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What Is Influencer Marketing?

Feb 7, 2023 | By Chris Jacks

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is a subset of social media marketing, involving brand endorsements from prominent creators that are viewed as “authority figures”, known as influencers.

Table of Contents

In other words, influencer marketing is word-of-mouth marketing through a respected, prominent member of an online community.

How Does Influencer Marketing Work?

You’ve heard of influencer marketing, but how does it work?

From a high-level perspective, influencer marketing is simple: find prominent creators with dedicated followers, and have those creators encourage their audience to purchase the product.

But influencer marketing is far more nuanced than that.

If an influencer marketing campaign is to be effective, an airtight strategy must be in place. A brand must ensure that their products are in the hands of influencers that positively reflect their brand, with an audience of the right people, at the right time, with the right campaign.

Influencer marketing campaigns can be wildly successful, but only if the strategy matches the brand objectives.

What is the Goal of Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing shares a similar purpose to product placement advertising in television and movies: to get a product in front of a target audience.

But, unlike product placement, influencer marketing relies on the reputation of the influencer and leverages their “pull” with their audience.

Influencer marketing is word-of-mouth advertising on a larger scale, and every brand knows that word-of-mouth is the ultimate form of social proof.

Benefits of Influencer Marketing: Statistics You Need to Know

Looking to utilize influencer marketing for your business? Here are the statistics you need to know.

How Big is Influencer Marketing?

According to a recent study, more than half of internet users base their purchasing decisions on the information they gather from social media [2]. A whopping 75% of marketers use influencer marketing[3], indicating that influencer marketing has become one of the most popular and powerful marketing tools in today’s business landscape.

How Much is the Influencer Marketing Industry Worth?

Last year alone[1], the global value of the influencer marketing industry was $13.8 Billion dollars. That number has more than doubled since 2019, and has grown year-over-year by increments of billions of dollars.

This exponential growth shows a positive outlook for the future of influencer marketing.

How Much Do Companies Spend on Influencer Marketing?

According to a recent report,[3] marketers that are implementing influencer marketing campaigns plan to increase their influencer marketing budget by 45%. And with the reports of ROI, this number is only expected to increase.

On average, businesses are generating $6.50 per every $1 they spend on influencer marketing. 70% of businesses that run influencer campaigns generate $2 or more, and the top 13% are generating $20 or more per dollar spent.

Only the bottom 18% do not see a return on their investment in influencer marketing.[4]

This bodes well for companies looking for a high-ROI on their marketing dollars.

Influencer Marketing Case Study: Do More With Evernote

Campaign Overview

Our Do More with Evernote campaign was centered around inspiring audiences to organize, prioritize, track, and plan their tasks by utilizing Evernote.

Each influencer’s content showcased three tips on how to be better and more efficient in the workplace and everyday life. Two tips were noncompetitive while the final and most important tip was using Evernote.

Influencers covered important talking points and shared screen recorded footage of the Evernote platform, while also highlighting Evernote features. Influencers promoted Evernote as a MUST for young professionals, those that lead a busy life, and anyone that’s looking to stay organized.

This campaign strategically showcased Evernote as influencers made their audiences rethink how to prioritize and directed them to sign up for Evernote to become more efficient.

The Product

The Evernote app makes it easy for people to collect and organize everything that matters. The influencers shared their firsthand experience with the app and how they keep their personal and professional life on track, and increase productivity to accomplish more.

The Evernote campaign placed a large emphasis on the wide variety of Evernote features such as connecting to Google Calendar, tracking tasks, planning templates, and more. We believe this helped audiences see the benefits and value of Evernote for all different types of needs.

The Content

Influencers posted an Instagram in-feed video post or YouTube integrated video, along with an Instagram Story set to highlight talking points about Evernote. The influencers’ content showed the influencer’s authentic recommendation of Evernote and how it is a huge tool in how they stay efficient and productive to excel in work, life, and/or school.

Influencers covered different talking points and Evernote features while directing their audiences to download Evernote and upgrade their accounts.

