Over the past few years, using influencers for marketing both on social media and other digital platforms has become increasingly popular for brands, and this trend shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, from 2020 through 2021 alone influencer marketing is expected to grow 42 percent.
So, how do you decide if influencers are a good marketing tool to use for your brand or business? There are a few factors to consider.
Influencers for B2C versus B2B
On a surface level, using influencers may seem like a more natural fit for B2C companies. After all, if you pay an influencer for a few posts in the span of a month, your brand can probably expect to see sales come in related to those posts within that same month.
If you’re a B2B company, you aren’t excluded from using influencer marketing to promote your products or services, but you should not expect such a quick turnaround time to see the ROI. Instead expect a few months for other businesses to see the influencer’s post, continue to learn about your product through the sales funnel, and then finally decide to purchase.
The other difference between B2C and B2B influencer marketing is that with B2C products, you may choose someone to promote your product based on their large following alone. With B2B influencer marketing you should choose influencers based on who has influence over your target audience. For example, if your business offers CRM software, choose an influencer who is a thought leader in the customer relationship and business industry.
Tie Influencer Marketing to a Campaign
It has been reported that when influencers tie their social media posts back to a brand’s campaign (versus just standalone posts promoting a brand), it resonates better with consumers.
With this in mind, certain campaigns that your brand launches may work better with influencer marketing than others. In the same way that a good influencer can give a face to your brand if you work with them on an ongoing basis, they can give a face to a specific campaign that may better benefit from being associated with a certain influencer’s image or niche.
If your brand has never worked with influencers before but would like to begin doing so, start small with a smaller or shorter campaign, measure the results, and then begin to tweak your influencer strategy and scale to a larger scale that makes the most sense for your brand.
75% of consumers trust recommendations they see on social media.
Are you still unsure if influencer marketing is right for you? Do you need help getting your influencer campaigns off the ground or finding a strategy that works for your company?
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