Influencer marketing has become an integral part of the marketing mix for a lot of B2C businesses. What often gets the spotlight is big budget campaigns with macroinfluencers, or celebrities with millions of followers. So for SMEs, it begs the question, is B2C influencer marketing right for me?
As ever, there is no short answer to that question – it all depends on your product, your goals and the execution of your influencer programme. Today, we’ll break down how small businesses can use this kind of marketing, to help you make sense of the complex landscape that is creator partnerships.
The Fundamentals of B2C Influencer Marketing
Let’s start with the basics. Whether it’s top or bottom of the funnel, B2C influencer marketing can be a useful social media tactic for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Influencers can not only help to increase your brand awareness by introducing your product to a new and engaged audience, but they can also be a powerful driver for sales.
Using influencers to market your product can take many forms: affiliate programmes, product gifting in exchange for content or long-term paid partnerships. So, let’s look at them in a bit more detail.
Product Gifting
Product gifting is an excellent option for smaller businesses, as the only cost involved is the cost of the product provided.
Gifting deals are usually done with smaller – micro or nano – creators (with 1000-10,000 followers) in order to generate a large volume of collaborations, the biggest reach, and brand awareness, with little to no paid budget.
As an extra incentive to a creator, you can offer them a unique code or link to earn performance-based commissions. This offers the creator a tangible monetary benefit, beyond the free product, and provides your brand with direct conversions.
Product gifting is usually a one-off – it’s a great option for seasonal campaigns, product launches, new collections etc.
An excellent example of product gifting in B2C influencer marketing, is our work for Great Bean Bags. To promote GBB’s products, we select influencers in the home furnishings, interior design and parenting categories, to make sure the audience is the right fit. We then send out an open brief for content in exchange for product and affiliate program commission.
The program has driven over 50,000 impressions in 2 months of running, increased brand awareness and has provided us with content to use on Instagram and the company’s website.
Long-Term Partnerships
Unlike gifting, long-term partnerships are usually paid opportunities, where businesses will collaborate with a single (or very few) influencer(s) continuously.
Businesses using this B2C influencer marketing tactic will usually sign a fixed-term contract with their chosen influencers (usually between 6 to 12 months), which will outline the brand activations (collaborations or campaigns) expected of the influencer.
An example of a long-term partnership is that between our client Parker Howley and interior designer and influencer Sophie Paterson. Together, PH and Sophie created a collection of bedside tables, which are some of the brand’s best selling products, but their ongoing partnership also has an influencer component, where Sophie posts multiple posts throughout the year to promote the collection.
Finding the Right Talent
Each form of B2C influencer marketing explored in this blog requires finding and contacting influencers that have audience demographics that match your ideal customer profile and share content that already aligns with your brand.
This can be a time consuming endeavour, requiring you to conduct in-depth research on your desired platforms to find the right creators, and after finding your prospects, reach out with your proposal and nurture the relationship.
The reality is that some influencers will not work on a gifted basis, leaving brands to try and navigate trickier long-term partnerships, and the range of challenges they present. This is where an agency like us comes in to seek out, nurture and manage these relationships, and guide your business to B2C influencer marketing success.
Contact our team today to learn how influencer marketing can help your business.