The influencers utilized for this campaign were all about lifestyle and sharing their everyday life tips and hacks. This aligned perfectly with the objective of driving awareness and traffic to download Evernote and upgrade their Evernote account.

The age range of 18 to 34 was our biggest audience for this campaign, making up 75% of the audience for Evernote influencers. This positioned the Evernote products in front of young professionals, students, and those leading a busy life.

These audiences fell within the Lifestyle and Literature verticals which made it the ideal audience for this campaign. Based on these verticals, the followers are interested in everyday moments, work life, and at-home activities.

Key Results

The Evernote campaign resulted in 3.4M impressions via organic and paid efforts combined, with a reach of 2.5M individuals. These are exceptional results and fall in line with the high end of our projected campaign goals of 2.5M-3.4M impressions.

The campaign also received over 3.3M video views for both organic and paid promotions, showing that the content was successful when organically posted by the influencer and when whitelisted to target look-a-like audiences via paid media.

It’s important to note that Eric and Ellen both performed significantly well through both organic and paid, showing that their content not only aligned well with their following, but also with look-a-like audiences that were through paid media. Natalie’s high number of organic impressions shows that her content was well received by her following and came off as authentic, while Alexandra’s content performed better through targeted demographics when utilized as an ad.

Another notable for this campaign was the very high number of video views that we saw for organic and paid combined at 3.2M video views. This shows that audiences truly resonated with the content and the influencer alignment.

We also found that the hybrid approach of utilizing both Instagram and YouTube platforms allowed for the brand to be seen by a wider audience while still garnering an even amount of impressions and reach from both. The YouTube content was of higher quality and garnered a lot more impressions through YouTube recommendations, while Instagram was great with reaching audiences and garnering more engagement.

Sentiment Analysis

The Evernote campaign saw 100% positive sentiment expressed in relation to the Do More With Evernote campaign. When promoted by our influencers, the sentiment analysis discovered that the comments reflected fondness, interest, excitement, and connection when evaluating each statement. Many of the comments referenced how helpful and insightful it was to learn about Evernote and ways the audience can utilize it in their own lives.

Some truly significant comments mentioned that Evernote would be useful for work/life balance, staying organized and improving workflow. Comments also reflected that they had no idea

Evernote could do more than note-taking such as, “I didn’t know Evernote could be used like that!” Such comments highlight just how effective the content was in building positive brand sentiment and awareness around the capabilities of Evernote.

The Do More With Evernote campaign truly resonated well with audiences and set a reminder for audiences to improve how they work and manage their everyday lives with Evernote.

Paid Advertising Insights

Our paid campaigns reached a total of 2.1M people with 2.7M total impressions. A notable engagement piece from this campaign was the high video views with 2.9M video players on influencer content as well as 300K total engagement.

Post engagement breakdown metrics include: shares, reactions, saves, comments, 3-second video plays, photo views, and link clicks combined.

The main audiences we focused on targeting were the influencer’s existing engaged audience, as well as a look-a-like audience similar to those people.

Best Performing Audiences

Our influencer selections were strongly aligned with journalism, business, and lifestyle. The best-performing audience were females, making up 60% of the viewers, and people ages 18 to 34, which represented over 75% of total viewership. The audience’s response to the content can be characterized as positive and enthusiastic.

A notable element of influencer engagement has been how much the audience resonated with working more efficiently, staying productive, and keeping organized. The comments were very much focused around the audience’s own workflow and how they can better their work practices at home or at their workplace by using Evernote.

Best Performing Influencers

This campaign’s top-performing influencers, based on their overall impressions were Ellen, Alexandra, and Eric. These three influencers alone made up over 1.5M impressions, as well as over 1.1M video views.

These impressions and viewership show a strong connection between the influencers and their followers. It also shows that the content was authentically featured within the influencers’ own feed, making it come off as a natural and trusted recommendation from the influencers rather than another sponsored post.

