E-Influencer Marketing: what are the different kinds of influencers?

Influencer Marketing - Who is an influencer? By Sacha Thonon / World of Digits

You want to launch a marketing campaign with e-influencers? But how to identify the right profiles? What kinds of influencers do we find on digital channels? This article will enable you to determine the most suitable influencers in order to enhance your campaign and reach your target audience in a more efficient and consistent fashion.

Clear goals, the right in-house structure: the best way to kick-off your campaign

Previously we mentioned how important it is to correctly define the reasons for launching such a program. We also recommended to adapt the flexibility of your company's internal structure and to turn to an external structure if needed. The aim is to build up a smooth relationship with influencers as well as a collaboration based on mutual trust.

Before dealing with the different kinds of influencer marketing campaigns (the subject of a future article), we will first define what an influencer is and examine their different profiles. Once the identification process is over, you will be able to move to the next step: the different campaign models.

Clear target audience, adapted influencer profiles

This type of campaign requires you to properly determine your target audience. Such a requirement is a key element of any kind of marketing action. Collecting as many sociodemographic data as possible, by way of market studies or social media profiling research, and setting business goals: in doing so, you will get the necessary information to establish trends and patterns. All this lays the foundation for selecting with accuracy your digital channels influencers.

What does influencer marketing mean?

This kind of marketing focuses on key opinion makers in order to promote a brand message, a product or a service to their respective communities.

What is the difference between an influencer and a person?

Today the (constantly increasing) number of internet users active on social networks amounts to several millions, even billions as far as Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp are concerned. But how to identify those who managed to develop their project on digital channels? What does it take to be an influencer?

An influencer is someone who managed to build up a community of followers because he/she is given credit for his/her expertise within a specific field.

A person, instead of relying on a whole community around him/her, is isolated.

Here are different types of influencers:

One can distinguish between two main types of influencers: macro-influencers and micro-influencers.

Macro-influencers: influencers with a big audience

For many years and especially following the rise of the internet, brands have focused on collaborating with macro-influencers. Their high number of followers allows them to contribute to the application and success of trends.

The aim was to acquire visibility on a new mass medium by relying on a leading figure. One could compare this phenomenon to a brand collaborating with a celebrity, a kind of brand ambassador.

An ambassador is an influencer, but an influencer is not an ambassador. Rather, the influencer is a giver of information.

Even though an influencer might be seen as an ambassador, there is more to it than that. An influencer provides visibility while preserving his/her authenticity. Otherwise the influencer would lose all his/her credibility: suspected of being bought off by the brand, he /she would be seen as a biased source of information. A certain distrust towards this type of influencers would then follow, although he/she served for many years as a reference point.

In a world where internet users are growing wary of brands manipulating their thoughts and desires, they are looking for help in their decision-making process, according to the cycle of the "Customer Journey". From now on, they rely more and more on micro-influencers: influencers with a smaller audience but whose influence is on the rise.

Micro-influencers: smaller audience but bigger influence?

A new trend is emerging when it comes to defining the strategy of digital marketing: micro-influence.

Initially, as was already said, influence marketing relied on celebrities or leading figures with a big audience on social media. As a consequence, campaigns proved to be quite successful: visibility and high organic reach achieved but the real impact of the actions was difficult to measure. If one considers the number of interactions for a high number of followers involved, it turns out that the engagement and conversion rates performed poorly. 

Two reasons might account for this outcome: either the target audience was not properly identified or an influencer presented the brand or product he was supposed to promote with too much indifference. The message might be perceived as confused by the internet users and thus mislead them.

That is why using more niche influencers in the application of strategies would enchance the engagement process on the basis of a well-defined target and a better understanding of the message conveyed.

A question still remains: how to identify a micro-influencer?

A micro-influencer is more than just someone with a smaller number of followers compared to a macro-influencer. He/she is essentially seen as a reference point in his/her expertise field. Even though the number of followers is smaller, the audience is more receptive to the message. Moreover, the relationship with the influencer is more confidential and privileged, which favours long-term relationships.

Because the micro-influencer has a close relationship with his/her followers and is seen as a reliable source of information, he/she brings a real added value to a strategy of influence marketing.

This is the second in a series of articles about influencer marketing. Next article, next week. Stay tuned. Thanks!