The new digital economy heightened the competition in the business world. To keep up or stay ahead of competitors, you must have a solid online presence.
Modern consumers use digital media to seek out and research a brand, product, or service. As a business owner, you wouldn't want to miss out on this opportunity to influence and stimulate their purchasing decisions. But connecting with your target audience online and converting them into buying customers isn't easy. This is where influencer marketing strategy can come into play.
Partnering with influencers with a large-scale follower count and distinctive character is a surefire way to establish and increase awareness of your brand on social media platforms. Dedicated followers view these influencers as authoritative sources of information. Thus, the content they create typically generates higher engagement rates.
If you decide to work with influencers for your business, Instagram is an excellent place to start. But to yield optimal results with your influencer marketing campaign on the platform, you need to have the right strategy. Learn how to create one through this guide.
Never miss another story
Influencer Marketing: What Is It and Why It’s Necessary for Your Business
Influencer marketing is the modern word-of-mouth marketing style. But instead of solely relying on customers' experiences, you will collaborate with macro or micro-influencers on the internet to endorse your products or services and spread the word.
Original influencers were mainly bloggers who shared stories about their lives and recommended products they used every day. Now they can be well-known personalities, celebrities, athletes, or even ordinary individuals with many engaged audiences on social media like Instagram.
Unlike social media marketing, where you use your brand's social media account, the influencers will post and promote your products or services on their personal account. You can pay the influencers directly with money or compensate them with goods or services. Typically, they will share their experiences and relate them to your product or brand message.
Through these influencers' posts, you will expand your scope to your target audience in ways you can't do alone. Their credibility with different demographics will produce high engagement rates, sales, and revenue.
Based on a study, the average influencer marketing campaign generates a return of $6.50 for every $1 spent. This figure makes it one of the most cost-effective channels to drive purchase decisions and acquire customers online. If done correctly, influencer marketing will help your business get solid results and generate revenue.
The Benefits of Influencer Marketing on Instagram
Influencers use different channels for their content and target demographics. While every digital marketing platform is promising, Instagram provides the perfect space for influencer marketing. It's no longer just a social networking app for sharing personal lifestyle photos and accumulating likes and comments. The app’s video sharing and Instagram story features have also become quite valuable for sharing content.
With over 120 million active Instagram users, you can market your brand authentically without hard selling to your target audience. And the good thing about its users is that they're not simply active. They’re also engaged.
Instagram's visual nature is its competitive advantage over any other influencer marketing platform. It's the best channel to showcase the design of your product or service. However, there's more to Instagram than its captivating visuals. Discover below what benefits you can get by leveraging influencer marketing on Instagram.
More Approachable Forms of Content
Consumers are usually keen on recognizing inauthenticity. You can't earn their trust by sending them pushy and insincere messages. With the sheer amount of marketing they witness every day, they're likely to pay less attention to invasive and irrelevant content.
Instead, they prefer to engage in a brand that incites honest conversations and speaks directly to their needs and wants. But this may require building a deeper and more genuine connection with them. How do you do that? The key is to have approachable content that expresses your brand values and purpose.
Through Instagram influencer marketing campaigns, you can make more authentic content for your brand. Your potential customers will see when influencers use your product and share its value in their everyday lives. It can make them more comfortable with your brand and content.
Instagram Stories also enable influencers to post unedited photos or videos. These make an influencer's content more friendly and easily relatable. And the more consumers experience this natural interaction with your products or services, the more they would be willing to try and make a purchase.
Accurately Target Your Niche
Attracting a specific set of audiences is a significant challenge in digital marketing. But Instagram influencers specialize in a particular niche. They usually invest a lot of their time and effort in promoting lifestyles and products valuable to them. This is why they have successfully gathered niche audiences.
Influencers create content with Instagram niche hashtags. So people interested in a particular topic can quickly discover them. This drives traffic to influencer posts and accounts, growing their following and scope.
With Instagram influencer marketing, your target market already exists. You only have to tap it by working with the right influencer who shares the same audience and niche as your brand. As they make endorsements for your products or services with niche hashtags, you can expand your brand reach exponentially.
A Wide Array of Business-Oriented Opportunities
Analyzing data doesn't only make your business more efficient. It also enables you to identify potential business opportunities that are often overlooked. With Instagram influencer marketing, you can go into them and grow your business more intelligently.
Recently, Instagram offered an analytics tool that provides insights and lets users assess their performance, such as reach, engagement, and followers. When influencers post or share your content, you can uncover possibilities you were unaware of. It will also help you better understand your audience's preferences.
As your brand ambassadors, Instagram influencers can also give valuable insights into your products or services. Because they are often in tune with the worries and concerns of their followers, influencers know how to engage their audience in a more personal and meaningful way. This helps you create less pushy, more accurate, and custom-made content.
Highly Relevant Partnership
People follow someone on Instagram because they admire the person, their fashion sense, what they believe in, or their preferences. This means there's a sense of trust between the Instagram influencer and the influencer's followers. So with Instagram influencer marketing, you can ensure a highly relevant partnership for your brand's reach, growth, and profitability.
