How Influencer Relations Fits Into Your PR Strategy

There’s no question influencers have taken over the internet – nearly 300,000 people are making a living with this job title, and over 50% of young Americans are aspiring to be influencers as a full-time career. With the appeal of being an influencer becoming more present than ever and the fact that influencers exist in nearly every space, companies need to ask themselves, “Who are the influencers in our industry, and how can our brand capitalize on their success and admiration?”

As influencers have risen in popularity, they have become a crucial part of PR strategies. On top of that, there are influencers for every company’s budget, goal and target demographic. Here are three ways influencer relations can support your PR strategy.

Amplify Brand Awareness

Influencer campaigns expose your brand to a larger audience, bringing in more traffic and driving prospective customers toward your product or service. An influencer's audience is often more engaged and loyal than a brand's, with 49% of consumers relying on influencer recommendations when making purchases.

Micro- and macro-influencers are the two main types of influencers in the market. Micro-influencers have between 10,000 and 50,000 followers, while macro-influencers are more well-known, possible household names and could have 500,000+ followers. Your budget and potential reach will help you decide on which type to work with.

Brands can work with influencers on a variety of social platforms, such as Twitch, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, and create multiple campaigns to expand reach. For example, restaurants can invite foodie influencers to come try their food, driving restaurant reviews and followers.  An influencer will get your brand’s name in front of their audience, but it’s your product or service that will convert them to loyal customers.

Diversify Your Budget

Experimenting with influencer relations diversifies your PR strategy by adding variation to where your marketing budget is allocated. To help measure ROI, look at the results from another marketing avenue with the same objective – for example, Instagram ads – versus a main feed post from an influencer, and compare the results for views, clicks, audience reach and engagement to determine which one was more successful.

Whether you’re looking to leverage influencers for a specific campaign or general brand awareness, they can work alongside your existing media campaigns. This case study demonstrates how influencers can be integrated into your media strategy and shows actual results from a recent brand awareness campaign.

Make Your Brand Personable & Approachable

The attraction to influencers is their knack for making followers feel like they’ve found a new “internet best friend.” We see the most popular influencers rise to fame when their likeability and personable energy comes through our devices. When working with influencers on a campaign, it’s important that they keep their personalities in the post; leave the corporate copy to the brands, as an influencer’s voice is what drew their followers to them in the first place.

When you have influencers interacting with your brand online, you become more likable to the average consumer, therefore increasing your chances of attracting new customers. In fact, 72% of marketers agree influencer marketing provides higher-quality customers than those from other marketing types.

Not only does influencer relations make your brand more personable, but it makes you more approachable as well. We may not always realize it but trying new brands can be intimidating. Seeing your favorite influencer vouch for a brand and its values makes taking a leap of faith seem less daunting.

Influencers will only continue growing in popularity as new social platforms pop up in the market. Experimenting with this strategy can lead to tremendous payoff for your brand while helping you reach the audiences you’ve yet to get in front of. Interested in adding influencer relations to your PR strategy? We’re here to help.