Influencer marketing has evolved from an experimental niche into an essential modern PR component. Influencer marketing campaigns are a powerful tool which when used with the right influencer helps in reaching the target audience and creating brand awareness in real time. For today’s brands dealing with ad saturation, short consumer attention spans, and declining organic reach, paying for impressions no longer cuts it.
Authentic earned media exposure and word-of-mouth buzz influence what products customers engage with. This is why strategic collaborations with influencers across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and other social media platforms should sit at the core of all public relations plans.
Read this blog post for a complete guide to how and why influencer marketing will maximise PR results when done effectively.
Align Influencers with Brand Personality For Genuine Messaging
Recent studies show that 60% of consumers find traditional ads irrelevant, with social proof from social media, influencers and reviews more likely to drive a purchase decision. Users no longer listen to faceless corporations— they tune into trusted individuals who embody ideals they connect with.
That’s why PR pros should focus initial vetting efforts on influencer brand compatibility. The goal is to identify creators that both align with corporate values and authentically like associated products enough for voluntary, repeated mentions. These influencers seem genuine when working promotions into usual content because it reflect honest opinions rather than one-and-done partnerships.
Finding the right brand-influencer fit requires moving beyond vanity metrics to analyse qualitative factors. Looking at follower count alone does less to predict persuasiveness than gauging if their personality and areas of expertise overlap. A creator with 500K followers in the ideal niche can move sentiment far more effectively than a 10 million+ subscriber celebrity with superficial product interest or fit.
Creators Checklist
Run Instagram and YouTube searches to shortlist 5 creators that check the boxes below:
- Content focuses on products or verticals you specialise in
- Voiced values and causes overlap with your CSR priorities
- Production style and sense of humour resonate brand personality
- Actively engages and responds to comments from followers
- Developed organic rapport by praising or discussing your products
This filters for subject matter experts that followers view as relatable peers to build authenticity into promotions compared with one-off advertisements.
Strategic Content Direction Multiplies Impressions
In the fragmented media landscape, getting a message to cut through requires expansive yet coordinated distribution. Simply posting on brand channels only goes so far—most followers represent existing customers rather than new audiences. This is where influencer content collaboration comes in for PR pros.
Setting clear content guidelines and direction for initial sponsorships unlocks initial value. Give influencers brand style guides, logos, images, and products and outline goals surrounding videos wanted. The key is welcoming their creative spin rather than dictating strict promotional scripts.
An initial influencer seed content offers multi-channel amplification potential through PR teams. Repurposing video clips, quotes or user-generated imagery within:
- Owned articles and social posts
- Pitched media briefing packages
- Paid amplification campaigns
This allows you to stretch limited content creation resources. The savviest PR pros turn a single influencer YouTube video into 20+ social posts, listicle integration, visual snippets for paid ads and even physical event backdrops for extended mileage.
Influencer Advocacy Drives Brand Buzz
Earned media reigns supreme over interruptive advertisements according to modern consumer behaviour. And positive commentary from voices that followers admire offers PR gold in the form of credible third-party validation. Yet brands struggle with spreading advocacy organically beyond existing channels.
This is the true power influencers unlock for PR managers in driving brand buzz through word-of-mouth marketing. An initial sponsored campaign lays the foundation for informed creators to chant merits without further prompting. One great product experience earns repeat complimentary product or service mentions.
Also, influencers actively responding to follower questions in comments or submissions expands advocacy. A video reviewing your latest sustainable activewear line could spark a deep dive into sourcing processes and carbon footprint reduction efforts from forward-thinking brands. Such value-added commentary and recommendations influence consumer preferences through relatable education, not pushy product pitches.
PR Impressions Through Targeted Community Reach
Influencer follower bases represent pre-qualified target market segments that brands struggle to penetrate alone. These creators spend years cultivating niche subscriber groups around specific topics from gaming to fashion to parenting and beyond. Their fans view them as subject matter experts and influential peers worth tuning into.
This makes influencer video views a PR manager’s dream—delivering meaningful impressions to demographics key for your brand to cut through. Collaborating with a combination of nano, micro and macro-influencers guarantees tapping into distinct yet collectivity expansive communities.
For context, an effective multi-tiered Instagram influencer PR strategy could entail:
- 5 Nano-Influencers with 1K-5K followers for micro community reach
- 3 Micro-Influencers with 15K-100K to drive mid-funnel consideration
- 1 Macro-Influencer with 500K+ for upper-funnel awareness
Smaller nano-influencers still create content powerfully resonant within their loyal niches. They drive engagement rates over 15% versus 1-2% for celebrities with enormous yet disconnected followings. Keep the multi-tiered influencer concept in mind for maximising true PR potential.
Quantifiable ROI Through CX Data and Links
Many outdated PR strategies still rely on vague “impressions” as the primary effectiveness gauge. But influencer marketing integration provides concrete campaign ROI tracking through direct response metrics. This includes customer experience behavioural data and clickable links to quantify site traffic and attributed conversions driven.
After running initial co-created YouTube product reviews, unboxings or promotional videos, keep sharing links through other brand touchpoints. Feature clips within:
- Email newsletters
- Paid social posts
- Retargeting ad units
- Website banners
This expands viewership of quality videos to cold traffic. More importantly, use UTM link tracking codes to monitor:
- Traffic referrals from each specific influencer
- On-site behaviour funnelling towards purchases
- Attributed sales revenue by creative content style
Analysing ROI performance indicators per influencer and video concept indicates what converts best from a consumer appeal standpoint. These learnings allow PR teams to optimise ongoing collaborations for consistent performance lifts across channels. The data trounces old-school impressions-focused PR.
Pulling influencer video assets across into broad amplification strategies also maximizes exposure from existing creative efforts the brands themselves couldn’t replicate alone. This stretches limited production budgets through powerful yet genuine recommendations to influencers’ viewers.
Conclusion
A comprehensive marketing strategy that harmoniously integrates media relations, social media influencers, and press releases is important. Building long-term relationships with brand ambassadors who genuinely embody the brand’s values is key to ensuring influencer marketing efforts resonate. Ongoing tracking of influencer campaigns through an influencer marketing platform can provide valuable data to optimize future campaigns and ensure they align with marketing goals.
As social media marketing continues to evolve, brands must explore new ways to engage people across media outlets. Successful PR campaigns require visibility on search results, adept handling of potential PR crises, and smart leveraging of influencer marketing strategies. Collaboration with influencers, podcasts, bloggers across Facebook, AI-powered platforms like Google, LinkedIn, and hashtag outreach can amplify reach. While there are always dollars at stake, the payoff of cultivating win-win relationships with the right influencers can lead to mutually beneficial outcomes without backlash. Modern marketers would be wise to invest in authentic influencer outreach and engagement as part of a holistic social media strategy.
