Direct advertising in the media is working worse and worse, so companies are starting to collaborate more often with influencers whose audience shares the brand’s values. Let’s figure out how it all works.
Who are influencers and what do they do?
Why brands need influencers
Types of Influencers
Options for collaborating with an influencer
How to Get Started with an Influencer
Expert advice
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Who are influencers and what do they do?
Table of Contents
Influencers are opinion leaders who gather a loyal audience around themselves. They are not necessarily bloggers who earn money from advertising . They can be actors, athletes, musicians, scientists — professionals in their field, whose words are listened to and trusted.
For example, a publishing editor talks about the behind-the-scenes of his work: how he selects manuscripts, which writers have a chance of signing a contract, which conferences are worth attending. A marketer predicts trends and shares successful advertising campaigns of his clients.
It is not at all necessary for an influencer to have a million followers. Often, experts do not aim to promote their own social networks, and they have 2-5 thousand followers. For brands, this number in the profile is not so important. Thanks to their authority and knowledge, an influencer can influence the decision to buy a product or service – and this works in the long term.
As a rule, opinion leaders collaborate with the brands that they themselves use. For example, a publishing editor announces a course for writers, where he himself gives a lecture. A marketer tests a new service for tracking analytics in social networks and shares a review.
This content looks organic and does not resemble classic advertising posts written according to text formulas like AIDA, when the text is written according to a clearly defined structure (Attention; Interest; Desire; Action). The audience trusts the opinion of a specific person and buys the product, understanding that this is an honest review.
Why brands need influencers
On average, users spend 2 hours 24 minutes a day on social networks, according to a study by DataReportal at the beginning of 2024. Therefore, brands have to fight for the audience’s attention not only with competitors, but also with the media platforms themselves – trying to reach as many audiences as possible on different platforms.
Influencer marketing helps companies:
1. Work on brand recognition
Influencers do not directly sell or promote the brands they partner with, but they still mention them.
Example: Often, opinion leaders themselves use the products they talk about. Stand-up comedian Denis Chuzhoy is an ambassador for the psychologist search service Yasno and talks about it in YouTube videos.
2. Increase sales
The number of subscribers does not indicate the quality of the audience. Opinion leaders in a narrow niche (for example, nutritionists, doctors, etc.) often have a small but loyal audience, which greatly affects sales.
Example: Watch brand Daniel Wellington sent free watches to micro-bloggers in exchange for reviews and received large reach from these advertising campaigns.
3. Demonstrate the product in action
Reviewers introduce subscribers to the brand, help them understand the pros and cons, and show differences from competitors. Before deciding to buy, users see how everything works.
Example: Gadget reviewers, like tech blogger Wylsacom, compare the functionality of phones.
Types of Influencers
The most common classifications of influencers are by number of followers and by content types.
By number of subscribers
● Celebrities
actors, musicians – over 1 million subscribers;
● Macro-influencers
bloggers who earn money from advertising – up to 1 million subscribers;
● Micro- and nano-influencers
up to 100 thousand – opinion leaders in various niches who are not professionally involved in content production.
By content types
● YouTubers
● Podcasters
● Instagram bloggers
● TikTok bloggers
Influencers gain credibility with their followers through their position or expertise in their field of expertise. For example, a journalist at a major publication is probably not an expert on all the topics they write about, but they are respected for being professional enough to work for a prestigious media outlet.
Some micro- and nano-influencers can bring significant value to a company selling a product targeted at a narrow niche. That’s why brands themselves are increasingly looking in this direction.
Options for collaborating with an influencer
The main formats for working with opinion leaders are the following:
● Barter
A product or service is provided in exchange for a post. Important: the influencer is required to provide an honest review, not praise.
● Fee
The brand pays the blogger a specific amount for published materials. For example, a million rubles for ten posts posted during the year.
● Pay per lead
For example, an influencer receives payment for a subscriber who joins the customer’s service using a promo code.
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How to Get Started with an Influencer
Collaborating with influencers only makes sense if there is a clear goal and strategy – for example, to increase brand awareness or sales.
It is important to understand your target audience well and know which influencers they follow and whose opinions they value.
On the Content Marketer course, students learn to apply a product approach to working on a content project and solving business problems.
This is found out during in-depth interviews or mass surveys. For example, you can publish a post with a selection of podcasts, Telegram channels, etc. and ask: “What podcasts do you listen to? Share in the comments.” Gradually, a base of influencers will be formed that are worth offering cooperation to.
You can write directly to a specific opinion leader – as a rule, their pages contain contact information for an assistant or advertising agency. Or register on a special service. Here are the most popular ones.
LabelUp
Provides access to a database of over 50,000 influencers who blog on Instagram*, YouTube, VK, and Telegram. You can find the author you need by topic, geography, core audience, engagement — a choice of ten parameters.
The platform helps to identify cheating of subscribers, likes, potential giveaway purchases. And at the brand’s request, the blogger will provide access to its internal statistics with coverage, impressions, and socio-demographic characteristics of the audience.
Getblogger
The service differs from other similar ones: the brand does not pay a fixed fee to the bloggers with whom it cooperates through the platform. It is not impressions or clicks that are paid for, but only the achieved result. It can be different for each campaign – purchase, registration, and so on.
Bloggers are automatically assigned a personal promo code or link, by which the brand tracks statistics. Analytics are available in real time: by the number of publications broken down by social networks, by the number of clicks, etc.
trendHERO
A service where Instagram* bloggers are presented. All statistics are available to the advertiser, and the account can be checked for cheating.
In addition, TrendHERO allows you to analyze competitors on social networks. This gives an idea of what strategies and tactics worked for them, and allows you to improve your own marketing strategy .
But even if everything is fine according to analytics services, and the subscribers are the brand’s target audience, it is definitely worth observing the influencer for some time.
For example, look at the format of advertising and, in principle, blogging: how the blogger communicates with subscribers, how he answers questions. Does his presentation exactly suit the brand, are the values similar.
