Every brand requires a marketing strategy, whether it’s to spread awareness, Generate Leads, or get conversions. While there are many various types of marketing that firms use successfully around the world, influencer marketing is increasingly gaining traction. According to Google Trends, influencer marketing surpassed print marketing in popularity in 2016.
Influencer marketing enlists the power of influencers to spread the word about brands and products. Influencers have the ability to affect their followers’ purchasing decisions. Their followers rely on their advice and frequently swear by it.
It’s crucial to remember, though, that these influencers aren’t your typical celebs. They’re well-known social media personalities that have amassed a sizable following and engage with it on a daily basis.
Influencers, unlike celebrities, form personal bonds with their fans. This results in high levels of engagement, which companies may take advantage of.
Influencers are thought leaders in their niche, and their followers fervently follow their recommendations. You can ask these influencers to promote your brand or product to their followers in a subtle way when you partner with them. This can assist you in achieving your brand’s marketing objectives.
Finding trustworthy influencers in your niche, on the other hand, can be a difficult undertaking in and of itself. Because there are so many phony influencers out there, this problem is exacerbated. These folks buy likes or followers, but their audiences aren’t actually engaged.
You must devote effort to influencer mapping in order to locate trustworthy influencers. However, before we go into the how and why, let’s define influencer mapping.
Understanding Influencer Mapping?
The practice of assessing the power of an influencer’s voice in the digital realm is known as influencer mapping. It might assist you in identifying the right influencers with whom you should engage.
It’s important to remember that popularity isn’t the same as influence. Popularity refers to how many people are aware of the influencer. Influence, on the other hand, is a measure of how much an influencer’s opinions or content can affect their audience’s judgments or ideas. The former will not assist you in obtaining many conversions, however, the latter will.
In fact, firms that use influencer marketing can produce $5.20 in sales for every $1 spent on the strategy. This ROI could rise as well if influencer mapping is done correctly.
Influencer mapping will show you the potential impact of an influencer. It will also assist you in determining the best methods for contacting them.
Influencer mapping can also assist you in determining who is currently talking the most about your brand or competitors. Furthermore, mapping reveals the platforms that these influencers use. You may also figure out how often they mention you.
The size of their audience and their rankings are used to map them. The map’s main feature is that it pits influencers against each other and allows you to compare them easily.
The importance of influencer mapping is that it allows you to:
1. Understand Your Social Network
You can use influencer mapping to learn more about the social network around you. It also aids in determining which influencers are most important in reaching your target audience. Only when the influencer can assist you in reaching your target audience will your influencer marketing strategy be successful.
Influencer mapping can assist you in determining this, and you can use it to determine who you should contact for collaboration and who you should avoid.
You’ll be able to effectively execute your influencer marketing initiatives if you engage with authentic industry influencers.
2. Test Influence
Influencer mapping identifies the most important brand influencers. However, these maps can also be used to compare the influence of your influencers.
Influencer mapping, as previously noted, pits your influencers against one other so you can compare their impact. You may use influencers to construct various social campaigns, which you can then A/B test to see how effective they are.
If you do this for numerous campaigns with the same set of influencers, you’ll be able to see which one can reach a larger audience. When you compare multiple influencers in this manner, you’ll be able to pinpoint the ones who are the most effective in their field.
Influencer mapping can also help you optimize your influencer marketing initiatives in this way.
3. Find Hidden Audiences
Influencer mapping also reveals who your influencers have the potential to influence. This means that you will be able to determine the influencers’ particular target audience as a result of this procedure. While you may have sought out influencers with audiences similar to yours, you may have missed out on some potential customers.
You may, however, have a large list of influencers after influencer mapping. Keeping track of all of your relationships might be difficult. Cybees can help you manage your influencers more effectively in this case. You can enter a list of influencers into the software, and it will create private profiles for each of them.
This influencer CRM will also assist you in managing your influencer relationships. To construct your own perfect view of influencers, you can add custom characteristics and filters.
It also keeps track of every point of interaction with influencers. You’ll be able to keep track of all of your brand’s interactions with influencers this way.
Cybees also makes it easier to launch and manage influencer marketing programs. On the site, you may send influencers your products, pay their commissions, and track your revenue.
Communicating with influencers may often be a pain, especially if you’re working with a large number of them. Cybees uses templates, email sequences, and variables to enable you to communicate with people in a seamless manner. These can assist you in automating your interactions with them.
You can use the platform to make product fulfillment orders if you want to send things to your influencers. This can assist you in determining when your influencers will receive your merchandise.
Payments to influencers can be made quickly and easily through Cybees. Influencers can also choose how they want to be compensated.
Finally, it’s critical to track the performance of your influencer marketing plan. Cybees displays all of the key marketing facts and assists you in comparing your influencers.
You may use this information to discover which of your influencers are the most effective when you conduct A/B testing through influencer mapping. You can also check how many conversions your influencers have generated and what content they’ve provided. You will have complete control over your influencer marketing efforts as a result of this.
How to Ace Influencer Mapping
To accomplish influencer mapping, you must concentrate on the campaign’s main purpose. This should be the focal point of your influencer map.
You won’t know which direction your campaign should go if you don’t have a goal. Having a goal allows you to allocate all of your resources to the appropriate spaces.
The objective could be to increase reach, engagement, leads, or sales.
You should then find relevant influencers and put them around the objective based on their value after you’ve decided on your goals. You should think about how vital they are to your goal’s accomplishment. Connect the most significant ones with a thicker line.
Closer to the goal, place influencers with whom you have a good relationship. Also, draw arrows to demonstrate how the influence is distributed. Connect the influencers with their audiences once you’ve added them. This will provide you with an indication of who has a larger and more relevant audience.
You can evaluate your influencers based on how easy it is to communicate with them and how important they are. This will assist you in determining which influences are the most beneficial to you.
These are the people you should keep close to and collaborate with on a regular basis. In the future, they might even become brand ambassadors.
Finally, you may devise a strategy for your influencer marketing efforts based on this influencer mapping.
Conclusion
Influencer mapping helps you to visualise and calculate your influencers’ influencing power. It can also assist you in identifying and reaching audiences that you may have overlooked previously. You can also choose which influencers you want to work with. Cybees, an influencer marketing software, may assist you in better managing your influencer marketing efforts.