Influencer marketing has established dominance in the social media marketing ecosphere with campaigns reaching millions of users and will continue to be a phenomenal marketing strategy in 2023. It is undeniably a powerful advertising tactic that utilizes social media content creators, or “influencers”, to reach a brand’s target audience on a personal level.
Influencers have made it their job to establish a strong, trusted relationship with their followership on social media, and therefore when they make recommendations it inspires action. Influencer marketing is effective because of that high trust level they have worked to build with their following, and recommendations from them serve as a form of social proof to potential customers.
Influencer Marketing vs Social Media Marketing
Brand-created content does a great job of illustrating brand identity, establishing an expert tone on their products/services, and providing an outlet for two-way communication between the brand and customers. However, influencer-created content will be the best driver in 2023 of product/service value, brand awareness, and increased sales conversions.
Research has found that 61% of consumers trust influencer recommendations, compared to 38% who trust brand-produced content. So, the question becomes, how can brands capitalize on that established trust? The answer is clear: implement frequent influencer marketing campaigns.
Elevate Social Media Advertising with Creator Licensing
Creator Licensing, formerly called Whitelisting, is an influencer marketing strategy where Influencers give advertising permissions to brand partners to run social media ads through their social media accounts directly to their followers. This allows brands to leverage the influencer’s audience data to place content directly into the feed of the target market. Creator Licensed ads almost always outperform traditional ads from brand-owned channels because the content feels organic in their feed and is served directly to an Influencer’s followership by a trusted source.
Successful Influencer Marketing Campaigns
Successful influencer marketing campaigns are the result of careful prospecting of industry-relevant influencers and clearly defined objectives.
Selection
When prospecting influencers to participate in marketing campaigns it is paramount that they have consistent content that is relevant to the brand’s target audience. Influencers don’t necessarily need to already be fans of the brand, but it is nice to partner with influencers who are already established fans.
Objectives
Influencer marketing campaigns can help achieve a wide variety of objectives such as brand awareness, product seeding, brand social channel growth, event attendance, ticket sales, and sales conversions. Having a clearly defined objective will set the course for the campaign strategy and ensure effective tracking of the campaign’s success.
Tracking Influencer Marketing Campaigns
Tracking influencer marketing campaigns varies depending on the campaign objective, however, there are key performance indicators (KPIs) that should always be considered. Reach, Impressions, and engagement are all KPIs that should be diligently tracked in any influencer campaign. These metrics give insight into the effectiveness and motivation of the influencer’s followership and can indicate if future campaigns with the influencers would be beneficial. Having long-term brand partnerships with influencers solidifies the brand loyalty of their followers.
Next Steps
Implement frequent influencer marketing campaigns, utilize Creator Licensing, and track key performance indicators to elevate your brand’s social media advertising and drive product/service value, brand awareness, and increased sales conversions in 2023. Partner with industry-relevant influencers and clearly define campaign objectives for maximum success.
Diedrich RPM can help propel your influencer marketing, contact us today!
