What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is a social media marketing technique that involves collaborations between brands and individuals called “influencers” who have a significant following on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc.
With their perceived authority, credibility, and relationships with their followers, these influencers can sway their audience to purchase products they promote or believe in the ideals they discuss.
Influencer marketing has proven its effectiveness. In Singapore alone, a Rakuten Insights 2023 survey reported that 50% of the participants had bought a product because an influencer endorsed it. Moreover, brands are doubling down on their marketing budget for influencer marketing, as evidenced by this continuous growth of its market size.
In 2016, the global influencer marketing market was just USD 1.7 billion. In 2023, it ballooned to USD 21.1 billion—an impressive 20x growth rate in just seven years!
Source: Famesters’ Influencer Marketing in 2024: Key Statistics, Insights, Trends, and Predictions
These impressive figures are just a few of the reasons why your brand and as a digital marketer must refrain from sleeping on leveraging influencer marketing.
Why Use Influencer Marketing: Advantages and Disadvantages
For a long time, brands have been vying for online consumers’ attention. Because of this, corporate language has immersed their target market. Consumers became tired of companies trying to sell their products hard or directly at their faces.
Brands then learned they needed an online version of the “word-of-mouth” marketing technique—a supplement to their self-promotion and social proof of their brand’s quality. Since then, companies have been attempting alternative marketing techniques, and influencer marketing has stayed relevant and delivered significant results.
When done right, influencer marketing can boost brand recognition and the business’s bottom line in the long run. If you are still deciding if you are going to leverage influencers for your brand, here are the advantages and disadvantages of the said marketing technique:
| ADVANTAGES | DISADVANTAGES |
| Increased Reach: Brands can enlarge their reach and exposure with the influencer’s followers and network. | Finding the Right Influencers: With many established and rising influencers, identifying the right one who aligns with the brand and target audience can be challenging. |
| Targeted Marketing: Brands can target specific demographics and niches based on the influencer’s audience type. | Measuring ROI: Success is measured using different factors. |
| Credibility and Trust: Brands can leverage the influencer’s authoritative and trusted voice over their followers. | Compliance and Disclosure: Brands need to strictly monitor their influencers to comply with advertising regulations and disclosure of sponsored content. |
| Authentic Content Creation: Genuine and lo-fi content is a trend nowadays. Influencers are masters of creating authentic content. This low-produced kind of content is more believable to modern audiences. | Cost Variability: There is no definite cost per influencer, so the marketing campaign budget varies. Brands can factor in the influencer’s reach and engagement in determining price. |
| Enhanced Engagement: Social media users decide to follow influencers because their values align with theirs or because their content interests them. Hence, influencers’ followers and networks are sure to be highly engaged. | Brand Reputation Risk: If an influencer faces a scandal or backlash, it can negatively impact the brand. |
| Versatility Across Platforms: Influencer content is usually cross-posted on different platforms. Hence, your campaigns can also be run on various social media platforms, gaining increased mileage. | Control Over Content: Sometimes, part of the collaboration involves brands giving influencers leeway in presenting the products. This decision may signify respect for the creator’s creativity but gives the brand less control over the published content. |
| Improved SEO: Influencer content can drive traffic to your website, improving search engine rankings. | Campaign Management: Managing multiple influencer relationships and campaigns can be time-consuming. Some brands dedicate personnel to influencer relations. |
| Cost-Effective: With low production costs, influencer marketing is cheaper than traditional marketing yet delivers substantial ROIs. | Scalability Issues: Scaling campaigns with multiple influencers can be challenging. |
| Direct Feedback: Followers can immediately react and engage with the campaign. Hence, brands can instantly receive feedback and, thus, can pivot if needed. | Influencer Authenticity: There is still a risk of influencers losing authenticity if they become big and commercial. |
Any influencer marketing campaign technique has benefits and limitations. The brand must leverage these to its advantage. Now, let’s discuss one of the biggest challenges brands face regarding influencer marketing—choosing the perfect one that embodies the brand’s ideals and image.
How to Choose the Perfect Influencer for Your Brand
Choosing the best influencer can make or break your influencer marketing campaign and brand image. Of course, you do not want to be associated with someone with a damaged reputation. So, here is a structured approach to help you make the right choice:
Define Your Goals
You need to identify your campaign’s main objective so you can select the best influencer for your brand.
If your goal is brand awareness, choose an influencer with a large following. For engagement, look for influencers with a strong community or fan base. To drive conversions, find influencers who are effective sellers and ask for their conversion rates. For content creation, select influencers known for producing high-quality videos or other desired formats.
