How can bloggers help promote products? The key point is that the blogger already has an audience. If they are subscribed to the influencer, it means they are interested in the content - you can avoid wasting energy on generating interest, and immediately tell them about the relevant product. For example, there is a beauty blogger. He is subscribed by girls who want to do original makeup, to be aware of the latest innovations in cosmetics. Advertising store organic cosmetics fit in perfectly here - girls it will be interesting.
Situations in which your business needs bloggers
Individual approach. Bloggers cannot just advertise a product, but share their experiences. For example, first testing cosmetics on themselves, and then telling subscribers about their experiences. People are more willing to believe such integrations, even though they are advertisements.
Promoting products with Instagram bloggers
The right tone. Organic advertising from Influencers doesn't look like advertising. Rather, it's friendly advice or an unbiased opinion. Such integrations are native, look organic in the blogger's feed, and do not cause a sense of "jeers." That's why they are believed. Social media is an important part of modern society. No wonder that 90% of consumers make purchases based on them. Thanks to the development of social networks, there are new opportunities for brand promotion.
Influence marketing is one of the most effective ways. According to Marketing Dive research, 39% of marketers plan to increase their budget for influencer marketing this year. We'll name six reasons why partnering with opinion leaders is beneficial for your brand.
Creating unique content
If you need to create original content for your brand, there's no need to go to an advertising agency. Opinion leaders will not only make the right content for your brand, they can also bring fresh ideas to your campaign. All you need to do is set the right task, and opinion leaders will create unique and high-quality content that meets your brand vision and goals. In addition to publishing on Influencer pages, you can then use it on your official brand pages.
CASE:
American yogurt brand Chobani wanted to increase engagement with its target audience. Opinion leaders showed consumers that they could use the products in a variety of delicious ways. In their Instagram profiles, they shared mouthwatering recipes using Chobani yogurts. The posts received 137,000 likes and 2,600 comments, and the campaign had a total reach of 3 million audiences.
Influencing the consumer
Today, 88% of consumers follow the recommendations of opinion leaders. These high rates can only be achieved using influencer marketing. The advice of opinion leaders is authoritative for their subscribers. Bloggers are actively watched, followed, and looked up to. Make an opinion leader an advocate for your brand and their credibility will automatically turn into credibility for your products.
CASE:
The creators of Bejeweled decided to attract a new audience and increase its user base through opinion leaders. Bejeweled made a creative video in which bloggers can't get enough of the game. Also, the Influencers posted photos and videos of them playing and added the hashtag #shinyplace on their social networks. As a result, their ranking on the top iPhone game chart moved from 454 to 135. In addition, the game moved up from 702 to 182 on the App Store's top app chart.
Brand Awareness and Increased Engagement
Whether you're a well-known brand or a new one, you'll encounter these challenges. A great option for both raising awareness and increasing engagement would be a variety of contests in collaboration with opinion leaders. Product giveaways, coupons, and promo codes for discounts will have a positive impact on your sales as well. Think through the rules and match opinion leaders with a relevant target audience.
CASE:
The Daniel Wellington wristwatch brand partnered with opinion leaders to increase awareness of their brand. On their Instagram, they posted creative photos of the watch and added the hashtag #danielwellington and discount codes. Opinion leaders and ordinary social media users generated more than 800,000 photos and videos on Instagram. Profits from watch sales increased by 214%.
Creating communication between the brand and the target audience
Opinion leaders are the link between a brand and its target audience. By establishing contact with consumers, you get honest feedback. And this is one of the fundamental aspects in developing your brand. Consumers will start interacting with opinion leader posts. In discussion, you'll be able to see how people react to the product and what they want to change. This will bring you closer to your target audience and show consumers that you really care about them and the quality of the product.
CASE:
Chanel wanted to promote the launch of the new No. 5 L'Eau perfume and chose the world's best beauty bloggers to do so. They were given a tour of the south of France, where the brand's fragrances are created. The bloggers shared posts about their trip and added hashtags #newchanel5 and #chanelgrasse. As a result, the hashtag #newchanel5 had about 1,600 posts (as bloggers' subscribers uploaded their own images as well) that received 900,000 likes in the first month of the campaign alone.
Sales generation and SEO impact
Opinion leaders are effective at generating traffic to your website. All they have to do is present your products in an original way on their social networks, attach a link, and website traffic will instantly increase. In addition, such a campaign will have a positive impact on search engine optimization. The number of hits on your links is increasing, respectively, increasing the position of the site in extradition.
