Due to the complex terminology of influencer marketing, it can sometimes be challenging to understand what various means and methods entail. One reason for this is naturally that the industry is still quite young and rapidly evolving. In order to understand influencer marketing, it's worth comparing it to traditional marketing communication tools.
Influencer marketing is a marketing method that leverages social media influencers' audience relationships and/or authority to achieve the marketer's goals. An influencer's media environment is much more diverse than, for example, traditional media: in Finland alone there are tens of thousands of social media content creators, and when you add public figures to that mix, you have a full picture. When a brand begins to plan influencer marketing, it's good to consider all possibilities – while traditional content collaboration certainly has its place, it's worth thinking bigger: the best and most effective result often comes from combining different methods, channels, and influencers into a suitable package. But as always, it all starts with goals. The marketer should first consider why they want to do influencer marketing at all.
Content collaboration is the most traditional form of influencer marketing. In it, a company pays an influencer to advertise the company's product or service to their audience. The advertiser and influencer agree on the framework of the collaboration together before the influencer produces content, so the advertiser can influence the content produced. Since the influencer knows their audience best, the most effective collaboration occurs when the advertiser or an agency specializing in influencer marketing provides the framework and wishes, which the influencer then implements in a style that suits them. This way influencer collaboration becomes authentic and serves the audience. Content collaboration has as many implementation methods as there are influencers. The most traditional way is to produce content: an image, video, podcast, or any other output in which the influencer uses the product or service and recommends it to their audience. A brand can also enable the production of a content series, which is referred to as brand entertainment. This could be, for example, an entire podcast season or YouTube video series. A key part of successful influencer collaboration is the selection of influencers. Each influencer has their own unique relationship with their audience. The advertiser can combine influencers from different distribution channels, such as YouTubers, Instagrammers, and podcasters to create an influencer mix that supports the goals and brand direction.
In addition to traditional PR press releases and free services, influencers can also be utilized as a tool in, for example, press releases. This naturally requires an angle that interests the media, and the influencer is often then integrated as a more central part of the brand or product's story. Good examples of this are various collaborations with public figures or products ideated or created together with influencers.
An influencer's authority and their channels can also be utilized more straightforwardly in product sales. One way to do this is affiliate marketing, in which a company offers various discount codes or affiliate links that the influencer can share with their audience. Affiliate marketing can be utilized either by the company rewarding the influencer with a commission, by offering the influencer some guaranteed base payment, or through various combinations of these.
One quite elaborate collaboration between an influencer and a brand is creating products together with the influencer. A good example of this is, for instance, Prisma's Antti Tapani clothing brand, which was created together with Antti Tuisku. The successful collection boosted sales in the entire clothing department and was part of a more significant strategic whole. Similar examples have also been seen in the context of social media influencers, for example when Lakko designed his own clothing line for Jack&Jones. Internationally, increasingly more influencers have also started to build their own product brands. A good example of this is the cosmetics brand bearing the name of social media personality Jeffree Star.
Sales promotion refers to all activities aimed at motivating a company's sales staff or resellers to sell the company's products. Influencers can also be utilized in enhancing a company's sales promotion. As part of a larger collaboration, a company can utilize an influencer, for example in video format, to motivate resellers' sales staff and to tell about collaborations between the brand and the influencer. Influencers can also be utilized in a company's internal events or occasions of interest to stakeholders. This is a big, but still relatively underutilized opportunity in B2B marketing. Integration of some larger package or event into the reseller's channels is also a viable means of sales promotion. This can naturally have positive effects on the relationship between the sales staff and the reseller as well.
