Influencer Marketing Is On The Rise

Influencer marketing is showing no sign of slowing down. With the pandemic throughout 2020, social media users are changing their habits and many older advertising methods aren’t proving to work as well as they once did. With users now installing ad blockers, website ads aren’t generating the reach that they used to, so brands are having to rely on social media for their advertising even more than before.

New Features

Because of these changes, social media has become essential within marketing. Over the last few years, social media channels have been adapting and updating by introducing new features such as; reels and guides on Instagram and stories on Facebook, giving influencers even more ways to share content.

Video content is also continuing to rise, with TikTok and other video content becoming hugely popular within advertising and the influencer community.

The No-Edit Edit

Authenticity has also become a huge part of influencer content, with ‘no-edit edits’ becoming hugely popular. By posting much more real and relatable content, it adds more value to the product or service being advertised in comparison to a generic social media ad. This is another reason that more and more brands are reaching out to influencers.

Ongoing vs One-off Partnerships

There are many ways you can use influencer partnerships to benefit your brand and boost your social media engagement and reach.

Long term brand and influencer partnerships are becoming highly popular. With ongoing partnerships, it allows social media users to gain trust and become more invested in a brand or influencer and then become more likely to interact and become buyers.

This doesn't mean that one-off partnerships don't have some great benefits. Short-term partnerships can be useful due to less time needed for planning and they allow you to test a variety of accounts to partner with. Short term partnerships can also be good for newer brands who just want to test if influencer marketing is right for them, without the need to invest.

Whether you choose a one-off or long-term partnership will depend on your brand goals and plans and if used correctly, both options can be beneficial for the growth of your social media channels.

Metrics to Consider

 Before going into a partnership and working with an influencer, there are some metrics to consider to give it more chance of becoming a successful campaign:

Engagement

When choosing an influencer, you want to make sure they have good engagement on their posts before investing time into the partnership. You can calculate engagement rates from likes, comments and video views or there are many engagement rate calculators online.

Each account with have their own percentage of engagement and this can vary depending on the content they post and the audience they target.

Post Frequency

Post frequency is highly important, with Instagram and Facebook now taking this into consideration when ranking an account. We recommend working with an account who frequently posts and interacts with their followers, as this way you can tell if they will invest time into your brand's content and make it worth your time and money working on a partnership with them.

Followers/ Follower Growth

Many accounts purchase followers, therefore it is important to understand where the account's followers are from, so the content you're paying for isn't being shared to a stagnant audience.

You can get an insight into this by looking at their follower growth. This can be presented on a graph, where you can see if their followers have increased or decreased over time. Seeing an increase over time is a good sign as you can see the account is still growing, whereas a large peak can be a warning sign of them purchasing followers. If you see a peak, it is recommended to take a look at the content posted around that time to see if a competition or something similar may have caused this. You can also look at the comments and likes on their posts to tell if they have purchased followers or used bots. Some accounts will purchase followers and likes, but it is unlikely for them to buy comments.

It will depend on the size of your brand and what you're wanting to achieve, whether you want to work with an influencer with a larger or smaller following. Micro & Nano-influencers have been becoming more popular over the last year, with smaller brands making the most of a more affordable option. There are many benefits to smaller accounts, from cost to higher engagement rates and quality scores.

Branded Posts

One thing that is often overlooked when choosing who to work with, is considering who they have partnered with in the past. By looking at their brand mentions, it can give you an insight into the kind of brands they work with and interact with and if they line up with your own brand's values.

Cost

The cost of an influencer's post can vary depending on a number of factors including; time taken to make the post, type of content, number of followers and which industry they work with. Some influencer will also accept gifted products as payment, so it is worth speaking with the influencer to find out more about their pricing.

Examples

Below we have some examples of how we at Evolution have used influencer marketing to push the brands we work with.

Cougar Instagram Influencers

Read more on this here.

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Patriot Youtube Influencers

Read more on this here.

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Conclusion

Influencer marketing is on the rise and whether you're a new or an established brand, influencer marketing could help to give you that extra push. There are many influencers out there to suit any brand and at Evolution we work to make the most of the many benefits influencer marketing has to offer.