What is influencer marketing? Who is an influencer?
If we were to attempt to translate the word influencer, we would get – literally – an influential person (from the English influence – influence). A person who has an ear or is an authority for a specific group of people. This word has stuck to all kinds of creators, personalities and celebrities operating mainly on the Internet – especially in social media. So although the president of a provincial city is certainly an influential person, we would not call him an influencer – unless he is exceptionally effective in social media.
Influencers are people who stand out with their personality, knowledge, specialize in a given topic or convince recipients to like them with their sense of humor, style of behavior or oratory skills. The feature that unites all these – after all different – elements is exerting influence on their group of recipients, and – as a result – inspiring them to make, among other things, purchasing decisions. And this is the most important feature that determines the effectiveness of influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing is therefore joint activities with influential people, undertaken in order to increase brand or product recognition and achieve a positive impact on sales.
The more the better(?)
It seems that the bigger the influencer, the bigger their target group, the better. At first glance, you might come to such conclusions, but as usual, the devil is in the details.
Mega-influencers, or those followed by millions
There are several problems with the biggest influencers, who gather millions of followers around them. The most important one is the price – hiring a mega-influencer will cost mega-money, because a large reach has its price. However, this is not the only element worth considering. A huge audience also means that it is very diverse and it is not easy to define its profile.
Let’s look at Robert Lewandowski as an example. The captain of the Polish national football team has a group of almost 37 million followers on Instagram alone. This is more than the number of inhabitants of the whole of Poland (36.69 million according to data from 2024)! So does cooperation with Robert Lewandowski mean a certain profit for the company? It all depends on its profile, reach, target group and many other factors. Among the followers of the most popular Polish footballer we will find people from the age range from children to the elderly. Men and women. Poles, Spaniards, Germans and residents of many other countries. Engaged football fans, but also moderate enthusiasts of this sport.
Na treściach tworzonych wspólnie z tego rodzaju influencerem może więc najbardziej skorzystać marka o globalnym zasięgu, która oferuje produkty dla szerokiej grupy docelowej. Im mniejsza firma, im węższa jej grupa docelowa i mniejszy zasięg, tym potencjalne korzyści maleją, a koszty pozostają na niezmienionym poziomie.
Big names before their first million
Among influencers who can boast hundreds of thousands of followers, we will find many potential partners for marketing campaigns. In this group, we can count on – of course – lower prices, but we should not expect them to be low. Cooperation with big names also remains unavailable to smaller companies.
If we are looking to narrow down the target group (in relation to the largest influencers in the world), we will certainly find many in the group of large influencers who reach mainly the Polish audience. These will be actresses, TV presenters, musicians, but also athletes and internet personalities.
Known enough – up to 100k followers
People who can boast a dozen or several dozen thousand followers are often the best solution for companies – both smaller and really large ones. The difference lies in the number, but not the followers, but the influencers.
Large brands can easily launch an influencer marketing campaign by cooperating with many smaller (relatively) creators at the same time. In this way, they can reach a wider audience, but also open up to many possibilities of campaign design. It may be a good idea to present several influencers representing different branches of activity in one marketing creation, showing that brand X products can connect.
Here’s an example: the Komputronik company has been cooperating with various influencers for years, including the creator of the Ziemniak.tv channel and the graphic designer and author of memes who creates under the pseudonym Fakes Forge. While the former is a large-format creator (his channel has already exceeded 1 million subscribers), the latter has a much smaller audience (+50 thousand on Facebook, 13.5 thousand on Instagram). These are just two of many examples, as Komputronik regularly collaborates with many other creators, confirming that diversification in the area of influencer marketing itself simply works.
This is extremely important in the context of the risk associated with influencers mentioned at the beginning. Image problems of a creator often mean problems for the brands they promote. In the United States, there were extremely high-profile examples of large clothing or sports brands breaking up with – for example – Kanye West. Poland also has its examples of discredited influencers. Cooperation with many smaller creators seems to be a quite functional remedy for just such an eventuality.
