What is influencer marketing? Who is an influencer?
If we were to be tempted to translate the word influencer, we would come out – literally – an influential person (from influence – influence). A person who has an audience or is an authority for a certain group of people. The word clings to all sorts of creators, personalities and celebrities operating mainly on the Internet – especially on social media. So while the mayor of a provincial city is certainly an influential person, we are unlikely to call him an influencer – unless he is extremely effective on social media.
Influencers are individuals who stand out for their personality, knowledge, specialization in a particular topic, or who persuade their audience with their sense of humor, style of being or oratorical skills. The characteristic that unites all of these – different elements, after all – is to influence one’s audience and – by extension – inspire them to make purchasing decisions, among other things. And this is the most important feature that determines the effectiveness of influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing, then, is a collaborative effort with influencers to increase brand or product recognition and achieve a positive impact on sales.
The more, the better(?)
So it seems that the bigger the influencer, the larger his target audience, the better. At first glance, one can come to such conclusions, but as usual, the devil is in the details.
Megainfluencers, or watched by millions
There are several problems associated with the biggest influencers, gathering millions of followers around them. The most important one is the price – hiring a mega-influencer will cost mega-money, as large reach comes at a price. However, this is not the only element to consider. A huge audience also means that it is very diverse and not easy to determine its profile.
Let’s look at the example of Robert Lewandowski. The captain of the Polish national soccer team has a following of almost 37 million on Instagram alone. That’s more than the population of all of Poland (36.69 million according to 2024 data)! So, does cooperation with Robert Lewandowski mean sure earnings for the company? It all depends on its profile, reach, target audience and many other factors. After all, among the observers of the most popular Polish soccer player we will find people from the age range from children to the elderly. Men and women. Poles, Spaniards, Germans and residents of many other countries. Committed soccer fans, but also moderate enthusiasts of the sport.
Thus, a brand with a global reach that offers products to a wide target audience can benefit the most from content created in conjunction with this type of influencer. The smaller the company, the narrower its target audience and the smaller its reach, the potential benefits diminish while costs remain the same.
Big names, before the first million
Among influencers, boasting hundreds of thousands of followers, we will find many potential partners for marketing campaigns. Among this group, we can – of course – count on lower prices, but there is no expectation that they will be low. Cooperation with big names also remains out of reach for smaller companies.
If we are looking for a narrowing of the target audience (in relation to the biggest influencers in the world), we will certainly find many in the group of big influencers who mainly reach the Polish audience. These will include actresses, TV presenters, musicians, but also athletes and Internet personalities.
Famous enough – up to a hundred thousand observers
Influencers who boast a dozen or tens of thousands of followers are often the best option for companies – and these are both smaller and really big ones. The difference is in the number, but not of observers, but of influencers precisely.
Large brands can easily launch an influencer marketing campaign by interacting with many smaller (relatively) creators at the same time. In this way, they can reach a wider audience, but also open themselves up to many campaign design possibilities. It might be a good idea to feature several influencers representing different branches of business in one marketing creative showing that brand X’s products can connect.
Here’s an example: the Komputronik company has been cooperating with various influencers for years, among them the creator of the Ziemniak.tv channel or the graphic designer and author of memes creating under the pseudonym Fakes Forge. While the former is a big-name creator (his channel has already crossed the 1 million subscriber mark), the latter has a much smaller audience around him (+50k on Facebook, 13.5k on Instagram). These are just two of many examples, as Komputronik regularly collaborates with many other creators, confirming that diversification in the area of influencer marketing itself simply works.
This is extremely important in the context of the influencer risk mentioned in the introduction. Image troubles for an influencer often also mean problems for the brands he or she advertises. In the United States, there were extremely high-profile examples of big fashion or sports brands parting ways with – for example – Kanye West. Poland also has its own examples of discredited influencers. Collaborations with many smaller creators seem to be a quite functional remedy for just such an eventuality.