In terms of evaluating reach, we found that Ellen, Alexandra, and Eric’s content reached over 999K individual users on Instagram and YouTube. The Evernote campaign significantly benefited from this extensive reach and viewership.

Best Performing Content Type

For this campaign, we found that the Instagram in-feed and YouTube video posts performed the best with organic and paid combined. They were effective at generating impressions, reaching key audiences, and educating the audiences on exactly how to utilize Evernote. This said, Instagram Stories were very effective for directing audiences and building on the influencer alignment.

We were impressed by the organic engagement rate we saw for influencers, with an average organic engagement rate of 6.79%. Average organic engagement rate on Instagram currently is between 1-3% and YouTube is 4%, showing that the influencer content was 2-4x more engaging than the average content on Instagram and YouTube.

Between Instagram and YouTube, Instagram was phenomenal at reaching a wider audience more quickly through in-feed posts and Stories. We were able to garner more engagement from audiences through likes, comments, sticker taps, clicks, replies, and shares.

YouTube was great at building viewership overtime through YouTube’s recommendations, browse, search features, channel pages, and suggested videos. This gives the content a much longer lifespan and also helps with SEO as YouTube videos are often recommended through Google searches. Both platforms have their strengths and help with building awareness, educating audiences on Evernote and directing users to download Evernote.

The paid media performed far better on Instagram than YouTube, with Instagram paid impressions being nearly 3x higher than on YouTube. The overall Instagram paid impressions were 2M while YouTube paid impressions came in at 685K.

We also found that the paid engagement for Instagram was 281K while YouTube paid engagement was 29K, about 10 times lower. This shows that Instagram was best used for quickly reaching audiences, generating impressions, and audience engagement through its shorter form content that is easier to consume. YouTube’s purpose is to truly build out ideas and educate audiences on the usage of Evernote. The YouTube content will continue to organically build impressions and engagement over a longer period of time.

We recommend asking future influencers to continue video-style assets for both Instagram Stories and Instagram/YouTube in-feed content.

The video content is the best way to embody the key moments of actually using the Evernote app and the firsthand experience of how it affects their workflow and day-to-day.

Both the in- feed and Story content brought significant value and accomplished Evernote’s primary goal of driving awareness to Evernote and encouraging audiences to download and upgrade their Evernote accounts.

What is Influencer Marketing and How Can Marketers Use it Effectively?

Now that you’re familiar with influencer marketing statistics and how influencer marketing works, you need to understand how to strategically use it.

What is Influencer Marketing in Digital Marketing?

In digital marketing, influencer marketing is when brands partner with influential content creators to help promote a product or service. This could look like video campaigns on Instagram, the creation of viral videos on TikTok, or creating social media “challenges” involving a brand.

In simplistic terms, influencer marketing is part of a larger digital marketing strategy, using specific campaigns and popular creators to expand brand awareness or increase sales.

How Does an Influencer Marketing Campaign Work?

There are a multitude of influencer campaign types. What type of influencer campaign your brand needs depends largely on the current state of your company, your company’s history, product suite, demographics, and objectives.

There is not a “standard” influencer marketing campaign, but all influencer campaigns serve the same basic purpose: to get eyes on your brand.

Let’s look at a simplified explanation of how an influencer marketing campaign works:

  • Your brand decides that you need a stronger presence in a specific market or among a particular demographic.
  • Your brand partners with an influencer marketing agency or seeks out influential creators that have an engaged audience consisting of the kind of people you want to reach.
  • The campaign’s objectives are determined, the campaigns are ideated and strategized, and implemented.
  • Your influencer creates and shares content that is reflective of your brand and supports the campaign’s objectives
  • Campaign objectives are met in terms of reach, brand notoriety, credibility, and sales.

Campaign Strategies: Influencer Marketing Examples

Let’s look at a few examples of successful influencer campaigns

MTV

RICOLA

This influencer campaign strategy was designed to align with with key public figures that are known for using their voices.