Another big advantage of smaller influencers is the fact that they are often more specialized. They are travelers, photographers, creators of YouTube channels, historians, artists, film experts or people of culture in the broad sense. They gather around themselves a group of recipients, which are connected by interests. Consequently – smaller influencers often gather around themselves a much more engaged audience. If your company has a matching profile, it can successfully use this fact and establish an extremely fruitful cooperation with the influencer.
A good example is the creator of the YouTube channel – Mikroprzygody. His activity on this channel is focused on cycling tourism – so he is an interesting partner for companies that focus on this niche. These will be manufacturers of bicycles, equipment, accessories and cycling clothing. Hiring Robert Lewandowski for their campaign does not make much sense. Cycling enthusiasts will probably not be convinced by the presence of actresses or celebrity chefs in the campaign… apart from maybe Mr. Robert Makłowicz.
Almost unknown, or the smallest influencers
Can a person who only has a few hundred or a few thousand followers on their social media profile be an influencer? As usual, it depends. Before starting cooperation with such small creators, they should be subjected to particularly thorough observation. During this observation, it may turn out that – although the numbers do not indicate it – these people have an actual influence on their followers. A small reach is also associated with relatively low rates. There is also no doubt that small influencers often appreciate the fact that a company is interested in them. So – colloquially speaking – they are less picky.
Cooperation with nano-influencers is a worth considering proposition for small companies that are taking their first steps in the world of influencer marketing and do not want to overpay.
What makes influencer marketing so valuable?
Both established and lesser-known brands regularly find the resources to hire influencers. This is for a variety of reasons, and while the ambition to become a patron may be one of them, it’s certainly not the most important. So what makes influencer marketing still appealing to companies?
Expanding your audience
It is not easy to break through to the audience’s awareness on the market. Building brand recognition (in this case, an online store) from the bottom up is exceptionally difficult in such a saturated market. It is therefore worth supporting the daily efforts to build a community of loyal customers with the actions of influencers. They will not only expand the audience, but also “bring” customers with a specific profile.
Building trust and image
Internet users are becoming more and more sensitive to traditional forms of marketing. They verify good prices and look for better ones using price comparison sites. Brands’ commitment to ecology and sustainable development is also subject to evaluation. In this context, cooperation with influencers who openly profess a certain set of values can be beneficial to the company – if these values are consistent with those proclaimed by the brand.
The trust that influencers enjoy is also important. Many of them are associated with people who carefully select companies to cooperate with. Communities often appreciate the fact that the person they follow does not put earnings above all else, but tries to cooperate with partners who are actually worth their attention. These are the people you are looking for if you want to build a brand based on trust.
Bypassing adblockers
One of the more prosaic but extremely important problems for advertisers are the so-called “adblockers”, or software that blocks ads. According to the IAB report from 2024, as many as 45% of Internet users in Poland use adblockers. Although this indicates a certain slowdown in the trend (in 2017, there were 42% users of this type of software), it is still a percentage that cannot be ignored.
In short: it should be assumed that up to 45% of users are not reached or only partially reached by paid ads on the Internet. Yes, those ads for which your company pays big money to Google or Facebook.
Influencers operating on social media can be a remedy for ad blockers. Advertising segments in YouTube or TikTok videos, branding in the content of posts, etc. will not be detected by the software as ads, which means that your marketing message will reach the recipients anyway.
Better sales
All of the above should ultimately translate into better sales. In the end, you will reach a larger group of people, build your brand image, and build trust – and all this without blocking any blockers. A good influencer will create a purchasing need among their followers because they will present your products or services in a way that will appeal to them.
You can easily track the effectiveness of this cooperation, and in several ways:
- You can generate a special discount code for the influencer. Each time you make a purchase with this code, it will be registered.
- You can also prepare an affiliate link, which the influencer will then place on their social media.
- Thanks to analytical tools, you can check what part of the traffic is the person you are cooperating with is responsible for.
- Finally, you can browse the community’s comments on an ongoing basis.
