What are the benefits of influencer marketing?

Contents · 5 sections

1. What is influencer marketing?
2. Who are influencers?
3. Why use influencer marketing?
4. How to reach out to an influencer
5. How influencer marketing has grown in Bulgaria

What is influencer marketing?

Chances are you already know influencer marketing, or at least you’ve heard of it. This digital marketing trend peaked over the past year, but in Bulgaria the real influencer boom is still ahead of us. If the topic is new to you, here is what influencer marketing is. It’s a business and branding technique in which someone well known in a certain circle or industry, someone who can shape public opinion, talks about you, your product or your brand and recommends it. In doing so, influencers shape how their followers see your brand. Influencer marketing and celebrity endorsements may sound alike, but there’s one key difference: an influencer builds your brand’s image by talking directly to their followers on social media, not through TV or radio ads.

Who are influencers?

First, influencers are not the typical celebrities we know from TV. An influencer is a specialist in a certain field who shares their experience on social networks and other channels. Most of the time, they’re professionals in a specific area who run a blog or a vlog. People like and trust them, they have thousands of followers, and they’re very active on the channel they’re building. That means an influencer can talk directly with their followers through a comment, a video, a post or some other way. Celebrity endorsements don’t work like that: fans have no way to talk to the star or ask a question about the product being advertised.

This is also a good place to mention that, according to most sociological studies from 2016 and 2017, influencers make up a growing share of the most influential people in the world. Here’s who made the TOP 100 most influential people list last year.

As usual, I want to share some useful and very encouraging numbers on influencer marketing. According to data from the first six months of this year:

• 86% of beauty videos on YouTube come from influencers, while only 14% are ads from cosmetics brands. That says a lot about how fast and how steadily this technique is growing in digital marketing.
• 70% of teens and young people form their opinion on certain topics based on the influencer they follow, while only 30% of teenagers trust celebrities.
• Almost 70% of consumers who research a product or service online come across an influencer before they decide to buy.
• In the US, every $1 invested in influencer marketing returns $6.50. You have to admit, that’s a great investment.

With numbers like these, I can only recommend that you make influencer marketing part of your strategy too.

Why use influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing was a global novelty about 10 years ago. Today it’s a well-established practice worldwide, used by small businesses taking their first steps and by the biggest brands we all know. Here’s how it works: an influencer you’ve contacted and agreed to work with speaks to their audience about you. That’s extremely useful for one simple reason. Your ambassador’s followers chose to get updates from them and are interested in their videos or posts. When an audience has chosen to give its attention to someone and follow them, it puts much more trust in the information that influencer shares. The rest follows naturally. If the influencer likes your product or service and tells their followers, they’ll believe it, and many of them will follow suit. That can only be good for you and your business.

If you want to try it but aren’t sure how, I’ll share a few behind-the-scenes secrets and strategies I’ve tested myself.

How to reach out to an influencer

When it’s time to choose an influencer, pick someone who is connected in one way or another to your niche. If you make or sell car tires, look for a professional rally driver, a driving instructor or a mechanic. If you distribute lipstick, look for a beauty blogger or vlogger. If you have a guesthouse or a small family hotel to promote, find one of the many travelers who write or make videos about their trips.

It’s also smart to think about the audience the influencer reaches. Sure, the young people making funny videos have the most followers. Then again, couldn’t those kids and teens become your customers down the road? Think hard about your goal. Do you want to reach the biggest possible audience, or would you rather promote your business to a smaller audience made up of your dream customers? I recommend this step because some businesses team up with the most popular influencers in a market and don’t get the return they expected. Not because the influencer gave their product or service a poor review, but because the influencer’s audience is wrong for what they sell.

Let’s say you’ve picked someone. What now? You reach out, of course! Almost every influencer lists contact details, whether that’s a social media profile, an email address or something else. I’ll also show you how I approach influencers. If you can’t come up with your own way to reach out, here’s a sample message you can adapt and use as a template:

Hi ... (the influencer’s name),

I checked out your blog/vlog and really liked it. I was especially impressed by your post/video about... (take a real interest and be sincere: say what you like most about this blog or channel and why. The better you do your homework, the better your chances of getting a reply.)

I’m... (introduce yourself here: who you are, what you do, what your company or brand is). I’m reaching out because I’d love to work with you on a project. I’d be happy to offer you... (this is where you make your offer, the way you’ll thank this person for becoming your influencer).

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best regards,

... (your name)

See? Nothing complicated. Still, if you don’t hear back right away, or at all, don’t give up. About 50% of the bloggers and vloggers my team and I have contacted never replied. But this is also how we’ve connected with many influential people in the niches we care about and built quite a few successful partnerships with very good results. One of our sponsored YouTube videos with two influencers organically reached more than 300,000 views in Bulgaria, and some of the blog posts generated dozens of sales for the cost of one free product. So make a long list and keep at it!

I mentioned earlier that you should thank your influencer. Yes, it’s customary to return the favor for their kind words. If your product is low or mid priced, you could give it as a gift to your ambassador or offer them a voucher for a set amount. If your products cost more, you can lend one for testing for a set period or, say for electronics, offer a discount voucher. If you sell a service, let the influencer try it for free. There are many options and no single best one. You’ll agree on the terms (or the price) together.

How influencer marketing has grown in Bulgaria

Since we’re talking about what to offer your influencer, I have to tell you how much influencer marketing has changed in recent years. I started using it almost five years ago. Back then, people in Bulgaria had heard of it, but almost nobody used it. There weren’t many strong influencers or specialized channels, and bloggers wrote just for fun. Very few people here had even heard of vloggers. The level wasn’t very professional, although some people did quite well. Most ran their channels and sites as a hobby, not for extra income. That’s exactly why most marketers ignored influencer marketing when it first arrived here. When I reached out to bloggers in 2013 and 2014, many of them were getting a partnership offer for the first time and didn’t know how to handle it. A free product sample was enough to get them to write about you on their small hobby sites.

In 2017, the growth of influencer marketing in Bulgaria is obvious. More and more people are becoming influencers. Bloggers have turned into real experts, and many of their websites look better than some media outlets. Vloggers with thousands of followers are now common, and the overall level has gone way up. There are plenty of professional influencers who will promote your product or service naturally, without being pushy or annoying. As their numbers grew, Bulgarian businesses started reaching out to them more often, and the whole niche took off. That inevitably affects what you’ll need to pay to thank your ambassador. Many influencers find it hard to price what they offer, but if you know their work and have researched their followers and their niche, you’ll arrive at a price that works for both of you. And if an influencer asks for more than you’re willing to pay, or the quality doesn’t justify the price, you simply don’t work together.

Demand for influencers will keep growing in the coming years, and so will their prices. Businesses will have to spend more and more on this kind of advertising. My advice is to take advantage of it now, because many influencers still haven’t realized how much value they can deliver, and prices are still fairly affordable. That will change soon. Also, research influencers carefully before you reach out. Make sure they do quality work, have real followers who care about their opinion, and that their audience is the right fit. Otherwise you risk being fooled by a big follower count full of people who have no interest in your product or service.

I’d love for you to share your experience in the comments below or ask me a question. If you want more tips, behind-the-scenes secrets or follow-up articles on this topic, get in touch or subscribe to my blog!