Why working with influencers can benefit your marketing

In the final part of her series on social media marketing, Lily Hymes looks at the advantages of working with influencers and bloggers with large and loyal social media followings.

Influencer marketing is one of the top marketing trends of recent years and 63 percent of marketers intend to increase their influencer marketing budget in 2021.

Firstly, you might wonder why you’d need to work with ‘influencers’ – well, they enable you to access golf fans in the same way that purchasing an advert in a golf magazine would – think of their followers (and yours) as you would subscribers.

Chloe Gallacher with Paula Creamer

Influencers also create their own content and have loyal fans, so the content they create in partnership with you and your brand is both authentic and trusted. Fifty percent of consumers have stated they will take some form of action after viewing a positive influencer review, such as visit the company website, contact the company or search for more information about the company. Not only this, but 89 percent of marketers say that return on investment from influencer marketing is comparable to or better than other marketing channels.

When looking for influencers to partner with, choose an influencer that’s right for the campaign you’re running, so for example, if you’re running a food and beverage campaign, you’d probably want to look for a local food or lifestyle blogger with local fans – don’t be afraid to ask them to share their audience statistics. Your campaign may be targeted at a certain sex or age range, so by looking at the influencers’ audience statistics, you can see whether they have the right audience for your campaign.

The next thing to think about is what results you’re looking for from the campaign and how you’ll monitor the influencer activity – for example, will they have a discount code which their followers can use when booking a table or tee time, or will they encourage their fans to follow your account?

In terms of how much influencer marketing might cost, this is all dependent on the influencer. Some influencers may offer promotional work on a value exchange basis, that is in exchange for gifted items / experiences, others will charge, and some will do both. I would work on the basis of around £100 per 10,000 followers as a guideline.

Within my own business, I work with the fabulous Chloe Gallacher (@onthegreenwithchloe) who I chatted to about her insights into the influencer world:

How can brands benefit from working with influencers?

In the UK, 45 million social media users, approximately 67 percent of the population, are spending around two hours a day on social media. I think that brands that aren’t working with influencers are therefore missing out on potential sales and brand awareness. When brands approach me, they know they will reach over 30,000 followers and, in my case, these are golfers or golf fans. Brands are also benefiting from unique content; when I’m approached, I create content that I know my followers want to see, which in turn creates high engagement rates and trust.

Tell us about some of the campaigns you’ve worked on in the past?

One campaign I particularly enjoyed working on was with the On Course Foundation, whose aim is to champion the recovery of injured and sick service personnel and veterans through nationwide golf events and employment in the golf industry. They wanted a video that created brand awareness, so I went to The Shire, met and interviewed golfers and then played a round with them while documenting the game. It was so much fun and rewarding too. It really opened up my eyes to another side of golf I knew nothing about. I also had a lot of messages from my followers saying that the interviews they heard had inspired them, which was lovely to hear.

My large following has also opened doors to many things I wouldn’t have done before – a couple of years ago I played in The Ladies Scottish Open pro-am with ten times major champion, Paula Creamer, and our team ended up winning! It was such an amazing experience for me, an amateur who has only played golf for three years playing with such a superstar!

What have been some of your favourite pieces of content?

Since I started my Instagram account I have worked with many brands, but one campaign I thoroughly enjoyed working on was with Golf Western Australia (WA). I am Australian and when I do go home, I also bring my golf clubs for the trip. When Golf WA asked me to create a video about the top courses in the state, I was thrilled! I put together content that showcased the best that WA had to offer as well as the unique features of each course, tagging each course I played along with Golf WA, and if visiting golfers mentioned they saw the promotion, they got a discount. All the clubs enjoyed an increase in visitors and followers, which was great!

What are the different ways brands can work with you?

If you’re after brand awareness or want to increase your followers, I can help by creating content. I can also collaborate with other influencers for double the impact or promote your brand all year long as an ambassador. As well as being an influencer, I am also a trained presenter with a degree in broadcasting. I’m comfortable in front of the camera and on stage – I have presented on the PGA EuroPro Tour on Sky Sports and I co-hosted the American Golf Awards night at The Belfry.