Influencer marketing could be the element that helps marketers reach their next objectives, but is it right for your marketing and brand strategy?
Below, read three questions to determine whether implementing influencer marketing is right for your digital marketing strategy (and stick around until the very end to read our expert tips)!
Why Are You Considering Influencer Marketing In The First Place?
Start with the basics — ask yourself what your main marketing objectives are and consider how influencer marketing can help you reach your goals. This exercise gives marketers a sense of influencer marketing’s role within the larger digital marketing program and how it supports other pieces, such as the organic social media presence or other paid media strategies.
We believe Influencer marketing is best utilized when it’s a complementary piece to your existing digital marketing program, rather than it being the core strategy itself. On its own, influencer marketing can only get you so far. However, when combined with an established and strategic online presence, influencer marketing can be the final piece of your digital marketing identity that ties everything together.
Someone not familiar with your brand may come across a Reel from their favorite Instagram influencer, and check out your Instagram page and follow it because they enjoy the organic content they see. Based on this interaction, the platform may serve your ads to this user where they’ll find out about your product and become interested in it. The person then does more research on your well-designed, user-friendly website (that’s hopefully mobile-friendly as well) and considers making a purchase.
As you can see, influencer marketing can be a valuable step of the consumer journey, but it’s not the one and only step.
Consider influencer marketing if…
- You have a well-established digital marketing program and a strategic and engaging online presence.
- You’re looking for a more authentic way to reach your audience online.
- You’re interested in increasing brand awareness and want to tap into a resource that’s not currently included in your existing digital marketing program.
Rethink your influencer strategy if…
- Your brand doesn’t have an online presence. As we mentioned before, start with the basics: a website, social media presence, and so on.
- You don’t have a real strategy behind launching an influencer marketing program or feel it’s just a way to “catch up” to your competitors that are partnered with influencers.
- You currently don’t have any other paid media plans and would be relying solely on influencer marketing.
What Does Your Digital Marketing Budget Look Like?
Hiring an influencer costs money. Some cost a lot, others far less. It’s important to consider the current state of your overall digital marketing budget. If you’re often turning off your Facebook and TikTok ads before the end of the month because you’ve maxed out your ad budget, chances are an influencer marketing program may not be right for you. While not every influencer costs millions of dollars, the fact is that many brands still require a few thousand dollars of investment in their influencer marketing.
That being said, don’t forget about “micro” influencers. It’s not just the “mega” influencers like the Kim Kardashians and Charli D’Amelios that marketers should focus on. Instead, influencers with a smaller, more niche audience may be an even better fit than signing a contract with someone who has millions of followers.
Consider influencer marketing if…
- You have the appropriate budget to launch a pilot campaign in order to test performance. In the future, you may want to increase your budget if your pilot goes well.
- You’re open to testing the waters with campaigns before scaling up.
- It makes sense for your brand to partner with micro influencers that may help optimize your costs.
Rethink your influencer strategy if…
- Your digital marketing budget is tight and there’s no room for a dedicated influencer marketing budget. Not all influencers cost millions of dollars to hire, but you still need to spend some money in order to hire them.
- You’re not willing or unable to allocate a reasonable budget to influencer marketing, which may compromise its potential effectiveness.
- There are other missing gaps in your existing digital marketing strategy that may make more strategic sense to invest in for your business objectives (for example, launching an SEM — or search engine marketing — campaign).
Do You Have The Resources To Devote To Influencer Marketing?
Hiring an influencer is more complex than it seems — especially if your company is in a regulated space, such as healthcare or finance. It’s important to understand that influencer marketing can take more time and effort than you think, so make sure your marketing team is able to make that time commitment.
Because influencer marketing can be so different compared to other forms of marketing — both traditional and other forms of digital — it requires strategic planning. After all, you’re working with someone external to your company but who will have a direct impact on your company’s brand image and marketing strategy.
Another point to consider is whether it makes sense for you and your marketing team to handle all of the influencer marketing in-house or partner with a social media or digital marketing agency. If you don’t have the time to look for influencers, vet them, communicate strategy, and so forth, it makes more sense to work with an agency experienced in influencer marketing that can do the heavy lifting for you.
Consider influencer marketing if…
- Your marketing team can dedicate the time to strategically plan and execute influencer campaigns.
- You have the resources to build and maintain relationships with influencers.
- You have an agency in mind that can handle the time-intensive aspects of influencer marketing.
Rethink your influencer strategy if…
- Your team is stretched thin with existing digital marketing responsibilities and can’t partner with an outside digital marketing agency.
- You lack the resources or expertise to manage influencer relationships effectively.
- You don’t have the budget to hire an additional marketer for your team or hire an outside agency.
Can Influencer Marketing Help You Reach Your Business Objectives?
Depending on the type of goal you want to achieve, influencer marketing can help you reach your objectives. That being said, this type of marketing is just one small piece of your overall digital marketing strategy “pie.” Many different elements can make an influencer marketing campaign successful — or not.
For example, audiences on social media will be interacting with these influencers. What happens when they try to search your company online and find that your brand isn’t on social media — or that your page features low-quality, unengaging content that hasn’t been updated in a few weeks? Influencer marketing works well within an already-established digital marketing strategy.
Here’s another tip. While many marketers may think that influencer marketing is only for B2C (business to consumer) brands, the truth is that B2B (business to business) companies can make use of influencers as well! Again, it goes back to your primary objective. Do you want influencer marketing to improve brand awareness? Or get the word out about a particular product?
Setting goals can be difficult, so for those marketers who are still working on their upcoming campaigns, check out our article, Setting Digital Marketing Goals for 2024.
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