How Influencer Marketing Platforms Maximize Business Sales Via Instagram

Influencer marketing has become a staple in marketing strategies. More brands and marketers are relying on influencers to increase brand awareness, boost social media visibility, drive website traffic, and maximize business sales.

This may be why an estimated 65 percent of marketers increased influencer marketing budgets in 2019, according to SocialMediaToday. Unfortunately, 61 percent of marketers find it challenging to find the RIGHT influencers.

How do brands and agencies find the RIGHT influencers to sway consumers in their industry and/or niche? Influencer marketing platforms. 

And influencers are assets to businesses of all sizes. From big name brands like Nike to  local community businesses, influencer marketing has massive value.

Here’s how fashion influencer @thelittlemagpie raised brand awareness for a budding small business . . . 

Influencer marketing platforms can certainly maximize business sales, especially when it comes to Instagram, the top social channel for influencer campaigns. Let’s deep dive into influencer platforms and examine why Instagram is ideal for your brand in 2020.

What is an influencer marketing platform exactly?

Understanding influencer marketplaces a bit more is important. Yes, these platforms are nothing new, but these platforms can be a bit tricky to navigate without knowing a bit more. 

Essentially, an influencer marketing platform is an influencer database that is accessed via a virtual dashboard. Brands and agencies use the influencer database to identify social influencers that fit their needs, connect, and later collaborate with. 

However, not all influencer marketing platforms are created equal . . . 

Most platforms are just that, “platforms” that brands and agencies can find and hire influencers. These platforms will be a monthly subscription model, or a fee will be added to the project once an influencer is hired. 

Think Upwork or Fiverr, but exclusively for influencers. These types of influencer marketing platforms are not bad. They just might not deliver the results you want and need.

To maximize business sales, brands and agencies need to partner with platforms that have influencer databases with pre-vetted and experienced influencers, like Scalefluence. Top-notch influencer marketing platforms also cover a number of industries and niches, across multiple social media channels.

Finding and hiring influencers via a platform is great, but what about everything else? Influencer marketing platforms with expertise know the value of ROI. Brands and agencies that partner with professional influencer platforms can expect:

• Meaningful connections with the target audience
• Authentic and personalized messages that resonate
• Data-driven analytics that identify the RIGHT influencers
• ROI positive influencer campaigns
• Nurtured influencer relationships that maximize strategies
• Increased customer lifetime value
• And much more

It is pretty clear that choosing the RIGHT influencer marketing platform is just as important as choosing the RIGHT influencer for your business. Knowing best practices when working with influencer platforms is also a must.

Working with influencer marketing platforms benefits and best practices

The power of influencer marketing can only be found in the campaign itself. There are plenty of stories online about fake influencers, or brands that didn’t see any ROI from influencer campaigns.

When businesses do influencer marketing solo, campaign results may not be as powerful as they would be using an influencer platform. There are also instances when a brand has used an influencer marketing platform, but saw less than ideal ROI.

Or an epic fail that discredits the campaign’s validity. One famous influencer campaign mishap is when Scott Disick posted the instructions given by the brand . . .

This can certainly happen to any brand. But knowing a few best practices when working with influencers, and especially working with influencer platforms, can minimize risk for your brand.

Influencer Databases Serve Up Valuable Info

Influencer databases can give you key info, such as different influencers in your industry and/or niche, as well as previous campaigns. Nothing exciting, but it allows you to begin doing important research on the influencers. 

To maximize business sales via Instagram, for example, you can take recent campaigns an influencer has done and check engagement value. Views are great, but you definitely need to see engagement . . . 

This 3-image post from micro-influencer @carolineszpira netted nearly 1,000 likes. Wow right? Well, don’t get too excited until you see how many comments. If this post 

had 10 comments, the engagement level is simply not good enough, and your business should continue the influencer database search.

The good news is that this post had over 1,340 comments, making this micro-influencer a potentially high ROI campaign candidate.

Working with a professional platform will have this kind of data at the ready, letting you skip the research. In fact, the data-driven analytics expert influencer marketing platforms compile makes finding the perfect influencer for your branded campaign easy.

Match Your Brand’s Influencer Marketing Budget To Influencers

Another best practice when it comes to working with influencers is making the most of your business’ influencer marketing budget. Instagram influencers can be pretty expensive, depending on the type of influencer, and industry your business is in.

Types of influencers by follower count:

• Nano-influencer (1k to 10k followers)
• Micro-influencer (10k to 50k followers)
• Mid-influencer (50k to 500k followers)
• Macro-influencer (500k to 1M followers)
• Mega-influencer (1M+ followers)

The higher up in follower count, the more your brand can expect to pay per Instagram post. For instance, mega-influencer Kim Kardashian West gets anywhere between $300,000 to $500,000 for each brand sponsored Instagram post.

Is paying a mega-influencer $300,000 for one post worth it? Many influencer marketing experts agree that it is definitely NOT worth it. Especially if you want to maximize business sales via Instagram.

Instead, many brands and agencies are turning to nano-influencers and micro-influencers to increase bottom lines. Why? Isn’t more eyeballs the goal?

Mega-influencers like Kardashian West can give your brand awareness a boost via Instagram. However, if you want to move that inventory, you need a handful of nano-influencers and/or micro-influencers. These influencers have the loyal, cult-like following that drives sales.

Tech micro-influencer @codergirl_ racks up around 1,500 likes and 50 comments per post. But you can be sure that her audience is making purchases based on her recommendations . . . 

When working with an influencer marketing platform, you have a team to help get the best influencers that fit your budget. And the best part is that you don’t need to negotiate. 

Influencer platforms like Scalefluence will close the deal at the best price, because we have a long-term relationship with all the influencers in our network.

You get a specialized influencer marketing team that does the heavy lifting

One of the biggest benefits of working with an influencer marketing platform is that you essentially get your very own influencer marketing team. This is valuable, because hiring a dedicated influencer marketing manager in-house can cost in excess of $90,000 per year . . . 

Influencer marketing platforms help brands navigate influencer marketing in the most simplified way possible. All while maximizing business sales via ROI positive campaigns across all social media channels.

However, using best practices when working with the rep or team from the platform is a must to get the benefits. For instance, sharing goals and expected outcomes is essential for an influencer platform team to match your brand with the perfect influencers. You definitely want to be transparent.

Trusting influencer platform reps with strategy is also important to get maximum sales. Most teams will work very closely with influencers to create the best strategy. And they have the experience and expertise to make it happen.

Collaborate, don’t dictate your brand’s message. Being open to new influencer strategies and collaborating as a single unit is the fastest way to more profits when working with a professional influencer marketing platform.

Are you ready to maximize business sales via Instagram with Scalefluence?

Scalefluence is a professional influencer marketing platform with unmatched expertise. We work with brands and agencies to maximize business sales, increase brand awareness, and deliver ROI positive influencer results.

Our database of Instagram influencers have years of experience working with top brands. From tech to fashion, we have influencers across every industry and/or niche. Let us apply our data-driven analytics to get you the most out of your brand’s next influencer campaign.

Sign up today and scale your brand’s influence.