The vast majority of marketers have agreed that demonstrating the ROI from working with influencers is the foremost priority for brands. However, marketers are still finding it a challenge, with 22% saying that proving the ROI of influencers has been their toughest challenge
Beauty brands working with influencers and utilising their voice is becoming one of the most common marketing techniques within the industry. Beauty falls into the group of businesses recorded to gain the most success from virtually collaborating with influencers which is quite expected due to the social media buzz surrounding it. The statistics demonstrate significant importance from online reviews alone with a high percentage of consumers saying they have been either persuaded to buy a product or put off based on what they read. Keeping in mind that most online reviews are opinions from complete strangers, imagine the power of someone who has a following based on a substantial amount of people who trust their opinion holds credibility.
One of the biggest mistakes a brand can make when implementing an influencer marketing campaign is selecting the wrong influencer(s).
Marketing often separates influencers and considers them based on the category they fall into. The categories generally include mega (1 million + followers) , macro (100,000+ followers) , micro (10,000+ followers) and nano (1,000 + followers) . It’s easy to presume that you should aim for the influencers that have the highest amount of followers your budget will allow; although a mega or macro influencer can easily reach masses of consumers, there is more to it than that.
As well known as an influencer can be, it can be vital to carefully consider things that may have an effect on their selling power; for example, taking notice of the number of sponsored partnerships on their account. If marketing brands is something that they tend to do a lot, it’s possible that the content they upload for your brand could get lost within a pile of similar posts. Another important part of your decision should be observing the amount of engagement between a potential influencer and their followers. Sometimes influencers who have a smaller following actually produce very popular content but in a more specific and focused niche. So if you have a niche product that fits into their message, hiring them will likely result you with a higher ROI than choosing a mega or macro influencer who have an audience of varied interests.
The graphs below display the results of a study on Markerly regarding different influencers and whether or not size makes a difference. They analyzed over 800,000 Influencers and in total, five million Instagram posts and began to realise that as the influencers following increases the engagement they have decreases. Micro/nano influencer marketing often feels more authentic to their audience but that’s usually because it is. This kind of marketing is more of an incentivised collaboration rather than a paid process meaning that the influencers genuinely love the product that they are promoting.
The most successful programs we’ve seen among brands align influencer marketing with marketing and business objectives and work backwards to establish an effective mix of influencers.
Not only can micro/nano influencers offer value but hiring a few of them at once and spreading out becomes more feasible due to a smaller demand for pay or just inserviced goods. That being said, it can definitely be worth reaching out to a mega or macro influencer depending if they fit the criteria regarding your product and you can afford it.
Nicolas Chabot, the head of Trackr, a leading influencer platform in Europe conducted a study attempting to measure the true impact of smaller influencers in terms of both reach and engagement. With a great deal of marketers beginning to favour micro and nano influencer marketing, we need to bear in mind that using lesser known influencers in branding is fairly new and would be worth evaluating how to approach this strategy and if it’s right for you before investing. The study’s participants consisted of the following four brands each of which promote a different message: L’Oreal Paris (mass market), Estee Lauder (Luxury Leader), Glossier (high growth upstart), and Pulp Riot (newcomer indie).
The blue spaces in the graph represent micro influencers, and as you can see they can struggle to “generate significant reach” when it comes to large numbers. However, this doesn’t invalidate their use, but is just to express that it might not be a good idea to over invest in it depending on your product; whilst Chabot may be shedding some light on the limits of this tactic, even he agrees that “they are great partners for reaching niche communities”. As you can see from the graph, the lesser known vegan brand Pulp Riot received the most attention from the micro influencer community whereas Loreal recieved the least. This reaffirms the appreciation that micro/nano influencer followers tend to have for smaller or alternative brands with an ethical message going to show how much the product you are selling should be a defining factor in which influencers you work with.
Influencer marketing emerged within the last decade and is definitely here to stay. Although it is already one of the most favoured techniques for brands, marketers are predicting that its still on an uprise and not nearly as big as it will be in 2020 along with brands becoming more interested in working with influencers who have similar values as well as spreading out working with several influencers at once.
If you are new to influencer marketing, online tools are a great way to get started. Whilst there are many options to consider, some of the best sites offer support for specific purposes depending on the stage your in. For example, Buzzsumo was created to help you find the right influencer whereas Agorapulse and Phlanx was made to help you keep track of your benchmark performance. It might be necessary to use a selection of methods in addition to trial and error in order to find the right influencers for your brand because it’s probably the most important part of the entire process.
Do you ever find yourself ready to purchase based on an influencers recommendation? Which influencers do you trust the most?
