What is the Influencer Marketing and why every single brand should implement it?

Public Relations

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In Digital Marketing nothing is more important than optimization. Being able to adapt, change and renew our strategies is indispensable, which also implies adopting new formats and models. Such as the so-called Influencer Marketing and KOL Marketing.

Nowadays, this advertising channel has gone from being a simple "trend" to becoming a key axis of the Marketing Mix of any brand. It is important to remember that advertising responds to the consumption habits of its audiences, and at the same time to its culture. Not surprisingly, the old formats of paid media are becoming less competitive with the evolution of the media, the democratization of information and the enormous capacity to share and create content.

Lets see the banners, for example, 10 years ago were an extremely popular and effective format; however, nowadays the average Click Thru Rate of any banner is 0.06%, and not only that, but also 60% of the clicks they generate come from bots, and 60% of the rest are accidental. Not to mention that an estimated 25% of users use ad blockers.

Nobody pays attention to the banners, and the few who click on them do it by accident. So, even what it used to be modern may become obsolete in a matter of a couple of years.

What is next?

Now more than ever, advertising should prioritize the content. Brands can no longer interrupt users during their digital paths, but must instead find a way to integrate themselves within the content their target already loves and consumes. Thus, becoming a relevant and entertaining source of information, instead of an annoying presence. This is why the boom of the influencer MKT should not be surprising, let’s remember that no one has been able to dominate content creation as effectively as these internet celebrities who have grown communities of millions of followers who identify with their publications, to the point of becoming true fanatics.

What are the main components of an Influencer Marketing campaign?

Investing in Influencer Marketing campaigns is not investing in likes, but in valuable content within a segmentation. A digital influencer, by definition, must have the ability to produce content that touches insights from its audience.

And just as not all banners are the same, in Influencer Marketing there are different types of formats, ranging from organic product inclusion to spokesperson campaigns. As a general rule we can talk about the three most common tactics used on Influencer Marketing:

Product Placement: Insertion of product within the organic content of influencers.
Testimonial: Recommendations in my first person, where each influencer tells about their experience with the brand/product.
CTAs: Specific Call to Actions where influencers invite their audience to perform a specific action.

How to create your first Influencer Marketing strategy? How to run an Influencer Marketing campaign?

In order to create truly focused Influencer Marketing strategies, you need to consider the following:

Influencer's profile: Who is he/she? What kind of content does he/she generates? How well does he/she connects with brands values?
Audience: Who are their followers? Age, Gender, Location, etc.
Objectives: What is your brand looking for? Reach, Engagement, Leads, Awareness, etc.

How is success measured?

Success, as in all types of marketing, can take different forms and will always respond to our specific goals. However, there are certain metrics that should always be present:

Scope
Engagement
Sentiment
Conversion (applicable to campaigns with Lead Gen objectives).

How Expensive is to run Influencer Marketing campaigns?

While many myths surround Influencer Marketing, perhaps the most persistent refers to how expensive it can be. However, the investment needed to run campaigns varies greatly depending on the profile of influencers selected, scope of actions delimited in the strategy, and most importantly the process of negotiation with each influencer.

Why every brand should implement these type campaigns?

According to a study published in 2014, there is still no more effective buyer motivator than word-of-mouth, that is; no Marketing tactic is more valuable than a reliable recommendation. In the digital world, this entails enormous possibilities, because recommendations used to be transmitted from individual to individual, but now a single post on Instagram can impact millions of people in seconds. To put this into perspective, let's take the past Super Bowl 50º as an example, which was watched by 5.6 million Mexicans. Compare that reach with the 44 million views a popular video of the most important Mexican YouTuber can reach in matter of weeks. The difference is overwhelming, which also helps explain why an Influencer MKT campaign has a 11 times greater ROI than a traditional Digital campaign.

How to begin?

To start running successful Influencer Marketing campaigns the most important thing is to select the right influencers. In order to do this, it is recommended to choose the topics of interest that are relevant to your brand, and then find the Digital personalities that can create trustworthy content that matches your objectives.

Another key point is to carry out a strict audit of each potential influencer, looking for useful demographic data and possiblepercentages of bots or inactive followers.

Finally, another important step to consider is the need to have the necessary agreements and contracts to ensure the correct execution of the campaign, as well as control the key messages and avoid possible problems.

Undoubtedly, it is indispensable to consult with professionals with extensive experience in this type of marketing.