Are you in dire need of creating an Oprah Winfrey effect for your sales in 2021? All is well. This article explains in detail how you will utilize influencers for online marketing campaigns with the primary objective of establishing an excellent brand image for your products and turn your business or a startup into a fortune company. But, first, let us understand who are influencers and how they are categorized.

Who are influencers, and how are they categorized?

An influencer can be described as an individual who has the drive and personality to influence people’s choice of goods and services (influence purchasing decisions). Recently, influencers are using social media platforms to attract and maintain their followers by creating captivating content. Contrary to the traditional belief that influencers need to be celebrities, present-day influencers are not necessarily drawn from notable celebs. Therefore, an influencer can generally be said to be a person who has a massive following on any social media platforms, and their content usually attracts the attention and engagement of their followers. They can be:

• Renowned writers
• Celebrities
• Business leaders
• YouTubers
• TikTok Content creators
• Bloggers
• Instagrammers
• Facebook users

Categories of Influencers

• Mega-influencers – have more than a million followers (celebrities with engaging content)
• Macro-influencers – have 500K to 1 million followers, for example, Brandi Rhodes Instagram account, which has 823k followers
• Mid-tier influencers – have 50K to 500K followers
• Micro-influencers – have 10K to 50K followers
• Nano-influencers – have 1K to 10K followers

Depending on your budget, you will need to select the best influencers to accommodate your brand’s growth. Below are ways in which you can utilize influencers for an online marketing campaign.

Ensure a Good Fit Between Influencers and Your Brand

It would be best if you research before reaching out to an influencer to promote your product. By doing so, you should be looking for influencers whose content is related to the brand you want to publicize. For the best value of your online marketing budget, you should always look for influencers with creative and unique content that are genuine and community-driven. In addition, the content should be made in such a way that is authentic and related to the brand.

Demand for Creative Marketing

Ensure that influencers do not just copy and paste the banner or a caption on their social media account. Instead, inform them to write original and robust content that can capture the audience’s attention. Original content creators do not stop by only writing texts but also provide a new high-quality video or fine photos if need be. The content should also integrate with the influencer’s personality, making this marketing strategy different from ads or paid posts and has a stronger influence on the buyers.

Increase Accountability

Online marketing campaigns have been significantly affected by affiliate fraud, influencer fraud, and traffic abnormalities by people who have wits to identify loopholes in social media marketing tools. For instance, you might have heard of influencers with fake organic traffic. Knowing a genuine influencer should be your primary task so that you do not lose advertisement money. There are various online tools you will use to vet the percentage of fake followers for influencers. If you are new to online marketing, you can consider impact.com – a company that strives to change the way firms optimize and manage all manner of partnerships. In particular, this company utilizes its tools to expose affiliate fraud and influencer fraud, letting you terminate malicious partners and re-invest in the genuine ones.

Use B2B Influencers

B2B influencers are now thriving in the market. These are knowledgeable people or industry experts who have a deep understanding of how a particular product works. They promote your brand through their social networks and prove to consumers that the product works. So, how do you go about B2B influencer marketing?

• Partner with industry experts to co-create content. For example, brand endorsement from co-created content is a quote about your product by an influential person on your website home page.
• Involve influencers in case studies to generate more comments and shares.

Conclusion

To realize your business’s full potential, you need to effectively use influencers to promote your products and improve your brand image. Mastering the above online marketing strategies is essential in transforming your business to a competitive level.