Another big advantage of smaller influencers is that they are often more specialized. They are travelers, photographers, youtube channel creators, historians, artists, filmmakers or broadly cultural people. They gather around them an audience that is united by interests. What follows is that smaller influencers often gather around them a much more engaged audience. If your company has a matching profile, it can successfully take advantage of this fact and establish an extremely fruitful cooperation with an influencer.
A good example is the creator of the YouTube channel Micro Adventures. His activity on this channel is focused in the area of bicycle tourism – so he is an interesting partner for companies that focus on this niche. These will include manufacturers of bicycles, equipment, accessories and bicycle clothing. Hiring Robert Lewandowski for their campaigns makes little sense. Nor are cycling enthusiasts likely to be persuaded by the presence of actresses or celebrity chefs in the campaign… except perhaps Mr. Robert Makłowicz.
Almost unknown, or the smallest influencers
Can a person who gathers a few hundred or a few thousand people on his social media profile be an influencer? As usual: it depends. Before engaging with such small creators, they should be subjected to particularly careful observation. In the course of it, it may turn out that – although the numbers do not indicate it – these people have a real influence on the observers. A small reach is also combined with relatively low rates. There is also no doubt that small influencers often appreciate the mere fact that a company has taken an interest in them. So they are – colloquially speaking – less picky.
Working with nanoinfluencers is a worthwhile proposition for small businesses that are taking their first steps into the world of influencer marketing and don’t want to overpay.
What makes influencer marketing so valuable?
Both well-known and lesser-known brands regularly find the resources to hire influencers. This happens for a variety of reasons, and while the ambition to take on the role of patron may be one of them, it is certainly not the most important. So what makes influencer marketing still attractive to companies?
Widening the audience
It is not easy to break through in the market to the consciousness of the audience. Building brand recognition (in this case, an online store) from the bottom up is extremely difficult in such a saturated market. Daily efforts to build a community of loyal customers are therefore worth supporting with influencer activities. They will not only expand the audience, but also “bring in” customers with a specific profile.
Building trust and image
Internet users are becoming more sensitive to traditional forms of marketing. They verify good prices and look for better ones using comparison sites. Brands’ commitment to ecology or sustainability is also being evaluated. In this context, cooperation with influencers who openly adhere to a certain set of values can benefit the company – if these values are in line with those proclaimed by the brand.
The trust that influencers have is also significant. Many of them are associated as people who carefully select companies to work with. Communities often appreciate the fact that the person they are watching doesn’t put earnings above all else, but tries to work with actually worthwhile partners. These are the kind of people you are looking for if you want to build a brand based on trust.
Bypassing adblockers
One of the more mundane but extremely important problems for advertisers are so-called “adblockers,” or ad-blocking software. According to the IAB’s 2024 report, as many as 45% of Internet users in Poland use adblockers. Although this indicates a certain deceleration of the trend (in 2017 users of this type of software were 42%), it is still a percentage that cannot be ignored.
In short: assume that as many as 45% of users are not reached or are only partially reached by paid online ads. Yes, those ads for which your company pays big money to Google or Facebook.
Influencers active in social media can be a remedy for ad blockers. Ad segments in YouTube or TikTok videos, branding in the content of posts, etc. will not be detected by the software as ads, which means your marketing message will still reach the intended recipients.
Better sales
All of the things we listed above should ultimately translate into better sales. In the end, you’ll reach a larger group of people, boost your brand image, and inspire trust – all without the blockers. A good influencer will create a buying need among his or her followers because he or she will present your products or services in a way that reaches them.
You can easily track the effectiveness of this cooperation, and in several ways:
- You can generate a special influencer discount code. Every time you make a purchase with this code, it will be registered.
- You can also prepare an affiliate link, which the influencer will then post on their social media.
- With analytics tools, you’ll see how much of your traffic is the responsibility of the person you’re working with.
- Finally, you can view community comments in real time.
