The go to guide book
Get Started with Influencer Marketing
Your children are copying them, your friends invite you to eat their food, and your competitors are hiring them. In just a short space of time influencer marketing has become an efficient and natural part of many companies' marketing mix, on level with traditional ads. In this guide, you will quickly grasp the basics of influencer marketing and how you can use influencers as part of your strategic communication.
Who are influencers? What makes millions of people follow them? And how is it that anyone can become one? In this part, we will take a closer look at what an influencer is and the backstory of how influencers have become such a powerful marketing tool.
The Rise of the Influencer
Since the beginning of time people have gathered around charismatic people. Leaders and opinionators who run society, and heroes from stories and wars. Today, classic examples include cultural idols in sports, acting and music, people whose followers are driven by admiration and desire.
When the internet entered our homes, bloggers hit it big. But it was with the rise of social media that we saw a new type of intimate celebrity that has completely taken over our daily lives - the influencers.
What is an Influencer?
An influencer, creator, talent or ambassador is a person who uses various social platforms to successfully build a strong personal brand and amass a large number of loyal followers. As the name implies it's a person who actively influences their surroundings by continuously creating interesting content.
The person might still be famous from before, for example on TV, in sports or as a politician - but most have built their reputation of being inspiring, knowledgeable or an expert in one or several fields on their own. The number of followers dictates if an influencer is a nano, micro, macro or maxi influencer - a factor that often affects the price of any paid partnerships.
The Influencer's Relationship with Their Followers
That influencers are only big in fashion and beauty and only target younger audiences is an old notion. Some write about parenting, others about vegan food or house renovations. Wide or niched, regardless of the subject the content is tailored to be current, interesting and above all relevant to various audiences.
The content is often personal, direct and honest - a fact that increases followers' trust and makes them value the person's tastes and opinions. The ability to comment and interact with the influencer is another important aspect that gives the followers a sense of engagement. And through daily, personal updates the followers often build a close relationship with the influencer.
An influencer is free to choose what type of content they publish and what opinions they present. However, in their creative work, they often listen to their audience and try to match its needs with new, inspiring content. With paid partnerships, skilled influencers convert targeted advertising to regular content on their channels. This is the greatest strength of the medium and the foundation of all successful influencer marketing.
Social Media and Influencer channels
Perhaps you’re already following an influencer on Instagram or Youtube? It’s easy to get caught up in the big platforms, but influencer marketing offers a whole world of different routes to get your message out. Learn more about the most common social media channels and find the right channel for your target audience!
Today more than 90% of the world’s internet users are on social media, and a majority of those actively follow one or more influencers. Common platforms include Instagram, TikTok, Youtube, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitch, Pinterest, Twitter, Clubhouse, LinkedIn, podcasts and blogs – and influencer marketing can be done on all those channels. There are also local channels for specific markets like Russia’s Odnoklassniki or Chinese WeChat with their impressive 1.5 billion active users.
Match with Your target Audience
Each channel targets different groups of people and comes with multifunctional tools for various types of creative content. For example, Twitch is a niched platform for e-sport players who stream video games, directly reaching a younger, dominantly male audience.
The use of social media can vary greatly depending on the country you’re in. Twitter is a great example of a channel that is crucial in order to reach audiences in the US or UK, but isn’t as relevant in for example Sweden.
To get it right both in terms of target audience and strategy you need to stay up to date and continuously analyse the followers of influencers and the influencers’ behavioural patterns on social media. With the right tools, you can adapt the content based on campaign goals and follow up on the result with clear KPIs.
The difference between Influencer Marketing and traditional push-marketing
You have read about the success stories and we can confirm – properly executed influencer marketing can generate both business and visibility with incredible impact. Here you can read more about the seven primary advantages that can help your company break through the noise.
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Anyone can’t just start to represent your brand. Influencer marketing is about matching a credible person with a relevant community to back them with your unique brand, service or product. The influencer often angles the message as the solution to a problem or a need that the followers might have – just as you would do when a close friend is asking for advice.
Brands are only as strong as their ambassadors. Without one or several well-known faces to back the brand, it’s easy to disappear among the crowd of competitors.
Investing in a couple of well-known faces for a period can create lifelong associations to the brand among the followers, so choose with care. Sometimes the influencer can be the whole brand, like in the case of Kylie Jenner and her successful Kylie Cosmetics, which was valued at 600 million US dollars in 2021.
