Influencer marketing is booming. In 2021, the global influencer industry was worth $19.4 billion and that figure is expected to grow to over $20 billion in 2022.
Even more impressive is the fact that 93% of marketers said that they used influencer marketing during the year. Needless to say, business is booming especially for these Aussie influencers.
From fitness to healthy cooking, home improvement to pet ownership—practically every industry you can think of has seen an exponential increase in the number of influencers in its ranks. And this has led to every person and their dog (literally in some cases) dipping their toes into the world of influencer marketing. But that begs the question—is now a good time to get into influencer marketing?
In a word, yes. With the rise in popularity of influencers and influencer marketing now considered a bona fide marketing tactic that many brands budget for each year, now is actually the perfect time to get involved in the industry.
However, getting started isn’t quite as easy as posting some videos to Instagram with industry-specific tags and waiting for the likes and comments to start rolling in—if only it were that simple!
Becoming an influencer takes time and effort, but the good news is that with a little dedication, just about anyone can do it.
Here’s how you get started.
Pick your niche
For some people this is an incredibly easy step. For example, a surfer will obviously focus on anything that falls under the umbrella of surfing while someone who spends a great deal of time with their pet might promote pet products and services. These types of promotions would fit perfectly with these would-be influencers’ existing images and lend authenticity to their content.
It’s not the same for everyone though. Not everyone has a particular passion that fits neatly into an influencer category, but that’s fine. All you need to do is determine which niche is best for your image, your lifestyle, and even your strengths and skills.
Most influencers tend to fall into the following categories:
- Beauty
- Entertainment
- Fashion
- Food
- Gaming
- Health and Fitness
- Lifestyle
- Pets
- Sports
- Travel
- Tech
There are, of course, many other categories such as home improvement etc. and even subsets of those mentioned above. Generally speaking though, one of the niches above will fit most would-be influencers’ existing image.
Remember too that you don’t necessarily have to focus on one particular niche. You could be in sports but also enjoy cooking, or you could be a parent who also happens to be a pet parent too. Ideally though, you’ll have one niche that is your primary focus as marketers and brands tend to prefer influencers who specialise in their industry.
Select a platform
So you’ve chosen your niche and so now it’s time to get out there and blast your content across all platforms! Only that’s not always the best idea. This is because certain platforms work better than others depending on your niche.
The best example of this would be how a fashion influencer who relies heavily on imagery would primarily use Instagram over the likes of Twitter or even YouTube. A DIY influencer, on the other hand, might spend a little more time on YouTube particularly if they are sharing how-to videos.
That said, regardless of niche, Instagram has been the dominant force in influencer marketing for quite some time with as many as 78% of influencers using the Meta-owned platform as their primary platform.
However, there now seems to be a growing trend of cross-platform use among influencers. This is most likely due to the fact that social media users now have an average of more than 8 social media profiles compared to almost 5 back in 2014.
Your best bet is to do some research and try to find out where your niche’s target audience likes to spend their time on social media. Ideally, you’ll want to focus your efforts on 1-2 platforms.
Understand your audience
A good influencer understands their audience and tailors their content accordingly. Simple enough in theory, but not always in practice. That’s where a social media platform’s in-built analytics tools can come in handy.
If you already have a following, you can take a look at your data to see who they are, their ages, what interests they mostly share, where they are from, and their genders if that is relevant. This kind of data will allow you to decide which type of content or what topics might most interest your audience.
Just remember that keeping an eye on this data is an ongoing process. As your following grows, you should keep tabs on how it is evolving and which segments of your audience engage with your content. And speaking of content…
Don’t focus on followers, focus on content
Yes, having a large and loyal following is ideal, but that doesn’t mean that earning those follows should be the focus of your efforts. Instead, you should focus on creating unique and authentic content that sets you apart from other influencers in your space. Be yourself and embrace your uniqueness and those followers will come in time.
Coming up with the content ideas is all down to you and will depend on your niche. However, we can suggest that you create a content plan allowing you to keep all your ideas and plans in one place. This will also help you visualize how often you are doing certain types of content so you don’t become too repetitive or forget to produce types of content that are popular with your followers.
Be consistent
Consistency is key in many facets of marketing but particularly when it comes to influencer marketing. That’s because people like familiarity which is great for you as familiarity fosters trust and gaining your followers trust is the ultimate goal.
You can do this by being consistent in your content creation. This means sticking to those products and brands that are within your niche. It also means delivering your content on a regular basis and following a particular theme or using your signature voice. You can, of course, vary your content and the types of content you produce, but as we said, any content you produce should be recognisably yours.
You might also want to look into the various days and times of day that your target audience is most active and try to deliver your content during those times. This is where a schedule for your content plan will come in very handy especially if you can automate your profiles so that the content is published on time every time.
Be yourself
At the risk of being repetitive (we did say don’t do that, right?), we’re just going to remind you that authenticity is what people want. They want to see the real you talking about real things and offering your real opinion. If this means turning down partnerships with certain brands because they don’t fit with your image, then so be it. Your followers will be all the more loyal knowing that you are being yourself so stick with it and who knows where you might end up.
If becoming an influencer is your goal or if you’ve already built a loyal following, then we’d like to hear from you. Here at Hunter Talent, we help influencers connect with the right brands and companies that fit their image. Get in touch today or fill out our application form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
