Influencer marketing has grown by leaps and bounds over the past decade, as brands scramble to develop ways to reach customers that are more personal and effective than traditional advertisements. In recent years, it’s become an integral part of digital marketing campaigns due to its ability to boost social media engagement, drive traffic to websites, and increase conversions from browsers into buyers or subscribers. With the growth in influencer marketing occurring at such a rapid pace, it’s important for marketers and business owners to be aware of how this powerful tool can positively impact their digital marketing efforts.

What Is An Influencer?

Influencers are essentially just people who have a large number of followers or following. More specifically, an influencer is a person who has proven their ability to persuade or convince others to do something, usually with regard to a certain product, service, point of view, or social cause. Influencers can be found anywhere and in nearly any industry.

The Rise Of The Nano-Influencers

Influencer marketing is shifting as brands are looking for new ways to reach their target market. Smaller influencers—aka nano-influencers, such as Olivia Blodgett—are gaining momentum over big names due to better results, lower costs and higher engagement rates. If you’re looking to up your influencer game in 2022, look no further than these micro-famous social media giants.

Social Media Platforms, Their Influence, and Their Size

From Twitter to Pinterest and Snapchat, social media platforms come in all shapes and sizes. Understanding how they can be leveraged can help a company really dig into its branding strategy. The important takeaway is that not every platform will be right for you or your brand—but it’s good to know where people are hanging out, what they are talking about and why. If a certain platform doesn’t make sense for your business, that’s ok! Remember, there is no shame in being selective with your time or money.

Quality over Quantity

Traditionally, marketers would shoot for as many influencers as possible and would make sure to include a healthy mix of smaller and bigger names. However, today it’s about quality over quantity. Don’t just reach out to any and every influencer. Instead, target influencers that are influential and relevant to your brand. The more popular an influencer is on social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, for example, the more reach your campaign will have. Intellifluence helps small, medium, and large brands to find the influencers on social media that resonate with their brand and industry and that have a direct impact on users.

Know Your Audience

One of the first steps in creating your influencer marketing plan is to determine who your audience is. This exercise will help you do just that by focusing on how you will market to them. What channels are they on? What type of content do they prefer? What’s their demographic and psychographic makeup? There’s no way to answer these questions without identifying exactly who your target audience is.

The Growing Importance Of Brand Advocates

In 2015, 90% of consumers trusted recommendations from friends and family over all other forms of advertising. More recent studies have found that these word-of-mouth advocates are vital to sales growth. Influencer marketing—the process of collaborating with key industry advocates to amplify your brand’s reach—offers brands a new way to tap into customers’ social circles.