Identify Your Target Audience
Knowing the target audience is one of the foundations of an influencer marketing campaign. You must know who you are talking to, their media touch points, how they consume information, preferences, interests, purchase behaviours, and even economic status.
By clearly defining your target market, you can understand which influencers can relate to your target audience profile.
Research Potential Influencers
These are the things you can consider in finding specific influencers:
- Relevance: Does their content align with your brand’s niche and values?
- Reach: Is their following size and engagement rate enough to satisfy the campaign’s goals?
- Engagement: Are the posts’ likes, comments, shares, and overall interaction substantial enough to meet the campaign’s goals?
- Consistency: How frequently do they post? Are they consistent with the quality of their content?
- Authenticity: Do the influencers have a genuine relationship with their followers? Can they influence their followers?
- Previous collaborations: Do the influencers have a history of successful campaigns? Are the influencers easy to work with?
Analyse Metrics
You need to study the influencer’s account health to see if it can drive conversions to your campaign. You can consider these metrics:
- Engagement Rate: Likes + comments / total followers
- Follower Growth: Check how rapidly or slowly their followers are growing.
- Audience Insights: You can also request information about their followers, such as demographics, impressions, and other engagement metrics.
Assess Alignment with Brand Values
Brand alignment is an essential part of choosing a brand influencer. Here are some considerations:
- Brand fit – Is the influencer’s personality, values, and reputation aligned with the brand?
- Tone and Voice – Does the influencer’s tone and voice match the brand’s messaging?
Consider Your Budget
Each influencer’s talent fee varies. Factors like account scale, management fees, and others affect the influencer’s cost. It is better to canvass or ask around, gather information, and compare prices versus value before making the final decision.
Contact and Negotiate
It is the phase where you already have a shortlist of influencers. Here are the step-by-step process on how you can connect with them:
- Initial Outreach: Send a personalised message or invitation stating why you think they are brand fit. It is also better to express how you qualify them to be the best representative of your brand.
- Proposal: Outline your campaign goals, the influencer’s deliverables, and compensation.
- Negotiation: Though you have a definite campaign budget, you should be open to negotiating terms and rates to achieve a mutually beneficial agreement.
Test and Iterate
It is the phase where you have closed the deal with the influencer and are ready to run the campaign. Here’s how you can test the waters and monitor whether the influencer is effective and whether you will continue to leverage them for future campaigns.
- Pilot campaign: To test the waters, you can start with a small campaign. It will allow you to gauge whether you will have a harmonious relationship and whether the influencer effectively achieves your campaign goals.
- Monitor and measure results: Monitor and track the campaign’s performance against the goals constantly. Check how your target audience responds to the campaign.
- Feedback loop: Gather information from the influencer, your team, and the target audience so you can pivot the campaign if necessary or if you will continue working with your chosen influencer.
Types of Influencers and Their Impact
To ease your choosing of the right influencer, you must be acquainted with the types of influencers by follower count. Here are the four categories according to Moburst:
Nano-influencers
These are influencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers. They are best for small to medium-sized businesses with limited influencer marketing budgets. Sometimes, these influencers still build their portfolio and follower base, hence their relatively low cost. Often, they accept x-deals like PR kits or free products in exchange for content.
Their followers might be few, but this is their best asset. Their low follower base makes them more engaged and connected with their fans as if they have a personal relationship. Therefore, their voice and recommendations effectively sway their fans’ opinions. Most of them flourish in specific niches and interests.
Image source: Travis Lim Instagram
One known Singaporean nano-influencer is Travis Lim. He is a rising food creator with a strong community and engaged viewers.
Micro-influencers
A micro-influencer is someone with 10,000 to 100,000 followers. Although they have a more significant follower base than the nano-influencer, they can still maintain the feeling of “authenticity” and “relatability” among their fans.
Because their community is still close-knit, micro-influencers are still influential brand representatives at relatively low cost.
Image source: ssiiyu TikTok account
Ssiiyu is an example of a Singaporean micro-influencer on TikTok. She posts fashion and styling content such as GRWM (get-ready-with-me), makeup transitions, and skin care. Her followers can be young audiences keen on what she uses and wears.
Macro-influencers
Macro influencers are “internet-famous,” having 100,000 to 1 million followers. These influencers have established their careers in vlogging and content creation. They may not be as famous as celebrities, but they are widely known online.
Though their engagement is lower than that of nano-influencers, macro-influencers are still best for brand awareness campaigns. Because of their large following, they can help boost brand awareness and widen your reach.
Image source: Naomi Neo YouTube Channel
Naomi Neo is one example of a Singaporean macro-influencer. Her content revolves around her motherhood journey but with a comedic spin.
