Influencer marketing plays a key role within a successful PR strategy for brands and businesses in the aesthetics, beauty, and wellness industries. Social media influencers can be powerful allies who can authentically endorse your brand, helping build trust and credibility with target audiences, boosting sales, and raising brand awareness. Appointing an influencer marketing agency or specialist provider is a popular and effective way to help your brand realise the power and impact of influencer marketing.
In this article, we explain every you need to know about influencer marketing agencies and how you can find the right influencer marketing campaign support for your brand.
What is Influencer Marketing?
“Influencer marketing” is a type of PR and marketing activity where brands seek endorsements and mentions from influencers to boost brand awareness and sales. Brands can reach new audiences in an authentic way by getting popular influencers who their target audience trusts to endorse them.
This kind of partnership can be paid or unpaid – for example, sending product samples or experiences in the hope of the influencer posting a positive review to their followers. Alternatively, you can engage the influencer for a specific paid campaign made up of content elements like posts, stories, reels or videos where you directly control the outputs.
What is an influencer marketing agency?
An influencer marketing agency is focused on bringing together brands with appropriate online influencers or content creators to run influencer marketing campaigns, predominantly via social media. Successful campaigns leverage the influencers’ creative content, following and voice on behalf of the partner brand, for example, to raise awareness or drive product sales.
A good influencer marketing company will have expertise in your brand’s industry and excel at creatiing authentic and bespoke campaigns that mutually benefit the brand and influencer.
The influencer marketing agency landscape
The rise in popularity of influencer marketing over recent years means that it is now a key pillar within a brands’ marketing and PR strategy and this has led to a growth in specialist influencer marketing agencies, social media marketing agencies, and influencer marketing being offered as a key service within larger marketing or PR agencies.
For example, Kendrick PR are a full service PR agency specialising in the aesthetics, beauty and wellness industries and we provide an invaluable influencer marketing service to our clients. Our expert team has a wealth of A-list celebrity, VIP, and influencer connections which we leverage as part of a strategic approach to deliver bespoke campaigns in an authentic, credible, and creative way to support brand profiling and sales.
What is a social media influencer?
The rise in popularity of influencer marketing has also given rise to an overwhelming number of influencers. An “influencer” is an individual with a dedicated following on a social media platform who is viewed as an expert or specialist within their niche by their followers, peers, and brands.
They often align themselves to a particular topic or interest (i.e. beauty or fitness) and their audience will follow them for expert advice and inspiration as they trust and value their opinion. Many influencers predominantly share content on a specific social media platform (i.e. Tik Tok, Instagram, YouTube) and may be known as “Tik Tok Influencer”, for example.
What are the responsibilities of an influencer marketing agency?
An influencer marketing strategy or campaign may look different from brand to brand but the services offered by influencer marketing agencies or specialists usually include:
- Finding the right influencers for every brand and its campaign goals,
- Providing access to an enviable influencer network of social media influencers, VIPs and celebrities in a specific industry,
- Creating and managing a product review, treatment, or product sampling programme,
- Campaign management from launch to implementation and reporting on powerful results,
- Establishing publishing schedules and content guidelines,
- Negotiating contracts and ensuring deliverables are met.
The influencer marketing agency vs an influencer marketing service
An influencer marketing agency is most likely to provide services to clients of all sizes and across a wide variety of industries, and they will have relationships with hundreds and maybe even thousands of influencers. The only services they provide relate to influencer marketing so it’s important that they collaborate well with a brand’s inhouse marketing and PR teams, and external agencies.
A marketing or PR agency which offers influencer marketing as a service may specialise in one industry i.e. beauty or fashion, and will therefore have strong relationships with a smaller number of key industry influencers plus in-depth knowledge of a niche industry. They may already provide other services for your brand and a natural progression is to implement influencer marketing within your overall marketing and PR strategy, or they can provide this holistic service providing one point of contact and expertise for your team.
Can I manage influencer marketing myself?
Managing your influencer marketing activity in-house can be a cost-effective solution if you are able to commit plenty of time and internal resources to make it a success. Finding the right influencers for your brand and building quality relationships with them takes a lot of time and effort, especially if they are in-demand from other brands and you need to cut through the noise to get noticed.
Tip! Set clear expectations, deliverables, and agree a fee or incentive with each influencer for every piece of content or campaign.
Why invest in influencer marketing support?
You may be tempted to manage your brand’s influencer marketing activity in-house but as a complex type of marketing with many moving parts you should consider appointing an influencer marketing expert. They main benefits of outsourcing influencer marketing are:
- Access to the best influencers: based on experience they know who will be right for your campaign and will have an excellent network of influencers, VIPS, industry experts, and celebrities.
- Seamless campaign management: a proactive approach will ensure your campaigns are delivered accurately, on schedule, and on budget.
- Value for money: a solid understanding of market rates will ensure that you don’t overpay for talent to keep your campaign costs and ROI on track.
- Saving time: with existing influencer relationships and numerous successful campaigns under their belt means new campaigns can be makes devised and delivered efficiently.
- Guaranteed authenticity: they will take the time to understand your target audience to ensure every aspect of your campaign feels authentic and adds credibility to your brand.
What are the key types of influencer marketing campaigns?
Influencer marketing is a creative form of online marketing and there are many ways for brands and influencers to collaborate. The key types of influencer marketing campaigns are:
- Product placements: influencers may integrate a product into their social media content i.e. introducing or demonstrating it in a video or image.
- Takeovers: an influencer may take over a brand’s social media account for a day in the hope that they will being their social media following with them and boost the brand’s visibility and own follower count.
- Contest, giveaways or promotions: influencers often host giveaways or share discount codes for brands they love.
- Event invitations: access to an exciting or immersive event gives influencers the opportunity to experience a brand and showcase unique content to their followers.
- Hashtag campaigns: brands may work with an influencer to share content around a particular hashtag and invite followers to participate with some user generated content.
- Creative or bespoke campaigns: brands and influencers collaborate to create unique content which reflects a message or theme.
How to find the right influencer marketing support for your beauty brand
Before you begin influencer marketing we recommend allocating a budget and making a list of at least two key goals you want your activity to achieve. Next, begin your search for the right influencer marketing partner within your personal network ( i.e. recommendations from peers or friends) and an online search.
As a beauty brand, find a partner who will devise a bespoke influencer marketing strategy and has a solid reputation for delivering great results in the beauty industry. For example, Kendrick PR have a wealth of beauty PR case studies published on our website from our enviable portfolio of clients which demonstrate our influencer marketing expertise.
Influencer marketing for aesthetics, beauty and wellness brands
At Kendrick PR, our senior team has a wealth of A-list celebrity, VIP, and influencer connections which we leverage as part of a strategic approach. Our influencer campaign management service is designed to create effective exposure for your brand and drive real results. We work in a targeted, tailored way to introduce and pair selected influencers with brands, creating an authentic relationship which often delivers over and over again.
If you want to tap into the power of influencer marketing – without the scattergun or mass-market approach, please do get in touch.
Kendrick PR are a leading aesthetic, beauty & wellness PR agency
Founded in 2015 by award-winning communications expert Julia Kendrick, Kendrick PR are an experienced and passionate team who thrive on creating tangible success for every client. Since launch, we have delivered outstanding results for some of the industry’s most innovative brands and exciting entrepreneurs, such as ALLÉL, Debbie Thomas, The Private Clinic, Oxygenetix, and Medik8 – and we’d love to support your brand.