The attitude of the followers towards the cooperation between your brand and the influencer can be of great importance. If you notice that it mainly evokes negative reactions, it is worth considering changing your strategy or withdrawing from the cooperation. To keep up to date with comments, you can use internet monitoring tools.
Recipe for an influencer campaign
In this chapter, we’ll briefly describe how you can prepare for your first influencer campaign. This will help you create a framework for your campaign.
Goal, budget, target group
For a campaign to be effective, it must have a specific goal. Of course, “higher sales” is also a goal, but we recommend describing the expected result in more detail (for example, total sales value, number of transactions made through the influencer, etc.).
It is worth remembering, however, that few influencers will agree to be charged based on sales – mainly because their contribution to the development of your brand is often a huge reach. What you do with it, however, is up to you. An important indicator of an influencer marketing campaign will therefore be the reach (the number of unique users who have been reached by content advertising your brand) or the increase in brand recognition.
It is also essential to specify who you want to reach with your campaign and what budget you can allocate for it. The answers to these two questions will help you find the right person to work with.
Searching for the right person
Once you know your target group (both its demographic profile and interests) and have a set budget for influencer compensation, you can start searching. To do this, you can browse YouTube channels, Facebook fanpages, TikTok or Instagram creators from the bottom up. Use hashtags, check similar profiles suggested by the platforms, and sooner or later you will come across accounts worthy of attention. Perhaps – since you have been preparing for the campaign for some time – you already have a few or a dozen creators in mind who could potentially join forces with your store?
However, if you are starting from scratch, you can help yourself with tools. In Poland, there are several platforms that bring together influencers and influencer marketing tools. These include WhitePress, Influencers.Club, Influtool and AnyStar.
On the other hand, if you are looking for influencers from the absolute top and have the funds to do so, check the DDOB ranking, where you will find the top 100 creators on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.
Campaign Plan
Before you even contact influencers and present them with your proposal, you need to… prepare your proposal. The next step is to draw up a campaign plan. What should you include in it?
- campaign goal and assumptions,
- cooperation rules,
- rules for creating promotional content,
- campaign duration,
- frequency of content publication,
- scope of publication (on which channels the promotional content should appear).
All this will not only allow you to keep your finger on the pulse and make sure that the campaign is on the right track, but also to prepare a clear brief for a potential collaborator.
Scope of cooperation
There are many elements hidden behind this enigmatic term. First of all, decide whether you want to create promotional content internally and then send it to influencers for publication or will you rely on them? The latter is often a better option – it will allow the people collaborating to maintain a natural feel. Many influencers simply do not agree to publish previously prepared content. If this is important to you, make sure that the people you choose agree to this form of cooperation.
If influencers will be creating on their own, you need to prepare a set of guidelines that will tell them what the tone of voice of your brand is, what values it is guided by, what is worth emphasizing and what topics to avoid. Of course, it is not about avoiding describing the flaws of the product or service, but – for example – about avoiding combining promotion with political or ideological topics that are contrary to the brand’s image.
Campaign monitoring
An extremely important part of an influencer marketing campaign is its monitoring. After all, you need to know whether the efforts undertaken have brought the intended effect. If the campaign plan prepared earlier was solid, you will find indicators in it that you should pay special attention to. Now, using analytical tools (Google Analytics, Brand24), as well as data provided by the influencer, you can check how successful the campaign has been.
Don’t be discouraged if you do not achieve all your goals in the assumed time. The first marketing campaigns will certainly require polishing, changes during, and perhaps even revision of the approach. If you establish cooperation with several influencers, you can also try different strategies at the same time, which can bring surprising and very instructive results.
Is this the right form of marketing for your business?
Although it is somewhat unpredictable, influencer marketing is still – and will be for a long time – a great tool for promoting online stores and other brands on the Internet. It is a great option for both smaller companies and giants operating with advertising budgets in the millions. Remember to create a clear plan and set specific goals before you start looking for the right influencer. Good luck!
