What types of Influencer Marketing are there?

Influencer marketing can be divided into different types that fall into either Top-of-Funnel (ToFu) or Bottom-of-Funnel (BoFu) marketing. Each of these categories has specific goals and tactics to achieve the respective marketing objectives. Often, these methods are combined to achieve higher synergy effects and achieve a broader range of marketing goals.

Top-of-Funnel (ToFu) Marketing

ToFu marketing aims to create awareness, interest, and trust among a broad target audience. It establishes a first impression and lays the foundation for a potential conversion.

Sponsored Content

• Influencers publish content on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, etc., highlighting a brand, product, or service. This increases brand awareness and reaches new target groups.

Product Placement 

• A product is subtly integrated into the content. A logo on a bottle, merchandise, or a poster on the wall provide talking points and draw attention to the brand.

Reactions

• Influencers react to content produced by the company. They respond on Twitter and create reaction clips and videos on TikTok or YouTube. This reaches new target groups and provides first impressions of the brand and product. 

Partnerships 

• Influencers and companies enter into a long-term partnership (usually 3 - 12 months), where influencers regularly integrate the brand or product into their content. This form builds immense trust between consumers and the brand, making it easier to bring particularly complex or trust-based products and services to individual target groups. Twitch is the most effective platform for this.

Bottom-of-Funnel (BoFu) Marketing

BoFu marketing aims to convert potential customers who have already shown interest. Since BoFu builds on ToFu marketing, the two methods can be well combined to achieve a wide range of marketing goals. 

Product Reviews and Testimonials

• Influencers provide detailed reviews and feedback on products or services. Trust is built to facilitate the purchase decision. 

Affiliate Marketing

• Influencers share personalized discount codes with their community to increase conversion rates, boost sales, and make it visible how well the product resonates with the influencer’s community. 

Live – Streaming

• Influencers present a product or service live to their community, answer questions, and motivate them to make a purchase. Trust is strengthened and buying barriers are removed.

Exklusive Angebote und Events

• Influencers offer their community exclusive or time-limited offers, often coupled with events to achieve maximum reach. The exclusivity or limitation of product and/or time addresses the desire to "be part of it" (FOMO marketing) and increases conversion.

For which businesses Is Influencer Marketing effective?

Given the sheer number of different influencers across various fields, platforms, and target audiences, influencer marketing is currently the most effective and cost-efficient advertising method invented for any company that wants to market a product or service nationally or internationally. 

"TV advertisements"

Television advertising was once considered the gold standard; however, viewership numbers, especially among the 14-39 age group, have significantly declined in recent years. Younger people predominantly consume video or live content on the internet daily. Moreover, television advertising only becomes worthwhile at a high budget level, making it very difficult for small to medium-sized businesses to compete with larger companies. 

"Absolute flexibility"

This is where influencer marketing shines. Regardless of the scale or goals of a business, influencer marketing can create an advertising concept tailored to the company's capacities, desires, and goals. Influencer marketing is like a modular system or the game "Tetris." With the right piece, in the right place, at the right time, you can reach the next level. 

"Understand the Game"

Similar to Tetris, it's necessary to know the different elements and understand how they can be ideally positioned. Agencies like ours can help because we work with influencers daily and understand which strategies work best with whom.  

"Goals"

As a business, it is essential to clearly define your goals and desires, and most importantly, to know your target audience or the target audience you want to reach. From this, a conceptual framework can be built and filled with various components. 

A rough example

Setting

I am a company that sells various blade products. I have a wide range of products from kitchen knives to outdoor knives and more. My brand is very well-known within the industry, and the quality is regarded as very high, but I get little engagement with my brand online, have no developed social presence, and have low sales compared to my brand recognition.

My marketing goals

• reach beyond expert circles 
• strengthen brand identity
• create higher interaction with my brand
• increase sales

Therefore, I primarily want to raise awareness of my products outside of the "connoisseur circles," achieve high reach, get this reach to interact with my social media channel, and ideally buy products.  

