Who do consumers trust more: ads from companies or ordinary people? If you chose the latter, we’d have to agree. People are more trusting of other people these days. The genuine feedback you get from regular folk trumps a CEO’s speech or Facebook ad any day.
What’s more, intelligent marketers know this. That’s why they’ve taken to influencer marketing as they have. Influencer marketing can be incredibly effective for most brands so long the campaigns are human-centric, customer-first, and personalised.
You can prioritise sincerity and personalisation in your influencer marketing campaigns to genuinely reflect who you are and what your brand is all about by implementing the following tips:
Define how influencer marketing fits into your overarching marketing strategy
You must define how influencer marketing fits into your overarching marketing strategy. Despite what most people think, influencer marketing isn’t for every business. Working with influencers without considering if your marketing actually needs them won’t result in much more than wasted time, money and effort.
So, for your influencer marketing efforts to be genuine and profitable, you must ensure they enhance your overall marketing strategy. Think deeply about whether influencer marketing can help you achieve your larger marketing goals.
Revisit your target audience once you define how influencer marketing fits your overarching marketing strategy.
Revisit your target audience
Not only do you want influencer marketing to fit into your overarching marketing strategy, but you also want it to fit your audience. Your influencer marketing campaigns won’t ever be sincere to your audience if you don’t know what your audience sees as genuine.
It’s essential to revisit who your target audience is, how they interact with influencers, and how they engage with other influencer marketing campaigns. Take note of the campaigns they interact with the most. Also, document the influencers they follow and engage with regularly.
Next, study influencers in your industry.
Study influencers in your industry
It’s essential to take time to study influencers in your industry. Familiarise yourself with influencers that have already established themselves in your industry. In addition, check out all of the emerging nano, micro, macro, and mega influencers in your sector.
Never solely go by how many followers someone has as a way to determine if they’re a good fit for your brand. Instead, look more at:
- How honest and authentic they are with their audience
- If their lifestyle matches the one your brand promotes
- If their values mirror your brands
- Who their target audience is
- What products they mention
- If they mention or work with your competitors
- The level of engagement their posts receive
When you find a few influencers that may be a good potential match for your brand, develop real relationships with each of them.
Develop real relationships with them
It’s a terrible idea to find a potential influencer, start following them, and immediately message them about partnering for an influencer marketing campaign. The chance of you getting a response with this approach is slim because it won’t feel genuine to the influencer.
On the other hand, if they continually see your name pop up in their comments, if you engage in meaningful conversations with them regularly, shout them out, and so forth, you’ll feel more like a friend than a follower. And it’s much easier to approach a friend than someone you don’t know, right?
So, actively engage with potential fits for at least a couple of weeks before reaching out to them for a potential influencer partnership. Learn about who they are. Comment on their posts. Start an ongoing conversation with them via direct message. Shout them out in your stories. Make a genuine effort to develop a real relationship with the person rather than viewing them as a business opportunity.
Also, be sure the influencers you make an offer to represent a range of people.
Work with a wide range of influencers
Your audience is diverse. Therefore, your lineup of influencers should be too.
When you work with a broader range of influencers, you can demonstrate your appreciation for diversity and inclusion. In addition, you can ensure the influencers you work with carry these values so that you can further connect with your audience with similar values.
For instance, let’s say you’re a sustainable fashion brand. In that case, you could collaborate with influencers who cover different angles of sustainability, represent different cultures in eco-friendly fashion, and speak to distinct perspectives on inclusive fashion.
After you establish an influencer partnership, have an intentional conversation about content.
Be intentional about the content your influencers make
As tempting as it is to let your influencers have complete creative control of the content they create for your campaign, it’s a better idea to give them guidance in this area to ensure you’re getting the best return on investment.
The goal is for each piece of content to be as relevant and authentic as possible. So brainstorm ideas that would be most interesting to your and your influencer’s audience.
For example, let’s say your company sells home goods, like furniture, lighting, and interior design accessories. If you work with a beauty influencer, you could gift them some pieces from your business. Then, you could ask them to update their glam room with them and create a video tour of the new glam room.
It’s all about creating content that inspires and ignites action from those that engage with it.
Sincerity and personalisation in influencer marketing are a must to generate a consistent ROI for each campaign. Genuine influencer relationships and authentic campaigns are just a few intentional actions away.
