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Throughout the past few years, an increasing number of brands have turned to influencer marketing strategies to connect with their customers. Influencer marketing strategies have been proven effective for influencers, brands and audiences. This approach taps into established relationships between an influencer and their followers to increase brand awareness and ROI.
Traditional advertising practice often utilizes a popular figure or celebrity to promote a brand or product. The influencer marketing approach appears more authentic and targeted by tapping into the established trust of a connected audience.
What is a niche?
A niche is a specialized segment of the market. On social media popular niches include sports, gaming, parenting, travel, beauty, music, food, fitness and so many others.
As influencer marketing grows in popularity, niche areas have become more defined. Users have more choices in creating a uniquely curated social media feed. Think about the content creators you like to follow on your personal feed. Some of them might share really great recipes and others always create the perfect comedic skit.
Defined social media niches allow users to choose topics of interest and follow along with “experts” in that particular area. Often, this results in higher engagement and more loyal followers. For brands, a defined audience creates an arguably more successful approach to reach future customers.
If you’re an influencer…
There are a few things to keep in mind when establishing a niche.
- Choose a niche that excites and interests you.
Navigating the social media landscape and finding a topic that resonates with you is no simple feat. And it’s not a straight-shot practice either, considering most individuals have many hobbies or interests. One thing stands true, authenticity is king on social media. It is essential as you narrow down your niche area that you choose topics that will not bore you over time. Trends shift constantly and choosing to create only “popular” content will not allow you to establish a long term audience base. Remember to stay true to your personal interests and passions. Your authenticity will inevitably draw a crowd.
- Consider brands you’d like to partner with.
One way to narrow down your niche area is to consider brands or companies you’d love to promote in the future. What brands do you currently love to use? What companies have missions that align with your values? Social media users are quick to call out inauthentic influencers. It’s important to promote products that you truly care about or would genuinely use. Shaping your social media feed to attract these brands and partnerships is one way to narrow down your influencer niche to create a personal brand and hopefully land your dream brand deal.
- Remain consistent.
Establishing a general niche (or a few) helps your followers know what to expect when they follow you. Being recognizable in your topics, style, aesthetics and tone can increase trust and loyalty. Thus, increasing engagement rates. By building an engaged fan base, your influencer career will be able to withstand the inevitable shift of the social media landscape.
If you’re a brand looking to try influencer marketing…
Determining a niche area can help you engage in more targeted and successful influencer marketing campaigns.
- Niche influencers have very targeted audiences.
Choosing the “right” influencer for your brand might be the most difficult aspect of launching an influencer campaign. Niche influencers often have very engaged and active communities. Tapping into their established follower base is a strategic approach for companies to connect with users who have lasting trust in the influencer and can result in long term or returning customers for your brand. Acknowledging your desired audience as a brand will help to determine the perfect niche influencer fit and the proper social media channel.
- Increased campaign performance.
Bigger is not always better. Recent social media trends have shown increased success when utilizing micro influencers (10,000-50,000 followers). Many niche influencers fall into this bucket. Though the campaign might gain less reach, the ROI, engagement rates and actual sales are often higher when partnering with a niche influencer.
- Influencer marketing helps with organic delivery.
Niche influencers tend to be deeply connected to their audiences. Thus, they are able to deliver a tailored message that will resonate with the followers and hopefully spark action. No two influencers are the same which requires trust in the partnership. Each creator will share and promote your brand in a different way, which is the ultimate success of an influencer marketing approach. These organic deliveries often result in a really compelling message to the audience and will leave followers returning in the future.
Final Words
Of course, other elements play into a successful influencer marketing campaign but there is no doubt that honing in on a niche can help both brands and influencers alike. Connecting with a targeted audience, humanizing your brand and increased buy-in from followers are among the many perks of partnering with a niche influencer.
If your marketing team is looking to find the perfect influencer for an influencer marketing campaign, the professionals at Markerly can help. Markerly is dedicated to helping brands create strong connections with their audience through influencer marketing and organic content that ranks. Contact the team at Markerly to get started on your next influencer campaign.