With many followers, an influencer can hold the key to the hearts of entirely new target audiences. Prior to launching a product or brand, it’s more of a rule than an exception that you need to get ahead by collaborating with carefully selected influencers. This leads to crucial, early market shares on which the entire launch can stand or fall.
Do you find it difficult to get people to talk about your product or service? Often, all it takes is for the right person to start a conversation to make the topic current and relevant. You also mustn’t forget the power of today’s social platforms where a single post can be shared and forwarded in an endless chain reaction.
Influencers converse daily with their followers and are experts at creating content that generates maximum effect and interaction. When executed well, an influencer can find unexpected and entirely new ways to market your product or service – trust them!
The biggest difference between regular push marketing and influencer marketing is that one is forced while the other is something people actively want to take part in.
A fresh study from Novus shows that 6 out of 10 have a negative attitude toward adverts. The study also shows that 87% of women use social media for shopping advice and that 50% have made purchases directly associated with recommended products.
If you hire an influencer you don’t just get a face for your product or service. You also get a ready-made campaign where an idea, image/video and copy are included – ready to be rolled out on relevant channels in no time at all. Of course, as a customer, you’ll get the chance to see and approve the posts before they are published.
Micro vs. Macro-influencers
Nano, micro, macro, maxi or perhaps a mix? Influencers are primarily categorised based on how many followers they have, but also based on their influence, interaction and subject. Here you will learn more about the different categories and where you can expect to see the widest reach and value for money.
Nano
1-10k followers
Nano
1-10k followers
Micro
10-50k followers
Micro
10-100k followers
Macro
50-500k followers
Macro
100k-1M followers
Maxi
+500k followers
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+1 million followers
A crazy expensive post from a famous mega influencer, or a two-year always-on collaboration with a micro-influencer for the same price? There is no general recommendation as it’s all based on what your company wants to achieve with the investment. Is it to drive traffic to a new site, to launch a new product, or perhaps just to build a brand with a new target audience? Read on to learn more about the different categories and how you should reason or let us help you with your strategy.
1-10k
These new, relatively small influencers have a small but incredibly loyal and active group of followers. Some are also the stars of tomorrow that are just getting started, while others are specialists in a narrow, niched field which also explains the low follower count.
If, for example, you are an exclusive importer of cigars this can lead to an insane boost in sales and brand recognition. If you have a wider target audience the use of multiple nano influencers can generate great reach to different groups.
50-500k
In this category you’ll find everyone from celebrities to successful professional influencers who have managed to build a significant following based on broader topics like comedy, lifestyle, food, exercising or fashion. The size of the group of followers can, however, harm the quality and engagement of the followers. That said, this category is great to work with and will have a solid impact if you want to reach a wider target audience.
Influencer marketing is largely about trying out different combinations. A mixed strategy can lead to a much better effect than betting everything on a single card. If conversion and traffic are the goals a micro/macro combo can be a good choice. The combination is also great for brand recognition – especially macro which is cost-effective in relation to reach. If you find it difficult to choose you can always get in touch with us and we’ll help you find the right strategy based on your goals.
10-50k
Micro-influencers are similar to nano personalities, but they have come further. Perhaps they are working full time on their social media channels which increases the level and quality of the content.
They are more selective in what collaborations they agree to as the wrong brand can harm their own. Therefore, it’s important to show that the partnership is a win-win situation. The followers are engaged which is great for most types of companies.
500k+
Despite the Nordics small demographic, there are still maxi influencers with up to 21 million followers. This includes massive celebrities like Zlatan and Greta Thunberg and local profiles like Bianca Ingrosso and Therese Lindgren. Their personal brands are extremely strong which also raises their demands on any collaborations. Per follower, engagement can be lower, but if you want to reach far and wide this is the perfect way to go.
Pricing of Influencer Marketing
PPP, PPC or CPV? If you’ve never heard of these abbreviations it can be impossible to understand what it all means. In this chapter, we’ll clarify some of the most common payment methods and how influencer marketing is priced.
PPP
Pay Per Post
PPC
Pay Per Campaign
CPV
Cost Per View
CPE
Cost Per Engagement
CPM
Cost Per Mille
It used to be that the cost of collaboration was directly related to the number of followers an influencer had. This is of course still a factor, but as the number of influencers has increased the price is now also based on actual reach, target audience, engagement, demographic, channel, niche and the strength of the personal brand. Competition in the specific niche, what channel the campaign is run on and how many posts the collaboration should include also play their part.
