How to use influencer marketing to boost your business

Influencer marketing isn’t an activity exclusive to big, ‘on-trend’ organisations – it can benefit many businesses when the time is right.

We sat down with Glasgow-based fashion and lifestyle blogger Tatyana Bugayeva to learn how influencer marketers can grow businesses, how to find them and why investing in them can be more cost-effective than you might think.

_{What is influencer marketing?}

Tatyana: Influencer marketing is about tapping into the audiences of prominent and, crucially, relevant bloggers and social media ‘influencers’, and presenting those audiences with brand products and services via content like blog posts, photography and video.

_{How would you say it differs from ‘traditional’ marketing?}

Tatyana: Traditional marketing – let’s say television or billboard advertising – is generally one-sided. The messaging hits as quickly as it falls off, and brands don’t really know if they’ve reached their audiences or not.

Influencer marketing, on the other hand, is entirely two-sided. It’s a conversation between real people. One of the biggest differences between traditional marketing and influencer marketing is the fact that, ironically, brand messaging no longer has to come from the brand.

A lot of brands are chasing a level of authenticity and relativity whereby audiences are championing their products and services online amongst themselves. That’s what influencers are hired to facilitate.

One of the biggest differences between traditional marketing and influencer marketing is the fact that, ironically, brand messaging no longer has to come from the brand.

_{What sort of products and services are typically marketed via influencers?}

Tatyana: Influencers are there to promote and give advice on the products and services that they genuinely love and thoroughly understand. I focus on lifestyle, but others specialise in gaming, sport, fitness, healthcare, technology– the list is endless.

It’s worth mentioning that a brand doesn’t necessarily have to work exclusively with influencers specialising in their niche, though. Good influencers can apply creativity when it comes to promotion, opening brands’ doors to other audiences.

_{How does a brand go about finding influencers?}

Tatyana: It depends on what the brand is looking to achieve by hiring an influencer.

If it wants to boost SEO or web traffic, then use a search engine to find bloggers with strong web presence. You might want to search for, ‘Scottish bloggers’, or, more specifically, ‘Scottish fitness bloggers’, or, even more specifically, ‘Glasgow-based fitness bloggers’.

Alternatively, if it’s brand awareness on social media, I’d suggest using search on specific platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Influencers often use hashtags relating to what they do to help brands find them. For instance, they might use #ScottishFashionBlogger. If it’s video content that a brand is interested in, search on YouTube in the same manner.

_{What do brands need to look for when reviewing potential influencers?}

Tatyana: First and foremost, they need to identify core values and assess whether or not they align with their business.

Are they targeting the right age group? Are they targeting a specific gender? Are their attitude and tone of voice suitable for the business?

Core values need to align with the business, and this can be assessed by scrolling through influencers’ blogs and social media channels. Look at what they’re saying and how they’re communicating with their audiences.

It’s also important to examine their followers, not in terms of numbers but in terms of engagement. Look to see how they are engaging with influencers. Are they actively talking about promoted products and services? Is the influencer replying to them? Are the influencers actually invested in nurturing their communities?

It’s also important to examine their followers, not in terms of numbers but in terms of engagement.

_{How should a business first engage with an influencer?}

Tatyana: About 90% of all communication between myself and brands takes place via email. Brands normally find my email address on my website and make a personal approach.

That said, it’s great to meet in person too, perhaps over a coffee, to discuss a partnership. That’s a great way of getting to know one another better and start building up a relationship.

_{Influencer marketing can sometimes come across as disingenuous. What’s the best practice to make sure this doesn’t happen?}

Tatyana: Again, it comes back to engagement. Some influencers just post product pictures and then move quickly onto the next ones. There’s no engagement there. On the other extreme, some influencers buy engagement in the form of ‘likes’. They can post something and receive hundreds of likes in seconds. That’s unachievable and a red flag for brands.

At the end of the day, it’s not difficult to identify genuine engagement. A good influencer knows that it takes time and creativity to earn genuine engagement. Trust in your gut and your influencer.

_{How involved are you when working on a brand campaign?}

Tatyana: I always like to have my own input into campaigns. Brands rely on the creativity of influencers, and they appreciate the extra value that influencers able to bring to campaigns. I’d therefore always recommend that brands give at least some creative to influencers.

A brand works with an influencer to communicate their brand to that influencer’s audience, so it doesn’t make sense for rigid brand guidelines to prohibit that and to stifle the two-way conversations we can enable.

There should be guidelines, of course, but influencers need to be able to apply their own creativity. This comes back to genuineness.

At the end of the day, it’s not difficult to identify genuine engagement. A good influencer knows that it takes time and creativity to earn genuine engagement. Trust in your gut and your influencer.

_{Would you say that influencer marketing can be good value for money?}

Tatyana: I absolutely understand that it can be difficult for start-ups and growth businesses to justify marketing spends. Be honest from the outset and work with influencers with what you’ve got.

What I would say is that a good influencer’s work takes time. Photography, copywriting, SEO, social media promotion – there’s more to it than sometimes meets the eye.

Even if it’s just a case of agreeing to cover photography costs or exchanging products for review, I’d take that as a sign of respect and the beginnings of a partnership that can then be built upon.

Remember, you’re helping one another – the influencer is helping to build your brand and you’re building up the influencer’s portfolio so they can go say to other brands, ‘Look who I’ve worked with.

_{How can businesses leverage the content that influencers create?}

Tatyana: A partnership with an influencer gives a brand access to that influencer’s audience at any time. If a campaign has been successful, build upon your relationship with that audience by running further campaigns.

It’s also possible to agree on further usage of photography and videography for use on social media and websites. You might also want to enlist influencers as ‘ambassadors’ for your products and services, exchanging products or services for a set period of time and for an agreed amount of coverage.

Remember, you’re helping one another – the influencer is helping to build your brand and you’re building up the influencer’s portfolio so they can go say to other brands, ‘Look who I’ve worked with.’