Target Group Definition Influencer Marketing
The definition of the target group is not primarily concerned with which target group should function as the desired target group. After all, it can also be the case that the selected target group does not actually correspond to the buyer base, so that a new target group should be developed. In Influencer Marketing, a target group is developed for this purpose, a kind of prototype that has all the important characteristics of your customers in detail. With the help of this prototype it is much easier to find the right platform and the right influencer for the individual case. If such an analysis is not carried out at the beginning or is not detailed enough, it can happen that the right target group for a product is not addressed. As a result, the entire campaign goal may be missed.
With the help of Google Analytics or the Facebook Audience Manager, the Instagram and YouTube platforms can also be evaluated, which in turn allows you to see how successful your own campaign is.
The four pillars
The creation of a prototype is based on four pillars. This makes it possible to work out the characteristics, background and interests.
First pillar
The first pillar deals with demography, i.e. age, gender and regional classification. However, marital status or the size of the household also play a role. It is therefore a matter of who is to be the recipient of the message.
Second pillar
The second pillar concerns socio-economic characteristics such as educational attainment, occupations and income. The environment and location are important in this pillar.
Third Pillar
The third pillar comprises psychography. This is about the wishes, values, opinions and views of the target group. This makes it possible to narrow down which messages the group is particularly interested in.
Fourth pillar
The fourth and last pillar is about the purchasing behaviour of the target group. There are two ways to access the relevant information. On the one hand, this information can come from your own customer database, on the other hand, directly from market research. The fourth pillar includes media use, consumer behaviour and customer satisfaction with a product. This allows the price sensitivity of the target group and the purchase range to be determined.
Campaign objective
The campaign objective should be determined before choosing a social media platform for the advertising measures. This is the only way to ensure that the measures are really targeted and effective. The so-called AIDA tunnel can help here. A funnel is a specific consumer-oriented marketing model that helps to outline the customer journey to buy a product or service. The AIDA funnel is made up of the stations Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. Influencers can help to effectively influence the individual stations of the funnel. They can answer the questions of followers, explain certain products and also compare them with others.
One of the core abilities of an influencer is to generate interest and desire for a product among the followers. It is important to be regularly aware of the level of the customer journey the target group is at. Appropriate measures can then be developed. This is also done independently of the actual objective. The goal remains the same, only the path to it is optimized.
Influencers are particularly well suited to the campaign goals of brand awareness, sales, image/brand shift and performance.
Brand awareness
Brand Awareness means that with the help of influencers an attempt is made to attract attention to a brand. This goal is particularly helpful when a new product is to be launched or brands are to be made more well-known. New target groups can also be addressed in this way.
Sales
In the Sales campaign target, sales are pushed directly by influencers, as brand offers and products appear in the feeds. With Instagram or Pinterest, it is possible for customers to go directly from their profile to the online shop and buy. In addition, support can be provided for product research. Influencers are of great importance here, as they help with the purchase decision and even initiate consumer needs.
Image
Of course, influencer marketing can also be used to create or improve your own image. Influencer makes it possible to reach specific target groups or to transfer character traits and values to a brand or company.
Performance
In addition, the performance can be strongly be influenced by influencers. If influencers use their own content to link to other pages by means of markers in text or images, this can lead to more traffic. Takeover can also increase reach.
Strategy
The strategy is another important element of Influencer Marketing. The strategy is about finding out how the defined goals and target groups are reached. However, the strategy should not be set in stone down to the last detail. Rather, it is about defining a framework for your own campaign. Answers to questions such as the following can help in defining the framework: How many influencers should be worked with? How long should the campaign run? What reach should be achieved and how should the content be used across multiple platforms?
Selection of influencers
A particularly important topic is of course the selection of influencers. Of course it is possible to focus on only one influencer and to align the entire campaign according to this influencer. However, this also involves some risks that should be considered. Firstly, the entire success of the campaign depends on the success of a single influencer. So there is only one way to be represented by the influencer. Furthermore, the engagement rate for quite large accounts is significantly lower than for smaller accounts in comparison to the number of followers. Small accounts mostly have a much higher engagement rate, a more homogeneous following and a much lower price point.
A further disadvantage is the rather heterogeneous followers, especially with quite large accounts. The followers of smaller accounts are mostly interested in niche topics that these smaller accounts stand for. In the case of much larger accounts, it is often not just about a specific topic, so the followers are more heterogeneous. This means that there is a high degree of wastage, which means that although many people see the advertised product, in percentage terms only a few are really interested in it.
It is therefore advisable to engage several influencers for the campaign via agencies. In this way, different influencers with more homogeneous audiences can be used for different segments of the target group, which really do match the characteristics.
Duration of the campaign
The duration of a campaign and its timing are also important for the strategy. However, both depend on the goals set. If a product is to be sold in a relatively short time, less time is needed. If, however, the aim is to establish a certain product sustainably, a long-term cooperation with the influencer should be sought. In this way, the influencer’s image can also be used to benefit the brand. And over time, the brand is even associated with the values of the influencer.
Aim of the Influencer Marketing campaign
The campaign period is important for both the campaign objective and the choice of platform. On platforms such as YouTube, for example, a long-term positioning can already be achieved with just one post, as video content can be searched for there in a targeted manner. Even years later. On other platforms, however, the posts quickly disappear again. Therefore, it is especially important for platforms such as Instagram to bring content regularly. Stories are particularly useful for this purpose, since the buttons for the stories are always at the top and the stories are displayed across the entire display. In addition, the attention potential is particularly high. It is therefore advisable to work with longer runtimes.
Content exploitation
Another important issue within the strategy is maximising the benefits from the budget used. This is achieved, among other things, by ensuring that the resulting content can still be used later. This can be for other accounts, on the website, for out-of-home campaigns, in shops, for other advertising media or for PR purposes. This must then of course be contractually secured. The legal part of this will be covered in a later blog. This point should of course also flow into the campaign planning. It is also possible, for example, that bloggers publish the content they have been commissioned for on Instagram, or YouTuber post their videos on Instagram.
Another possibility is to use a take-over. An influencer takes over the own account for a certain period of time. This mainly pushes the reach and increases the number of subscribers, because the influencer announces the take-over and brings his followers to the other account. Especially with Instagram or Twitter the take-over is a popular instrument. It also brings variety and attention. Before using the takeover, both the schedule and additional actions such as Q&A should be planned. This also makes it easy to determine whether such an undertaking fits in with your own style.
