Questions To Ask Before You Choose Influencer Marketing Agency Chicago

Influencer marketing is one of the newest and most effective digital marketing methods. The prevalence of influencer marketing in the digital media space makes it an appealing method for any business to utilize in the promotion of its brand, product, or service. Not every business is ready or suited to choose an influencer marketing agency, however. Additionally, most businesses do not have the resources and capabilities to conduct an influencer marketing campaign by themselves.

Chicago is a busy business centre and the third most populated city in the USA. The centrality of business in Chicago has created a significant opportunity for businesses to use an influencer marketing agency in Chicago in order to create effective marketing campaigns. However, choosing influencer marketing over the other traditional marketing methods is the ultimate choice to make.

While selecting the method of marketing your product or service, we suggest you keep these questions in mind:

Influencer or ambassador?

Brand influencers are the people who create content and post about services and products within a particular niche like health, travel, or fashion. On the other hand, brand ambassadors are more like spokespersons that are hired to talk about a product, service, or brand. The ambassador’s relationship with the brand might not always line up with the product preferences or values.

To explain with an example, you may be on the lookout to buy a new pair of shoes, let’s say specifically Puma sneakers. Which will influence you to buy them, a celebrity commercial or a friend who has recently bought them and is very happy about it? The commercial will be tempting you to buy them but your friend will be the one to drive you to purchase them.

While using this method influencers can become very valuable for a business. It gets other people to talk about your brand, product, or service rather than you beating your drums.

Do you host events?

Many businesses use event marketing to promote their products or services. An influencer can attend events on your behalf and even call in their audience to be a part of it. If the influencers are influenced by your product why not set up an event so that they can bring in their followers.

Bloggers are used by many fashion brands in this way. Bloggers can promote events on their blogs or social platforms and this encourages the local audience to attend the in-store event. As an example, a blogger can host an event at an outlet inviting their followers to try on new styles and looks. To bring in more foot traffic in your store, a great method can be influencer marketing.

Is inspiring action a goal?

Traditional marketing may be a better fit if brand awareness is the only goal of the campaign. An influencer will do much more than raise brand awareness through the inherent promotion of a brand, product, or service in digital media. Influencers mostly work within their niche and have an earned audience within their interest or knowledge zone. They tend to influence the audience’s purchase behaviour by sharing their reviews and recommendations.

From the above-mentioned example an influencer sharing a blog or an Instagram post while using the new Puma sneakers, the likelihood of their audiences to buy this shoe increases simply because they trust and have faith in the influencer.

Can you do without controlling the message?

While using a brand ambassador you have creative control over what you want them to talk about and can customize your message. You decide what you want them to mention and talk about. Influencer marketing is more about finding an individual having compatibility with your brand, and letting them make their own creative decisions about the content they will post.

You can always ask the influencer to cover certain aspects, and it is of paramount importance that these aspects flow with the rest of the story. If they are not creative in their way the message will not be authentic. If you feel you need to have creative control over the posts, then influencer marketing isn’t your thing.

What is your expenditure budget?

Budgeting of the finances is very important as with other marketing methods. How you are planning to budget the campaign or consider your costs can have an impact on your strategy and affect your decisions. In almost all cases you will need to offer payment in monetary or product terms. Your budget can start on the lower side and then increase with time as per the need, rather than spending quite a lot upfront as may be the case while using a brand ambassador.

Do you want a partnership?

One-time partnership ventures are effective in sending out the message about your brand, product, or service for the short term. For a new product launch working within a team of people to create and share the message will be enough. While working with brand influencers, thinking about long-term collaborations is a better approach.

Long-term partnerships are a great way to collaborate with people who love to talk about your brand because they genuinely like your product.

Influencer marketing is immensely effective and an efficient influencer marketing agency in Chicago can help craft and manage your campaign. You need to decide whether you want to use influencer marketing or other traditional methods for your business.