Mega/Celebrity Influencers
These are influencers with more than a million followers, brought by their celebrity fame. Because of their massive following, they are expensive to collaborate with. Moreover, because millions of people follow them, their audience is likely broad, with different niches, and can be of little value to your brand.
They may have a lower engagement rate and authenticity, but they are still suitable for awareness campaigns. They shoot something into virality in just one post.
Image source: kyliejenner Instagram
Kylie Jenner is the epitome of a mega-influencer. At one point, she became the most followed person on Instagram. Because of her celebrity status and internet fame, she sold out of her pilot lip kits in just a few seconds!
What Type of Influencers Do Brands Prefer?
Famesters’ marketing report states, “69% of brands prefer to work with nano- and micro-influencers.” There are more small businesses than large companies with big marketing budgets and can afford celebrities and mega-influencers. Additionally, Famesters stated that working with nano- and micro-influencers is like target advertising. The audience may be small, but they are niche and essential consumers.
Image source: Famesters’ Influencer Marketing in 2024: Key Statistics, Insights, Trends, and Predictions
How to Effectively Use Influencer Marketing
Creating a well-thought-out strategy is crucial to the success of your influencer marketing campaign. Here are the elements you need to consider:
Identify the Campaign Type
The campaign type must align with your objectives. Here are some campaigns that you can try:
- Product Launch: This campaign is perfect if you are introducing a new brand or a new product. You can leverage the influencers to create buzz or viral content, instigate excitement, or create first-look reviews. Micro- to mega-influencers can be effective in this kind of campaign.
- Brand Awareness: You can conduct a brand awareness campaign to widen your reach or educate your audience about your brand. You can also collaborate with micro- to mega-influencers to share their experiences with the brand and highlight its best features.
- Seasonal Promotion: This kind of campaign is present during holidays and special events. You can work with influencers of any type to create themed content. An excellent example of this is Shopee or Lazada’s monthly sale events.
- User-Generated Content (UGC): UGC is best for nano- to micro-influencers. You can collaborate with influencers to create genuine reviews about your product.
Choose the Content Format
Now that you have identified the campaign type you want, you need to determine the content format that best resonates with your target audience. You need to specify this because these will be your influencer’s deliverables.
- Instagram Post and Stories
- Youtube Videos and Shorts
- TikTok Videos
- Blog Posts
- Podcasts
- Facebook Post and Reels
Select the Platform
Part of knowing your target audience is identifying their media touchpoints. Do you know where your target market spends most of their time online?
- Instagram: This is best for visual and lifestyle content.
- YouTube: This is good for long-form videos, reviews, and how-tos.
- TikTok: This is ideal for short, creative, and lo-fi content. It can be the right platform if you want to reach younger audiences. You can engage your audience by hopping into trends and challenges.
- Facebook: This is best for community building.
- LinkedIn: This can be the best platform for B2B marketing and other industry-specific content.
- Blogs: This platform is effective for evergreen content, providing SEO benefits and long-term engagement.
Define the Key Message
Your campaign must have a unifying message. Identifying the key message can guide the selected influencer in creating brand-fit content.
- Core Message: What is the primary message you want to convey about your brand?
- Unique Selling Points (USP): What are the distinctive features of your that you want your influencer to highlight on their content?
- Call-to-Action (CTA): What do you want your audience to do after consuming the influencer’s content? Do you want them to visit a website, purchase something, or join a trend?
Establish the Timeline
Always create a clear timeline so your team and selected influencers can sync. A timeline can save you from numerous headaches. Here are the things you can consider:
- Campaign Duration: Decide on the campaign’s length. Depending on your goals, this can be a few weeks or months.
- Milestones and Deadlines: Set content creation deadlines, posting schedules, and checkpoints for review.
- Coordination: Ensure your team, the influencers, and third parties know the goals, schedule, and responsibilities. You can use project management tools to monitor the campaign’s progress.
- Buffer Time: Always have an allowance for any delays and revisions.
Collaborate Harmoniously
To have a harmonious relationship with the influencer, you must give them the freedom to create content independently. After giving them the brief and all the instructions, it is best to avoid micromanaging and let the influencers be creative. After all, they know which content works best for their loyal followers.
Monitor Progress
Tracking progress is essential in any digital marketing campaign. Therefore, you need to monitor metrics such as:
- KPIs: How do you measure the campaign’s success? You can use metrics such as engagement, reach, website traffic, sales, and conversions.
- Analytic Tools: What tools can you use to monitor progress? You can utilise Google Analytics, social media platform insights, and other influencer marketing platforms.
- Report Generation: How do you communicate progress to the brand stakeholders? You can compile data and insights from the analytic tools to generate a comprehensive report.
