20 Oct What the heck is Influencer Marketing? The Non-Jargon Explanation.

So you’ve heard of this thing called “influencer marketing” but have no idea how it all works. What’s the point? And who is an influencer? The answer is super simple, and we’re here to help, so let’s start with the basics.

The Influencer

Influencers are people with, well influence. They’re people on social media that users turn to for advice on a topic or for style tips, travel wanderlust, interior inspiration and fitness motivation, or perhaps just for pretty pictures and a peek into their seemingly glamorous lives. Their Instagram accounts are riddled with gorgeous pictures, handsome people and brilliant photography, and their followers love it. However influencers are not just celebrities and the rich and famous; they’re people like you and I who are experts on a topic, industry or niche group and have a loyal band of followers who trust their judgement and want to know their point of view. You should also know that influencers don’t have to have hundreds of thousands of followers or 6-figure likes hanging on every upload, they’re just peeps with genuine experiences and authority. Here at the Exposure Co., we work with Australian influencers across a diverse range of niche topics and industries, so if you have 5000+ followers on Instagram, head over here and sign up to join the party.

Image credit: @hashtagahoy

The Campaign

So now that you know what an influencer is, you need to know what to do with them. Influencer marketing is all about the campaign, so whether your goal is to increase brand awareness engagement and sales or launch a new product into the marketplace, there’s a strategy and collective of influencers who can help. We can’t give you all of the deets now (because that would ruin the fun) but we can tell you that influencer campaigns are effective for every industry, product and service and the more peer recommendations on Instagram, the better.

One other thing you should know about influencer marketing campaigns is that it’s not all about working with influencers that have the most followers. It’s about finding people that relate to your niche and generally love your brand, because if they don’t believe it, than their followers certainly won’t.

Image Credit: @georgiestevenson

The Process

So, the influencer and the brand need to be a good fit, got it? This is where we work some magic and connect brands with influencers and get the collaborative vibes buzzing. The brand gives the influencer a brief, perhaps containing targets, specific hashtags or a particular style and then the influencer interprets it to fit the brands aesthetic while also making it relevant and engaging for their audience once posted to their Instagram profile. It’s a good idea to let the influencer have creative control over the campaign, within reason of course, because they know what works best on their account, what gets the most likes and engagement and what produces results. So once you have connected and gone over the logistics, let them do what they do best – influence!

Image Credit: @everydaysimplehealth

The Why

Word of Mouth endorsements have always been a crucial element to a brands success and loyal customers are perhaps the greatest marketing technique in the book. So, if you have loyal customers who are thrilled with your product and are happy to shout it out to the world, you’d be crazy not to take advantage of it.  Combining word of mouth and native advertising, influencer marketing helps to create noise about your product and service to raise brand awareness and potentially increase sales. And the best part about influencer marketing is that, if done correctly, noise is targeted towards your ideal target market. It’s like friends swapping information about a rad new product, except on a large, public scale with a captive audience. It’s a no-brainer!

Image Credit: @theruecollective

Influencers are a unique collective of brand advocates that continue to rival traditional forms of marketing and advertising in the digital space, and even more so on Instagram. The potential is there, and you can make the most of it with influencer marketing.

To see which Aussie brands are nailing it on Instagram both aesthetically and with influencer marketing check out 5 Brands That Are #nailingit On Social Media