These influencers covered a wide range of industries, backgrounds and talents as some were podcasters, athletic coaches, doctors, actors and singers. In their introductory post, each influencer was required to share how and why they use Ricola as they unboxed a specialized Ricola gift and covered key talking points about Ricola.

Influencers built on the hashtags #RicolaVoices and #VoicesThatThrive as they shared follow-up content via Instagram Stories to show the continued, ongoing use of the Ricola products. Through this content, influencers took Ricola on their travels, to work, auditions, and coaching sessions, to authentically highlight how Ricola is an essential item to the influencers’ everyday.

SOUTHWEST

What is an Influencer Marketing Agency?

An influencer marketing agency connects brands and influencers, and the agencies with stellar reputations are able to source exactly the right talent for a specific campaign.

What Does an Influencer Marketing Agency Do?

Let’s take a deeper look at how influencer marketing agencies work internally and externally throughout a campaign:

An Influencer Marketing Agency Creates End-to-End Strategies

Running an effective influencer marketing campaign is complex, and the public-facing aspects of the campaign must be airtight. Because an influencer marketing agency understands the nuances of creating these campaigns, they are able to create high-impact, dot-connecting campaigns that nail all of the brand’s objectives.

Influencer Marketing Agencies Source Creators for Campaigns

Conducting research on demographic information, performing engagement calculations, and assessing the personal brand, personality, style, professionalism of influencers, and drawing up legal agreements is only a small percentage of what it takes to source top influencer talent.

Many of the world’s top influencers prefer to work with influencer marketing agencies over working directly with brands because the agencies know how to run an effective campaign, which benefits the reputation of the influencer.

Influencer Marketing Agencies Run Paid Advertising

Most wildly successful influencer campaigns combine both organic and paid traffic methods to meet campaign goals.

Running paid ads for influencer campaigns is not an easy feat, with numerous technicalities behind an effective–and trackable–campaign.

Campaign Implementation is Done For You

Influencer marketing agencies go far beyond orchestrating campaigns; the best influencer marketing agencies are at the forefront of their implementation.

In an influencer marketing campaign, every moving piece significantly impacts the ROI.

What is the Best Influencer Marketing Agency?

The best influencer marketing agency is one that works cohesively with your internal marketing team, has a fantastic reputation with influencers,  and a proven track record of success with the case studies to prove it.

You’ll be able to determine the best influencer marketing agency for your brand by taking a look at their client roster. Who have they worked with? What were the results of the campaign? Do they have repeat clients?

And, consider their reputation among influencers and whether or not the agency has been recognized for any influencer marketing awards.

How Can You Work With an Influencer Marketing Agency?

First, research influencer marketing agencies and determine which agency aligns with your brand. If you want to build a brand of the highest caliber, make sure the agency you choose has worked with brands who have reached that level.

When you book your discovery call with an agency, you should have a deep understanding of your objectives:

  • Why do you want to use influencer marketing?
  • What goals are you trying to achieve through influencer marketing?
  • Do you have past experience with influencer campaigns?
  • What do you consider a measurable success?

Approach a meeting with an influencer marketing agency with as much information as possible; this way, your internal team and the influencer marketing agency can work together to generate the best possible results.

How Much Does an Influencer Marketing Agency Cost?

The cost of partnering with an influencer marketing agency can vary. Depending on the campaign objectives, the niche, the type of influencer your brand wants to work with, and the scope of the project, influencer marketing agencies can charge anywhere from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But, remember: influencer marketing is highly powerful and massively competitive. You get what you pay for.

Who are Influencers?

Just because someone has a sizable following doesn’t automatically mean they’re an influencer. An influencer is someone who has cultivated an engaged community of followers, and typically creates content in a very specific niche.

Let’s look at some of the most popular influencer niches, types of influencers, and the biggest influencer platforms.

Top Influencer Niches with Examples

  1. Mommy Influencers

As one of the most in-demand influence niches, Mom Influencers cater to families of all ages and sizes. Mommy influencer campaigns work exceptionally well with child-friendly products as well as self-care and woman-centric products.

