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How to Make Money with Influencer Marketing in 2021

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Written By Nikita Singh

Whether you are a big marketing agency or a social media influencer with limited followers, you both need to appreciate the power of influencer marketing in the year 2021 and beyond. 

Among marketing agencies and brands, influencer marketing remains one of the most effective forms of marketing.

Thanks to its booming popularity, many young people choose to become influencers, and many software companies like Humanz, Upfluence, or Aspire IQ choose to launch influencer marketing platforms to help out both sides. These tools feature various filters and toolsets that allow relevant brands and creators to get in touch and work on mutually beneficial partnerships.

Since the strategy is relatively new, some businesses and influencers may feel lost or pressured by others’ successes. For instance, Humanz, for this particular reason, has a whole academy of materials and resources carefully put together, which make a smooth and informational introduction to rookies from all over the world.

Usually, they run marketing campaigns for creating brand names and generating sales. Engagement or clicks is the most important criteria for evaluating influencers.

In this article, you are going to learn how influencer marketing is shaping the world of online marketing and how agencies and influencers can leverage this particular form of marketing to their advantage. 

So without further ado let us get started.   

What is influencer marketing?

Who is an influencer?

An influencer is a person who is very popular on various social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, etc, and has a devoted following of people who adhere to their opinions. 

They have established an authority in a particular niche and people are willing to trust them for what they say. 

So influencer marketing occurs when an influencer works for a company or a brand to promote their products online. Brands leverage the power of an influencer to sell their products.  

Influencers are able to influence their follower’s purchasing decisions and hence called influencer marketing.    

Influencer marketing trends in 2021 

Before you learn how to make money with influencer marketing you need to learn how important influencer marketing is for agencies and brands.  

  • The influencer marketing industry is going to get even bigger in 2020 with a market share of $10 billion. In 2016, it was just less than $2 billion. In the last three years, it has grown 3 times. 
  • Each year more than 400 influence marketing agencies and platforms are getting established in the USA alone. 
  • The reason for this sudden growth is obvious, profits earned through influence marketing are 6 times more than what an agency invested for. In simpler words for every $1 invested they earn $6.  
  • Moreover, there has been 3 folds increase in micro-influencers used by large marketing firms since 2016. It is because Nano and Micro-influencers deliver better engagement rates than superstar influencers on social media. 
  • Nano influencers with less than 1000 followers have 7 times more engagement rate than a mega influencer with 100,000+ followers. In 2016 there were 3 micro-influencers hired for one mega influencer but by the end of 2019, there were 10 micro-influencers for one mega influencer. The ratio rose from 1:3 to 1:10 in just 3 years. This shift from mega influencers to micro-influencers simply means that micro-influencers have laser-focused supporters. 
  • Although there are myriads of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc for implementing influencer marketing. But 90 percent of agencies prefer to use Instagram for launching a marketing campaign. Their second choice is usually TikTok or YouTube.    
  • Companies find it really difficult to make headway with Facebook and Twitter when it comes to influencer marketing. 
  • Another trend worth noticing is the number of creators hired by each company has been doubled. In 2018 over 300+ creators were hired per organization, in 2019 the number rose to 600+.  
  • An agency requires a standalone budget for running an influencer marketing campaign. On average they are willing to spend 10 percent – 20percent of their whole marketing budget on influencer marketing. In the USA, brands are spending anything between $50,000 and $500,000 on influencer marketing. 
  • Agencies feel the quality of customers gained from the influencer marketing campaign is better than other forms of online marketing. 
  • Finally, finding great influencers could be the greatest challenge for running a campaign. Brands in the USA struggle to find suitable influencers to run their campaigns.  

So these were a few trends and facts about influencer marketing that you need to learn in 2021. 

Role of influencers in influencer marketing 

In influence marketing importance of influencers is way more than the marketing agency which hires them. You can say most of the marketing role is played by the influencer himself/herself rather than the agency.

Influencers are solely responsible for selling products to their followers. They build a personal relationship with their fans online and persuade them into selling merchandise.

People love influencers because they can relate to their lives, unlike big celebrities who are always out of reach.  In simpler words, influencers are the ones who are going to bridge the gap between their fans and themselves. Marketing agencies just take the back seat.       

Few examples of influencers and influencer marketing 

Influencers 

Broadly influencers can be divided into 3 categories mega, macro and micro. Let us take a real-world example of each one of them.

1. Mega

Kylie Jenner with more than 164 Million Followers. 

How to Make Money with Influencer Marketing in 2020

Her Posts 

How to Make Money with Influencer Marketing in 2020

How she is selling face sunscreen! 

How to Make Money with Influencer Marketing in 2020

2. Macro

She is Christine Kong with 100,000+ Followers! 

How to Make Money with Influencer Marketing in 2020

Her Posts!

How to Make Money with Influencer Marketing in 2020

Selling a Winter Outfit on her post. 

How to Make Money with Influencer Marketing in 2020

3. Micro  

Layla Nia with less than 40,000 followers. 