If you partner with the right influencer, they will promote your products or services. This will make you more visible and familiar to their niche audience and your target market. And as trusted experts in their niche, they can come up with authentic and relevant testimonials that will boost your credibility and the influencer's followers' trust in your services.
Impressive Results At Lower Costs
Traditional marketing requires a considerable amount of marketing budget for a single celebrity endorsement. With Instagram influencers, you can get impressive results at lower costs. There's no standard price for Instagram influencer marketing. It depends on the influencer and the number of followers they have. But generally, you can expect to pay more for those with sizable followings.
Influencers with a small follower count might agree to endorse your brand on their Instagram account for free products. You must pay the right price if you're looking to work with top influencers in your niche. However, take note that larger audiences don't equate to better revenue.
It's possible to achieve higher conversion rates and sales with smaller-scale influencers. They can connect more intimately with their highly-dedicated followers and focus more on their niche. Plus, they are more affordable, reducing your brand's spending while achieving a more substantial return on investment (ROI).
.jpeg)
How To Develop an Influencer Marketing Strategy
Successful Instagram influencer marketing campaigns need intentional targeting and planning like any social media strategy. You can't just send out free products or pay potential influencers to promote your brand and expect success immediately.
There's no one-size-fits-all marketing tactic. But here are some pointers you can follow to develop a winning Instagram influencer marketing strategy for your products or services.
Identify Your Purpose for Using Instagram Influencer Marketing
Every effective marketing strategy has specific objectives. No matter what type of product or service you're promoting, there should always be a clear goal behind it. When implementing Instagram influencer marketing, identify the purpose of your campaign from the get-go.
Why are you doing it in the first place? Are you looking to launch a new product or service? Do you want to boost brand awareness or engage more traffic to your website? Is creating unique content your primary goal? Answering these questions is crucial to developing the most suitable partnership strategy for your marketing campaign.
For example, you aim to highlight the visual elements of your brand. Then you'll prefer to work with influencers with photography skills who can produce highly artistic content. Note that your objectives will also become the deciding factor of the metrics you'll assess later for your campaign.
Determine Your Target Audience’s Demographics
Knowing your target audience is crucial to a successful Instagram influencer marketing campaign. One way to execute accurate targeting is to research your potential new audience. What does the typical customer of your brand look like? Determining your product or service, what it does, and who it's designed for is a great way to execute an effective Instagram targeting strategy.
You can also look into your competitor's Instagram audience. Find out what type of followers they have and what content they are publishing. This will help you identify your target demographic on Instagram and what exactly they're looking for.
Once you have a clear idea of who they are, you can leverage the hashtags they use that are relevant to your brand or niche. Using those hashtags, the right people can discover your content and be familiar with your product or service.
Find Relevant Instagram Influencers in Your Niche
Instagram influencers have more power to affect your target audience's purchasing decisions. Instead of relying on a bunch of random followers, relevant influencers have niche audiences who are likely to engage with your content and try your product.
However, not all influencers are equally powerful. Some are suitable for specific brands, while others might not do well in engaging the right audience for your brand. Unless you find and work with relevant influencers in your niche, influencer marketing won't be effective.
The efficacy of your campaign depends on the relevance, authenticity, and influential power of the influencers you collaborate with. You can use the power of hashtags to find influencers effortlessly. But it's best to list down first the characteristics of an influencer that's ideal for your brand. Consider your goals, brand, and target market when making a selection.
Suppose you have a clothing brand. In that case, you'll most likely prefer to work with an Instagram influencer with the same interest and who regularly posts fashion or clothing style content. Meanwhile, if you aim to establish brand awareness, looking for macro-influencers with more than 100,000 followers in your niche might be your best choice.
Once you find potential influencers for your target audience’s demographics and niche, analyze the content they create. A massive following doesn't automatically mean they are the right fit for your brand.
Set a Budget and Timeline for Your Influencer Marketing Campaign
Campaign planning and influencer outreach require time and money. Set a realistic budget and timeline for your influencer marketing strategy. This will help you determine which campaigns to prioritize with your budget and which ones you can cut out.
Budgets may vary depending on your organization's size. But the key here is to allocate a marketing budget that can extract more value from every dollar spent in your campaign. Consider what type of influencer you can afford to partner with and how many you'll be able to activate. If you don't have enough resources, you won't likely be able to hire macro-influencers with millions of followers.
Develop a reasonable and achievable figure for your Instagram influencer marketing budget. However, note that making the most of your marketing budget may not happen instantly. It will take some skills, research, and experience to get it right.
To optimize your reach and revenue, ensure that your strategy aligns with your brand's specific goals. Also, avoid budget blunders, such as collaborating with inappropriate influencers or costly and hidden fees from creators.
Develop Guidelines for Your Instagram Influencers
It's always a good idea to develop guidelines for your Instagram influencers. They should include your brand voice, visuals, and other relevant elements. This way, influencers can create and share content that aligns with your product, service, or brand.
