We discuss influencer marketing and its successful use as part of marketing as a whole with companies on a daily basis. The same questions are repeated from slightly different perspectives, so our influencer experts Heta Vuorinen, Susanna Öster, Mikko Wivolin, Juuli Rantala, Julia Sorjonen and Sarah Grünn von Walzel compiled the answers.

What is influencer marketing and how do you define an influencer?

Influencer marketing utilizes the influencer’s awareness and following. Influencer marketing does not always have to be just posts on the influencer’s social media channel, but the influencer should be used extensively, for example, in other advertising materials.

An influencer can be anyone who has an impact on other people. When choosing an influencer, you should not only look at the number of followers, but for example, reach, appeal to the target group and compatibility with the brand are often more important things.

What is the strategic role of influencer marketing as part of marketing communications?

Susanna: Influencer marketing can be utilized both as a means of enhancing the content of higher attention values and as a focus media for the influencer’s committed followers. At best, the most suitable combination for the brand’s needs is combined.

The role and measures of influencer marketing should be defined as part of the overall marketing communications strategy, and its goals and indicators should be set in line with other activities. The guidelines for doing this are clear, and influencer marketing builds a path towards the overall goal of the brand, be it developing brand images, more tactical activation, or both.

How much should you pay for influencer collaboration?

In Finland, influencer marketing budgets often range from €15,000 to €150,000 +VAT, depending on factors such as the scope, duration and awareness of the influencers. Influencer content can also be obtained at a lower price, especially if you create an entity that uses, for example, several micro-influencers with smaller numbers of followers.

The price of an influencer campaign is basically divided into three areas: the influencer’s fees, the manager’s or agencies’ work costs, and the advertising budget.

• The pricing of influencers is the responsibility of the influencer himself or their manager – the pricing takes into account, among other things, the awareness and demand of the influencer, the extent of cooperation, possible exclusions of other collaborations (e.g. in long-term collaborations) and the advertising rights of the content produced by the influencer.

• The workflows of managers or agencies often include strategic planning of collaborations, working on an idea or concept, identifying suitable people, briefing, commenting and coordinating, and analysing campaign performance.

• The advertising budget is intended for promoting influencer-generated content on selected channels. This need is becoming more common, especially for campaigns that reach large eye pairs, and we recommend a small advertising budget to support the visibility of your content to a wider audience.

Over time and when measuring influencer marketing, the right amount of investment begins to form, i.e. information on whether the budget investments have been too large or too small. In most cases, it is recommended that performance be measured with campaign studies and modelling – just like other marketing.

We have thought of influencers for the campaign, what would you suggest?

Juuli: The planning of an influencer campaign begins by defining the target group and goal of the campaign. Based on that, we can already assess whether influencers are the best way to reach the desired audience. If yes, set goals, budget, and brand wishes. In addition, we will discuss media strategy and the role of influencers. This brings us to identifying suitable influencers for the campaign.

Are the influencers and a specific channel suitable for our industry or target group?

The target group’s channel behaviour and mindset are deepened through segmentation. In other words, influencer marketing utilises the same data sources and logic as other encounter or media planning.

The functionality of the channel for the industry is determined according to the target group. Does the target audience spend their time in the selected channel? What kind of content formats do they consume? Visibility doesn’t have to be limited to the channel where the influencer publishes their own content. With the help of advertising, we also get touchpoints elsewhere, for example in outdoor advertising or the brand’s own channels.

However, suitable influencers are not selected solely on the basis of the target group and channel. The style and values of the influencer’s content must be in line with the campaign’s message and goals.

We don’t have time for influencer research, how do we choose the right influencer?

Susanna: Every encounter with the target group builds an image of the brand, so choosing the right influencer partner(s) should be carefully considered.

Those working with influencer marketing have a good understanding of the opportunities in the domestic influencer field. I recommend sparring with a professional about the most suitable influencer partners for the brand, especially before making bigger investments.

Especially in longer collaborations, when we work closely with the influencer’s personal brand, we must first ensure a common value base, similar cooperation goals, expectations and commitment. In addition to this, it is equally important that the influencer is interested and reaches the target group being addressed.

