Is Influencer Marketing Still Valuable In 2021? We Like to Think So.

It’s a pretty hot debate among marketers today: do influencers even matter?

As people were home more often due to the pandemic, this meant more screen time, and therefore a rise in engagement between consumers and influencers. About 96% of consumers who followed influencers before the pandemic were engaging with them more or to the same extent.

This caused the role of influencers to evolve, and with this evolution comes a new set of criteria that both brands and influencers need to follow. We summarized this new criterion to make your next influencer campaign stand out.

Authenticity

This word is almost becoming a bit of a buzz word, but it really does matter. You can smell “fake” from your phone the minute you scroll past a post that looks too posed. For instance, does anyone really believe what a Kardashian posts anymore? Social users can see through this and will research the truth, so influencers have had change routes.

As a brand, there are two things you can do. First, find influencers that actually fit the target audience that you are trying to reach because you are more likely to get authentic posts that way. Don’t just go for the celebrity influencer because of their fame and followers.

Second, set clear rules and guidelines for the influencer as to what you’re looking for in a post. This will eliminate the risk of inauthenticity and allow you to be clear from the get-go.

Everyone is technically an influencer now with the rise of social media usage (there are over 1 billion people on Instagram, with another 2 billion on YouTube). While transparency is great from a corporate mission statement, making social posts go a bit deeper will drive awareness and make your brand authentic.

Nano People

This doesn’t mean using small people, it means using more localized influencers to connect with an audience. A nano influencer is described as someone with less than 5,000 followers and if you are a local business, this type of influencer is your best bet.

Let’s say you are a bakery that wants to reach people within a 20km radius of your store. While nano influencers may seem like they have small roles because of their low following, these types of influencers come across more as a friend than a celebrity, and are therefore more trustworthy. It’s more of a personal post, and if a nano influencer posts about the best croissant they just had at your bakery, many will tend to believe it. So stock up on those croissants!

Budget

We feel like a common misconception about influencers is that you send them product for free and they magically decide to post about how great you are. That could totally happen, and a major pro of this strategy is that without paying influencers for content, all posted content from them is actually genuine with no strings attached (see point #1).

However, the value of an influencer has increased this past year, so you do need to set aside money for this type of campaign. Depending on what your goal is, it may require upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is especially true if you include an “exclusivity” clause in the contract. You are taking away the possibility of potential work from the influencer and will have to pay a little (or a lot) extra to appease them.

Our advice is to set up a strong brief that leaves little room for error in the content being produced. This way, you get what you pay for the first time around and don’t have to go through expensive reshoots or time delays.

Another way to save money is to choose only 2-3 power or celebrity influencers to invest the bulk of your budget in, and then use micro or midsize influencers for the rest (like the below).

Packaging

Hello unboxing!! YouTube and Instagram are major hubs for these kinds of videos and can be super fun. Watching the unpackaging gets people excited for the mail to come in and excited to place an order with you.

From the influencer perspective, having a unique packaging experience in addition to the product gives them more content to create, which means a greater increase of likes and engagements for your business. At the end of the day, likes do matter, even if apps like Instagram have you choose to hide them.

Video content is also the highest performing type of content so unboxing videos and reviews fall perfectly in that category. In fact, even the Head of Instagram says the platform is moving more towards a video and shopping app instead of just photo-sharing, so unboxing videos can prove to be super successful for your business.

Success looks different for every influencer campaign based on objectives, but across the board, it’s clear influencers do have a valuable role in marketing. With social today, you have access to a lot more data now that can be used to understand the interests of an influencer’s audience and track what is working.

Influencers are a way to connect your product to real world people and situations. By being authentic, targeted, and unique in your packaging, you can achieve your goals while getting the most out of your budget. If you think we missed anything, DM us on Instagram or shoot us a note at info@fusecreate.com.