They make shoes sell out within hours (and the next day a skirt, and the day after that a bag). They star in massive events. They can generate thousands of likes, retweets, and views in record time. They are influencers, and they have become, for several years now, significant opinion leaders and endorsers, the 2.0 version of traditional word-of-mouth, and therefore, a goldmine for brands. But how do you choose the ideal influencer for your brand?
Influencer marketing is a marketing strategy aimed at establishing collaborations and connections between brands and companies with people who have the capacity to influence the purchasing decisions of the followers who are part of their virtual community. These ‘natural’ opinion leaders can have a significant (positive or negative) impact on brands, change and motivate opinions, stimulate sales… thanks to their interactions, both in the digital world and in the offline world, for example, with their attendance at events.
With these success credentials that we have all heard about regarding influencers… why not dive headfirst into this type of marketing? The answer is simple: because not everything is suitable. These are actions that do not allow for improvisation, should not be guided by the trendiest name, and are not suitable for all sectors or market targets. In this sense, the effectiveness and profitability of an influencer campaign are generally determined by the correct selection of the profiles with which we are going to work.
Before deciding that working with influencers is a good option for our business and diving into creative action, we must analyze and take into account two key points: the objectives we intend to achieve with this action and a deep understanding of our customers and the target audience, both for our own business and for the influencer in question.
Once we have identified both factors, it is essential to ensure they match, to achieve that perfect ‘match’ between the brand and the ‘ambassador’ (influencer) that generates the best results.
Now that we know our audience, for the campaign to develop in the best way, it is equally important to identify the influencer’s audience that we consider could be the protagonist of the campaign. To correctly identify the profile of the influencer that best suits our business, market research on social networks is essential, and having digital monitoring and social listening tools will help us identify potential reference figures.
At We are testers, we have Social Media Scan, an analytics tool that extracts information from the social environment and makes your campaign more effective. In its analysis, the tool takes the pulse of the audience’s opinion on social networks and forums through their interactions, identifying influencers, analyzing what they say about your brand and the industry in general, as well as the most suitable channels for your campaign.
Once the influencer profile has been chosen, you must also consider other basic factors such as the size of their audience, interaction and engagement with that audience, reach, as well as credibility and reputation in our niche market.
When it comes to knowing all these ‘attributes’ of the influencer in question, it is essential not to get carried away by enthusiasm and think that if they have thousands of followers, their name is heard everywhere, and they have a great reputation, they will be the perfect choice for our campaign (not to mention that the ‘main star’ will take a large part of our budget).
Therefore, it may be time to turn to ‘micro-influencers,’ that is, influencers on a small scale but with great potential and effectiveness. But, what do we mean by micro-influencers? They are opinion leaders with communities of fewer than 5000 followers who contribute to promoting brands and products in more local environments and with a high degree of identification with the public, who value these figures as more natural and trustworthy.
What are the next steps? Once we have identified objectives and the most suitable influencer profiles, we can start thinking about the content and the most suitable creative action (let your imagination run wild!).
We will begin to create our advertising campaign, planning the content and executing the creatives. In order to minimize the campaign’s risk, you can use the Pretest publicitario, a questionnaire prior to the campaign’s execution that will help you choose which creative option will work best and prevent and rectify errors. On the other hand, once the campaign is published, we must evaluate its success, or lack thereof, through the Postest, a control product to assess the campaign’s effectiveness afterward.
In conclusion, beyond bubbles or trendy concepts, it seems that the figure of the influencer (in its different versions) is here to stay and, during its development, is revolutionizing the methods, channels, and elements of more traditional advertising. It has created a new way of doing things that goes beyond trying to get the trendiest influencer to tweet or make a video about your brand at all costs.
Having clear objectives, the correct identification of the influencer, and a planning of creative actions and content (and in this order) will ensure that this 2.0 marriage between brand and influencer works perfectly and, therefore, optimizes the success of our advertising campaign.
Shall we talk? Thanks to our solutions for getting to know your customer better and the analysis and social listening tools, such as Social Media Scan, you can evaluate the most suitable influencer profiles for your campaigns and assess their effectiveness through pretest and post-test advertising. If you would like more information about our services, please contact us.
Update date 12 April, 2024
