Influencer marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. Utilize reliable, affordable micro-influencers to boost your recurring revenue business. Chris Accardo, VP of marketing and communications at OceanX, discusses why this channel of marketing is successful and how you can use it.
When Instagram started removing public likes from certain postsOpens a new window , the response was immediate. Brands and influencers across the globe worried about the effects. Would the test become permanent? How would it affect marketing efforts?
But ultimately, influencers will be fine; they’ll still be influential even if likes are removed from certain posts. While engagement rates may be the hot metric to measure, influencers’ ultimate value lies in their connections with and relevance to target audiences. This makes influencers especially vital when promoting subscription businesses with models based on long-term relationships.
With more than 3,500 subscription boxesOpens a new window in existence, it becomes crucial for companies to distinguish themselves from their competitors. Utilizing influencer marketing could be the difference between a thriving subscription business and a failed one. But to tap into this marketing tactic, you need to understand why influencers are successful.
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How Influencers Build Brand Trust
Remember Fyre Festival? Your audience does, and influencer marketing hasn’t been the same since. Social Media Today reports that only 3% of consumersOpens a new window can still be positively swayed by celebrity endorsements. By contrast, about 30% of respondents said they’d consider buying something endorsed by a niche blogger.
Even non-celebrity influencers with millions of followers can feel like celebrities. Beauty gurus like Nikkie de Jager and James Charles amass leagues of dedicated fans and followers. And influencers know the power they wield: they can charge thousands for sponsored content because they’ve earned the trust of their target audiences.
That trust is central to successful influencing. For example, one of our health and wellness clients uses absolutely zero celebrity endorsers, yet they’re killing it with results up to 16 times better than another client with only A-list celebrity endorsers. It’s easy to see that relatability is more important than popularity.
Micro-influencers actively build close, personal relationships with their followers, so when they recommend or mention a product, their followers are likelier to purchase it. This is especially true in the beauty industry. Beauty gurus constantly mention their favorite holy grail products in their makeup or skincare routines. These influencers can become brand advocates as they educate their audiences and provide thought leadership.
How to Use Influencer Marketing
Typically, traditional marketing campaigns involve two parties: the audience and the company. The company advertises a product directly as sold, and the audience decides whether to buy. This may work for some companies, but subscription boxes often contain an element of surprise, randomness, or personalization.
This is where influencers come into play. In this marketing model, a subscription brand supports an influencer (sponsorship), the influencer gives his or her audience something of immense value (insight into what to expect from the subscription) and your brand gains something of even greater value (the audience’s interest and trust).
Ipsy is a great example of this model in action: Ipsy influencers generate interest and ad revenue by opening their subscription boxes on YouTube, viewers enjoy the entertaining unboxing process, and Ipsy gains profit from the monetized content the influencers produced.
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Are you interested in incorporating influencers into your marketing campaign? Keep these three things in mind:
1. Find the balance between entertainment and advertising
Educating consumers about the specifics of your subscription box is tricky. Ads can be annoying, and 40% of laptop users use ad blockers. How much can you fit into an ad before you lose the audience’s interest? Will enough people even see the ad? With influencers, you don’t have to worry about these questions. Let them control the narrative – they know their audience best.
Influencers aren’t just endorsing. Rather, they’re creating thought leadership. Consumers are both entertained and educated by the content. The proof is in the pudding: for every dollar a business spends on influencer marketing, it’ll make $6.50.
2. Focus heavily on video content
If you want to educate your audience via influencer marketing, then it makes sense to have your influencers focus heavily on creative video content. According to Forbes, YouTube has more subscribers than any other platform (except Facebook).
Video content is consistently more engaging than all other forms of marketing content. Unlike ads, YouTube videos featuring notable influencers are actively sought after by consumers. That’s one reason that Ipsy’s unboxing videos generate so much favorable attention. Test different types of videos, thumbnails, and approaches to see which performs best, then capitalize on that.
3. Encourage an active community
Because influencer success is rooted in trust and personal connection, your company is bound to see more online engagement. Use influencers’ content in your paid ads and on social media. You’ll expand their reach, give your brand more personality, and potentially see an engagement rate eight times higher than that of your usual content. And the more active your community, the more influencer fans you’ll attract.
Use hashtags to define your brand on social media. Encourage influencers and subscribers to share unboxing images with designated hashtags attached. Hold contests for uploaded pictures, host giveaways, and repurpose consumer pictures on your own feed. When loyal influencer fans check out your social feed, they’ll see an active community they’d like to be part of.
The evolution of today’s most popular social media platforms might change the way brands influence their audiences, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If your goals are engagement and authenticity, then influencer marketing is the perfect campaign for you.