So many business are employing the use of influencers in their campaigns. Mostly because influencers have followers, and brands want those followers to know about them. In a recent survey conducted by Social Minds, 'Insight and Opinion', over 70% of consumers are swayed by influencers in terms of their purchasing decisions. Crazy, right? What it isn't, is surprising. With influencer marketing only on the rise, we've drafted a quick summary of the different types and our own uses of it in client campaigns.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is simply the use of a social media icon in a brand's campaign. This is most popular on Instagram, with 68% of marketers agreeing the platforms integral role in influencer marketing campaigns. The intention of the campaign is usually to promote one of the brand's products or services, so choosing a relevant influencer is important. For example, it wouldn't make sense to have Molly-Mae, a beauty and fashion influencer, showcasing Lego products. Whereas it would, however, make sense for Molly-Mae to promote Mac cosmetics. Influencers are employed in so many places simply because of their name- they can influence. The scale to which they can do this influencing is dependent on their following. This brings us onto our next section defining nano, micro, mid-tier, mega and celebrity influencers.
From nano to celebrity
Nano influencers may only have between 1,000 and 5,000 followers, but the rate to which their followers interact with their page also matters. Influencers with under 5,000 followers can have an engagement rate of 5%. This umbrellas a variety of different actions conducted by followers- likes, comments, shares and reactions, depending on which platform we are talking about.
With such a high amount of their following liking and commenting on their posts, if they were to post a collaboration picture with another brand, that brand's exposure to that 5% would mean sales would skyrocket. This is even more so prevalent in the fact that this level of engagement only decreases as the following increases, with celebrity influencers only achieving on average 1.6% engagement rate in comparison to 4.84% for nano influencers.
Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash
Almost half of the influencers existing are micro-influencers, having 5,000 to 20,000 followers. Because there are more of them, this makes them the most popular choice for brand collaboration, shortly followed by mid-tier influencers. Mid-tier influencers have a following between 20,000 and 100,000, enough for 67% of marketers to choose as their top choice. As we go further up the list, the harder the influencers are to find and contact. This makes sense seeing as celebrity influencers make up 5% of the social media influencing community. The top of that community having an impressive 100,000 to a million followers.
Ok, statistics are great. But we want to show you real life examples of our clients using influencers to support their campaigns to really highlight their benefits.
Flora
Although Stitcht is all about collecting real UGC from everyday people, influencers can be used in a campaign to increase its popularity, and spread awareness of the thread.
To start, Flora used Stitcht to collect kitchen trick shots for their 'Be a Natural' campaign. In order to promote this campaign, they worked with Anthony Lefley, known as @trickshot.ant. With 5,514 followers, Antony comes under the bracket of a nano influencer. Because of this, Anthony was able to reach his own audience and connect them to Flora, raising extra awareness of their 'Be a Natural' campaign.
In addition, those 5,514 followers would have been a more close-knit, dedicated group, so any brand he promotes, his followers will be more likely to consider as viable brands to purchase from. Anthony's posts received 507 likes. When Flora posted him, they found 965 views in comparison to their 371 promoting the campaign with their own advert.
Along the same vein, Flora also worked in collaboration with Tania, otherwise known as @fit.foodie.nutter. With a following of 28.6k, her mid-tier influencer status gathered 115 likes on her page, and 674 views on Flora's. The slightly lower but still impressive reach only works in favour of the decreasing engagement that we see as influencers go up in followers.
Wrapping up
From nano to celebrity, it is undoubtable that all types of influencers have their own merits in a brand's campaign. Now you know the difference between them, you can start to gather your own thoughts on which type can benefit your brand to maximise the reach of your next campaign.
With help humanising your campaign, get in touch for a call.