What is influencer marketing?
At a basic level, influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that uses recommendations and product reviews from influencers - individuals who have a dedicated social media following and are considered experts in their field.
Influencer marketing works because of the trust influencers have built with their followers - and recommendations from them act as a form of social proof for your brand's potential customers.
How to find influencers
Like any strategy, research is the first step. Choose the network you want to focus on first. You can always expand to other networks later, but if you're just starting out, stick to one.
Ideally, your brand should already have a presence on this network or want to expand into it.
Influencer marketing management strategy and budget
Running a successful influencer marketing campaign is not easy. You can't just launch your campaign and hope it performs. It involves careful tracking and follow-up.
Unlike a more automated ad strategy, influencers are ordinary people who are often balancing multiple partnerships, so some may fall behind in their commitments to send out content on time or make mistakes in your requested tags or calls to action. You will need to have time to be more involved and refine your approach through experience of what works and what doesn't.
You need to think about the expected ROI of your campaign when using influencer marketing: How will you measure the campaign? One approach is to compare your expectations for influencers with what you pay for leads elsewhere.
