Influencer marketing has exploded in popularity in recent years. It is being used to promote the brands of everyone who is anyone.
However, some companies have discovered how to run high-impact campaigns at a low cost.
How to Use Influencer Marketing on a Shoestring
Influencer marketing is an excellent way to increase brand awareness. While there are numerous ways to work with influencers and numerous payment models, it is certainly possible to achieve excellent results from influencer marketing on any budget.
The key is to find the best solution that meets your objectives, create a data-driven campaign that is within your budget, and track your metrics along the way.
Using coupons or referral links, a solution like Tapfiliate will allow you to track influencer-driven sales.
With our free guide on obtaining and using data to run more impactful campaigns at a lower cost, you can go data-driven with your influencer marketing.
1. Get to Know the Four Influencer Tiers
With thousands of great influencers on social media these days, how do you choose the right one for your campaign?
It is critical to begin by understanding the four major types of influencers and how they interact with your specific, measurable goals.
The Four Influencer Tiers:
• Mega Influencer: someone who has one million followers on one of their social media platforms.
• Macro Influencer: has a following of 40,000 to 1 million people.
• Micro Influencer: has 1,000 to 40,000 followers on one or more social media platforms. They will most likely have a strong niche.
• Nano Influencer: has a smaller audience. They are regarded as absolute authorities in their respective fields. These influencers are more picky about the brands with which they collaborate.
2. Look for Brand Mentions and Demographics of the Audience
Looking for brand mentions on social media is a good first step in connecting with influencers. A quick search will reveal the content creators who are already discussing your brand or products; these individuals can be transformed into excellent brand marketing tools.
Examine your brand mentions to find macro, micro, and nano influencers who are already talking about your brand and reach out to them directly. These engaged content creators are more likely to want to collaborate with you.
Ensure that your future influencer’s audience aligns with your target audience to get the best results for your campaigns.
Use a brand monitoring tool like Awario or Mention.
3. Establish Connections With Influencers
Instead of cold messaging, begin by building relationships with influencers who match your goals. They will be more willing to promote your products once they are familiar with you and your brand.
• Interact with potential influencers by liking posts and leaving comments.
• Help them out by sharing their user-generated content on your social media channels.
• Once you’ve established some rapport with them, start talking about a paid collaboration.
These steps can help to strengthen your brand’s relationship, which could lead to larger influencer promotions as their accounts grow.
4. Recognize Different Types of Content for Your Influencer Campaign
When choosing an influencer to promote your product, brand aesthetic is critical. Each influencer has a different type of content that works best with their audience.
When you start working with a paid influencer, you should understand what kind of content they might suggest and how it will fit with your goals.
The following are the most common types of influencer content:
• Product seeding occurs when a brand sends something to an influencer in the hopes that they will promote it on social media. It is the most affordable option for a brand on a tight budget. Not every influencer, however, will promote your product.
• Shoutouts are paid social media brand promotions. Your brand or products are mentioned by an influencer on their social media pages. Images, videos, and a call to action can all be included.
• Competitions: A brand provides a product for the influencer to give away to their audience.
• Sponsored content occurs when a brand compensates an influencer for sharing content. This can be created by you or by the influencer using an influencer brief. It will cost you more if the influencer creates the content.
• Takeovers: For a set period of time, a well-known influencer “takes over” a brand’s feed. On Instagram, for example, the influencer might appear in a brand’s stories, posts, or a combination of the two. This would be specified in your contract.
• Brand ambassadorships are long-term relationships with influencers in which they promote your product or service to their followers in numerous posts over time.
5. Recognize Different Payment Models
Influencers charge different rates for paid collaborations, and each influencer charges differently. Knowing what each model looks like will allow you to collaborate with your influencer to determine what works best for your campaign goal and how to track your success.
Here’s a rundown of the most common payment methods:
• Cost per engagement (CPE): You pay a set rate (or cost) per post engagement.
• Pay per post: There is a flat fee per post. This can include the cost of creating content.
• Flat fees: A flat fee for the entire campaign, regardless of the number of engagements.
• Pay per click: You pay a fixed amount for each click.
• Pay per conversion: You are charged a percentage of each conversion referred by the influencer. Most effective for brands because you only pay when a sale is made.
• A hybrid model is a combination of any of these. This model provides the most flexibility for your company and the influencer. In the following example, the influencer was paid to create the recipe (pay per post) and was paid a commission on each sale (pay per conversion).
6. Collaborate with more than one influencer at the same time.
When you’re on a tight budget, it can be tempting to pay a larger sum to a single influencer with a larger following because you believe they’ll deliver outstanding results.
Working with multiple smaller influencers, on the other hand, may be a better option for increasing market share and putting yourself in front of different audiences. This will raise market awareness among your target demographic.
It means you can experiment with more influencers to see what works and what doesn’t for your brand. If a campaign is a success, you can continue to work with that influencer in the future.
Tapfiliate allows you to keep track of which influencers are performing the best.
