Influencer Marketing Strategy

Influencer Marketing is not just another buzzword - It’s an exciting opportunity for your eCommerce business

Social media is a concept & entity that has completely disrupted not only the way we communicate but also our psychology. Remember 15 years ago when you had to wait around by the phone to receive a call from a family member long distance? Now with the press of a button we can see their faces in HD on a video in the palm of our hands. Social Media has connected us in ways we could never imagine. Today we can see about 48% of the population active on a social media platform.

This disruption of social networks has created HUGE opportunities for brands to promote their products. But you may be asking yourself, especially as a new business, “how can I promote my products and generate results?” or “how can I compete with the ad spend of big brands?”

 

Here is where the idea of Influencers can be an effective opportunity…

 

Influencers are individuals with many followers, who are not famous due to acting/singing, but for their behaviour on social networks. This type of marketing got really popular specifically due to this reason that these individuals are “common” or “normal” and therefore they give a more genuine feeling of social proof that everyone seeks when deciding to make a purchase. This is the reason why we see many brands partnering with influencers to create brand awareness and sell their products or services.

 

But, what do we know about influencer marketing? And is this the right option for my business? Below we have broken down the Influencer Marketing landscape and some statistics to help you decide if this could be a great addition to your marketing strategy.

How to Leverage Influencer Marketing? 

Influencer Marketing is a marketing strategy where companies or brands collaborate with people who have a huge community that follows and engages with them. The influencers can be YouTubers, bloggers, TikTokers, and so on…

 

There are different ways in which companies can use this strategy, but the most popular ones are: paying the influencers to post the products of the brand, the influencers being the brand ambassadors, or collaborating on a project so the influencer can post the brand or a caption about the brand products.

 

How effective is Influencer Marketing on sales?

The Influencer Marketing is a huge business that today is worth over $14 billion, compared with the $9.7 billion in 2020, about 42% growth. For your business particularly, it will depend on the product you sell & who you work with, but stats show that approximately 61% of customers trust an influencer’s recommendation. So, if you can identify the right influencer, then you can definitely get more visibility and generate website traffic, and the rest just depends on your product/service & the user experience of your store.

Influencer Marketing

Who is the right Influencer for you?

There are 5 categories of types of influencers that are categorized by number of followers & engagement rates:

 

1: Nano-influencers

Nano influencers are the ones with the lowest follower count. While this may sound insignificant, they may actually be your best way to start as they typically have the highest engagement & their followers are very niche. If you can pair your product with an influencer who has those exact products, you will have a very impactful result in sales & brand recognition.

Nano-influencers are influencers with less than 5.000 followers, and according to HypeAuditor, they have an engagement rate of 5%, which is much higher compared to all the others. These influencers also tend to be the most affordable because of this that can be the biggest if we compare it with the rates of the other types of influencers.

Check out  @creativebabesphotos@_craycraft - photography & tech nano-influencers 

2: Micro-influencers

Micro Influencers have between 5 000 – 20 000 followers on their social media account. This category is the most common, with 47% of all influencers being micro-influencers.

Check out @guideventurous & @nikiasmolina - travel & tech micro-influencers

3: Power or Mid-Tier Influencers

These are influencers with 20 000 – 100 000 followers. They make up approximately 27% of the total number of influencers and have an engagement rate of 1.4%.

Check out @miettedierckx &  @joyful_jax - lifestyle power influencers

4: Macro influencers

The macro influencers have anywhere between 100 000 & 1 million followers with an engagement rate of 1.3%.

Check out @allthesehumans@jackbrinkman - photography & fitness macro influencers 

5: Celebrities

Celebrity Influencers, also known as “mega-influencers”, are social media figures with more than one million followers, which tend to be models, football players, or actors. Their engagement rate is about 1.6%, which is actually low if you compare with the nano influencers, but we have to take into account that the celebrities have more followers, and even if the engagement rate is low, the visibility you can get with them will overall be higher. Also don’t forget that at this level of followers, the targeting of niche audience gets harder as the audience following celebrities tend to be more varied.

Check out @sommerray & @tammyhembrow- fitness & fashion celebrities 

 

Influencer Marketing

How Much Will Influencers Cost?

As we’ve just seen, depending on the type of influencer you work with, they have different levels of followers & engagement rates. As a general rule of thumb, the more followers the more expensive an influencer will be.

Nano-Influencers Cost

According to eMarketer, nano-influencers usually charge between $31 and $315 per social media post, and the prices vary depending on channels where they will promote your post. For example, the most affordable social media channel is Facebook. On the other hand, an Instagram post made by a nano-influencer may cost $100, a video $114, and a story about $43.

 

Micro-influencers Cost

They have more followers than the previous, they will charge more. Here are some examples of common prices with influencers in this category:

  • $73 for an Instagram story
  • $172 for an Instagram post
  • $219 for an Instagram video
  • $318 for a FB post
  • $908 for a YouTube video

 

Power Influencers Cost

With Power Influencers (20.000 or more followers) we are looking roughly at these prices:

  • $210 for an Instagram story
  • $243 for a FB post
  • $507 for an Instagram post
  • $775 for an Instagram video
  • $782 for a YouTube video

 

As you can see, most of the Power or Mid-Tier influencers are mainly present on Instagram and YouTube, that is why they charge companies higher rates on those social media platforms. But, if we compare them with the micro-influencers, we can see a curious situation: the micro-influencers charge more money for a YouTube video or a Facebook post than the power influencers, but the power-influencers charge considerably more than the Micro on Instagram posts.

 

Celebrity / Macro-Influencers Cost

Finally, we have the celebrities mixed with the macro-influencers, which have the higher rates. So, the lowest price you could pay for an Instagram Story is about $721. Then it escalates from there for permanent posts:

  • $2.085 for an Instagram post
  • $2.400 for a Facebook post
  • $3.318 for an Instagram video
  • $3.857 for a YouTube video

 

Keep in mind these are just estimates based on various sources & depending on the specific influencer you wish to work with, you may find different options. The important thing is to make sure their followers are aligned with your buyers, otherwise you may invest with no return.

 

Is Influencer Marketing For You?

Firstly, you need to know your marketing goals and what you want to achieve with this marketing strategy. Is it to get more sales, more visibility, or increase followers? Also, it depends on your type of business and of course the budget you have.

For example, let’s say you are a tech eCommerce brand, and you have about $2000 to spend on marketing for the month. You can take $500 and use it on micro-influencers. But before doing this, you have to choose the right influencer, it could be an influencer who does reviews of tech gadgets, with a small, yet engaged number of followers. You can start by investing in an Instagram story to see the engagement rate & results. If that yields results, then you can do an Instagram video where the Influencer reviews one of the products you offer. And after this, you can determine if this influencer is the right option for your business and continue a more long-term strategy.

 

Keep in mind that you may not see results right away, so be patient!

Are you ready to take your marketing strategy to the next level? Need some help with your Influencer Marketing Strategy? Get in touch!