22. IS INFLUENCER MARKETING WHAT YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS?

Since Instagram became the most important tool to advertise, brands are daily looking for new faces to promote their products and services. We also call it 'Influencer Marketing' and still today it's growing in popularity. However, some brands don't know if it's better to invest in macro-influencers or micro-influencers. Oh wait, micro/macro/micro? What are we talking about? Let us explain you a little bit more and let's get started.

What is a micro-influencer? On Instagram we see a lot of people with thousands of followers, real or not, once you're going over the 100k they're called 'macro' influencers. Those in between 1000 and 100K are the micro-influencers. It's a significant but not massive amount of Social Media followers and are mostly everyday consumers. This will make them more trustworthy to collaborate with as their profiles still have a personal touch and you will see if their niche and personality matches your brand. Profiles with +100K can be more seen as an inspiration but sometimes loose a personal touch because of all the paid campaigns. It's up to the brand though to look for relatable and matching faces.

What's the benefit of investing in them? One of the main reasons brands are working together with influencers is because they reach a lot of people in a small amount of time. One post can reach hundreds or thousands of potential new costumers who've seen your new product. Also campaigns or improving your brand awareness can a part of the marketing. 

Let's talk about the money... We all know that the more followers they have, the more they will charge for a post. Therefor it's very important, as we said in the first part, that you do research before taking random persons to promote the item. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Is her or his personality matching my brand?
- Are their followers people that might be interested in my products?
- Does she or he has enough engagement in comparison with the followers?
- Is her profile fitting my brands image?
- ...

If the answers are 'YES!' you might have a perfect match and than it's up to you, the brand, to decide if you want to pay €10.000 for one post with an influencer with 1million followers, or if you want to pay €500 for 20different posts with micro-influencers with 50K followers. At the end you will also reach 1million people. Attention though! The amount of followers is not equal to the amount of reach. So take the time to do research on those who have enough engagement on their posts. Someone with a lower amount of followers might gain as much sales as someone with double or three times the amount.

But what if you don't have a large amount to spend on marketing? Investing in micro-influencers with a reach in between 5000 to 15.000 followers can already be a good launch for your product. Next to that you can suggest product trade for promotion. Those who really love your brand and product will do it.

If you need help on finding the right match for your brand you can subscribe to different platforms where influencers are connected to brands. bYooma has one as well! Click here to subscribe.

Measure the impact of your investment! If you decided to have a collaboration with an influencer it's also important to measure the impact it had. You invested in them so it's obvious that you want to see results. Did you reach the goal you set up in the beginning? Ask the influencer later on the numbers and statistics of their posts so you can calculate the views, engagement, etc.

And yes, you need to set up a clear goal before starting any kind of collaboration! Do you want brand awareness or promote a certain product? And how do you want it to be promoted? You can even do contests and giveaways to increase your followers amount and brand awareness. Read all about that in our post about 'How to run a contest on Instagram'. Sending inspirational examples to the influencers might help as well if you want to create the right content together. Remember: communication is the key to a successful campaign.

Last but not least, invest in long-term-relationships with those who perfectly match your brand. They can also be called ambassadors. Having the same trustworthy faces that truly love the brand and fit your image will not only create a professional way of working with influencers but will also result into spontaneous content.