Optimise and Iterate
An effective campaign must be agile — quick to pivot depending on the campaign’s results. Here are some ways on how you can optimise:
- Analyse Results: Are you hitting your campaign’s goals?
- Feedback Loop: How does your target audience respond to the campaign? Do your selected influencers and internal team have insights on how the campaign is running?
- Pivot: Based on the feedback, what adjustments do you need to make to achieve your desired results?
Top 5 Influencer Marketing Tools
You cannot improve what you cannot measure. So, here are the tools that can help you track your influencer marketing campaign’s performance:
AspireIQ
| PURPOSE | PROS | CONS |
| Aspire builds communities of influencers and ambassadors for brands, especially in the e-commerce space. |
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Traackr
| PURPOSE | PROS | CONS |
| Traackr is a tool for influencer discovery and relationship management with advanced analytics |
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Upfluence
| PURPOSE | PROS | CONS |
| Upfluence is an AI-driven platform for discovering, managing, and analysing influencer campaigns |
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Klear
| PURPOSE | PROS | CONS |
| Klear is a platform that focuses on analytics and influencer relationship management with campaign-tracking capabilities |
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Grin
| PURPOSE | PROS | CONS |
| Grin is an all-in-one influencer marketing platform focused on e-commerce integration and ROI tracking. |
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Case Studies: Success Stories and Bad Examples
Leveraging influencers can either boost or harm your brand since the influencer’s image directly affects your brand’s reputation. Therefore, you must select a brand-fit influencer with a positive reputation and proven influencer marketing strategies. Here are some stories where influencers affected a brand’s success and failure.
Fenty Beauty: A Success Story
Fenty Beauty by Rihanna is a success story of a solid product combined with a strong celebrity influence. With the tagline “Beauty for All,” it was the first cosmetic brand to release 40 foundation shades on its first release. Currently, it has already expanded to 50 shades.
Rihanna, a person of colour, owns Fenty and is the perfect brand ambassador. She struggled to find the perfect foundation shade, which she translated into formulating her cosmetic product and advocating for.
The singer-turned-entrepreneur also has a positive and daring reputation. Rihanna’s songs are all chart-smashing and record-breaking, which also translated to her business ventures, smashing ceilings and breaking norms in the beauty industry. Because of Fenty’s groundbreaking product launch, other legacy brands have followed suit by releasing a more inclusive line of products.
Image source: Allure
Prime Energy Drink: The Downfall
Prime Energy Drink is the brainchild of mega-influencers Logan Paul and KSI. The energy drink was once a fast-rising product, at par with the legacy brands Gatorade and Monster. But now, the brand faces lawsuit after lawsuit and is threatened by its slow downfall.
Because of its excessive caffeine level and labelling issues, several countries have banned the product from their consumer bases. Australia, New Zealand, Croatia, and Slovenia were some of the first countries to issue a banning order.
Aside from the product problems, one of its founders, Logan Paul, is now facing lawsuits about an alleged crypto scam. This turn of events reportedly diminished consumer confidence and trust in any brand associated with Paul.
Image source: Dexerto
Legalities
Since influencer marketing is now standard, parties must also adhere to legalities to protect the consumers. Here are some of the legal considerations:
| Legalities | Description |
| Disclosure | Influencers must disclose their relationships with brands and whether the published content is an ad. |
| Contractual Agreement | Contracts should cover the scope of work, compensation, content rights, and disclosure requirements. |
| Intellectual Property Rights | A document must clearly state content ownership and avoid infringing on third-party rights. |
| False Advertising | All claims in the sponsored content must be truthful and evidenced. |
| Taxes and Reporting | Influencers must report income from collaborations. Likewise, with brands, they must document payments. |
| Children’s Advertising | The campaign must follow regulations regarding using child talents and marketing to children. |
| Platform-Specific Policies | The campaign must adhere to the rules and guidelines provided by the social media platforms. |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing involves promoting products or services with popular social media users. These influencers create content that interests their followers and supports the brand, aiming to boost brand awareness, engagement, and sales.
How do I choose the right influencer for my brand?
Pick influencers who match your brand’s values, target audience, and industry. Check for high engagement rates, genuine content, and successful past collaborations. Tools like AspireIQ, Traackr, and Upfluence can help find the right influencers.
What are the key benefits of influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing increases brand awareness, builds trust, reaches the right audience, creates engaging content, and boosts sales. It uses the influencer’s relationship with their followers for genuine promotion.
How do I measure the success of an influencer marketing campaign?
Check success using key performance indicators (KPIs) like reach, engagement (likes, comments, shares), website traffic, conversions (sales, sign-ups), and return on investment (ROI). Tools like Google Analytics, social media insights, and influencer marketing platforms can help track these metrics.
