In this blog post, we discuss why influencer marketing could be the new string to your bow and how to integrate it into your existing marketing plan.

What is an influencer marketing campaign?

Influencer marketing, in basic terms, is sponsorship meets content marketing. It requires an “influencer”, such as a celebrity or industry expert, to endorse your product using a content-driven marketing campaign across social and community channels. The main criteria of influencer marketing is that the results of the campaign are collaborations between brands and influencers.

Influencers, unlike celebrities, can be anyone, anywhere. What makes them influential is their highly relevant followings across the web and social media. Let’s say your business is bathrooms and washrooms. An effective influencer for you might be self-promoting architects or builders on Instagram, or a plumber blogger who tweets, or a respected surveyor on LinkedIn. Within any industry, there are influential people—you just have to find them. They are easily recognized by a typically large following that consist largely of the target audience you’re after.

Why should I add influencer marketing into my marketing strategy?

Influencer campaigns continue to be widely adopted by small and medium business, as well as large businesses, locally, nationally and globally. So far, though, it’s a strategy that has mainly been associated with brand-building goals, not return on investment. The BIG question is can it also improve bottom-line growth? We think the answer is yes.

Here’s the 3-step process for running your own influencer marketing campaign

1. First, team-up with relevant content creators and influencers and create content that feels native to the platform and their channel.
2. Second, increase their reach with paid promotion. Boost organic content using both remarketing to those who have already viewed influencer content, and to those who haven’t but who match your target audience.
3. Finally, ensure it is as easy as possible for browsers to become buyers e.g. in-app shopping feeds, and ensuring you have effective landing pages on your website,

It’s one thing to raise brand or product awareness through the power of influencers. But what good is awareness if it doesn’t add to the bottom-line? To move people from simply being aware of a product to actually buying it, the experience has to be as seamless as possible.

Looking for inspiration for your next marketing campaign or new ideas to adapt your marketing strategy? We’d be happy to discuss, call us on 01323 735 800 or email enq@barkweb.co.uk.