What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing (also influence marketing) is a form of marketing that has emerged from a variety of practices and studies, in which focus is placed on specific key individuals (or types of individual) rather than the target market as a whole. It identifies the individuals that have influence over potential buyers, and orients marketing activities around these influencers.
Influencer content may be framed as testimonial advertising where they play the role of a potential buyer themselves, or they may be third parties. These third parties exist either in the supply chain (retailers, manufacturers, etc.) or may be so-called value-added influencers, such as journalists, academics, industry analysts, professional advisers.
Payment of influencers
Influencer marketing tends to be broken into two sub-practices: earned influencer marketing and paid influencer marketing. Earned marketing stems from unpaid or preexisting relationships with influencers or third party content that is promoted by the influencer to further their own personal social growth. Paid influencer marketing campaigns can take the form of sponsorship, pre-roll advertising or testimonial messaging and can appear at any point in the content. Budgets vary widely and are usually based on audience reach.
Methods of marketing
Influencer Marketing, as increasingly practiced in a commercial context, comprises four main activities:
Identifying influencers, and ranking them in order of importance.
Marketing to influencers, to increase awareness of the firm within the influencer community
Marketing through influencers, using influencers to increase market awareness of the firm amongst target markets
Marketing with influencers, turning influencers into advocates of the firm.
Influencer Marketing is enhanced by a continual evaluation activity that sits alongside the four main activities. Contact us today for more details!