The attitude of observers towards the cooperation between your brand and the influencer can be of great importance. If you perceive that it evokes mostly negative reactions, it’s worth considering changing your strategy or abandoning the cooperation. To stay on top of the comments, you can use internet monitoring tools.
A recipe for a campaign with influencers
This section will briefly describe how you can prepare for your first campaign with an influencer or influencers. With this, you will be able to create a framework plan for your campaign.
Purpose, budget, target group
For a campaign to be effective, it must have a specific goal. Of course, “more sales” is also some kind of goal, but we recommend describing the expected result in more detail (for example, the total value of sales, the number of transactions made through the influencer, etc.).
However, it’s worth remembering that few influencers will agree to be billed on sales – mainly because their contribution to your brand is often huge reach. What you do with them, however, is already your concern. Thus, an important indicator of an influencer marketing campaign will be reach (the number of unique users reached by content advertising your brand) or the increase in brand recognition.
Also, determine necessarily who you want to target with your campaign, and what budget you can allocate for it. The answers to these two questions will help you in your search for the right person to work with.
Searching for the right person
Knowing your target audience (both their demographic profile and interests) and having a set budget for influencer compensation, you can start your search. To do this, you can browse YouTube channels, Facebook fanpages, TikTok or Instagram creators from the bottom up. Take advantage of hashtags, check similar profiles suggested by the platforms, and sooner or later you will come across noteworthy accounts. Perhaps – since you’ve been preparing for a campaign for some time – you already have a few or a dozen creators in mind who could potentially join forces with your store?
However, if you are starting from scratch, you can help yourself with tools. There are several platforms, bringing together influencers and influencer marketing tools. These include WhitePress, Influencers.Club, Influtool or AnyStar.
On the other hand, if you are looking for influencers at the absolute top and have the means to do so, check out DDOB’s ranking of the top 100 creators on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.
Campaign plan
Before you even contact influencers and present them with your proposal, you need to… prepare your proposal. So the next step is to draw up a campaign plan. What is worth specifying in it?
- goal and objectives of the campaign,
- principles of cooperation,
- rules for creating promotional content,
- duration of the campaign,
- frequency of content publication,
- the scope of publication (on which channels the promotional content is to appear).
All of this will allow you to not only keep your hand on the pulse and make sure your campaign is on the right course, but also prepare a clear brief for a potential collaborator.
Scope of cooperation
There are many elements under this enigmatic term. Determine first of all, do you want to create promotional content internally and then send influencers to publish, or will you rely on them? The latter is often the better option – this will keep influencers natural. Many influencers even refuse to publish pre-prepared content. If you care about this, make sure that the chosen influencers agree to this form of cooperation.
If influencers will be creating on their own, you need to prepare a set of guidelines that will tell them what your brand’s tone of voice is, what values it espouses, what to emphasize and what topics to avoid. This is not, of course, to avoid describing the shortcomings of your product or service, but – for example – to avoid linking your promotion to political or worldview topics that contradict your brand image.
Campaign monitoring
An extremely important part of an influencer marketing campaign, is its monitoring. After all, you need to know whether the efforts made have had an effect as intended. If the campaign plan you prepared earlier was solid, you will find indicators to pay special attention to. Now, using analytical tools (Google Analytics, Brand24), as well as the data provided by the influencer, you can check how successful the campaign was.
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t initially achieve all of your goals in the allotted time. Your first marketing campaigns will certainly need polishing, changes in the course, and perhaps even a revision of your approach. If you establish partnerships with several influencers, by the way, you can try different strategies at the same time, which can bring surprising and very informative results.
Is this the right form of marketing for your business?
Although characterized by a certain unpredictability, influencer marketing is still – and will be for a long time to come – a great tool for promoting online stores and other brands online. It’s a great option for both smaller companies and giants operating with million-dollar advertising budgets. Remember to create a clear plan and set specific goals before you start looking for the right influencer. Good luck!