  1. Food Influencers

Food influencers may be the original Instagram influencers. Food influencers can reach both local and global audiences, depending on whether you are trying to drive traffic to your brick and mortar or push for online orders of a shippable food or drink.

  1. Travel Influencer

Some of the most sought-after influencers are travel influencers, as their content is among the most attractive and engaging. Travel influencers are a perfect fit for airlines, tourism, and event campaigns.

  1. Gaming Influencers

A newer niche in influencer marketing (especially with the rise of Twitch), gaming influencers reach purchase-ready audiences who are dedicated to the hobby of gaming.

  1. Lifestyle Influencers

Lifestyle influencers cover a broad range of topics, from real estate to nomadic living to movies and concerts. These influencers tend to reach a broader audience than their counterparts and are a good fit for brands with a widely appealing product.

  1. Fitness Influencers

Fitness influencers are growing in popularity and are a great fit for healthy eating, workout supplements, athletic and athleisure gear, and more. Fitness influencers are also a match for fitness events, races, and workout equipment.

  1. Fashion Influencers

Although fashion is a broad topic, fashion influencers can help your clothing brand reach highly niched audiences. There are fashion influencers in high fashion, budget fashion, and everything in between that can help boost your brand.

Types of Influencers

A successful influencer campaign is targeted, and you don’t want to choose an influencer based on numbers alone. Let’s look at the 4 major types of influencers and how each one can impact your campaigns.

Read More on types of influencers here

Micro-Influencers

A micro influencer is an influencer with followers somewhere under 100,000 and is typically a content creator for a highly niched industry. These influencers may have smaller followings, but with micro influencers, there is power in lower numbers.

In niche communities, followers are typically more engaged with both the niche itself and the creator, making these influencers exceptionally powerful for niche brands.

Macro-Influencers

Macro influencers typically have between 100,000 and one million followers, and their audiences tend to be broader in both demographics and interests than micro influencers, but more niched than those of mega influencers.

Many companies that run influencer campaigns work with macro influencers. This type of influencer is great for brands that appeal to a larger audience but still have very specific brand objectives.

Mega-Influencers

With over 1 Million followers, mega influencers are sought-after by brands that appeal to a general audience and are looking to expand their reach and brand recognition. The audience of mega influencers are more general and span multiple demographics.

Despite their large number of followers, engagement rates may be lower for mega influencers as compared to micro or macro influencers, but don’t let that fool you: because these accounts appeal to such large audiences, many followers tend to be “lurkers” instead of dedicated community members. This doesn’t lessen the impact of a mega influencer.

Celebrity Influencers

A celebrity influencer is a celebrity first, and an influencer by default. Celebrities have history had influence over their audience, hence why global brands like Pepsi or McDonald’s have hired celebrities to do product endorsements.

The influence of celebrities is powerful, but it’s important to note that Millennials, Gen Z, and younger generations have less trust in advertising as a whole and tend to place more trust in non-celebrity influencers.

What Type of Influencer is Best for Your Campaign?

It depends. The size of your brand, your niche, your goals, and your budget all play a role in determining the best-fit influencer for your campaign.

What are the Top Influencer Platforms Worldwide?

Not all influencer platforms are created equal, and not every platform will give you the return on investment you’re looking for. Depending on the demographics of your ideal audience, you may seek out influencers who are more popular on one platform than another.[6]

Let’s look at some of the top influencer platforms in the world:

Instagram

With over 1 Billion active users[5], Instagram is ideal for nearly every company and every product worldwide.

In the United States, Instagram’s user base skews towards female, 18-29 year olds living in urban areas, the app’s user base is still diverse.[6]

TikTok

With 69.1% of TikTok users being under the age of 40[7], the short-form video giant is great for brands who want to reach the Millennial or Gen Z demographic, both of whom hold the most buying power in the US right now.[8]

YouTube

As one of the most heavily trafficked websites in the world, and owned and operated by Google, YouTube’s user base has reached upwards of 3 billion.[9] The biggest demographic within YouTube’s user base is the 25-34 age group, skewing male.