Strategy

A possible strategy would be, depending on the available advertising budget, to select 3-10 influencers in all niche areas where I offer products, such as kitchen knives for cooking channels, outdoor knives for survival channels, and enter into an advertising partnership with them on YouTube or Twitch. Additionally, I would organize seasonal, exclusive events promoted by the influencers and held on my company’s social media page. A giveaway is a simple example of this. The influencers get a personalized discount code to share with their community.   

Explained

Through the various influencers in the niches, I get reach in product-relevant target groups. This ensures that scatter losses are minimized, and there is interest and openness towards my product/brand. I establish a long-term advertising partnership to ensure that my brand is regularly talked about. I organize seasonal, exclusive events to generate maximum interest at specific times ("going viral") and use the influencers to retarget to my own social media page. The giveaway gives the community a reason to interact with my brand and keep it in mind. The discount code allows me to track the effectiveness of each influencer and, if necessary, take measures to improve.  

Outro

This is a very simple and roughly described example, but it should illustrate how many elements synergize. Of course, it is also possible to achieve significant goals by entering into a single video collaboration with one influencer, but in that case, the influencer must be very carefully selected, and the risk increases significantly.

The most common mistakes in Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing can be a highly effective strategy for achieving various marketing goals and growing a business. However, there are several pitfalls to avoid to prevent poor experiences. Here are some of the most common: 

1. Unclear or undefined goals and KPIs 

– Without a clear goal, no suitable strategy can be formulated, and there are no means of control.

2. Unclear definition of your target audience

– Who are your customers? Who else might be interested?

3. Incorrect Platform Selection

– Each platform has a different audience, functionality, and strategic value for your business. Influencers perform differently on different platforms. 

4. Incorrect Selection of Influencers or Target Audience

– Every influencer has a different target audience and effectiveness. The target audience can be inquired about in advance, while effectiveness must be experienced. 

5. Unhealthy Balance Between Size and Effectiveness 

– Generally, the larger the influencer, the higher the scatter losses. Smaller influencers often have a higher viewer retention rate and thus a greater influence on their followers' purchasing behavior. A healthy balance is the most efficient approach for most campaigns. 

6. Lack of or Excessive Control Over Influencers

– Influencers need their creative freedom to remain authentic. For them, the trust of their community is the service they are selling. This trust must never be undermined by a campaign. 

– However, influencers also need clear goals, and their numbers must be regularly monitored to understand what works well with which target audience. 

7. Short-Term Instead of Long-Term Collaboration

– Continuous collaboration with the same influencers builds stronger brand loyalty and leads to better results. Additionally, the company often benefits from better conditions. 

8. Lack of Events 

– Events are a great way to maximize interest in a brand and generate immense media value. 

9. Insufficient Partner Management 

– Influencers have desires, goals, and creative suggestions within the framework of a cooperation. A happy influencer will also express their satisfaction externally. 

How Much Does Influencer Marketing Cost?

It's not easy to give a general answer. The costs depend on the influencer's size, their effectiveness, the platform choice, the type of collaboration, the campaign duration, the industry, and the country where the promotion takes place. 

Most influencers who have experience with collaborations are represented by influencer agencies. These agencies can be contacted for potential collaborations. 

There are also specialized influencer agencies like ours that focus on designing marketing strategies for businesses. We maintain direct contact with other influencer agencies to always select the best possible influencers for a collaboration.

The better approach...

... is to set an advertising budget, define marketing goals, and establish a campaign timeline, then forward this information to an agency and see what can be achieved. An initial consultation is usually free with most agencies and should provide a rough overview of the entire situation. 

Campaigns can start with a few hundred euros, but results will correspond to the budget. We generally recommend a minimum period of three months with each individual influencer, with two calls-to-action (CTAs) per month. For a Twitch streamer with approximately 1,200 average viewers, the advertising budget would be around €5,000 per influencer for the three months. These figures provide a rough overview. For more precise information, individual inquiries are necessary.