There are different kinds of influencer campaigns. You can opt for sponsored content and request the influencer to feature your product in their content and tell an engaging story about it. You can also leverage their followers to action by hosting a contest or offering free giveaways for your products.
Be transparent with what you want to achieve. But keep in mind that your guidelines are not supposed to restrict the influencers. You can't expect to arrange and control the entire campaign. Instagram influencers also have their way of doing things. They're not likely to accept a deal inconsistent with their personal brand, and you need to respect that.
Measure and Track Instagram Influencer Marketing Strategy Success
Assessing the performance of your Instagram influencer marketing campaign is essential. You need to monitor how they do over time. While focusing on likes and comments can be tempting, they don't necessarily translate into sales conversions. You may consider a sheer number of vanity metrics for boosting brand awareness.
However, the actual effectiveness of an influencer marketing strategy relies on the value it brings in terms of ROI. Start by tracking the conversion rate of your campaign, which may include email subscriptions, free products, or service trials and sales.
Don't be discouraged when you don't see significant results at the start. You can constantly refine and revise your strategy as necessary. But from the beginning, ensure to define your key performance indicators (KPIs) and discuss them with your influencer. Keep them in the loop about your marketing goals and expectations as much as possible.
Consider Working With an Influencer Marketing Agency
You may also consider working with an influencer marketing agency if you have the money. They already have built linkages with influencers in different niches.
Identifying the right influencers for your brand is likely one of the biggest challenges you'll experience in influencer marketing. But partnering with an agency helps you save the time and money you need to research, select, and manage influencers.
They can leverage their connections for lesser rates and faster turnaround times. Plus, they can develop personalized campaigns for your brand and what you want to achieve.
Pro Tip: “Elevating brand awareness and increasing sales are the two most common reasons for using influencer marketing. Nevertheless, your message is just as important as your goal because you don't want them to talk about something unrelated to your campaign.”
.jpeg)
How to Search for the Right Partners for Your Instagram Influencer Marketing Campaigns
If working with an influencer marketing agency isn't an option, you'll need to equip yourself better to find the right influencer for your Instagram marketing campaign. Below are some ways to help you get started.
Take a look at the engagement rate on their Instagram profile
Higher engagement rates could mean that the influencer has a follower base that communicates and pays attention to their content. A 3-4% engagement rate on each post is a good starting point. If you don't know how to calculate it, you can divide the average number of comments and likes by their follower count. Then multiply the quotient to determine the percentage answer.
Check if the influencer's followers are relevant to your brand
An ideal influencer must have a follower base that matches your brand image. Let's say you have a sports brand. This means you should partner with influencers with relevant audiences to your business, such as tennis players, basketball players, football players, and more.
Examine the influencer's quality of content and reach
Examining the quality of an influencer's content is also essential. It will help you gain a better understanding of their niche. Ensure to look at what they're sharing on the platform. Does it feel authentic to you, and is it providing real value to your target audience? Are the captions captivating and carefully planned?
Their reach is another vital component you need to consider when searching for the ideal influencer. They can have a large follower base but a low reach, which is the number of interactions they get from their post.
How To Track Influencer Marketing Campaigns
Remember that having more followers doesn't mean more reach and a higher engagement rate.
When measuring the performance of your Instagram marketing campaigns, set the exact metrics you need to look at based on your market goals.
Let's say brand awareness is your goal. You can evaluate the follower growth, views, reach, impressions, and branded search volume. If it's driving sales, track the revenue, average order value, and conversion rate.
So you must create your campaigns properly for easier tracking. Instagram Analytics and other tools can help better track your overall marketing efforts and campaigns.
Leverage Your Influencer Marketing Strategy on Instagram With Archive
Finding a successful Instagram influencer for your brand and target market isn't always easy. But setting clear goals and metrics for your e-commerce marketing campaign will help you make a well-informed decision.
Note that your influencer marketing campaign won't directly turn your objectives into actual results. Like any other form of marketing, you need to have the right strategy and monitor them now and then.
The excellent news is that you can take your influencer marketing strategy on Instagram to the next level through Archive. Whether you're promoting your products on Instagram stories, reels, or feed posts, we'll help you with the user-generated content for your influencer marketing campaign. Visit Archive now and try it out for free.
Influencer marketing can effectively get the word out about your products and services since you are leveraging the trust, attention, and relationships that a particular influencer has with their fans. Visit Archive to learn more.
FAQs on Instagram Influencer Marketing
Is influencer marketing on Instagram still effective in 2022?
Yes, Instagram influencer marketing is still effective at generating a higher return on investment and more significant value for many brands. This year, partnerships between brands and Instagram influencers are more intentional and diversified.
How much does Instagram influencer marketing actually cost?
The cost of sponsored Instagram posts will depend on the content's quality and the type of influencers. But generally, Instagram influencers may charge $75 and $3,000 per Instagram post.
How can small businesses leverage Instagram influencer marketing?
Small businesses might have limited financial resources. However, they can leverage Instagram influencer marketing by collaborating with nano-influencers who are just starting. Such influencers can use their free products and feature them on their Instagram account. It's an excellent way to boost brand awareness and drive more engagement and sales.