We have selected influencers X, Y and Z for the campaign, how do we take them into account in the overall plan?

Sarah: I think this is an absolutely awesome question! An overall plan can refer to two different things: a campaign media plan or an overall plan that takes into account PR and communication, as well as side activations, such as events. Regardless of the level of the plan, influencer marketing should be taken into account already in the strategy phase.

In the strategy phase, the role, goals and indicators of influencers are defined. Is the influencer’s role to speak to a specific target group and, for example, to open up the campaign concept in a way that speaks to the target group during the consideration phase of the purchase path? Or is it the role of influencers to act as the face of the campaign and thus also be widely visible in the campaign ecosystem, such as press releases, websites, advertising materials and events?

In the campaign plan, we will start to build synergies between different measures and build a more detailed plan on top of the strategy. How influencers are taken into account in communication measures, such as press releases and events – whether the collaboration will be made into a more extensive announcement and/or whether the influencer will participate in a campaign-related event. The media plan, on the other hand, often looks at the influencer’s contribution to achieving the goals, the influencers’ channels, the timing of publications, the budget and the promotion of influencers’ content to advertising. A more detailed influencer marketing plan focuses on, for example, content ideas and influencer choices.

How much will the influencer campaign employ us as a customer?

At Dagmar, we engage in influencer collaborations on a turnkey basis. We have an initial discussion together and approve the influencers, their briefs and the content produced by the customer. Finally, we go through the results and conclusions together. Of course, each influencer campaign is its own entity and employs the customer to different amounts and in different ways.

If a company wants to collaborate with influencers itself, each step is the company’s own responsibility, including contract negotiations and analysis of results. If necessary, our experts can only help at a certain stage, such as an influencer survey, after which the customer implements the campaign themselves.

How do we label influencer collaboration commercially?

Julia: Influencer collaboration must be easily recognisable as an advertisement, regardless of the presentation, channel and advertising medium.The marking of commercial cooperation in influencer marketing is stricter than in any other advertising.

At the beginning of a collaborative post on social media, there is a clearly marked advertisement and the name of the company being promoted: “advertisement / commercial cooperation @company”. In addition to the caption, you’ll need to use the channel’s branding tool to mark the post as sponsored. Lighter marking will not do. In Instagram Story, you’ll need to add an advertising tag to each post individually to make sure the text stands out clearly from the background and other text.

Also, any benefits received by influencers should be labeled as ads, whether it is monetary compensation or a free product or service. It is the company’s responsibility to instruct influencers to comply with transparency requirements.

More detailed instructions on the labelling of influencer marketing in Finland can be found here (KKV or FCCA) and here (ICC).

How do we measure and verify whether an influencer marketing campaign was successful or effective?

This is a very topical issue. Influencer marketing budgets have grown quite large in recent years, so naturally the need to measure and verify budget use has become a priority. At Dagu, we have sparred on the topic with our insight and analytics teams as well as customer teams.

Performance measurement begins with an influencer marketing strategy, which defines a clear target for the euros invested. The goal can be anything from changing perceptions to increasing consideration – however, it is clear that it is always a goal that develops the business.

The topic usually gets tricky at this point, because the results of influencer campaigns are often measured with metrics that report details and don’t tell you whether the goal of developing the business has been achieved.

Broader goals, such as changes in perceptions and increased consideration, cannot be measured with data from influencers’ channels. Large reach or an intense comment thread do not yet tell us how the campaign has moved the target group’s perceptions or consideration in one direction or another. These things can only be clarified with dedicated studies or modelling. Just like with other marketing measures.

With a clear main goal, the selection of the right indicators becomes more straightforward, and with the right indicators, we can tell whether we have succeeded in achieving the goal and whether we succeeded in it effectively. We still use secondary metrics, such as data from an influencer’s post, but these don’t tell the whole story, even though they give us direction.

Do you or your colleagues have any other questions related to influencer marketing? Contact us and let’s continue the discussions!