In marketing, the term “influencer” refers to a generalized category of people who use their massive reach on social media to promote products or services to their audience who are interested in learning what they are promoting. Influencers fall into identity tiers depending on the types of products they favor and the size of their audience.

Research shows that more than 17% of retailers are now focusing their marketing budgets on this channel, and 90% of consumers engage with influencers on a weekly basis. According to a report by Influencer Marketing Hub, this trend continues to grow, with the influencer marketing industry projected to surpass $16.4 billion by the end of 2022.

Marketers looking to expand their customer engagement options could have untapped opportunities with influencers, as these cohorts can be essential to a successful customer-centric marketing campaign.

influencer community

According to Hector Pantazopoulos, SourceKnowledge’s co-founder and CRO, influencers build an audience that is interested in buying products they promote in order to take advantage of a special discount or offer.

Influencers can act independently or affiliate with specific brands. Within the influencer community, some band together in a network connected to marketers looking to connect with specific audiences. This is what Pantazopoulos offers with the publisher network SourceKnowledge.

So far he has only worked on a referral basis to attract new influencer members. In late September, the company began recruiting new, skilled, business-focused influencers to meet growing retail demand.

“Evidence shows that what consumers see on their social media feeds can be influenced by their purchases,” Pantazopoulos told the E-Commerce Times. “Helping content creators maximize their earnings is at the core of our values, so we’re excited to open the opportunity for more social media accounts to join the SourceKnowledge Influencer Network.”

expand spheres of influence

With inflation at an all-time high and a recession looming, or according to some reports here already, consumers are actively looking for deals. He added that working with deal-centric influencers is an excellent way for brands to stay in front of their audiences who may want to cut advertising costs.

The open web network enables incremental reach for retailers and increased revenue for publishers. It enables authentic, deal-focused content to help influencers grow their business and their followers find great deals on their favorite brands and products.

Influencer networking helps brands partner with the right candidates. Companies like SourceKnowledge provide a clearing house for this advertising approach.

By signing up, influencers get instant access to the budgets of top media retailers. They can quickly generate monetizable links for their favorite retailers and earn a best-in-class cost-per-click (CPC) rate. The SourceKnowledge Influencer Network allows retailers to add nano and micro influencers to their media mix with goal-based parameters.

“It can be a drain on resources for large e-commerce brands and direct-to-consumer (DTC) companies to identify and directly cement agreements with micro-influencers that reach their target audiences,” he offered as a key benefit for companies like his.

Influencer Tiers

Influencer marketing is now a significant business driver for big brands and smaller retailers to retain customers. But the process isn’t always a quick fix to boost sales.

It takes time for influencers to bond with loyal followers. However, with the right combination of influencers, brands can significantly increase customer attention.

Nano-influencers are alternatives to traditional paid influencer marketing, known as macro-influencers. Those in the nano tier typically receive little to no pay. Instead, they get free products or services in exchange for posting in their own style on their social media platforms.

The macro level, on the other hand, claims from 500,000 to a million followers. Their social media presence and top notch pay from major brands usually generate all of their income.

Micro-influencers push products to highly segmented audiences, often giving them the most direct impact. According to Pantazopoulos, they can generate up to a 60% higher engagement rate with brands compared to macro influencers.

He suggested that today’s influencers are in some ways an extension of what people were doing before the trend made its way onto social media.

“Recommendations used to be an integral part of retail. You may have received a flyer in the mail, or you may have gone to the local grocery store and found an item on sale. You would call your friends and let them know. Today’s ecommerce influencers are very similar,” said Pantazopoulos.

How it works

Part of SourceKnowledge’s expansion includes onboarding other agencies in the influencer business. Take for example the affiliate advertising program MyDealAddiction, which is active on Facebook and participates in the Amazon Affiliate Program.

Since joining the SourceKnowledge Influencer Network, MyDealAddiction has worked with retailers such as Wine.com, Wayfair, Chewy, Michael Kors, Macy’s, Womanizer, and more. This relationship has already produced results.

“SourceKnowledge has helped me connect with a variety of reputable retailers and offers a very fair and straightforward payment model,” said MyDealAddition’s Michelle St. Pierre in the network expansion announcement.

His network operates on a cost-per-click ad revenue model, which websites use to bill advertisers based on the number of times visitors click on a display ad attached to their websites, Pantazopoulos explained.

In this model, participating influencers are paid for every valid click and not just through commissions. He added that it helps retailers and ecommerce brands easily harness the power of influencer marketing.