Influencer marketing – that is, strategies that use digital influencers to connect a brand with the audience – is effective and accessible for smaller companies as well. This is what explains consultant Paula Tebett, a digital marketing specialist with 15 years of experience and a professor of MBA courses.
Paula Tebett offers tips and guidance in episode 8 of the Conexão Poli Digital series – a set of live videocasts promoted by Poli Digital, a platform that automates and unifies communication channels between companies and clients. The episode and the entire series are available for free on YouTube at the addresshttps://www.youtube.com/@poli.digital.
The specialist emphasizes that the first step for a company wishing to adopt influencer marketing is to identify influencers whose profiles align with the characteristics of the target audience they intend to communicate with. By influencers, one should not only understand celebrities but also opinion leaders in specific niches or locations.
In this way, the strategy is applicable not only to large companies, as it is possible to hire opinion leaders on smaller scales. What is fundamental, reiterates Paula Tebett, is that the influencer "has to be related to the brand," that is, the target audience must be considered when selecting an influencer. It is necessary to identify the right influencers from specific niches.
Thus, the primary question is not the number of followers on social media. The first point to analyze is whether what the influencer communicates, how they position themselves, and how they act align with the brand's objectives.
For influencer marketing practices, a recurring misconception, observes the consultant, lies in the content assigned to the influencer, as well as in the methods of dissemination. "It's no use, for example, asking the influencer to keep making 'stories' [Instagram feature] just for the sake of it. It's important that the content creates a connection between the followers and the influencer," he emphasizes.
Paula Tebett draws attention to a tool with great potential, but generally underutilized: WhatsApp's 'status'. "Almost no one sees that it can be a strategy," he says, mentioning his own successful experiences with the use of this resource. "When I use it, I receive many return messages."
The specialist also considers it essential for a company to have automated and centralized communication channels for engaging with consumers and clients. She exemplifies this by citing how it is common for companies to receive a comment or message from a consumer on Instagram and respond by asking them to contact via WhatsApp.
“In most cases, people won’t do this. This is one of the most common mistakes that companies can’t make. There needs to be this automated centralization on the part of the company and not keep taking the customer from one place [communication channel] to another,” he warns.
In this regard, Paula Tebett highlights the importance of platforms like Poli Digital, whose technological solution integrates WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook communications, enables the use of a single number by multiple attendants, and allows the creation of flowcharts and automations for customer service, among other functionalities. Poli Digital is an official partner of Meta, the group that owns WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.
