Social media influencers help spread the word about your brand. Working with social influencers is often much more effective than other forms of marketing and advertising, as people typically trust the influencers they follow on Instagram or other social media sites.
But how do you connect with Instagram or TikTok influencers? And once you’ve made the connection, how do you track the results of a campaign? That’s where an influencer marketing agency can step in. The right marketing agency can connect you to the best influencers to meet your social media marketing goals and provide the metrics and analysis you need to track your campaigns.
What Is Influencer Marketing?
Think of influencer marketing as advanced word-of-mouth marketing. Your brand partners with a person with a social media following, whether it’s Instagram, TikTok, or some combination of platforms, to create content around your brand. They may try out one of your products and review it or talk about your services and offer their followers a discount via an affiliate link.
Finding the right types of influencers who are a good fit for your brand is key to the success of any influencer marketing campaign. When it comes to finding the right influencers for your brand, seek out those who have a genuine connection to your product, service, or message to better serve your target audience.
What Are Influencer Marketing Agencies?
An influencer marketing agency is a company that connects influencers and brands. An influencer agency also works with brands to help them maximize their campaigns.
Certain agencies provide a list of influencers and their contact information, leaving brands to handle the rest. A full-service influencer marketing agency goes even further. They will plan your campaigns and track them, so you can measure results and adjust as needed.
Why Work With an Influencer Marketing Agency?
There are a few reasons to take advantage of influencer marketing agencies’ services. Think of an agency as a go-between for your brand and viral influencers. The right agency will help you find the ideal influencer tier match for your business. It’ll let you know why a particular influencer is a good match for your company based on their engagement levels, niche, and other tiny details.
The most in-demand influencers, aka mega influencers, get lots of offers daily. An expert marketing team will help you get your foot in the door and can make a convincing case to an influencer about working with your brand.
An influencer marketing agency can help you build your campaigns and choose the right format to meet your marketing goals. Product placement, such as having the influencer take a few photos with your main product, could be the right choice. A giveaway, during which the social media icon posts about your product and runs a contest to give away products to certain followers, can also be an effective campaign option.
The social media influencer and agency typically work together to create the content, which takes a few tasks off your plate. All you need to do is sign off on the campaign before it goes live.
Finally, once the campaign is launched, the agency will keep tabs on it. Your hired experts will measure likes, follows, comments, and other signs of engagement from the campaign. It will also help bring more traction to your brand or achieve a different goal, such as getting more subscribers or leads.
From there, the digital marketers can recommend the next steps, such as keeping on with what’s working or making adjustments to improve results. Bonus tip: Influencer content that is already being produced can also be used for paid advertising through whitelisting.
How Do You Choose an Influencer Marketing Agency?
There are a lot of social media influencer marketing agencies out there. And they aren’t all the same. You want to choose an agency with a good reputation and a commitment to your brand’s success.
To do that, look for the following:
- A track record of success. The success of your influencer marketing campaign depends on the results you get from the influencers you work with. Before you start working with an agency, ask to see its number. How many of its campaigns have reached their goals? How have they been able to track success rates in the past?
- A solid reputation. What do other people say about the brand? Do influencers like working with it, or are there a lot of complaints about unfairness or bad deals online? Have other companies been happy with their results?
- Plenty of influencers. You need to work with the right influencers for the campaign to succeed. The larger an agency’s influencer pool, the more likely your brand is to find the right person.
- A complete list of services. Agencies differ in what they offer. To get the best results from your influencer campaign, choose an agency that provides a full range of influencer marketing services, from influencer matching to campaign management.
In the world of influencer marketing, success is mutual. If your campaign succeeds, the influencer succeeds, and so does the agency. Look for an agency that’s as invested in your success as its own, like the experts at Zero Gravity Marketing.