A Brief 101 On Influencer Marketing (With Examples on TikTok)

This influencer marketing 101- quick overview, come from the influencermarketinghub.com. Its mainly about what brands are doing and how you can make influencer marketing better for your company. It is a different way to sell. Are your products good for that audience, can it be demonstrated somehow in a quick video? Can people become excited about it?

So, McDonalds releasing the Grimace Shake- a drink. How can you advertise that on TikTok? Well, we got tons of Grimace Shake videos (some were very clever and fun) and revenue rose 14% (because you dont just get a milkshake at McDonadls right?). This is also what McDonalds is now after. Building virility and cultural credibility.

Influencer marketing is completely not a new thing. The name has been changed many times over the many years. Initially it was called a friend recommendation. Then a referral from a friend. Then someone who you trust, leading into someone who you follow (who you may trust).

The Shopping Channel is an influencer in sorts. When people put their names to brands then things start to take off. The association marketing is in effect. Why do you think ProActiv worked so well? Remember that? The acne solution? It featured celebs talking about an issue which we never thought celebs would have- especially ones that are supposed to be glamorous. This is still influencer marketing.

Online has created overnight influencers who have carved out a very specific niche and talk/ demonstrate. It works because it is "live" and you can see what is happening. The people seem genuine, you can relate.

TikTok stats

We all know about TikTok, ask anyone and they will say that mainly kids use it? Actually they don't. In fact it is the opposite. In fact TikTok can only advertise to over 18s (at the time of writing). Here are some stats from Shopify:

18 to 24: 419.9 million users, or 38.5% of TikTok users over 18 (going down over time)
25 to 34: 354.8 million users, or 32.5% of TikTok users over 18
35 to 44: 170.0 million, users or 15.6% of TikTok users over 18
45 to 54: 87.3 million users, or 8.0% of TikTok users over 18
55 and older: 60.1 million users, or 5.5% of TikTok users over 18
55% identify as female
it was downloaded 672 million times in 2022 alone
55 minutes is the average time creating and listening to TikTok with Gen Z more likely to reduce use of Podcasts and increase their usage of TikTok

So what did Influencer Marketing find out?

They checked out over 9k videos on TikTok- ones that were sponsored around 2022.

They looked at:

the companies that were sponsoring
the industry

Aaaand?

Here are some of the researched results:

Bang Energy sponsored twice as many videos than the next company. Bang is a low sugar energy drink and aimed probably at the 18-30 age range. next line of advertisers was Amazon, Paramount and McDonalds (who should probably aim for adults?). However through the year Shein came out on top. Shein is a fashion and beauty brand founded in 2012
Food and drink were dominant. Next was beauty, entertainment and fashion
Branded, awareness, brand tagged in caption and dedicated videos seem to rule

But what you need to do is take a step back. Some of these brands, video views and categories changed over the year. Amazon was low at the start then started to come back through the year as a top marketer. Some of the categories stayed the same with little variation through the year.

So market with an influencer?

Thats the key isn't it, does it work?

In some ways yes. It gets your brand name out there- but it needs to be quite regular. However does influencer marketing do anything for your sales? Again, it depends.

If you think about it, it is like Youtube. If you have 2 million subscribers and only 10,000 views on a video then those subscribers are not converting to viewers. Then you have to ask yourself, are those viewers buying? That is the main question you should ask- what are the conversion rates and what am I trying to do with influencer marketing? I have heard people say influencer marketing is awesome, others have said it was a big waste of money.

A good influencer, and one which has been proven time and time again in history, are the ones that get involved with your product. They like the product, they talk to you about it, they have time and mind investment. Every influencer example follows that golden rule.

The most famous example of co-joining influencer marketing is the jewellery brand on QVC from Joan Rivers- Joan Rivers Classics. Joan never made the product, but she was involved with the product- gave advice, ideas and was enthused to become the brand ambassador. Jewellery never sold before on the Shopping Channel. First run sold out and this one day selling netted them millions.

"Influencers or micro-influencers—what are you tracking? 🤔 It's all about the sale! 🛒 Do their posts lead to direct or indirect sales? Dive into conversion & interaction data to see what's really working. 📊💡 #InfluencerMarketing #AffiliateStrategy #DataDriven"
— Dominic (@MyJasonera) October 25, 2024