to provide a selection of the most relevant creators, we also employ manual tracking processes, and quality control their followers.
We will provide the business with a complete list of influencers with data on the number of followers, average number of likes, comments and engagement rate. We will select the most suitable candidates from this list, but the business will also be given the opportunity to participate.
According to their preferences, they will choose any other influencers they would like to reach out to.
The first contact is important
Once we have your approval, everything else will be down to us. We contact the creators while you deal with your other business activities.
Right from the very start of the communication, we begin to build a positive relationship with your brand. In our experience, we advise not to provide all the information about the proposed collaboration in the first message. Many content creators have busy schedules and a full inbox. It may happen that they open your message but forget to respond.
Therefore, what we do instead is we pique the influencer’s interest and then negotiate the more detailed terms of the collaboration. If they like the product or the communication is on the right level, they will be accommodating, and a paid collaboration can even turn into a barter.
Sending products
Once the collaboration has been successfully negotiated, it’s time to send out the products. As an online store, you can choose to send out products in several different ways:
- Directly from the warehouse.
- By offering a credit to use against a purchase.
- A personal sale at a physical store location.
Once we’ve made sure all influencers have their products in their homes, we’ll send them a brief. In it, they’ll find all the information they need for the collaboration. This may be a photo, a video, what to mention in the text, hashtags, or what link to put in the story click-through.
Do you need help with influencer marketing?
If you are not sure what to do, or if you want to benefit from proven know-how, exclusive tools directly from Google and a dedicated international team, please contact us.We help domestic and international businesses go beyond any limitations.