How to Make Money with Influencer Marketing in 2020

Her food-related posts!

How to Make Money with Influencer Marketing in 2020

Promoting a Home Appliance Deluxe Pressure Cooker Partnered with Ninjakitchen!

How to Make Money with Influencer Marketing in 2020

So these were examples of influencers as per their followings. 

Influencer marketing by the companies 

In the following 3 examples, you will see how companies collaborate with influencers.

1. Zara collaborating with Tylynn Nguyen

How to Make Money with Influencer Marketing in 2020

2. Sperry with Cody Andrew

How to Make Money with Influencer Marketing in 2020

3. Loeffler Randall with Samantha Wennerstorm  

How to Make Money with Influencer Marketing in 2021 1 Expert tips to grow your business to success.

So you just saw examples of different types of influencers and companies collaborating with them. 

Best influencer marketing techniques

Influencer marketing can be done in different ways by influencers to sell products to their audience. However, there are 4 most effective methods to do it.

1. Sponsored Post 

Sponsored Post/Content is one of the most common ways to sell products by influencers. Sponsored content includes a post containing an advertisement for a product.  

The post is basically a call-to-action sales page that invites followers to buy products and services. This post is published on the influencer’s social media accounts.

In the post, influencers will concisely narrate a story (to sound credible) telling how the product has changed their life, and hence it is going to work for you as well. In the previous paragraph, Kylie Jenner’s or Christine Kong’s Instagram post was an example of Sponsored content.   

2. Discounts/Affiliate Links   

Influencer-specific discounts are a very potent marketing technique to get more buyers. People love discounts offered by the influencer.

These discounts are tracked using affiliate and referral links. Discounts are always blended with the sponsored content.

3. Brand Ambassador

A brand ambassador works with a company’s brand for a longer period of time. To become a brand ambassador the influencer must have a huge following.

4. Contests and Giveaways 

Followers also love free stuff and giveaways. Hence influencers organize contests to draw lots of attention and reach thousands of people through their channels.  

Although there are many other methods to promote products depending upon the social media platform you are using but these four are the most popular methods used by influencers to sell their products.  

Implementing influencer marketing through Instagram 

Now let us learn how marketing agencies and influencers can make money with Influencer marketing in 2020. 

1. Popularity of Instagram

As I said earlier in this article, Instagram is the most preferred social media platform for influencer marketing around the world. Almost 80 percent of agencies and brands love to use Instagram. 

According to Business Instagram, 60 percent of people discover products through Instagram, 80 percent of them follow at least one brand and around 200 million accounts check out a Business Profile each day. 

Just like YouTube viral videos Instagram photos can also go viral and get millions of views in just a couple of days. So you can imagine why Instagram is a goldmine for agencies and influencers who want to make money with Influencer marketing. 

Hence in this article, we are going to use Instagram for running influencer marketing campaigns. 

2. Start with publishing sponsored posts

People are more likely to trust content shared by ordinary folk rather than big brands. 80 percent of customers want to buy a product that is recommended by their friends and family members.

They really don’t trust big corporate and brand names anymore. Hence, companies are forced to sell their merchandise through micro or macro influencers on Instagram. It is because they already have an established community of Instagrammers. 

Most popular brands like H&M, Zara, etc want to work with micro-influencers with less than 10,000 followers. While choosing an Influencer, agencies pay close attention to their engagement rate.      

Earlier in this article, you saw how Christine Kong was selling winter wear through her sponsored post. 

3. Promote affiliate links 

High-quality affiliate programs that offer recurring commissions are really great to promote on Instagram.

You can insert clickable Affiliate links in your Instagram bio. You can also include links in your posts by using captions to grab attention.  

4. Become a brand ambassador 

If you are a macro influencer with over 100,000 followers then you can become a brand ambassador for a company or a brand. You collaborate with a company and promote their products on a regular basis within your community.

Lifestyle bloggers who love to travel and create breathtaking photos and videos are more likely to become brand ambassadors for a particular brand name.  These 3 are the most popular ways to make money on Instagram. 

There are other platforms also like YouTube, Facebook, TikTok where influencers are very active. But in this article, we just focused on Instagram. 

Conclusion: How much money can you make with influencer marketing? 

So how much you can make being an Influencer. To give you an idea Kylie Jenner charges $1.2 million for posting a single post on Instagram.

Similarly, other celebrities whether they belong to the entertainment or sports industry charge millions because they are mega influencers. 

Macro and Micro-influencers can earn anything between $5000 – $50,000 depending upon their followers and reputation. Engagement rate (Like and Comments) is one of the most important parameters that determine how much an Influencer is going to earn. 

The formula is Engagement Rate = [(Likes + Comments)/Number of Followers] * 100

Hence more the engagement rate more the money you make. 

I will conclude by saying earning $8000 – $10,000 per month for an Influencer is no big deal provided he/she creates great content and has loyal followers with high engagement rates.

Choose the right social media platform now and get started!

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