Mediaboss Marketing

Working with the Advertising Standards Authority

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) regulates all advertising in the UK to make sure that theyre all following the same rules. Its not unique to influencer marketing, but you do often hear about the ASA in regards to influencer marketing due to how easy it is to break the rules.

When working with an influencer, you need to make sure that their posts follow the ASA guidelines. For example, if youre gifting your product to an influencer for a review, or offering monetary compensation, the influencer needs to make sure that this is clearly stated in their post.

This also includes if you hire an influencer to act as a brand ambassador for your business. Any incentive or relationship, no matter how small, needs to be disclosed.

According to the ASA, some acceptable ways to mark a post as a collaboration between an influencer and a business include:

#Ad

#Advert

#Advertising

#Advertisement

#AdvertisementFeature

You can read the full ASA guidelines for influencers here.

While you may usually relate influencer marketing campaigns to larger businesses, there are plenty of benefits for small businesses using influencer marketing to grow their business.

If you know your products are particularly popular with a specific demographic, or youre hoping to target another, finding an influencer whose audience matches that demographic could increase your sales.

For example, if youre a designer who makes sustainable handbags, collaborating with a sustainable fashion influencer could be a good match due to your business and their audience sharing similar values.

But influencer marketing doesnt just have to revolve around fashion. Perhaps you manufacture custom products for cars in which case, a car influencer would be a great match for your business.

Influencer marketing can also be a cost effective way to market your business. This will depend on a couple of factors, such as:

popularity of influencer an influencer with a higher follower count will usually charge more for sponsored posts

type of collaboration you may agree to pay an influencer a fee to post about your business, or you may choose to send them your product for free in exchange for a review, the latter of which is likely to have a better return on investment

type of post a series of videos will likely cost more than a mention on Instagram stories, for example

If youre still interested in trying out influencer marketing, its important you develop a proper influencer marketing strategy. Its not a one size fits all approach, so follow the below steps to make sure youre getting the most out of any collaborations including expert tips from a professional social media manager.

As mentioned above, you need to make sure the audience youre targeting is a good fit for your product or service. Understand your target audience through market research and then cross reference this with insights into any influencers demographics.

Some influencers will be happy to share these insights with you when agreeing on brand deals, but otherwise you can get a good understanding by taking a look at the accounts who engage most with their posts.

Danielle Read, Social Media Manager at Simply Business, says: A good tip is to not pay too much attention to follower count as this doesn't always translate to high engagement.

Between inactive accounts and bots, a high follower count doesnt necessarily mean a large audience. Looking at recent likes and comments can help you see the most engaged users.

Other than influencer demographics, you also need to make sure youre picking the right personality for the job.

Danielle agrees, saying: Authenticity is key to influencer marketing, so make sure that any influencers you work with are a genuine fit for the products or services youre looking to sell.

Some things to consider include:

brand loyalty to competitors

if they use similar products

if previous sponsored posts seem authentic

And when thinking about the type of content to post, trust your influencers expertise. Danielle adds: Dont be too prescriptive with what you would like an influencer or content creator to post about your business.

Influencers have grown an engaged following because they understand what their audience want to see, so trust is needed if an influencer is creating content about your brand. Make sure you have a strong feedback and sign off process to ensure youre both on the same page.

Its important to build a good relationship with the influencers you work with, as this could portray your brand in a positive light. They may even continue to promote your brand outside of any agreed paid advertising.

Your influencer marketing strategy will differ depending on what you hope to achieve. Do you just want to increase your brand awareness? Or are you looking to drive sales? Perhaps you want to expand to a new target audience?

Whatever you decide, its crucial to identify these goals early on in the process, as clear objectives will help you when it comes to choosing the right influencer to work with.

Read more: How to set business goals: top tips from successful entrepreneurs

As with any marketing strategy, you want to make sure that your hard work pays off. Measure your success by monitoring the performance of your influencer marketing campaigns to determine whether this is something you want to continue investing in.

You can use social media engagement rates, but also an increase to your website traffic or sales. To see exactly how people are finding your website, you could consider using a UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) code. This is a piece of text at the end of a URL in marketing campaigns which allows you to see your traffic sources.

You could also offer a discount code for the influencer to give to their followers, allowing you to see how many sales came directly from their content.

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What is influencer marketing? Grow your market through social media - Simply Business knowledge