What is influencer marketing in Kenya?
Influencer marketing has been around for a long time, starting with friends recommending things to each other.
But then, social media came along and changed the game.
It brought in people with big voices who really loved certain topics.
These influencers aren’t experts by training, but they know a lot about what they’re into. Now, they’re not just talking about their passions—they’re selling stuff to their followers, making influencer marketing a big deal.
Influencer marketing is a facet of digital marketing that uses people with a substantial following on social media to promote a brand to their followers.
How many times have you bought something because a famous person or influential figure vouched for it?
Odds are, it’s happened at least once.
But here’s the twist – why do we trust these influencers, even when we know they’re getting paid for the endorsement?
I believe that being in the technological revolution has played a part.
We no longer just need our friends or relatives to recommend something for us to buy.
People we like or consume content from have somehow entered the pool of people we trust.
Recently, Snoop Dog released a statement that he’s stopped the smoke.
This, as it turns out, was because of an AD for Solo Stove he was to release later.
The AD was a HUGE success.
When to use an influencer
Influencer marketing is not for everyone. Let me start by saying that.
But once you identify that your brand would benefit from this facet of digital marketing, the next major step is deciding on an influencer or influencers that align with your brand.
How to decide which influencer to use
You can decide to go the manual way or use a professional company to match you with influencers.
With the manual method, you would go through different social media channels, identify the type of influencer, (micro or macro), analyze their posts, activity, audience, performance etc and then reach out.
You can also use a tool like Indahash that filters your influencer needs based on several fields such as age, type of content, interest, demographics, location, follower size, social media platform, and more to give a list of influencers that match your brand.
How to measure ROI when using an influencer
One of the best ways to measure ROI is by using an attribution method.
An example of this is by giving your influencer unique codes, coupons, etc that bear their name or brand.
That way, when users make a purchase, you have a way of attributing the sales to a particular campaign or influencer.
But what if I am not selling a product?
You can monitor brand mentions, site traffic, enquiries, phone calls in the period when you are running the campaign with the influencer.
What is a successful influencer campaign?
As a rule of thumb, you need to have certain Key Success Outcomes (KSOs) that you will measure during and at the end of the campaign.
Examples of KSOs include:
- Increase in site traffic
- Increase in phone leads
- Increase in sales
- Increase in brand mentions
And this needs to be communicated clearly with the influencers.
So, a successful campaign is one in which the brand has a clear and realistic plan, the plan has been communicated clearly and plainly, and the influencer has managed to attain most if not all of the success outcomes.
Who are macro influencers?
Macro influencers are ones with a follower count of 80,000 and above.
Using other forms of digital marketing to complement influencer marketing
It is important that you utilize other forms of marketing while running an influencer campaign.
Examples? Of course:
- Run a social media AD retargeting users who visited the page that the influencer promoted
- Run an email/contact info collection campaign. This way, you can easily reach out to these interested users
- Give freebies. Another way to collect contact information
- Run a campaign through the influencer on a specific page on your site that you want to increase the organic ranking on Google’s search engine results page. (Ensure that this page is already optimized, that is, has enough original content, mobile friendly, content has structure etc)
What is the biggest hindrance to using influencer marketing
From different people that I have talked to, the biggest barrier is price.
Closely followed by price is the lack of know-how, that is, brands do not know where to start when it comes to influencer marketing.
When starting, identify what you want. Once that is clear, identify micro influencers that align with your brand.
Start with this as they can be affordable. Test the waters. Learn how influencer marketing works.
And if successful, move over and start using macro influencers.
What is the biggest hindrance to using influencer marketing
From different people that I have talked to, the biggest barrier is price.
Closely followed by price is the lack of know-how, that is, brands do not know where to start when it comes to influencer marketing.
When starting, identify what you want. Once that is clear, identify micro influencers that align with your brand.
Start with this as they can be affordable. Test the waters. Learn how influencer marketing works.
And if successful, move over and start using macro influencers.
