Feeling the Influence? Using Influencers as part of our PR strategy for retail, food and drink, restaurant, leisure and destination campaigns.

Influencer Campaigns Work.

The term influencer is used a lot within modern marketing and PR strategy, but what actually are they? And how do they generate measurable results as part of the PR & marketing mix?

An influencer is a content content creator with a loyal online or social following, and influencer marketing is when companies partner with these influencers in order to increase brand awareness, sales or conversions among a specific target audience.

In the US influencer marketing was expected to be worth $6.5 billion by the end of 2019, almost four times of what it was just three years ago. As more users join social media platforms like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, it comes as no surprise that the influencer market in the UK is growing, with more and more people seeing the value in what first looked like a fad.

According to BigCommerce, two-thirds of brands increased their influencer marketing spend in 2019, where once it was just press and traditional marketing that were the big players, as more and more content creators increase their reach brands are harnessing their power to reach new or specific audiences.

However, influencers remain a confusing route to market and many small businesses are still uncertain about how to best tap into this channel or if they should invest in it as a channel.

Why should you do it?
Influencer marketing is more accessible and measurable than ever before. It works for big and small budgets thanks to its high ROI, and it’s great for niche markets due to the vast variety of Influencers who now work within the space.

How do we get results?
We work with influencers to create content which promotes a brand in the same way traditional marketing channels might, and then we target audiences through their networks, either organically or with a paid spend. Sponsored content needs to be thoughtfully planned and executed in order to achieve a brand’s goals.

It isn’t beneficial for a brand to tell an influencer exactly what to post, we work with them to create content that fits both the brand and their channels. This is more likely to resonate with their fans and trusted audience. Anything too in the audience’s face can put them off the brand completely – and so we create content which feels more organic, and fits the different platforms.

Over the last twelve months we have worked closely with a number of clients to grow their strategy to include influencer campaigns. From products, to restaurants and travel, we have engaged the right people, getting them talking and spreading the brand’s message.

When launching the Six by Nico restaurants in Manchester and Liverpool in 2019, we worked with our bank of influencers in the North West to amplify the message of the ever changing menu. We worked closely with influencers in the run up to launch, inviting them to visit the original Six by Nico restaurants in Scotland and posting about their experience, with their content then amplified using co-branded partnerships. We were able to see a huge ROI via online bookings, where the restaurants each had over 3,000 online reservations before they opened.

We’ve continued to work with influencers to push out the message of the menu which changes every six weeks, and to date we have welcomed 75 influencers to the restaurants each one sharing content to around 2.7M people.

Another client we have built influencers into the strategy for is The Original Factory Shop. Our campaigns were designed to drive a new, younger audience for the brand and while the business was active on social media, influencer marketing was entirely new for them. In just over a year, we worked with 53 influencers from across the UK to showcase the retailer’s brilliant value homewear, beauty products, and Christmas ranges.

In beauty campaigns, as well as asking influencers to create content for their own channels, we cherry picked a few of the very best to create video content which was then used across the client’s channels to show their products in a new way. The client saw a 43% increase in video views on Youtube, and one of their most successful beauty sales weeks to date.