You know, even the pros sometimes find it hard to keep up with the influencer marketing trends, and if you’re just starting to get to know this world, it might seem genuinely confusing to wrap your head around it. But don’t worry about that too much – half of this industry’s beauty is in its unpredictability and working in it is like controlling a beautiful storm. However, that doesn’t mean you won’t have any questions that need answers ASAP, and we are here to help. Below, you’ll find our take on the most common influencer marketing questions that might have been burning a hole in your head all in one place, all with simple answers.
So, roll up your sleeves, and let’s get to know the ins and outs of the field with this influencer marketing FAQ.
Influencer Marketing And Running A Campaign
What Is Influencer Marketing?
We couldn’t start our influencer marketing questions list without addressing the most important inquiry: What is influencer marketing? To put it simply, it’s a form of advertising where brands use influencers with a sizable amount of followers to communicate their message through authentic and compelling content. So, basically, a virtual version of word-of-mouth marketing where an individual endorses a product or service to their online community. Sure, if that isn’t a sufficient enough answer, you can read more on this question in our earlier blog post dedicated to the topic.
Are Celebrity Endorsements And Influencer Marketing The Same Thing?
Similar, but not quite. Celebrities are influential to the masses, while influencers have their own, often niche, communities unified by the same interests. That’s also why both celebrities and influencers are often used to supplement each other in social media marketing campaigns.
Is Influencer Marketing Popular?
It is, and its popularity and importance in the marketing world just keep on growing relentlessly. While not so long ago, such a form of marketing was used by ‘renegade’ businesses as an off-the-wall part of their strategies; now, social media influencer marketing encompasses various categories and industries like Food, Wellness, Beauty, Fitness, Pet Care, Apps, Retail, Charities – you name it.
How Much Does An Influencer Campaign Cost, And Is It An Affordable Option For Small Businesses?
There truly isn’t one concrete answer to this question, as each campaign, depending on goals, its broadness, and the creators you choose to collaborate with, differs significantly in costs.
It’s one thing to work with celebrity influencers whose services will cost you a pretty penny but will reach masses and masses of people. And it’s a whole another thing to work with micro- and macro- influencers with smaller, yet more targeted, followings who are a bit friendlier on marketing budgets.
However, working with Agenic, you can run your social media influencer campaign for as low as 100$. And for a price like that, why not give it a try?
So, to answer the question about prices – it varies significantly from case to case, but it is nevertheless an excellent marketing option even for the smallest businesses.
Where To Start With An Influencer Campaign?
Now, this one’s a broad question, but the first thing you should do is discern realistic goals for your campaign. Then it’s the research of your target audience – who they are and where to find them. And lastly, it’s finding the right influencer whose values match with your brand and with audiences that are potentially interested in your product or services. However, if this answer is too simplistic and you need a bit more in-depth information, try reading our article on Myths & Facts About Creating The Perfect Influencer Campaign.
Should You Run It Yourself Or Work With An Agency?
While this is a matter of preference, both choices have their pros and cons. You really don’t have to think about anything when working with an agency, but it will cost much more than doing it yourself. Being hands-on, however, means that, instead of money, you have to invest quite some time into your social media influencer marketing campaign. Luckily, there’s also a happy middle ground in this situation – working with Agenic. Since our platform is automated and pairs you with the right influencer from the beginning, all you have to do is approve the content and check your campaign performance whenever and wherever.
Can An Influencer Campaign Be A Part Of A Bigger Plan?
Absolutely. Although some brands choose to work with influencers exclusively in their marketing strategies, most still combine traditional efforts with social media creators’ content. So, no need to stick just with influencers or just with more traditional marketing channels, as they are well compatible.
Influencers, Creators, And Social Media Stars
How Do I Reach Out To Influencers For My Campaign?
You can go the old school way by trying to reach the creator of your choice via DM’s, emails, or finding who their manager is and trying to reach through to them that way. That doesn’t sound very appealing, right? Well, we couldn’t agree more and thus are offering, as a part of our platform’s functionality, to immediately connect you with the most suitable influencers for your goals. However, you could still choose to go about it the old-school way if you wish.
How Do The Creators Know What To Create?
There are two sides to this question, and one of them is the false belief that influencer marketing is the same as celebrity endorsement. See, with celebrity endorsement content, there’s always a brief given to the celebrity, and they usually just play their part. With influencers, that’s an entirely different story. They’ve amassed their following by being their authentic selves, which was the main factor that resonated with the followers. So they do know what works with their audiences and what doesn’t. Surely, you can always provide your creator with guidelines, but stifling their creativity is never a good idea if you want authentic and organic content.
Is The Created Content Published On Every Social Media Platform?
Well, that’s entirely up to you where to post it. That said, your influencer of choice has to be on that platform, the same as the audiences you wish to engage with your content. Also, one should keep in mind that each platform plays the game slightly differently, so using the exact same piece of content in each of them might not bring the desired effect. Think of sharing a blog post on TikTok – that just wouldn’t work! However, resharing said blog post through Facebook, LinkedIn, or even adding it to Instagram’s post description is totally doable.
Do People Like Seeing Sponsored Influencer Content?
As long as it’s of superb quality and the audiences feel that the product or service is relatable to them, then most people don’t mind it all. In fact, most people these days rely on various customer reviews they find on the internet before making a purchase decision and also trust the recommendations of their favorite influencers just as much, if not more.
What To Expect From Your Influencer Campaign
How Are The Results Of A Social Media Influencer Campaign Measured?
Long gone are the times when you needed to consult a fortune teller to know if your campaign bore any fruit. Now, you can measure your campaign’s success with things like impressions, engagements, pieces of content, total media value, and so forth. So, concrete numbers to tell you how it’s going and how it went. Even better, with Agenic, all these metrics are just a click away, and you can check them on-demand whenever you wish. This also provides a degree of predictability which is always nice to have when working in such an ever-evolving field as social media influencer marketing.
What To Trust – Impressions Or Engagement?
Both of them are equally important – without impressions, you won’t get engagement. However, you also do not want content with thousands of impressions but zero engagement. It’s way easier to weigh these parameters when you have a specific, realistic goal.
What Are The Other Metrics To Evaluate The Performance Of An Influencer Campaign?
First, there’s the ROI – Return on Investment, the ratio between investment and the actual net income. But besides this vital metric, there are also things like evergreen content, increased brand awareness, SEO boost, expanded reach, and new ambassadors, just to name a few. So, your campaign can be evaluated from many different angles, depending on your expectations and how you would like to measure its performance.
Hopefully, now you have all the burning questions about influencer marketing answered. And, as you went through them, it might’ve painted a pretty picture of how inherently cool this marketing channel is and what great potential it carries for the future. It’s positively enticing to try it yourself, right? If you agree, write us a message, and let’s give it a go.
