Implementing Influencer Marketing in Your YouTube Marketing Campaign for Business

Is finding organic YouTube views becoming a slow and challenging task for you? Growing a channel on YouTube seems like a Herculean project to newcomers and those with a stagnant growth status. And why not? After all, billions of videos are uploaded on the platform by the minute, and it is a real struggle to make oneself seem and be recognized here in a sustainable long-term fashion. Whenever you feel dejected, remind yourself: you are not the only one who feels like it. There are others in the same boat as you, and there have been others who have successfully crossed this phase. So what can you do to join this latter group of YouTubers? One smart way is to look into Influencer marketing.

Influencer Marketing: What It Is and How It Fits into the YouTube Scheme of Things? 

The value of influencer marketing in today’s digital advertising and content-creating space is undeniable. The fundamental basis of influencer marketing is trust and belief. Social media celebrities or trendsetters develop and market themselves as experts in the niche they have chosen to work in and build a reputation by influencing mass psychology. Audiences seriously follow the advice and opinions of their “influencers” and take their word for anything put under the sun. 

However, they are more influenced than many would like to believe. While the phenomenon rides on the idea of herd mentality, it also remembers that the audience watching is a thinking audience and can talk back to take down the influencer’s reputation. After all, most social media platforms allow for two-way communication and give audience members agency to leave criticism and comments and, as in the case of YouTube, even “thumbs downs.” 

So influencers take their job seriously, too, and in most cases, present informed and honest content to their viewers. They choose the products they endorse or criticize, and manufacturers often have little or no say on how the video script will run. In other words, influencers are only given the product and usually have full creative license on how they want to present the product to their fans. 

The digital marketing space currently and truly belongs to the influencer industry. No matter which social platform you look to, you will see the dominance of influencers in every genre and every field. It is no wonder that YouTube is also increasingly becoming a popular influencer marketing channel. 

After all, this platform has the following:

• Always been the number one place to enjoy long-form content.
• Adapted itself to also accommodate mobile-friendly micro vertical films in the form of  YouTube Shorts.
• Always functioned as one of the most significant digital search engines alongside being a video-sharing space.
• A vast global outreach is accessed by audiences across age groups and linguistic and demographic borders. 

All of these make YouTube a happy home for influencer marketing. 

Why Should You Consider Using YT Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing gives you the advantages traditional marketing gave manufacturers a few decades ago. In short:

1. You get your product showcased to a broad audience by someone they trust and are most likely to listen to.
2. Your product is honest and has no sugar coating, so audiences have realistic expectations from your brand. 
3. You gain social proof, and brand reputation as people’s icons tend to associate with your product.

In other words, investing in influencer marketing gives you value for money as long as you are doing it right. 

How to Best Implement Influencer Marketing on YouTube for Your Business? 

Now that you know the advantages of using influencers for your brand growth, it is time to check how to best integrate their use into your SMM strategy. To be able to do it successfully, you need to know the following:

• What is your budget for influencer marketing?
• What purpose are you aiming to achieve with the use of influencers 
• What kind of marketing campaign would you like to run using influencers? 

Let us take a detailed look at all of these. 

Budgeting for Influencer Marketing

Of course, your overall finances are the key determiner of how much you can spare for influencers. But apart from that, there are some actual logistics you need to consider when figuring out your budget. Here are a few criteria:

1. The actual proposition

It is your offer quote. When you approach an influencer with the proposition of working with you, you need to be able to tell them what is in store for them if they accept to collaborate. To come to a reasonable rate, you must consider the following:

• Your risks and returns of investment.
• How the influencer does their job.

The proposition can also include non-monetary or long-term benefits. You can consist of the following here:

• Shipment and Free use of the product.
• Benefits of shopping at your store like: 

• Early access to merchandise;
• Invitations to store events; 
• Ambassador status;
• Premium membership. 

• Discounts and giveaways. 
• Event passes.

You should also set clear if it is a one-off fee or a recurrent performance-based payment ( pay per click/pay per sale). The latter, which closely resembles an affiliate marketing model, is increasingly growing more popular these days. 

2. Compliance fees

It considers additional payments like legal costs in preparing documents, buying content rights, and any administrative costs involved. 

3. Other costs

If the campaign involves traveling, exclusive branding, use of special software, or additional costs, you must factor them in too. 

Keep in mind that the cost of influencer marketing significantly varies according to the type of content creator you choose to work with. Hence it is essential to understand what tier your chosen influencer belongs to and what you can expect in terms of budgeting and global reach. Average Instagram influencers can be divided into: 

• Nano-, 
• Micro-, 
• Mid-tier, 
• Macro-, 
• Mega-influencers, 
• Celebrities. 

Photo by CardMapr.nl on Unsplash

To What Ends Can Influencers Be Used to Build Your YT Business? 

Most businesses turn to influencer marketing because they want to grow:

• Follower count;
• Brand reach;
• Audience demographic;
• Engagement rates;
• ROI. 