Snapchat

Out of Snapchat’s 319 million daily active users, 78% are under the age of 35.[10]. With more than 5 billion photos shared via the app every day, smart brands are leveraging Snapchat influencers to reach the demographics that are an economic driving force in the US.

Twitch

A newer social media platform focused on eSports and gaming, Twitch sees 30 million active users each month, with 2.5 million users consuming on the platform concurrently at any given time.[11][a]

How to Become an Influencer

So, you’ve heard how lucrative a career as an influencer is, and you want to learn how someone becomes an influencer.

Let’s break it down step-by-step:

Step 1: Niche Determination

The first step in starting a career as an influencer is to determine the niche in which you want to influence. The more niched down, the better. Choosing a niche helps not only attract highly engaged followers, but also helps social media algorithms determine what the account is about.

Step 2: Choosing Platforms

There’s something to be said for the power of omnipresence, but to start an influencer career, it’s typically best to focus on one platform, master it, and then move onto the next.

Determining the best social media platform for your influencer accounts is based on your niche, and where people in your niche spend their time.

Step 3: Research Creators in Your Niche

Take into account other creators in your niche. What are they doing that makes them successful? How are they promoting themselves? What makes them different from other creators in the same niche?

Take inspiration from these accounts, but never attempt to emulate someone’s personal brand. No one will follow the carbon copy if they can just follow the original.

Step 4: Create Content

Create your content plan and stick to it! You can’t pitch yourself to brands or influencer marketing agencies unless you first have content that shows that you put a lot of effort into what you do.

Remember: No brand wants to partner with an account with poor graphics, bad captions, and low engagement.

Step 5: Grow Your Following

If you want to be an influencer, you need people to influence! Grow your followers by connecting with other accounts in your niche, interacting with them, and posting content (with a killer hashtag strategy) that attracts your ideal audience.

Step 6: Establish Your Community

A following is one thing, but an ENGAGED following is next-level. Brands seek out partnerships with influencers that have a dedicated and active audience. Engage with your followers and build your community.

Step 7: Pitch Yourself

Once your account is established and you’ve begun to gain traction in your niche, it’s time to pitch yourself. Put together your press kit and reach out to brands or influencer marketing agencies and start getting paid gigs.

Should Influencers Work with Influencer Marketing Agencies?

Many influencers––and especially the most successful ones––prefer to work with an influencer marketing agency.

An influencer marketing agency is the conduit between influencers and brands. When you work with an influencer marketing agency, gigs are sourced for you, contracts are put together on your behalf, and the campaigns are streamlined. This means you, as the influencer, can spend time doing what you do best––creating incredible content that influences your audience.

Should an Influencer Have an Attorney?

As a professional influencer, you are a business owner, and every business owner should have an attorney that has their best interests in mind.

A creator attorney can help you navigate contracts, protect your personal brand, and ensure that you are fairly compensated for your services.

What do Influencers Get Paid?

How much an influencer gets paid depends on the scope of the campaign, the brand, and the preferences of the influencer.

Many influencers start their careers with #gifted campaigns, working only in exchange for free products. But, the more powerful the influencer, the more often it is that there is a monetary exchange.

If you want to work with a high-impact influencer, be prepared to pay them what they’re worth.

Frequently Asked Questions About Influencer Marketing

Now that we’ve gone in-depth about the most popular influencer marketing topics, let’s answer any remaining questions you might have.

What are the Best influencer marketing platforms?

There isn’t a “best” platform across the board, although some get higher traffic than others.

The best influencer marketing platforms for your campaign are the ones that allow you to connect with your target audience.

If you’re in the gaming niche, Twitch will likely be the best return on investment. If you’re a fashion or food brand, Instagram or Pinterest is where your audience will be most likely to be following influencers in those niches.

Is Influencer Marketing Worth it?