The mattress company Leesa wanted to attract the attention of the target audience to their site. They chose micro-influencers and gave them complete freedom of action. Each blogger shared their opinions about the service and its products and added a coupon code. As a result, the opinion leaders generated 100,000 link clicks and 400 sales.
Content Virality
Opinion leaders' content is spreading rapidly across social media. If they create unusual posts that mention the brand, they'll get consistent user interest. Such posts are actively liked, followed, commented on, and added to bookmarks. And this, in turn, directly draws the audience's attention to the brand.
The world-famous Fanta brand wanted to attract a new target audience for their products and increase engagement. Instead of traditional advertising, they opted for influencer marketing. Choosing stars and famous influencers from YouTube, they created a vibrant and dynamic video. Each opinion leader posted photos and videos of the campaign on their social networks. This gave Fanta more than a million engaged users.
High audience trust
You pick a blogger who works with your topic. This means you don't need to generate additional interest in the product from your audience. Do people subscribe to a blogger who talks about healthy living and nutrition? That means they'll be interested in learning about healthy food supplements, too.
Looking for a blogger
If you don't have an Instagram promotion budget or it's tiny, do your own research. There are several ways to find the accounts of suitable bloggers with live subscribers.
Search by hashtags related to your brand or category
For example, if you make custom cakes, look for sweet bloggers using the hashtags #sweets, #delicious, #instead, etc. It's also helpful to explore posts with the hashtags #preparewedding, #preparefest to see which bloggers have a joyous event that your cake would fit in perfectly.
Search by geotag
If you have a local business - a coffee shop, a flower store, a nail salon - then your customers are only in a certain city or even district. It's worth researching the authors of the most popular geotag posts: from the city and neighborhood to the neighborhood in which you and your potential customers are located. Search among loyal consumers. See who's tagging you in the photo. There may already be some among your existing customers who have a large number of subscribers and would be willing to work with you, even on a nonprofit basis.
Audience Survey
Ask your own subscribers which bloggers and celebrities they follow on social media. Blogger exchanges can help speed up the search process. Exchanges allow you to search for accounts by specified parameters - gender, age, interests, geography, price, number of posts per day, etc.
Looking at an account
Once you've selected bloggers with the right interests and number of subscribers, examine their content. How relevant is it to your brand values? How well suited are you to the language the blogger uses to communicate with your audience?
For example, if your product is hair dye, you'd want to advertise with a relevant influencer based on the gender and age characteristics of your audience and their interests. If the Influencer, in addition to her frequent hair color changes, is also known for her scathing statements and complete lack of censorship in her posts. If your brand is focused on tolerance, such integrations are best avoided. If, on the contrary, you encourage your audience to stand out from the crowd and ignore public opinion, then such an Influencer can strengthen the brand image with his advertising.
If the blogger is actively engaged in advertising, you can see examples of his integrations in his profile - see how many likes the advertising posts have, comments, how the blogger presents the recommendation, and so on. Check out his stories. Look at the number of comments from active live subscribers under the posts.
Engagement
For effective advertising with bloggers, it is important to consider not only the number of subscribers but also the quality. The engagement rate, or ER, will help you assess this. It is calculated as the sum of likes, reposts, and comments on one post divided by the total number of subscribers. Blogger exchanges calculate this indicator automatically. Engagement of 2% is considered normal (the more the better).
It's no secret that bloggers can scam subscribers and likes to create the appearance of an active audience and attract advertisers. Buying a dozen subscribers is not a problem now. You can find out if a blogger has live subscribers and what the percentage of the active audience is by using a special service. Bloggers usually talk to their audience - ask questions, ask to participate in a contest, write a comment. The more active the audience - the higher the chance that advertising will work and you will find a buyer among your subscribers.
Long-term perspective
Content works even a week or a month after publication. New subscribers show up, read the promotional post and start getting interested in the product.
What are the formats for working with bloggers?
Direct advertising
The blogger doesn't hide the fact that a particular post is advertising. He tells what the product is, who sells it, how to buy it, how much it might cost. The options may be different - for example, the author may make one post and tell about the product in it. Or he can start with a "summary" in a post, then expose the problem, and only then - show the solution with the product.
