I hear here and there that Influencer Marketing is dead.
That statement is highly exaggerated.
It’s very alive, and it’s not going anywhere.
People – and brands – think Influencer Marketing is a game of numbers. It is not.
The number of followers Influencers have doesn’t really matter, and the way they got them (through organic growth or thanks to bots or helped by engagement groups or from a hybrid model of these three different approaches) doesn’t matter either.
Only two things matter:
- Are the demographics of their audience aligned with what your product or brand is?
- How is their Engagement Rate?
About the Engagement rate.
On average, brands should pay around $0.05 per engagement. Of course, that’s an average rate that means nothing as is.
Each industry is different.
Customer acquisition costs depend a lot on what you sell and to whom you sell it. Brand awareness collaborations have goals that differ depending on the maturity of the brand. Some communities truly love the influencers they follow, others have lower irrational relationships.
Also, the industry you’re in matters a lot. Influencer Marketing in the luxury business or in the Real Estate can require much higher budgets. Collaborations on Black-Belt products too, as the differentiator for each product, is close to 0, so the meaning of your marketing is crucial.
Let’s say you have 1M followers and 1.5% engagement on the sponsored post; you should be paid on average… $750 for a post, based on that theoretical $0.05.
If you have 50,000 followers and a 10% engagement rate, you should pay $250.
For the same budget and based on these hypotheses, I’d work with three influencers having 50K followers (so a 150K followers reach), instead of one influencer having 1M followers.
The connection between the micro-influencer and his or her community will be much better, and his or her level of influence actually stronger.
Here’s my take-away on that topic.
- The present and future of Influencer Marketing for brands are about building a strong relationship with people having gathered a highly engaged community around their very authentic content.
- Give the keys to the influencers you work with. Let them do whatever they want with your product. If you have picked the right ones, you will love the results. If you have chosen the wrong ones, well… Best case scenario, you have just burned your marketing dollars. Worst case scenario, brace for impact.
- Your goal is to convince these little groups of core fans that are highly relevant to the code of your brand, and then, they will spread the word around them for you.
In 2020, Influencer Marketing done right is still the most underpriced type of marketing ever.
The post Influencers, like Punks, are NOT dead appeared first on Pierre-Olivier Carles.
