在信任的消费者眼中，"影响者 "代言是对品牌产品的肯定，但在推动这一趋势的过程中，战略性的 "影响者 "选择和活动执行也不容忽视。
With marketers planning to increase their social media spend more than any other channel, influencer marketing is a ripe opportunity for B2C brands to more effectively connect with consumers while increasing engagement rates across platforms. A growing desire for interpersonal connections with the brands consumers engage with means that audiences are increasingly receptive to influencer campaigns. This validates the brand being promoted in the eyes of the influencer’s followers.
Many marketers are already seizing the engagement opportunity social media influencer influencer marketing presents. In 2020, nearly 75% of U.S. marketers leveraged influencer marketing–up from 55% in 2019. However, before launching an influencer campaign, brands need to first develop a sound strategy for the campaign to drive the strongest impact and optimize their marketing spend. Here’s how marketers can best leverage social media influencers in their campaigns.
确定符合品牌个性和目标的影响者
When marketers enlist an influencer to increase brand awareness and boost a brand’s credibility, it’s important these campaigns feel authentic to audiences. Fifty-nine percent of consumers consider influencers who don’t seem authentic to be “annoying.” Worse than falling flat, campaigns with the wrong influencer can actively repel potential buyers from the brand the influencer is promoting.
Authenticity starts with marketers identifying an influencer whose own audience aligns with the brand’s, which will bring a greater level of receptiveness from viewers. Similarly, an A-list celebrity isn’t always a fit simply because they have a large following. Nielsen Scarborough found that only 19% of Americans make product purchases based on celebrity endorsements. More often, consumers want to hear from relatable voices, with 42% of Americans seeking the advice of others for purchase decisions. Shoe brand Aldo successfully noted this consumer preference when it enlisted influencers who aligned with the brand’s persona to promote its #StepIntoLove social media campaign. Targeted at Gen Z shoppers, the campaign encouraged viewers to create and share videos of themselves dancing along with the campaign hashtag for a $5,000 prize. The campaign generated 5B+ views and raised Aldo’s brand awareness by 2.5%, according to Nielsen InfluenceScope data.
识别受众认为真实的影响者的第一步是查看潜在影响者的内容。如果影响者喜欢使用的产品或服务与品牌提供的产品或服务一致，那么影响者的受众就会觉得在他们的推送中看到产品促销会更自然，从而更有可能参与其中。营销人员还应考虑追随者如何与影响者的内容互动（例如，追随者的评论有多真诚？
利用各种社交媒体平台
营销人员与影响者合作的平台也会影响营销活动的效果。这是因为不同人群参与平台的方式不同，而影响者在其使用的平台上也会体验到不同程度的参与。为了反映这些差异，影响者通常会对不同的平台收取不同的费用。营销人员在刚刚开始与影响者建立合作关系时，可能会倾向于选择价格较低的平台，但这可能会破坏营销活动的影响力，即使影响者的个性和追随者与品牌相吻合。
Against sharpening media fragmentation, marketers need to pinpoint the platforms that their brand’s target consumers are actively engaging with, instead of the platforms that boast generalized high engagement rates. Many influencers experience impressive engagement on channels like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, though there are nuances between audience demographics even between these platforms that could impact the results of influencer campaigns. For example, Nielsen 研究 found TikTok’s engagement rate to be the highest across social media platforms, largely driven by a younger, female-weighted average demographic. If this isn’t the prime audience for marketers’ brand, then TikTok might not be the best platform to run a campaign on because the consumers that marketers hope to build more personal connections with may not be there.
最近，e.l.f Cosmetics 抓住了嘀嗒的 Z 世代用户群的购买力，在社交媒体平台上开展了一项活动，开发了原创歌曲 "Eye, Lips, Face"。尼尔森 InfluenceScope 的数据显示，该活动要求 TikTok 用户在自己的视频中使用这首歌曲，在推出的头六天内就获得了 10 亿次观看。现在，该活动的浏览量已超过 60 亿次，并激发了 500 多万个用户生成的视频。美妆影响者詹姆斯-查尔斯（James Charles）以其在各平台上广为流传的化妆教程而闻名，他在 TikTok 上发布的帖子获得了 12.88% 的参与率，成为推广该品牌的热门影响者之一。
优先考虑持续测量，以深入了解影响者活动
品牌应将影响者关系作为一种长期策略，以最大限度地发挥关系的影响力。当影响者定期推广产品或服务时，影响者的追随者会更加相信这是影响者真正相信的东西。
强大的营销测量有助于营销人员优化与有影响力者的关系。通过监测消费者如何参与影响者营销活动，营销人员可以发现哪些地方需要改进。如果受众与帖子进行了大量互动，如喜欢视频或关注品牌的手柄，那么营销人员仅看帖子可能会错误地判断营销活动的效果。如果营销人员无法看到这些受众接下来做了什么--参与的结果，比如观众是否点击进入品牌网站进行购买--营销人员可能就不会意识到影响者营销活动的回报甚微。同样，如果营销工具能显示哪些营销活动的投资回报率最高，营销人员就能确信他们在社交媒体上的花费是明智的。
影响者营销活动是当今营销领域最热门的趋势之一，但与其他所有推广策略一样，它们在上线之前也需要仔细斟酌。营销人员要想在社交媒体上产生影响，就必须在利用影响者的对象和方式上保持谨慎。
This article originally appeared on Toolbox Marketing.
