First of all, what is an influencer?
By definition, an influencer is someone who has the power to affect others’ decisions (more specifically, purchasing decisions), given to their position and relationship with their audience. An influencer usually has a following on social media, such as Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok, and uses, intentionally or not, their influence to motivate behavior on their audience, and can be a powerful tool of influencer marketing.
Anyone can be an influencer, makeup-artists, gamers, moms, athletes, private label brand owners, and many others, as long as you have a charming personality and something interesting to share, you can find a following online of people with the same interests as you.
Recently, with the growth of the internet and social media, influencers have become more and more common. Because of the opportunity of monetization, provided by the biggest social media platforms, it turned into a profession that many people seek. Because of this, other jobs have also come along, such as social media manager, copywriter, app developer, graphic designer, and many others.
What is “influencer marketing”?
Influencer Marketing is when a private label brand uses a public personality as a way of promoting its products and services. Brand collaborations (or as its called, “collabs”) can appear in many ways, some more long-lasting and tangible than others.
More than anything, influencer marketing is a strategic way of getting closer to the audience through a trustworthy personality, in order to build a close relationship with their customers and create an image for themselves. The brand must carefully choose the influencers that most represent their values and use them as tools inside their marketing strategy.
How to use it in your marketing strategy
Influencer marketing can happen in many ways, and it’s part of the marketing strategy to choose what are the best tools and actions, and what personalities to choose to be the face of their branding.
Sometimes, a brand will send a one-time PR package for a known influencer for a genuine review on their platform, or they will contact the influencer previously to have a paid appearance on their videos, asking the influencer to say something specific about them. Even more, a big brand can have “brand ambassadors” with whom it has a long-term relationship, frequently sending products and PR packages to review and participating in events under the brand’s name, documenting every step of the process on their social media, and engaging their followers.
A swimwear brand might want to connect with athletes, beach enthusiasts, surfers, and people close to the beach or that have a pool. A vegan protein powder line will want to associate with bodybuilders, fitness influencers, and people that exercise a lot. No matter what products and services you sell, there is always an influencer waiting to collab and make partnerships.
What to consider in the process
The important part is always looking for genuine people that have built a relationship of trust with their followers and will influence their decision-making process when buying. This is where influencer marketing might get tricky: at the same time, we want a genuine influencer who built a relationship of trust with their followers, too many ads and paid sponsorships will make the influencer lose credibility and trust, backfiring against the brand.
Some of the big advantages of this marketing strategy are reaching a relevant and sometimes niche “hard to reach” audience, it helps build trust and credibility, it’s very inexpensive when compared to other strategies, and saves time as the influencer does all the “hard work”.
However, there are also a few cons to consider, such as working with the wrong influencers, which can bring more harm than good. By associating your image with a content creator, the brand is subjective to their actions, in other words, if an influencer is canceled, the sponsoring brand might suffer by association.
Wonnda
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