Digital marketing is rapidly taking over the marketing industry, with influencer marketing being the most popular form. One of the best online marketing platforms is Instagram.
As per the latest reports, Instagram has the highest number of influencers, and 80.8% of marketers are likely to use the platform for influencer marketing campaigns.
Do you want a piece of this pie and engage your target audience like all these marketers are getting?
You need to follow the correct influencer marketing strategies.
But what does Instagram influencer marketing entail, how much does it cost, and why do you need to choose it?
We will share everything you need to know about Instagram influencers and how you can connect with them and get your Instagram marketing campaign live.
Without further ado, let’s get moving.
What is Instagram Influencer Marketing?
Instagram influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing that involves a partnership between your brand and influencers (social media content creators) on Instagram.
The essence of the collaboration is for the creators to promote and endorse your products or services on Instagram, and you compensate them in return.
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Since Instagram is becoming the norm for many marketers, you probably need to ride on the hype to keep up with your competitors.
Who is an Instagram influencer?
These are Instagram users who have built a following on the platform and can persuade their audience by virtue of their trustworthiness and authenticity.
Marketing Charts – a marketing insight firm, conducted a survey on a sample size of consumers across Australia, Germany, Sweden, the UK, and the US.
What were the results?
21% of viewers made a purchase after clicking an influencer’s post, and 16% did not click on the post but later made a purchase inspired by that post. Also, 26% made a purchase after seeing the post, even though it wasn’t due to the endorsement.
This just shows how much influence creators have on the purchase decisions made by their followers.
Let’s also look at some of the influencers operating on Instagram.
Types of Influencers on Instagram
Having a huge following on Instagram does not necessarily translate into more sales. Such influencers offer a wider audience, but that does not mean influencers with fewer followers can’t get the job done.
Some people insinuate that sponsored promotions from nano influencers are more authentic than those from other creators with a huge follower count.
Here are the five types of influencers on Instagram:
- Nano: 1K to 10K followers (Smaller audience but High average engagement rate).
- Micro: From 10K to 50K followers.
- Mid-tier: From 50K to 500K.
- Macro: 500K to 1M.
- Mega: 1M+ (Larger audience but lower average engagement rate).
What Are the Benefits of Instagram Influencer Marketing?
We know you probably wonder why we are talking about Instagram only and not any other social media platform. As many as there are several platforms that influencers can utilize, and they serve the same purpose, none matches what Instagram offers.
Here is why we think you should choose Instagram influencer marketing:
1. Higher Engagement
Do you know that Instagram has more than 500 million daily active users?
Even though it is not as huge as Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp, the platform is more engaging than its counterparts.
For instance, a study reports that users on Instagram are likely to comment, like, or share a post 58 times more than users on Facebook.
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Cristiano Ronaldo – Binance partnership post on Instagram garnered more than 2 million likes
2. Increased Social Sales
Many businesses might not know that ambassadorship, collaborations, and product gifting are much more cost-efficient than traditional advertising channels. Instagram influencers can estimate how much value they can add to your business beforehand.
You’ll learn how much it costs to promote your brand through the creators based on the audience size and engagement rates.
On top of that, the influencers will endorse and promote your products to an already existing audience (their followers). We have already established how much influence Instagram creators have on their followers – the nexus between brand awareness and social sales is undeniable.
3. Humanized Brand Identity
If your Instagram influencers can pull off a masterpiece with the promotions, your brand gets to have authenticity and a face. The competition to capture the online market is stiff.
That is why it is important to ensure that you humanize your brand – have people telling your brand’s story instead of just posting pictures of your products.
Instagram has the range for you to do that; we are talking about Instagram stories, posts, reels, and live streams, allowing influencers to engage audiences in real-time.
4. Builds Long-Term Relationships
What good is an advertisement if it doesn’t help you build a returning customer base?
There is a marketing rule that says customers commit to a purchasing decision after interacting with an ad at least seven times.
Instagram influencers have a unique way of endorsing products without people feeling like it’s being forced down their throats, and this might just be what your brand needs to thrive.
Ultimately, it also allows you to build robust relationships with the targeted audiences.
