How to Rise to the Top With a Winning Influencer Marketing Strategy

Can you imagine paying, or getting paid over $70k to post one photo and provide copy on your Instagram or Twitter? That’s what top influencers are cashing in. The influencer marketing space is expanding and brands are paying top dollar to gain access to followers built up by Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter personalities.

For marketers and ad networks who are looking to either break into or hone in their skills in influencer marketing, this is an ideal time. The strategy is different than traditional media marketing, and there’s still opportunity to set the standards, learn the ropes, and come out on top.

Here are a few things for ad networks and affiliates to keep in mind when diving into influencer marketing strategy.  

(Oh, and if you’re not familiar with influencer marketing basics, we have you covered.)

Partner Wisely and Justly

The most successful business partnerships work when both sides feel they receive value from the exchange. The same applies in influencer marketing. Influencers work hard to build their brands and audiences, and they won’t be associated with brands or products that aren’t in alignment with their audience and cause.

Just as influencers build a relationship with those who follow them, it’s important for marketers to place that same value on their relationship with the influencer.

“I’m really impressed with micro-influencer marketing. Going big with major stars is a high-risk shot in the dark that can totally pay off or completely fail, but usually disappear very quickly in either case. On the other hand, well-targeted micro-influencer marketing focused on blog posts, vlogs, and other relatively less ephemeral forms of social media seem to generate lasting impactful results that pay off for weeks and months.” – John Koetsier, mobile economist

Marketers must research which influencers would be the best fit for their brand, and why, before they begin reaching out for a partnership. If you sell sneakers, search Instagram tags and suggested hashtags to discover which fashion accounts post photos of shoes most similar to yours. See if the language they use to caption photos and videos is similar to your brands, that way the promoted posts will fit with their account.

More Reach Does Not Guarantee Value

When assessing which influencers to work with, it can be easy to get caught up with influencers who have incredible amounts of followers; each Kardashian/Jenner sister has at least 50 million followers on Instagram.

But the bigger the following, the more pricey it can be to work with these influencers or celebrities. Working with an influencer who has between three and seven million followers can cost around $75,000 on Instagram and $187,500 on Youtube. Identifying people in niche categories, or who use other platforms, can be a wiser choice, both financially and with the resulting ROI.

[bctt tweet=”Well-targeted micro-influencer marketing generates lasting and impactful results that pay off for months.” username=”tune”]

The concept makes sense — you wouldn’t sell a meat lover’s pizza to everyone in the world. There’s are those who like pizza, but there are also people who don’t like pizza, those who don’t eat meat, those who prefer a burrito and other overlapping categories. By spending less money on advertising to a smaller audience (those you know like meat and pizza), the more quality the users will be. In this situation you might consider teaming up with an influencer like @phil.duncan (22.6k followers), a guy who travels the world eating pizza.

Influencer Marketing Is Still Evolving

This form of media marketing is here to stay, but that doesn’t mean everything is set in stone. Matters like compensation for influencers, contract length and goals, and ROI and still being figured out.

Learn the ins and outs of influencer marketing from experts in the field from our recorded webinar. Watch it for free here.