Influencer marketing became big for businesses last year, and it doesn’t look like it will slow down any time soon. If you’re not already doing it, it’s time to find out how the power of social selling will send your business revenue through the roof.

What Is Influencer Marketing?

People with large followings on social media, strong engagement, and reputations for promoting high-quality products are influencers. They have captive audiences that will pay attention to the products and services they promote. A business can pay these influencers to promote a product in various ways, from a sponsored blog post to affiliate links or video reviews.

Which Niches Deliver Successful Social Influencer Campaigns?

While any business could benefit from engaging with influencers, some niches are particularly suited to developing a strong influencer-customer-sale cycle.

Visual products, such as beauty, fitness, fashion, and travel, do very well with influencer marketing. The people who promote these products deliver in-real-life personal reviews that lend trust in the eyes of the consumer. Business services also do well when recommended by thought leaders. You will often see influencers choosing to promote business services they already use, which also builds audience trust.

Which Channels Are Most Effective for Influencer Marketing?

Image via Flickr by nodstrum

Every social platform has a wide range of influencers, but some are more suited to certain niches than others:

Twitter sees success from B2B influencers in business, entrepreneurship, and digital marketing spheres. Big names such as Jeff Bullas and Seth Godin have strong engagement levels, regularly sharing content from other companies and recommending products and services that pass their high-quality tests.

Instagram lends itself well to visual content, which is why it’s particularly popular for beauty and fitness influencers such as Kayla Itsines or travel bloggers such as Jay Alvarrez. However, keep in mind that one of the key performance indicators for influencer marketing on Instagram is the engagement rate. So knowing an influencer’s engagement rate is crucial for your campaign’s success.”

YouTube is full of video reviewers and is particularly popular with beauty vloggers such as Zoella and Ingrid Nilsen. YouTube also features influencers such as VanossGaming for businesses that want to target gamer or geek personalities.

Some influencers have strong followings across a range of social platforms. Bobby Umar, for example, uses Facebook for deep conversations, Twitter for quick exchanges, and Instagram to highlight the visual elements of his work. An influencer with strength across more than one platform will help your business target a broader audience.

Three Ways to Use Influencer Marketing

You can use influencer marketing from small micro-influencers with a niche target audience as well as those with millions of followers.

1. Place a Sponsored Product in a Review

Your influencer could write a blog or record a video review featuring your product. An affiliate link will help track conversion rates and boost influencer engagement, too.

2. Build a Long-Term Relationship

Long-term relationships with a core group of influencers mean they are likely to recommend you as an extra favor here and there over time.

3. Target Your Landing Page

Send visitors from your influencer to a targeted landing page with details about related products and services as well as the item recommended by the influencer.

A regular audit of your e-commerce conversions will highlight your most successful influencers and demonstrate the strategies (and audiences) receptive to this type of social marketing.