Influencer marketing is one tactic currently used by businesses all over the world because it has been tested and works wonders when it comes to driving more sales and increasing audience engagement. Eighty percent of marketers have affirmed that influencer marketing helped improve sales, and 89 say they get more return on investment from influencer marketing than any other channel.

Influencer marketing is when you choose favorite content creators who may also be celebrities to help improve your brand awareness, generate traffic, and recommend your products to their audience who have similar characteristics with your target audience.

Influencer marketing can be likened to word-of-mouth and testimonial marketing but this time, with a broader reach, and from someone, people admire and trust entirely. It is one strategy every business hoping to get more leads, and customers should try out. Let’s look at a few things you should know about influencer marketing in 2019.

Types of influencers

We have five classes of influencers, and they all have different roles to play when it comes to influencer marketing.  When choosing an influencer, you need to ensure they suit your type of business and can be able to increase brand awareness, generate traffic, and most importantly, generate sales and conversion. Here are some of the types of influencers:

• Micro influencer
• Blog influencer
• Celebrity influencer
• Social media influencer
• Key opinion leader

Working with a micro-influencer

These kinds of influencers do not have millions of followers like some other influencers. They mostly manage thousands of followers while dealing with a particular niche. These influencers create content on their niche and share them across various platforms, including blogs, social media, websites, email, etc. for their audience to engage.

The micro-influencer may not have a large following, but knows how to make use of their small audience to help businesses makes sales. The reason is that they find it easy to bond with their followers by liking their comment, discussing in the comment section, and creating contents that suit their audience. They have a higher engagement rate with their audience than when compared to those with a large following.

Working with a micro-influencer is the right tactic for businesses looking to engage their audience to learn more about their products. All you need is to ask them to write something and post about your product or post a picture holding or wearing your product.

Due to the small following, a micro-influencer has, he or she would be able to communicate directly with the audience, answering any questions they might have about it, and directing them to your website or social media page.

Working with a blog influencer

Blog influencers are those whose blogs have thousands or millions of subscribers with an impressive number of views on every blog post. Note that not all bloggers are an influencer as some might choose to keep a blog as a personal diary or have only a small number of people.

To work with a blog influencer, you have to ensure they have lots of subscribers before contacting them. You can then ask that they write a sponsored post about your products or services, write a guest post, or mention your brand in their post.

Working with a celebrity influencer

Celebrities are famous people that are widely recognized irrespective of their industry, and more often than not, have a large following in millions.

With celebrities, you don’t need to consider if their audience shares similarities with your target because they reach multiple audiences, your goal inclusive.

Getting a celebrity to endorse your product online is an excellent boost for your sales. You should work with a celebrity influencer if it’s within your marketing budget.

To work with a celebrity influencer, all you need do is reach out to them and ask that they should take pictures with your products and post it on their social media page explaining why their audience should use your products or services. They can also offer coupons or discount codes on your behalf.

You can also get celebrities to do tv commercials, print or online ads, and so on. If they pay right or they trust your product, they probably would agree to write a review explaining to their audience why they believe your product. You can also sponsor an event for a celebrity in a bid to showcase your products.

An example of a brand that worked with a celebrity influencer was Amazon when they sponsored Khloe Kardashian’s baby shower using it as an opportunity to feature their range of maternity and baby registry products.

It didn’t end there as Khloe took to her Instagram to thank Amazon and share a linked a link for her followers to shop on their site. Khloe has about 93.7 million followers and other attractive features, including the fact that she was pregnant at that time.

Working with social media influencer

Social media influencers are individuals who are very popular on social platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. These influencers get followed by thousands or millions of people across various social media platforms. And they share contents regularly according to their multiple niches which could be beauty, makeup, travel, fashion, health, workout, etc.

To work with a social media influencer, you need to connect with someone that works with a niche similar to your brand. For example, if you have a clothing line, you need someone in the fashion niche. Naturally, the followers of such a person will be similar to your target audience.

You can have the person take a picture with your product and post on their Instagram and tag your account. You could ask that they post different content on each social media. It all depends on what you want. They can also write something about your product before posting the picture or video.

Another way to work with an influencer is having them hold a contest and giveaways with your products as the prizes.

Working with a key opinion leader

A key opinion leader is someone who is an expert in a field with in-depth experience. However, KOLs would not review any product they don’t feel qualified for their audience to use. So you need to ensure your product is worth it. 

Working with a key opinion leader takes the same process as other types of influencers. Reach out to them and let them know how you want the promotion to go.