How to Create an Affordable Influencer Marketing Program

Superstar social media influencers boast enormous numbers of followers that run into the hundreds of thousands or even millions. The power of an influencer’s reach can prompt major brands to pay them super-sized sums for endorsements or reviews.  

Most brands can’t afford hefty payments to social media celebrities. So many brands are instead  turning to influencers with smaller audiences but higher quality – and paying less.

The new report “Influencers in US Retail: The YouTube Stars, Reviewers and Superfans Consumers Trust” from eMarketer reveals that more retailers are working with influencers who have less reach but greater relevance for a select group of shoppers. This middle tier, whose members often have tens of thousands of followers, include parenting bloggers, cooking vloggers, food “pinners,” fashion Instragrammers and gamers. They are highly respected by segments of the customer base of such retailers as CVS, Food Lion, and Pier 1 Imports.

Less Reach but More Interest

Frank Danna, direct of strategy at Softway, has also noticed the trend.

Brands are debating whether to work with influencers with enormous audiences or to collaborate with influencers who have less reach but who create better content and who care more about the brand or product. Increasingly, brands are choosing the second option, he writes in a Medium blog post.

Most brands, even global brands, simply can’t afford to hire the top influencers. The superstars have priced themselves out of most opportunities, says Danna, a professional Vine creator and influencer in his own right. Because influencers with less reach charge substantially less, working with them and investing resources to augment their reach is more cost effective. More brands have come to realize that seeking reach just for the sake of reach is not an effective or cost-efficient strategy.

Limitless Options for Influencer Marketing

“Now that there are hundreds — nay — thousands of influencers floating somewhere in the ethos, selfie sticks at the ready, brands and agencies have limitless options,” he writes.

The smartest brands and agencies, he predicts, will:

• Invest more in content creation specialists and influencers that boast both strong content creation skills and healthy numbers of followers.
• Select a small number of influencers rather than dozens in a year.
• Work with influencers for longer periods in order to create ambassadors — spokespeople who frequently contribute to social media conversations.

How to Start Influencer Marketing

Research. First research and identify influencers in your niche with a social media monitoring service like Glean.info or by conducting manual searches.

“Social media monitoring allows you to find influencers for the genre or niche you have outlined,” states the Definitive Guide to Influencer Targeting from Kissmetrics. “For example, someone may post and tweet heavily about yoga gear but not mention your website as an awesome place to buy yoga gear. Well, this is someone you want to engage with and expose your brand to.”

It’s best to seek influencers with active and engaged followers. You can determine engagement by examining the number of shares and comments their posts accumulate rather than simply determining their number of followers they have.

Engage them. That means following them on social media platforms, commenting on their articles and sharing their posts. Strive to build relationships before you need them. That way, reaching out to the influencer will be much easier when you have content you need to amplify.

Offer them useful, original content or insights. Instead of asking how they can help your brand, figure out how your brand can help them. In any pitch to an influencer, remember to include the benefits to them, specifics of the content, and timelines. Reminder: Influencers want original ideas and content.

Compensate them. Compensation doesn’t necessarily need to be financial. Instead, you can send product samples or send a note of gratitude and or a “shout-out” on social media, if they share your content. You can praise their ideas and include references and links to their work in your own social media posts. Financial remuneration, however, remains the most persuasive influence on influencers.

Bottom Line: Rather than paying social media celebrities significant amounts, more brands are developing relationships with mid-tier influencers who have smaller, but more targeted audiences. Requiring smaller financial investments, targeting influencers with more engaged followers is often more cost effective than focusing solely on reach.