How to Build an Instagram Influencer Marketing Strategy
Instagram can be a great platform to establish your influencer marketing campaigns, and you must know how to create a winning strategy.
Let’s talk about the essentials of building an Instagram influencer marketing strategy.
1. Define Your Goals
“The first step is to ask yourself what your goal is. Why do you want to work with an influencer? Obviously, making more sales is a big one, but there are other options you might not have thought about.”
“Examples of common goals are building brand awareness and strengthening brand image. You may also want to increase your social media engagement. Or you could focus on improving conversions like newsletter subscribers, free trial signups, and email list building,” says Shopify’s creative strategist, Michelle Bali.
When you define your expectations and objectives, you avoid future inconveniences and misunderstandings with your influencers. It will also help you when you negotiate with influencers – you can communicate what you expressly want them to do for you.
2. Set a Budget
“So, next, you’ll want to set aside a budget. If you’re an independent business owner, it might be tempting to skip this step, but keeping track of your expenses will help you understand whether your campaign left you in red or in the green,” says Michelle.
More often than not, anything that involves spending money will always need a budget. Without breaking the bank, you must know what you will spend on Instagram influencer marketing.
“If you want to pay your influencers in product, I find it really easy to just calculate your campaign by figuring out your cost per influencer.”
Having a budget helps you identify the type of Instagram influencers your business can afford to hire for the marketing campaign.
3. Find the Right Influencer
“You’re going to want to decide whether you want to use nano or micro-influencers, midsize influencers, or large influencers,” says Michelle.
This is the most difficult stage of influencer marketing for many businesses. You can get many influencers, visit their profiles, and assess their engagement metrics, but you still do not get the right fit.
That’s because many people do not realize that some influencers are compatible with their products and others are not. So, based on your product and campaign diversity, find the perfect influencers to promote your campaign on Instagram.
4. Reach Out and Collaborate
What next after you have found an Instagram influencer on Instagram to spearhead your campaign? You need to reach out to them and pitch your plan. Here is how to contact an Instagram influencer:
- Direct Message (DM): DMs are the quickest and easiest way to reach an Instagram influencer. Once you identify who you want to work with, tap on the “Message” button and request to engage with them. If you intend to get a fast response, try to be direct with what you want from them.
- Email: It is common for influencers to add their emails to their Instagram bio. Just copy the email and send them a detailed message outlining your goals.
5. Review Their Content
Just because they have a large audience doesn’t mean that their audience will convert for you. So, don’t just get flown away in their fame; always review how they are actually working for you; look at the numbers.
There is no point in collaborating with influencers if they will not help you achieve your goals. After collaborating with the potential influencer, evaluate their performance metrics, such as engagement rates (likes, reposts, and comments) and the number of bots or spam accounts in their follower count.
This kind of digging is crucial in determining whether the influencer will have a meaningful impact on your brand.
All these stages might sound amusing, but thats is only when you can find the perfect influencer for your Instagram campaign. So, let’s learn how to do that.
How To Find the Perfect Instagram Influencer
There is nothing difficult about finding an Instagram influencer – the challenge is which influencer is perfect for your brand. Here are some steps you can implement to help you find creators who can efficiently engage audiences and improve your brand awareness:
1. Collaborate with Followers
“There is no one better to talk about how great your product or services are besides your own already existing customers and brand fans. I typically find that these tend to make the most organic influencer partnerships,” says Austen Tosene, an influencer educator and entrepreneur.
If you already have an Instagram account, the right person for the job might be one of your followers. All you need to do is monitor the followers who interact and engage with your posts the most.
Sometimes, the people who do this might also not be celebrities, but they could have an engaging audience that looks up to their recommendations.
You need to ensure that you monitor every mention or hashtag related to your brand – the influencer you are looking for could be right in front of you!
2. Use Trending Hashtags
“Instagram hashtags are a really good way of finding influencers for your brand because what do influencers always use on their posts to get discoverability – hashtags, right?” says Mariala PerCal, a small business owner.
Every day, different hashtags are trending on Instagram – many influencers ride on the wave of these hashtags when posting on the platform. Look through such hashtags occasionally and check who gets the highest number of likes, comments, views, and impressions.
