No matter what your business provides customers, the right influencer endorsing you can do wonders for customer engagement.
But how do you find the right influencer for your brand, and how exactly does a brand ambassador endorsement help with customer engagement?
As a marketing and innovation company, Fifth and Corr can answer all those questions. And we can help match your business with an influencer whose endorsement will drive reach and build your customer base.
How? Let’s start with the basics.
What Is Influencer Endorsement and Who Does It?
You know what an influencer is. There are all sorts of influencers — from cleaning influencers on Instagram, to beauty Youtubers, to health influencers on TikTok. They all have large followings and are seen as experts in their specific niche, and they also tend to be experienced brand ambassadors.
Influencer endorsement involves using promotions and mentions from these influencers, and it’s an exponentially growing market. In fact, it was a 13.8 billion dollar industry in 2021 and is now valued at around 16.8 billion.
Clearly, influencer marketing isn’t going anywhere. With parasocial relationships stronger than ever post-pandemic, consumers trust the people they follow online. Regardless of the media type, 51% of consumers now admit they’re more likely to engage with a product if a creator endorses a related ad. That's the strength of social media marketing.
Because people feel so connected to influencers, they take their endorsements seriously. An endorsement from an influencer your customers or end users trust can hugely affect sales and revenue. Influencers engage consumers in a meaningful way, especially when they’re talking about or using a product over a period of time — remember, influencers are probably in your customers’ lives on a daily basis!
Things to Consider When Creating an Influencer Marketing Strategy
It’s important to note that while the right brand ambassador can engage customers, choosing the wrong influencer could mean throwing money at nothing or even damaging your brand.
So, do your research!
Which influencers fit with what you offer? This may seem easy — just a matter of searching "[your industry] influencers." But it isn’t that simple. Firstly, you need to find an influencer of the right size for your business:
Who can you afford?
Who will want to work with you?
Who properly represents your brand values?
Is your brand broad-based or exclusive?
What is your overall social media marketing strategy?
What message are you trying to convey? (Workshop this; make sure it is very clear.)
You will also need to choose the right social media platforms. The demographics of each vary, with TikTok seeing massive growth recently and becoming the No. 1 choice for many brands who use influencer marketing.
If your customers are older, however, maybe you want to think about Facebook and even offline mediums like TV, magazines, and posters (along with other OOH — out-of-home —marketing). Remember, an influencer doesn’t have to stick to the platform they’re known on! It may be even more arresting for their fans to see them endorsing a product somewhere that feels out of context.
How to Tell Your Story
Hopefully, you know your brand well.
Make sure your chosen influencers do too. Provide your brand ambassador with your products or services so they know what they’re selling. Give them your brand guidelines, your other marketing materials, and your company values.
Communication is key here — influencers tell stories; that’s how they engage their audience. It has to be genuine, or it just won’t work! People feel they "know" influencers, which means they know when they’re faking it.
If you want help building, reviewing, or refining your influencer marketing strategy or social media marketing strategy, Fifth & Cor can help.
And if you have an influencer in mind who you want to approach to help build your brand awareness? We can help you plan your strategy around them.
Contact us today to get started.