As one of the most popular digital marketing tactics in 2022, influencer marketing has proven to be effective for both startups and globally renowned brands.

Influencer marketing is one of the best ways to expand your reach, establish your brand as a staple, and generate both interest and sales.

Is Influencer Marketing Effective in 2022?

As any good marketer knows, word-of-mouth marketing is the most powerful marketing there is. Social proof shows other prospective customers that your product or service is worth the investment.

In 2022, influencer marketing is digital word-of-mouth marketing, but on a much larger scale.

How Important is Influencer Marketing for Brands?

Influencer marketing is crucial for brands that want to increase their popularity or cement their brand as a legacy brand.

Even “aging” brands benefit from influencer marketing, combining their already established reputations with new-age marketing tactics, resulting in brand loyalty with the newer generations.

Why Use Instagram for Influencer Marketing?

Instagram is one of the most popular social media sites worldwide. The Instagram user base is so diverse that niches of all kinds have a presence.

What Brands Use Influencer Marketing?

Brands of all kinds and sizes use influencer marketing––especially some of the world’s top brands like Community Coffee, Ricola, MTV, Evernote, and Ricola.

What is B2B Influencer Marketing?

B2B influencer marketing is an influencer marketing subset that specializes in marketing a product or service from one business to another. This is especially useful for SaaS brands.

What Does Influencer Marketing Cost?

There is no set cost for an influencer marketing campaign. Influencer marketing services can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The cost of your influencer marketing will depend on the scope of the campaign, whether or not you want to include paid advertising, and the influencers you want to work with.

What Makes Influencer Marketing Unique?

Influencer marketing is unique in that it is a combination of word-of-mouth marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, and traditional product placement. Influencer marketing is a newer type of marketing that offers the opportunity to use all of these marketing tactics in one centralized campaign.

What is Whitelisting in Influencer Marketing?

In influencer marketing, whitelisting is the process in which a brand obtains permission from the creator to run paid advertising through their identity. This means that the influencer grants the brand or the influencer marketing agency to their advertising accounts and advertising is run from the creator’s account.

Is Influencer Marketing Ethical?

Like any other type of marketing, influencer marketing is only as ethical as the campaign, strategy, and team behind it. If your brand is looking to run influencer campaigns, it is critical for the reputation of your brand–and the results of the campaign–that your campaign is run ethically.

Influencer Marketing: Powerful, Robust Marketing

Influencer marketing is one of the most powerful marketing strategies in modern marketing that combines social proof, word-of-mouth marketing, content marketing, video, imagery, paid advertising, product placement, and content creators to design high-impact campaigns that put eyes on your brand.

If your influencer marketing campaign is run strategically, ethically, and pays attention to all of the nuances associated with the influencer marketing space, your brand will garner the attention it deserves and the ROI you desire.

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1092819/global-influencer-market-size/

[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/427336/social-media-influence-purchase/

[3]https://www.chiefmarketer.com/majority-marketers-use-influencers-survey/

[4] https://www.convinceandconvert.com/digital-marketing/influencer-marketing-for-businesses/

[5]https://www.oberlo.com/blog/instagram-stats-every-marketer-should-know.

[6] https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/

[7] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095186/tiktok-us-users-age

[8]https://www.businessinsider.com/24-gen-z-trends-40-millennial-spending-changing-economy-2021-9

[9] https://www.statista.com/topics/2019/youtube/

[10] https://www.statista.com/statistics/814300/snapchat-users-in-the-united-states-by-age/

[11] https://backlinko.com/twitch-users#daily-active-users

author_photo
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Jacks is an influencer marketing professional with over a decade of experience in the digital marketing sphere. As the Director of Growth Strategy, Chris oversees and drives strategic initiatives to fuel business expansion. With a keen eye for market trends and opportunities, Chris develops comprehensive growth plans and aligns business objectives across cross-functional teams. With a strong focus on crafting impactful, ROI-driven influencer campaigns across multiple sectors, Chris utilizes his expertise to enhance market positioning and maximize results.

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