Marketing with influencers seems to have negative connotations attached to it. Don’t get me wrong— some businesses love it.

But some people think the whole "influencer" game is a scam. This usually stems from a place of experience when an influencer did little to actually "influence" sales or generate brand awareness.

For the latter, I think their downfall comes from choosing the wrong influencers to market their business. There are micro-influencers and macro-influencers, both of which come with pros and cons.

It's really unfortunate when these bad experiences happen because influencers usually provide a lot of value. At least, if you find the right ones.

It's not a new concept, either. Brands have been using celebrities to market their businesses since... forever. Except now, instead of traditional celebs, companies use Girl/Boy Next Door because they’re more credible.

The issue is that some business owners look at the vanity metrics (followers and likes) instead of the actual services an influencer provides.

You don’t just want to reach out for clout; reach out to influencers who can make a creative video, write a blog, or provide you with great photography.

The companies that are hiring influencers that only post on Instagram with their 3% engagement rate are the ones who aren’t seeing any value.

So, do you want to know how to create a winning influencer marketing strategy?

Listen up:

**Let’s Really Define “Influencer”**

You can’t really define an influencer based on the number of followers they have.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

Someone with 100,000 followers may seem like they have influence, but that’s not always the case. You’ve probably seen them talk about it. Large social media accounts are consistently struggling to maintain their views.

In other words, it doesn’t mean much if an influencer can’t captivate (a.k.a influence) their audience. Unfortunately, when views are down, their follower count isn’t going to magically start making you—the business owner— money.

The reason these creators struggle is because they fail to maintain their authority. And their engagement sucks.

This is why engagement rates are becoming more important than follower count. Follower counts are, by and large, vanity metrics.

An influencer’s engagement rate should directly affect if you should work with them and how much money you pay them. It won’t matter if they have hundreds of thousands of followers. If their videos are only bringing in a couple hundred views, I wouldn’t put money on them generating sales for you.

But more on that in a minute.

What Is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is when a company teams up with an individual who can produce creative content to promote a product or service.

I offer influencer outreach as a part of my PR package. For example, if a beauty company that sells hairstyle tools hires me for PR, a part of my job is finding a handful of influencers to hire for a campaign.

That campaign should focus on a specific date for a product release. Ideally, you want your influencers to post about your company around the same time to really drive up the hype.

Here's the catch.

You need to reach out to a lot of influencers in order to make this happen. I will typically reach out to 50 micro-influencers and/or 10 macro-influencers. The goal is to get about 20 micro-influencers to promote a product (usually for free!) or bring on about 5 macro-influencers to promote the same product (for a fee).

I know you're probably asking, "what's the difference between a micro-influencer vs. a macro influencer?"

Allow me to explain:

What Is A Micro-Influencer?

A micro-influencer is anyone who has an audience of about 3K-50K. However, as Later.com puts it,

"...it’s worth not getting too hung up on your follower count. Followers can fluctuate due to a number of reasons, and ultimately, having a smaller but more engaged audience is often more valuable. "

Micro-influencers are becoming the more preferred method of influencer marketing because they tend to have a close-knit community. Their engagement rate can be significantly higher than a macro-influencer, which means more sales and awareness for your company.

Another pro for a micro-influencer is that some are willing to work for payment-in-kind. This simply means that you will be giving an influencer a free product in exchange for a post.

Let's go back to my beauty company example. If I reach out to an influencer with 5K followers, they will probably be willing to post a photo on Instagram in exchange for a free curling wand.

So if I can get 20 micro-influencers with 5K-50K followers to post the same product around the same time, you're going to get about just as much reach as a macro-influencer. Minus the cost.

However, there are cons to working with micro-influencers. To them, this might be a hobby, which might mean they don't know how to gauge their analytics and demographics. This makes it hard for them to know how to advertise your company to their audience. It also might mean they simply never post about your product.

Another tactic you can take with micro-influencers is to work with about 5 who offer extra services. If you find 10K Instagram influencers who all have blogs, that gives your company SEO leverage and social clout.

Not a bad deal, right? Keep in mind that micro-influencers may not be willing to do additional work outside of a single post if the price of the product is too low. Likewise, they are well within their right to charge for any extra services such as blogs, YouTube reviews, etc..

What Is A Macro-Influencer?

A macro-influencer is generally anyone with over 100K followers.

The “bad” news is, most of these influencers require payment. The old rule of thumb for paying influencers is $100 per 10K followers. That means that someone on the lower end of the scale, say, 100K followers, can charge up to $1,000 just for an Instagram post.

Will it be worth it? Maybe.

When I did influencer marketing, I was extremely picky with which macro-influencers I worked with. I go through a rigorous "interview" process to make sure that their audience matches my client's industry.

For example, I wouldn't hire an influencer to promote a curling wand if their demographics for their 500K followers skew toward men. It just wouldn't make sense.

However, if I found a macro-influencer whose demographics were 70% female and 30% male, that would catch my attention.

Macro-influencers are more likely to be a good fit if they have a significant engagement rate and they offer video services (specifically YouTube) because 2020 consumers are all about the video-based content.

Marketing with Influencers: How To NOT Get Screwed

Absolutely. Any business that says otherwise is reaching out to the wrong influencers. Or they're not asking influencers about the most important metrics.

The trick to influencer marketing is to carefully choose who you work with. This type of marketing isn't in any way new. It's been going on for decades — like back in the 90s when Britney Spears famously endorsed Pepsi.

In order to gauge how well your collaboration with an influencer will work, it is vital that you ask them these two things:

1. What content or services can they provide for you?

With so much competition on the internet, a single Instagram post isn't worth that much. Especially with macro-influencers since their engagement is significantly lower.

These days, you want to work with macro-influencers and micro-influencers who are able to put out content on various platforms. This means cross-promoting on YouTube, Tik Tok, or their blog, along with a staple Instagram post (IG stories is another plus for engagement!).

The additional content and services will, naturally, increase their rates.

And, if you ask them this next question, you can more accurately determine if your marketing will work with each individual influencer.

2. What are their metrics?

If you reach out to an influencer because you were impressed by their follower and "like" count, you're already screwing up your influencer marketing strategy.

Here are 5 things you absolutely need to ask each influencer you reach out to:

What is your engagement rate? (This is the ratio of their followers to their average post likes/saves/comments/shares. They should be able to tell you a percentage. A 5-10% engagement rate is ideal).
What is your average view per Instagram Story?
What is your weekly # of website clicks on Instagram?
What is your average weekly reach on Instagram, Facebook, etc?
What is your average view per YouTube or Tik Tok video?
How many monthly website views do you get?
Do you have any examples and/or results from other companies you have worked with?

On top of that, it wouldn't hurt to ask for their Media Kit along with screenshots of the numbers they are giving you. You should also set goals and a deadline with each influencer you work with.

To cap it all off, a great way to measure (on your end) how an influencer marketing campaign does is by giving your influencers a coupon code for their followers.

BAM — an insta-easy way to track how their content performs.

Marketing with Influencers: A Complete Guide

**Let’s Really Define “Influencer”**