If you are looking to grow your company this year, and feel like you are constantly trying to think of new marketing strategies to use, I recommend you continue reading. The influencer marketing industry was worth $8 billion in 2019 and is projected to be worth as much as $15 billion by 2022. Due to the success of influencer marketing campaigns, many companies are jumping onboard. We recommend you do so too.

What is influencer marketing?

You might be new to the field and wondering what influencer marketing is. This is a social media marketing technique that involves working with influential social media accounts to promote your brand or product. You may have heard of celebrities being hired online to promote products. But, instead brands are shifting towards influencers. Consumers have stated that celebrity endorsements can feel fake and too commercial. Consumers will seek out recommendations from influencers, believing their opinions to be more trustworthy.

How to locate influencers

It’s easy to find influencers who will work with you when you are ready. Although you can search for influencers on social media, this can be time-consuming and may not give you the necessary data. We would recommend that you use an influencer marketing platform like Heepsy, where you can find influencers by using specified filters to match your needs.

Before you start searching for influencers, it is important to clearly define your campaign goals. This will ensure success in influencer marketing. The most common goals of influencer campaigns include increasing brand awareness, improving brand engagement, growing content creation and converting. These goals can be achieved best if they are considered carefully before you start your influencer search.

You should also be clear about your goals in terms of budget, target audience, and other financial details. Knowing your budget will help you determine the best level of influencer. You can also identify your target audience to make your search easier by searching for influencers that have followers who are similar to your target audience.

Here’s an example of how Heepsy can help you do this search. Once you’ve determined that you have the budget to pay for micro, nano, and medium influencers, you can filter as shown. Filter as shown if your target audience are women aged 20-30 who live in the US.

What posts do you see from influencers?

You might be curious about what influencers post if you are new to influencer marketing. There’s a lot more information provided on this within our influencer marketing guide but generally, influencers will post photos and/or videos either using or showing a product from your brand. The type of content you post will depend on whether you are looking for Instagram influencers or YouTube influencers.

Because Instagram is visually-oriented, it is one of the most used social media platforms for influencer marketing. You can choose from a variety of media types, including stories, reels and IGTV. Each media type has its own benefits, but I will only briefly describe:

• You can post photos or videos. These are often used for giveaways and to share content with your own accounts.
• Stories are cheaper because they last for only 24 hours. These stories are great for showing products in action and allow for a natural approach.
• IGTV is ideal for product descriptions that require a little more information. Tutorials and demonstrations can be done by influencers.
• IG Live allows for great interaction with followers, so influencers can do Q&As and live events and show real reactions.
• Reels are the latest addition to Instagram. These videos can be used for quick previews, step-by-step guides, or trailers.

Think about the results

The success of influencer marketing campaigns is evident. Just look at the increase in industry investments year over year! Statistics suggest that businesses are making $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.

It is important to consider the cost of your campaign before you can estimate your results. This will require you to determine how many influencers and what fees you will pay. You will be able to estimate the monetary cost by knowing what type of influencers you want to hire. This includes the product cost, the fees they charge, and shipping costs.

This is why it might take some extra time to estimate the success of your campaign. The success of the delivery method will depend on how important your objectives are. You can calculate your results by looking at:

• Reach – How many followers does the influencer have that will hopefully view the content?
• Which media type will you choose? Stories are less valuable than posts, because they are more likely to be viewed.
• Impressions – This can be calculated using the number of followers and the media content to determine how many people your campaign will reach.
• Interactions – How many times have the contents been commented on or liked? Analytics tools can measure this engagement.
• Clicks – How many times have you clicked on links? This refers to users clicking on the links in an influencer’s post.

To measure ongoing campaign results, we recommend that you use online tools such as Instagram Insights or Google Analytics. There are some really great tools out there, and we would suggest checking out the 8 best tools for influencer marketing for some ideas.

Conclusion

We hope you now have a better understanding of how influencer marketing can help your business grow in 2021. Although it may seem daunting initially, you can get great results with very little investment.

You can find more information at Heepsy and get started with your first influencer marketing campaign by heading over to Heepsy!