INFLUENCER MARKETING
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and intentional strategies. Here are five principles that make influencer marketing work for your brand:
results, the influencers you’re using and refine your plan if need be.
UNDERSTAND THE LANDSCAPE AND CHOOSE YOUR PLATFORM
DETERMINE YOUR STRATEGIC GOALS USING INFLUENCERS Any good strategy begins with goals. Where do you want to play? While the apparent goal may be to increase sales, influencer marketing can do more than that. Ask yourself, are you trying to go viral, or are you trying to build credibility for your brand? Is the goal to build brand awareness, attract a new market or facilitate lead generation?
› Fit influencers into the broad strategy You can achieve several objectives with influencer marketing; hence, the trick is to understand how influencer marketing can fit into your overall marketing strategy. While your influencer campaign is ongoing, you should have predetermined dates to review your
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strategicmarketingforafrica
The influencer landscape can be broad, so it is essential to understand it before becoming involved. There are macro-influencers (people with a huge following), micro-influencers (people with smaller but generally much more engaging followers) and nano-influencers (ordinary people like friends, family, peers, etc.). In general, the bigger their following, the more it would cost to do business with them. Some top African influencers include Elsa Majimbo from Kenya, who has had partnerships with brands like Valentino and Beyonce’s Ivy Park; Don Jazzy from Nigeria, who has secured partnerships with banks, sport-betting companies etc.; Boity Thulo from South Africa, who’s an influencer for brands like Moet and Chandon; Tamer Hosny from Egypt, who’s an influencer for phone companies, and so many more.
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Understanding the influencer landscape involves selecting the right mix of macro-, micro- or nanoinfluencers for your brands. The mixture will depend on the type of business, industry, product/service, and regulatory environment. For example, if you are a clothing company, you want to look for influencers with very engaged communities that create fashion and lifestyle content. You’d also like to determine the platform your target audience is mainly on and research the best influencers who deliver content on those platforms. Management consultants, religious leaders, community chiefs, and journalists are increasingly becoming trusted purchase influencers in Africa.
FOCUS ON THE RIGHT METRICS There is no doubt that measuring the impact of influencer marketing on purchase decision-making is a challenging task. However, there are pitfalls to avoid. Organisations fixate on measuring customer-acquisition rates. These
PHOTOS: KEVIN WALSH FROM PRESTON BROOK IN ENGLAND VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; RON LACH ON PEXELS; RASHEEDHRASHEED VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Davido, Nigeria’s top influencer with 23-million followers