Fixed Price (PPP)
One of the most common ways is to agree on a price for an entire campaign or a fixed price per post (Pay Per Post). The contract must clearly specify what both parties expect from the collaboration and that all work and publishing should be included. The price can vary if you choose to buy multiple posts at once as part of a package.
Pay Per View (CPV/PPC)
To guarantee that the campaign has the desired reach there’s also an option similar to what we know from banner ads. You as the client pay a fixed cost per view (Cost Per View). You can also pay based on engagement/purchases (Pay Per Click) which is suitable for channels like Instagram, but not all influencers will agree to this.
Pay with Products/Services
It used to be common that companies paid with their own products, but today this is really only relevant to small nano influencers who are new and want to establish themselves. If you want to pay in this way it’s important to consider that there’s a shared responsibility both for the company and the influencer that all products are declared to the tax authorities.
Tools and networks of Influencer Marketing
Should you reach out by yourself, get help from a network, or turn to an agency? There are many options that can lead to great partnerships. Read more about what you should do to get in touch with an influencer the right way, and what each partnership can give you.
Contact Them Directly
If you have never worked with an influencer before you might think that this is a natural and simple path. And that’s partly true, but perhaps only if you want to reach out to nano influencers who are not yet established or part of a network. Running and executing your own collaboration also means some common pitfalls that you can easily avoid if you go the professional route.
Self Service Platforms
If you already have a strategy ready there are currently several online tools to find and book influencers. These companies act as the mediator for primarily smaller influencers looking for new collaborations. You can view stats and data for each profile and what topics/hashtags they are niched toward. Through these tools, you can reach out to the influencer and even access tools for planning and follow-up data. Generally, you pay a fixed fee or a percentage of your budget.
Influencer Agency
To succeed with an influencer campaign you need a carefully planned strategy. This includes parts like concept, identifying profiles, negotiations, contracts, briefs, pricing, follow-up and the collection and analysis of data. With an agency, you’ll get experts who assist you in the creation and execution of your campaign. As an influencer agency, Nine Agency works both with the strategic and operative parts and makes sure that you are matched with the right talent to get the most out of your investment. We also have access to broad and personal profile networks which widens the possibility of new collaborations.
Followup and Analysis of Influencer campaigns
Engagement, reach or sales? A major advantage of influencer marketing is the ability to set measuring points and get exact data of the outcome and results. Various so-called KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are used for this.
In this part, we will take a closer look at KPIs that a marketing manager can’t live without.
The Purpose Decides the Analysis
It’s important to have clear goals from the start, before initiating any new collaboration. This can for example be to enhance brand recognition, engagement or conversions. It might be obvious, but based on the purpose you pick relevant KPIs for data collection. If you hire an influencer agency such as Nine Agency we can offer more advanced tools for measuring KPIs than those offered by influencer platforms.
Brand recognition is built consistently over time which makes it harder to measure. In influencer marketing, it’s often assessed based on reach and post views, and for larger campaigns, you can also measure effect. The number of new followers to your own social media channels can be one aspect, but it’s also important to check that it’s the right type of followers you’ve gained. Many platforms offer tools that give you an indication of demographics and how they correlate to your target audience.
Clicks, likes, shares and comments – social media channels are full of various ways to measure engagement. Activations with a high degree of interaction will quickly give you a clear image of a successful campaign where especially comments can be of interest to assess the response from the audience. If you build a collaboration based on engagement, Cost Per Engagement (CPE) is also of interest to look at when assessing the campaign. In an engagement campaign, you should also know the influencer’s average engagement as this can vary between different profiles, including based on the size of their following.
Influencer marketing often has the goal of generating new leads or boosting sales. If this is your primary goal the follow-up sales numbers are of course interesting data to look at. In these campaigns, the influencer is often given a discount code or affiliate link which makes it easier to connect a purchase to the specific collaboration.
Site Traffic
One of the simplest ways to measure the success of a campaign is to take a closer look at the traffic to your own website. Regardless of the campaign goal you often want customers to eventually end up on your own website. If you’re skilled with Google Analytics, key areas to look at are visitors, bounce rate, page views and tracking links.