These are primary goals for any business and, thereby, any online activity. Still, when you decide on an influencer, you must zero down on the micro goal you are trying to achieve. Suppose the purpose you are trying to achieve involves using ads and promotional campaigns. In that case, you must be clear about it in your communication with your influencer so you can handle payment cuts and percentages later. Moreover, narrowing down your goals makes it easier for your influencer to decide on the type and direction of the campaign they will create for you. 

Types of YouTube Influencer Marketing Campaigns

On YouTube, you will find some marketing campaigns typical of influencers. These include:

1. Introductory Campaigns

These campaigns show first-person use, unboxing, or review by the influencer in any story format they choose to employ to put a new product on the market. Live-streaming is often popularly used to showcase such product introductions. 

2. Hashtag Campaigns: 

These videos, challenges, and shorts run to popularize the use of unique hashtags. Usually, custom hashtags are explicitly created for the purpose. Companies run such campaigns for social media awareness on topics of importance, to raise fundraisers, and to bring together digital think tanks.

3. Contest Campaigns: 

Contests are popular on all types of social media platforms and not without reason. Everyone has a soft spot for good incentives. YouTubers love a good match, especially one that has freebies, mentions, and giveaways. Using an influencer to advertise a game helps spread the word around a more extensive audience base in less time. This campaigning can boost brand visibility and bring new audiences to your channel. So, if you want to expand the demographic of your target audience, it is a suitable type of campaign to use your influencers for. 

4. Brand Maintenance Campaigns: 

These are mainly run, so the audience does not easily forget a brand. In other words, they “maintain” a product’s or company’s memory and image. These campaigns are usually geared to increase sales and brand awareness of a product already in the market. What is done is to promote the product in a new setting. It is the most common type of campaign seen on YouTube. Some kinds of maintenance campaigns include:

• Problem-solving settings.
• Educational videos.
• How-to tutorials. 
• Revisiting old stories and places.

Why Are the Above Pointers Important? 

Because working with the wrong influencers can bring more harm than good to your business. 

If you end up collaborating with influencers who are not suitable for you, you can:

• Loose money and face

We are not just talking of frauds who run off with your investment here. Sometimes you end up working with someone whose work philosophy does not match yours, which can damage your brand reputation. Think of it: you are an advocate of eco-friendly products, and your influencer decided to endorse you while drinking a beverage from a plastic cup with a plastic straw. The audience is going to ridicule you rather than build trust in you. 

• Loose traffic and sales

When your reputation receives a blow, so do all lead conversions. You may see a decline in sales and traffic to desired landing pages because one collaborative venture needs to be corrected. The risks involved here are high. 

Now that you have clear the basics about using influencers on YouTube, it is time to recapitulate how to use influencers for your business.

Steps to Implementing Influencer Marketing in Your YouTube Marketing Campaign for Business

Step 1: Figure out why you want to use influencer marketing. The immediate goal of using influencers may differ significantly from your long-term goals, and it could be event, context-specific, and time-sensitive. 

Step 2: Once you decide the end goal for the implementation, you can consider if you want to use: 

• One influencer exclusively or make contracts with multiple content creators. 
• Influencer marketing alone or a combination of paid videos, YouTube ads, and influencers.

Step 3: With the knowledge of 1 and 2, make a realistic budget for your SMM tactics. Know in advance your pocket’s limits when it comes to spending on influencers.

Step 4: You know why you want influencers and how much you are willing to spend on them. Now it’s your turn to find out who fits your bill best. Research the existing influencer pools and zero down on a few you feel most aligned with your business, budget, and work philosophy. Run a background search on this pool. While doing it, check the following:

• Their active audience index.
• The engagement rate they bring in an average.
• Their strength in directing traffic to desired landing pages.
• Their influence on brand growth and consumer loyalty. 

Step 5: Finetune your list based on the research you have done.

Step 6: Begin communicating with the influencers. Send out cold emails or DMs, keep them professional, and personalize them to address each influencer separately. 

Step 7: Document or keep a record of every conversation you have at this stage. Ensure that you set your terms clearly and listen to those set by the other party. The goal is to reach a fair business proposal that works in favor of both parties. 

Step 8: Give your Influencer creative license and freedom. Videos made under the tight supervision of a company seldom do well. Trust your collaboration and let the other party put forth their honest and genuine take on your product. When you do that, the audience knows what to expect from the product. 

Step 9: Keep your end of the negotiations regardless of the outcome. If your collaborator has worked hard and created a real video, they deserve payment for it irrespective of how the audience receives it. 

Step 10: Work on the promotion of the video just created. Please share it with a mention of the influencer. Email the link to clients, and add it to blogs and social media pages. 

In Conclusion

YouTube is very conducive to the skillful use of influencer marketing. You can grow the popularity of your channel and establish your brand on the platform by using influencers in your regular uploads, in advertising tie-ups, fundraisers, and many other campaigns. When you use influencers, you tend to boost your audience retention and brand loyalty rates, as most viewers come to you with trust in what their idols have presented to them. They come to you with genuine interest, so capitalize on it by creating content they will be satisfied with. In doing so, you can optimize influencer marketing to increase your YT channel’s popularity.