If you have been using digital marketing for your business, you must be aware of Instagram influencer marketingwhich is quite popular these days due to millions of people using Instagram. Most logically the next step to your marketing strategy should be to find Instagram influencers. If you are not using it for marketing your business presently, you must know about it and use it to change the façade of your business. This is a total summation of all of the steps that need to be a part of your strategy if you are ready to move on to Influencer marketing on Instagram.
What is Instagram Influencer Marketing?
There are a number of people who have many followers and an engaged audience, i.e. people admire their lifestyle and respect their opinion. These people are called influencers.
When these influencers market your product, their followers find it genuine and trust the brand as though it is recommended by a friend. It results in ultimate sales for your business and brand recognition. With the large number of influencers available, almost any product in any demographic can be marketed through influencer marketing on Instagram.
Does it work?
Influencer marketing was a $2 billion industry in 2017 and is expected to hit $10 billion mark in 2021. The reason behind it is success of the marketing strategy.
Over 86% women use social media for their purchasing advice. When it comes to fashion and beauty, they do not make purchases without recommendation which is why Instagram influencer marketingis helpful for them. Many teenagers use recommendations on social media before buying a product.
As a businessman, you should know that you would earn $6.50 for every dollar spent. Influencer marketing has already surpassed print marketing. So, you should rather increase your budget for Instagram influencer marketing, eyeing the ROI.
Why Instagram of all the social media platforms?
Instagram is not the only platform which is used for influencer marketing. Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat are some of the other popularly used platforms but not as popular as Instagram.
With over 8 million monthly active users, Instagram has an amazing engagement rate when compared to Facebook and Twitter. This is the reason; it is the most preferred platform.
Who can be an Instagram influencer?
There is a myth that only celebrities are influencers. But, it is not true. Any person with a decent number of followers with a good engagement rate can be a social media influencer. Say, 1000 to 10000 followers.
People with up to 10,000 followers are called micro influencers. Those having above 10,000 followers are called macro influencers. For a small business, micro influencers with target audience are much more helpful and affordable as well.
Is Instagram Influencing a job?
It isn’t a job. It is a way for people to share posts with trusted products and earn for doing it. The micro influencers do it as a side gig, or they just like to share the feedback of quality products they are using with their followers. Though, macro influencers who have millions of followers and good engagement rate are even earning their living on Instagram by posting pictures, videos, and stories.
How to go for Instagram influencer marketing for a small business?
If you have decided to use Influencer marketing for your business, you should consider a few points which will be useful in making your way through it. The marketing strategy, if not properly planned, can turn out to be a big failure when your money is engaged and you don’t get the desired results.
Consider these few essential points before launching the campaign-
Set a goal
Setting a clear goal is most important as the whole campaign revolves around it. What do you want to achieve? Do you want to increase sales? Do you want to generate more traffic or you are launching a new product?
These questions must be answered and a goal should be defined.
Set a budget
Budget plays an important role as who can you contact as influencers for your business marketing. With a small business, micro influencers will be useful and a smaller budget will work. With higher budget, you can think of engaging macro influencers as per the business need.
Find Instagram influencers- The right ones for you
You need to find Instagram influencers who market the products you want them to market, who has a good reach to the people and whose engagement rate is high.
Engagement Rate= no. of likes and comments ÷ no. of followers
Make sure that the engagement on their pages is genuine and not through the use of engagement bot. You can also check their past campaigns to see if they are right fit for your business.
Terms of Contract
After you find Instagram Influencers that are right for your project, it is important to discuss the terms of the engagement. These terms should include the compensation for the campaign, the content of the campaign and the time frame of the campaign. After all, it is important to maintain the transparency with the influencers as well.
Transparency
Maintain the transparency. An ad and a recommendation are different and must stay so. Also, make sure that no post misleads a user.
Associated problems
Just like everything, there are problems associated with Instagram influencer marketingas well like difficulty in tracking ROI, fake accounts and fake followers, ghost followers, etc. But the industry is still growing which ensures that there must be positive results for businesses. Right?
As a businessman, when you choose influencer marketing, it is important to consider all the important points as stated above and choose right influencer for your business. This becomes crucial when you look for right influencers else it can turn out to be a big failure..
Summary
The number of internet users is going to increase which clearly indicates the definite increase in the number of social media platform users which is a key to success of influencer marketing. What people see as an ad and as a recommendation, has a great difference and it is the reason influencer marketing is so popular.
Traditional marketing concept is also evolving and changing with technology after so many years of its inception. The Instagram influencer marketing also requires constant updating in its techniques and out-of-the-box thinking in order to engage people for a long time. It is just the beginning of Instagram influencer marketing. There is a long way ahead. It will be a sight to watch the future of influencer marketing with the changing technology and time.