For example, a beauty blogger with 512,000 active subscribers. First, he makes an eyeliner in his posts: it is very difficult to find cosmetics for hair care. Next, he recommends a specific product that solves this problem. And then he publishes the post and leaves a link to a specific store where you can buy this product.
Find a blogger through an advertising exchange
There are special exchanges where you can see the rating of popular bloggers. The number of subscribers and the topic of the blog, the cost of placing different advertising formats, and other information is listed opposite each candidate. There are many useful resources. All Influencers there are sorted by account subject, a number of subscribers, geolocation, publication cost, etc.
Product placement
In this case, the Influencer does not advertise anything and does not call for buying something, but the affiliate product is constantly flashed in the content as if by chance. For example, a health and wellness blogger posted stories throughout the day: in the morning he cooks breakfast, and there are several bottles of farmer's milk on the table. In the afternoon, he picks up his child from kindergarten and shows him drinking the same farm milk from a bottle. In the evening he shoots a workout at the gym and drinks farm yogurt deliciously afterwards.
Native advertising
These are implicit ads that look organic in the feed or stories and don't alienate the audience. For example, a LOVE style-blogger shares her impressions: she used a hair care product for three months and this is what came out - she says that her hair stopped chopping, she was able to give up vitamins and minerals because she now gets everything from the product advertised. This is a good example: the blogger does not call for purchase but shares a personal experience. The publication doesn't stand out in the feed. Therefore, it will be perceived as advice, not advertising.
Contest mechanics
These can be used to engage the audience. And sometimes to gain subscribers to a brand's Instagram account. In the first case, the advertiser sends the blogger their products. The blogger holds a contest among subscribers and gives it to the winner. The audience gets involved and responds better to the ads, remembers the brand, and becomes more loyal to it.
In the second case, the blogger can hold a giveaway - a different kind of contest. Subscribers need to subscribe to the brand's account and leave a "like" or a comment with a hashtag under the contest entry. Then a winner is chosen at random. It's an easy way to get subscribers to a commercial account.
How to find the right blogger
For ads to bring in conversions, you need to find the right blogger with the right audience. Search for bloggers by tags. Choose 5-10 hashtags that set your topic, and see what the returns offer you. For regional companies, you can use relevant geotags that will narrow down your search. Hashtags by activity are also popular: #child doctor, #psychotherapist, #business coach, #IT specialist.
Check out the recommendations section
As soon as you sign up for one Influencer you're interested in, Instagram will immediately offer you dozens of similar accounts. Look through the first 10-20 recommendations - write down those accounts that seem appropriate and interesting. Next, you need to check them for addiction and engagement.
Periodically add interesting posts from recommendations to your bookmarks. The recommendation feed will show you posts similar to those made by bloggers. If you see something interesting and relevant to you, save it right away. Gradually you will have a whole base of opinion leaders you can refer to.
How much does it cost to advertise in Instagram?
So you've chosen bloggers with sufficient reach, high engagement, suitable interests, and values close to your brand. All that's left to do is to negotiate with them for placement. If you use an exchange, there will already be a price for which the blogger is ready to work with advertisers, and through the exchange, you can contact him. If you conducted the search yourself, look for contact information in the profiles of bloggers or write a message in Direct.
Placement prices vary greatly and depend on the adequacy of the blogger, the quality of his content, the number of subscribers, audience activity, and your product (to advertise mascara for eyelashes will be cheaper than a cure for clogs). You can place a micro influencer for 2 000-5 000, and the post of celebrities and bloggers with millions of subscribers can cost up to 100-400 thousand. In most cases you will have to pay in advance - professional bloggers rarely work on a postpaid basis.
Don't be shy to offer bartering in advertising
If you make clothes, offer the blogger a few things in exchange for a post. If you own a coffee shop - offer a month of free coffee. If you're a makeup artist - give an Instagram diva a makeover for a photo shoot in exchange for a mark on your account. If your own account has a large number of followers, as barter for advertising you can offer SFS (shout out for shout out), that is, give a link to the blogger in your post - this way you'll publicize each other and exchange the audience. Advertising can cost you absolutely nothing.
Conclusion
Why use InstaJet? The company introduces customers to the product. Do integrations that tell them how to use your new product or service. In addition, increase brand awareness. InstaJet helps amplify mentions and memorability of your brand. Many users note that the user-friendly and clear interface makes working with the site as convenient as possible.
