If we ask you how often do you spend scrolling through social media, would you shy away from answering or enter the realm of existentialism wondering what you are doing with your life spending so much time on social media? It would be the latter one, wouldn’t it be? Well, don’t do that. Because we are all in this together. Our lives somewhat do revolve around social media or at least a part of it does. A few years ago this fact was everyone’s skeleton in the closet but not anymore. 

We are all guilty of gagging at memes instead of working or studying or even sleeping on time. We all scroll through sad quotes, jump from one app to another, checking out what our favorite travelers are doing only to feel sad about not being able to do any of those. We sometimes spend time searching for that one lipstick shade that that famous blogger had used in their last story and get loose looking for something else instead. 

Something that we can all agree to is that these influencers have got us all hooked onto social media. And how can we not! We consume fashion, art, music, trends, discounts, motivation, entertainment and so much more through these influencers and creators. Saying that we have yielded benefits from influencers would be an understatement. Well, it’s not us alone because the brands and their businesses too have made the best of influencer marketing. 

Brands have been largely using influencer marketing for their businesses and have scaled great success through it. And for influencers? Ditto. 

Why do brands need influencer marketing?

Social media came into existence to serve the purpose of connecting people. And people did connect with one another. The usual sharing and updating kept happening for years and we thought that hey! This is the best thing ever. But little did we know that it was just the start. 

The real game-changer was when gradually social media started sharing space with businesses and passion too. It began somewhere with Facebook and now it’s everywhere. It started with small brands taking their business up a notch by just being present on the social media platforms. But who thought that as users, we would turn into such internet geeks and unravel such a huge potential of social media for us. Now we are in the middle of the era where influencer marketing is the top choice for all the brands. And why would it not be? These influencers that act as key leaders influence thousands and lakhs of people and directly affect their purchasing decisions. 

The large amount of engagement that the influencers draw is hard to get missed by the brands because they can be the catalysts for their businesses. A lot of small brands can amplify their reach by collaborating with influencers of their preference. The constraint faced by most small brands is that they cannot afford to work with big influencers. But in between all the glory of having a large number of followers, the potential of micro influencers is neglected. However, they can do wonders for both small and big businesses.  

How can a brand use influencer marketing for business?

As the legend, Vincent Van Gogh said, “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together”, influencer marketing too is an amalgamation of a well-planned strategy created for a big impact. Different businesses have different approaches but the fundamentals might remain the same for most of them. As a brand, here a few things to understand how to use influencer marketing for your business. 

• Set the goals

Setting goals is always important irrespective of what kind of marketing you go for. With respect to influencer marketing, you can set your goals by aiming for metrics like awareness, reach, traffic, engagement, number of followers, number of views, sales, and retention. This will come handy to decide which influencers to choose as you will be able to understand who can help you achieve your goals in the best possible way.

• Find influencers

Find influencers. So simple, isn’t it? Actually, not quite. There are several things to consider before finalizing on which influencers to have on board. You have to conduct thorough research and find the ones that suit your niche. You must also decide on which of the following types of influencers do you wish to work with- mega, macro, micro, or nano. Lucky for you that there are multiple influencer marketing platforms that have extensive data of influencers. 

These platforms provide you with details like their niche, following, communication style, previous collaborations, work samples, and every other work background detail that will save you beat the clock.

• Build your campaign

To build a campaign, you have your goals and your influencers to get you started. Now all you need is a team of skilled experts who can plan the campaign and execute it. The best way to do so is to collaborate with influencer marketing agencies who will manage everything beginning from planning, strategizing, coordinating with the influencers, getting the content and creatives ready, execute and also give you an analysis of the performance of the campaign. You can also choose to do it by yourself depending on your bandwidth and requirements. 

For instance, a lot of small businesses are unable to hire a team to campaign for them but that’s a small bump in the road. With a little extra effort and unshakable passion, this is always possible even without outside help for some. 

• Set compensation plans

When you approach an influencer marketing agency, the biggest advantage you can get is that everything is pre-established. They have influencers on board on either a contract basis or campaign basis and their monetary clauses are too pre-decided. Different influencers may have different payment conditions. So you can pick the ones that suit your requirements or propose a compensation plan of your own. 

This is again, decided on the basis of your goals. Some compensation plans that you can look at are: pay per post, pay per click, pay per engagement, pay per conversion, affiliate payments, goodies, PR packages, or sponsored trips. 

• Give creative freedom

Lastly, and the most important one is to let the influencers have their creative freedom. The main reason why you choose influencers is for their content. Their audience knows them through their content. These influencers have a personality that reflects on their social media and keeps them connected with their audience. Hence, even when these influencers are endorsing your products or services, their audience will believe them when they see the influencer themself connect with your product. 

Most brands are stiff and want everything their way. But it is important to achieve a middle ground here. Influencer marketing works best when the influencers promote your products in their own creative manner.  That’s when it is relatable and the audience will be keen on knowing about your product, follow you, and become your customer. 

WORD Marketplace offers the chance to achieve a middle ground to both influencers and brands. The brands get to pick their own influencers and the influencers get to pick their own project. In a way, both the parties end up at a mutual agreement with respect to everything. 

Influencer marketing is an investment for businesses because the returns are high and will only get higher with time. Prioritize the quality of your product, as well as marketing and everything, is bound to fall in place.