Influencers and their role in building your brand (4)    

Different types of brand Influencers 

According to Influencermarketinghub.com there are about twelve different types of brand influencers, four types are based on the number of audience followers and eight are based on the type of content or niche covered by the influencer.

• Sports and Fitness. In 2018, cycling was the largest of the sports market generating up to 62.4 billion U.S. dollars. Ranked second was the exercise/gym sector which garnered 48.9 billion U.S. dollars that year. The global sports market was valued at approximately 471 billion U.S. dollars in 2018. Sports and fitness influencers are typically a source of motivation for their followers. They tend to endorse sports brands, food and drink brands that relate to the health and wellness industry, specific eating and workout programmes, and more.

• Bloggers and vloggers. These two are the most popular types of influencers. They’re typically macro and mega influencers thanks to their large follower counts on their blogs or YouTube channels. Bloggers and vloggers create high-quality content that keeps their followers engaged and sets them apart as authorities in their niches. In addition to the audience that follows their YouTube channel or blog, they’re likely to have a large audience on other social media platforms, too.

• Photography and Travel Influencers. These influencers are some of the best and most scenic content creators around offering one of the most memorable sights across the world. These influencers offer travel tips, tricks, and hacks, as well as reviews on travel-related brands and recommended itineraries complete with places to eat, hotels, peculiar events and occasions associated with specific locations.

• Beauty. Research has shown that about 43 percent of consumers follow beauty influencers who share beauty tips, product reviews, how-tos, and more, and as such can easily be avenues of increasing beauty brand’s awareness and sales.

• Fashion Influencers on the other hand focus on things like clothing, jewellery, shoes, watches, and other accessories, giving them a broad range of products to promote. They typically offer product reviews, promote products, work directly with fashion lines, post-shopping trip “haul” videos, and offer styling tips. They are veritable platforms for setting trends for different varieties of fashion and fashion accessories.

• Parenting influencers share tips and tricks for new parents, review products, and share their own stories about being parents — both successes and failures and because it is one area where parents are so worried or concerned about (raising their kids) they pay very close attention to these influencers and their guides. This usually forms a veritable platform for them to promote products across a very large range of industries.

• Health and Healthy Living Influencers. According to the Global Wellness Institute, the global health and wellness industry is now worth about $4.2 trillion. The industry which has been growing by 12.8 percent between 2015 and 2017, represents 5.3 percent of global economic output and encompasses all activities which promote physical and mental wellbeing: from yoga to healthy eating, personal care and beauty, nutrition and weight-loss, meditation, spa retreats, workplace wellness and wellness tourism. For example, the 2018 PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report found out that almost half (49%) of the people in the United States own a wearable device. Health-conscious consumers expect their wearable devices to help them live longer (70%), maintain a healthy weight (63%) and pay less in insurance premium (62%). Influencers within this sector are good sounding boards and sources of information about all the innovations and devices within this area.

Four factors, according to Influencermarketinghub.com, are key in determining the choice of the right influencer to represent your brand.

The first factor is the match between the influencer audience and that for your brand. The first thing to look out for is the number of followers to the influencer. If the number matches the kind of numbers that you are looking out for then the second thing to look at is the match between the influencer’s audience and your brand audience. If they don’t match then the influencer will probably have a harder time sharing your brand message. If they do, then there will be a great fit between the influencer and your brand. The next step before signing up the influencer is to check out the engagement and read some of the comments and responses from their followers to make sure that the type of engagement is what you’d like to see for your brand.

The next factor to check for is the level of authenticity, passion and knowledge of the influencer about your industry. For instance, it will be good to find out how knowledgeably the influencer speaks about your industry, how the audience engages with their content — even their sponsored content as well as how the influencer creates their own content in their promotional messages. The right influencer for your brand is one that comes across as a relatable person sharing information about their favourite products instead of a salesperson. It helps immensely if they also have a passion for the niche.

How well your goal matches with the type of influencer will be the next critical thing to consider. For instance if you’re looking to increase your brand awareness, macro influencers with larger fan bases are probably going to be the most beneficial to you but if you want to increase conversions, nano or micro influencers might be best basically due to their typically high engagement rates.

The platform of engagement by the influencer is also a critical element in the decision about the influencer to choose. The platform an influencer uses has to agree or be in alignment with the preferred platform by your brand audience. If your audience loves video and stunning imagery, an Instagram influencer might be a better alternative. However, if your audience prefers video contents then a YouTube influencer might be a better option; whereas if you’re a B2B business targeting other businesses, then a LinkedIn influencer might be the best person to partner with.

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