In Blog / Trends

Influencer Marketing: how to create a brand strategy

08 March 2019
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Everything you need to know about the best way to build a collaboration with influencers in few steps

Influencer”. Raise your hand if you have never heard this word in the last years. We constantly hear about them, on TV and social networks, and their fame precede them. First of all, we need to explain their area of expertise to the benefit of those who are approaching this world for the first time. The fateful question is: who can be defined as influencer?

Glossario marketing presents them with these words:"Individuals with a more or less broad public who have the ability to influence the purchasing behavior of consumers due to their charisma and their authority on certain issues or areas of interest."

We might define them as new opinion leaders that play a central role in the communication processes on social networks, fundamental nowadays to spread the adverting message of a brand. More and more often, in the last few years, influencers have been involved (and they still are!) in activities to promote products and services, taking part in several events or making reviews on social networks, as real experts of the sector. This is the very base of their success and consequently of the success of the brand they promote. This takes us to the second question: where to start for to build a good influencer marketing strategy? What are the aspects to take into consideration in order to avoid mistakes?

Let’s explain this step by step!

First step: know your brand
 

No matter if your company works in the field of clothing or if it provides touristic services: the first, real question to ask yourself is: “which moment of my digital journey is my brand going through?”. In other words, is your company a startup that needs to make itself known or is it already well-known and you only need to consolidate it? What company objectives are you trying to reach collaborating with influencers?Once you’ve asked these questions and got an answer to them, you can go to the next step.

Second step: know your audience
 

Each brand is unique. Take to the heart the instruments provided by social platforms (which give you access to very important information about the insights of your followers, like age and origin) to find out who is following you and who you are likely to address to: this will be fundamental to find the influencer that best matches your objectives.

Third step: know your budget
 


Ok, this might be an unpleasant thing to talk about…but it is also a very important one. Depending on the budget you have at your disposal, you will have to make some choices: many collaborations, especially with well-known talents, ambassadors, VIPs and influencers are built through agreements that require a quote that is established by influencer and brand together. If you have a substantial budget, you will allow yourself to choose among many popular influencers that are well-known by the audience. Do you have a lower budget? No worries: your research work will need to be more thorough and you will probably have to consider micro-influencers, but if you will be able to plan you activities in the best way you will gain access to the next step and you’ll see the results.

Fourth step: know your influencer
 

If you’ve arrived at this point, you have thought about the core essence of your brand, you’ve understood what is your audience like and decided the budget to invest in this activity. It’s time to understand what influencers to select.

How to make this choice in the multitude of influential people?

Your guiding star is your market. Does your company work in the fashion field? Certainly you will not have to choose people that are influential in aerospace engineering! Joking aside, it’s time to start a search (manually, if you prefer to analyze the subject alone, or supported by digital PR agencies that offer a much more complete and focused consultation). Once you have found the people that work in that given sector, you will have to select and contact the most similar profiles to the essence of your brand, which can convey the qualities that you want to share with you audience to a wider target. 

YAK Agency tip: depending on the budget you have at your disposal, try to select the widest possible audience that enables you to reach many different people and maximize the investment.

Author
Alice Manza