Influencer marketing has quickly become an essential strategy for many brands. The exponential growth of social networks has provoked hyperconnectivity between social media users who use these platforms to consume content generated by influential profiles who they trust in and get inspiration, ideas, knowledge and entertainment from.
For this reason, many companies are opting to include said profiles in their influencer marketing strategies, thanks to their capacity to influence consumer decision making and purchasing processes. In some cases, these profiles are even capable of turning a product or a service in the latest trend.
Nowadays, knowing of a brand’s existence just isn’t enough. To have a competitive edge, brands must take a chance on modern marketing techniques in order to make themselves visible in a world dominated by digital celebrities.
The marketing actions brands can carry out with influencers are extremely diverse. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular actions:
One of the most popular influencer marketing actions consists of sending products to influencers for them to promote on their social media profiles.
If the brand has a good marketing strategy and the influencer is well-informed of the brief, this particular marketing action can be extremely beneficial. However, when sending products to influencers, it’s important to keep an eye on the messages being shared regarding the product or service in order to make sure that they’re in-line with the brand’s value proposition.
Using a software specifically designed to monitor these types of influencer marketing actions is essential, since it helps brands find, select and analyse potential candidates for collaborations. That way, brands can ensure that their product will be see by potential clients from their target audience.
2 Attending events
Another popular influencer marketing action is inviting influential profiles to attend events to increase brand awareness.
In order to analyse the exact impact of this action, it’s important to use a platform that provides the right tools to measure results, such as Influencity.
3 Attending events
This strategy consists of influencers posting content to promote a specific product. In said posts, the influencer discusses the product’s attributes and benefits, etc.
This particular action used to be restricted to just blogs, but can now be seen across all social networks.
4 Brand ambassadors
Another influencer marketing action that sees great results is appointing brand ambassadors, or in other words, collaborating with influencers on a long-term basis.
As well as promoting products on their social media profiles, they also act as the face of the brand at events and share personalised discount codes for their followers to use.
Working with brand ambassadors is an ideal strategy for brands that wish to boost or rejuvenate their image or associate themselves with certain values.
This particular action requires long-term collaborations with a bigger budget, so that consumers have enough time to recognise and register the influencer as the face of the brand. Brands can also ask the influencer for exclusivity so that they don’t collaborate with the competition and are easily identified with the brand.
5 Discount codes
This particular influencer marketing action consists of creating personalised discount codes for each influencer collaborating with the brand.
For this action to be effective, brands should follow these steps:
This is the perfect marketing action for brands that wish to increase sales and want to find out which collaborating influencers are effectively helping them reach their goals. It’s also very beneficial for brands that have a limited budget, since the influencer’s compensation is usually based on a percentage of their sales.
The chosen influencer will ideally be specialised in the brand’s sector in order for the influencer marketing strategy to work effectively.
6 Paid Media
Another influencer marketing technique is paying for conventional advertising on social media, in which brands collaborate with influencers whose image is in-line with the brand’s values and who support their value proposition. This technique is used by brands with a big marketing budget that wish to boost their commercial plan and content by collaborating with influencers. It’s an effective way to improve brand image and reach the target audience through the help of an influencer.
Brand ambassadors are influencers who represent the company and its values and humanise its commercial messages in the eyes of the consumer. We recommend implementing a mix of the previously seen marketing actions in your brand’s influencer marketing strategy, in which influencers will do the following:
Brands advocates are users who collaborate with brands of their own free will, or, in other words, are not contracted directly by the brand.
It is possible, however to collaborate with these users by sending products and notifying them about product launches, as well as inviting them to events as a way of thanking them for their loyalty. Want to find out more about how to gain brand advocates? Take a look at this article.
As well as the strategies we’ve already seen in this article, there are many more less-known actions that are just as beneficial, such as the following:
Influencers can help diffuse a brand’s products or services amongst their community or, in this case, their email contacts.
Email marketing strategies with influencers consist of collaborating with an influencer to write a series of emails for your brand’s mailing list for a specific campaign.
For this particular action to be successful, the influencer should promote the email campaign on their social media profiles and encourage their community to sign up to the mailing list.
Have these influencer marketing actions inspired you to create your own campaign? Drop us a line and we’ll help your campaign come to life!