Posted by : Dukes Thursday 25 January 2018



If you believed the hype from all the “top marketing trends for 2018” articles that have peppered industry related blogs over the past few months, you’re probably looking for ways to incorporate influencer marketing into your 2018 strategies. But it’s not as simple as grabbing a rising social media star and hitching your cart to them.

1 – Know Your Audience

This is an essential component of any marketing strategy, so it goes without saying. Or does it? The blessing of digital marketing is that you can reach a huge audience, the curse of digital marketing is that you can reach a huge audience. The key is to identify the specific niche community that you want to target and then find the influencer who matches that audience.

2 – Know the Goal

Why are you implementing influencer marketing? Are you just doing it because it’s the current trend? Again, having a goal in mind should go without saying.

Are you looking for new followers? Are you hoping to reach a wider audience? Do you want more views and engagement on your posts? Or are you looking for sales?

Pick one goal and center your campaign on it.

3 – Find an Influencer Who Fits

Now that you have the building blocks for your campaign – audience and goal – it’s finally time to get to the exciting bit: choosing your influencer.

Finding an influencer who fits can be a tricky task. You’re looking for somebody who not only has a large following, but somebody who’s following fits your target audience. You need to ensure that the person you choose does hold sway over their audience and that their followers will value their insights. Lastly, and most importantly, you need to make sure that your influencer fits your brand. It wouldn’t make much sense for a tween fashion influencer to suddenly start talking about men’s grooming products, would it?

4 – Let Your Influencer Do What They Do

You wouldn’t go to a restaurant and tell the chef how to cook your dish; so you wouldn’t hire and influencer and then not let them post their own content. You picked an influencer because you liked what they do.

Now, it is necessary to weaponize your influencer with essential items needed to communicate about your brand, and you may want to include some pre-written posts, but you should really be leaving it up to your influencer to create posts (within brand guidelines, of course) for the most part. Remember, an influencer will have their own personal style and manner of communication that resonates with their audience.

5 – What’s in a Name Anyways?

Especially in South Africa, there’s the temptation to go with the biggest name available. However, this can be less effective for the simple reason that they are celebrities, not influencers. Though stars in SA may have large followings, their reach of influence may be very low. Getting the right influencer is more about finding trendsetters and thought leaders rather than finding celebrities with thousands of followers.

Once your campaign is running don’t forget to track your results and measure your effectiveness.

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