3. Look at the Competitor Influencers
When you are always eyeing your top competitor for what they are doing, their mistakes, new strategies, and whatnot, you might want to take a moment and notice their influencer collaboration on Instagram.
If you find their influencer campaign working well for them, you can also adapt a similar strategy and find similar influencers to promote your product and brand. After all, having the same can benefit you when you go for stronger and more powerful personalities for the collaborative campaign.
But don’t just go out and approach every other influencer your competitor is working with. This might sound good, but it can backfire on your campaign. Instead, go for a few that you like.
4. Hire a Marketing Agency
When you have exhausted all types of efforts on your Instagram influencer marketing campaign and still haven’t seen results, the best course of action is to hire an expert.
Marketing agencies are pro at such campaigns and can deliver your expectations regarding relevant influencers and performance results. This way, you can save up your efforts, and your chances of failing become thin.
Just tell the agency your budget, campaign requirements, and boundaries, and they will present the entire campaign to you. Hiring an influencer marketing agency is a smart way to collaborate, as they also know what works where.
5. Use Influencer Marketing Tools
If you are still unsatisfied after trying all the possible ways to run an influencer campaign, the next best thing, or the best thing you can try, is using software or tools.
There are N number of influencer marketing tools or software out there that can help you design the entire campaign, scaling from the goal to a positive outcome. These tools are made for brands wishing to have a customized influencer marketing campaign and expect results.
It contains filters such as niche, location, demographics, and required engagement rate. These filters show you the list of influencers with whom you can collaborate. It also allows you to contact the influencers, so your manual outreach work becomes less.
Now that we are thoroughly familiar with the concept of influencer marketing strategy and finding the best influencer, let’s learn how to work with them.
How To Work With Influencers on Instagram
As long as you have defined your objectives and goals, there should not be many challenges during your partnership with influencers. To get the best out of the campaign, you should:
- Help the Instagram influencer create a campaign brief: this will contain information on the products you want to promote or launch, deadlines, the number of posts needed, and your expectations. You should avoid restricting the creative freedom of the influencers – hear them out and give feedback where necessary.
- Have an open-door policy: ensure that your influencers can always find and access you whenever they need your input on something.
- Monitor results: tracking results is the only way to determine whether there is a return on investment. Have the conversions increased? Is there more traffic to your website or app? You should be more involved in tracking your own data – coordinate with influencers whenever possible.
Examples of Instagram Influencer Marketing
Some of the brands that have successfully utilized Instagram influencer marketing include:
Airbnb
Airbnb frequently collaborates with travel influencers and content creators on Instagram to showcase various accommodations and travel experiences worldwide.
Daniel Wellington
Daniel Wellington, a watch brand, is known for its strategic use of influencer marketing on Instagram.
Fashion Nova
Fashion Nova, a fast-fashion retailer, has mastered the art of influencer marketing on Instagram. They regularly partner with influencers, particularly those in the fashion and beauty niche, to promote their trendy clothing and accessories.
How Much Does the Influencer Marketing Cost on Instagram
The level of influence and popularity of an Instagram creator will determine their compensation rate and formula. The world’s top brands are parting with huge amounts of money to pay celebrity influencers to market their brands.
Here is a range of the charges imposed by different categories of Instagram influencers:
- Mega: above $10,000 per post
- Macro: between $5,000 to $10,000 per post
- Mid-tier: between 500 to $5,000 per post
- Micro: between $100 to $500 per post
- Nano: between $10 to $100 per post
Here are some of the top earners on Instagram based on cost per post:
- Cristiano Ronaldo: $3,234,000
- Lionel Messi: $2,597,000
- Selena Gomez: $2,558,000
- Kylie Jenner: $2,386,000
- Dwayne Johnson: $2,326,000
The interesting fact about the above list is that they are the top five most followed people on Instagram – you can clearly see the relation between popularity and influencer marketing.
Should You be Using Instagram Influencer Marketing for Your Business?
There is no denying how much impact Instagram influencer marketing has on a brand’s awareness. If you can get an influencer who naturally promotes your products without the campaign looking unauthentic, your audience will grow quickly.
But we are not suggesting that it will be a walk in the park – you have to do the work. Follow some of the strategies we discussed in the blog and try to ensure you get the right creators to endorse your products.
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