When looking into influence marketing, most SME businesses naturally ask the question of which influencer is the right fit for their brand, marketing style and ethos.

However, it is also important not only to focus on the particular influencer, their size, audience and effect on your business, but also the method in which you work with a particular influencer to generate interest in your brand.

Typically there are two types of influencer marketing, which differ in terms of overall goals, ideals and the nature of the content generated. These are transactional influencer marketing and relational influencer marketing.

Transactional Influencer Marketing

Transactional marketing is typically the standard type of marketing strategy for many brands because it works in a fundamentally similar way to standard web advertising and can be measured in the same way.

You pay an influencer to post a certain message at a certain time, you measure the number of impressions it generators and work out a CPM cost per impression, which can be compared to other email marketing systems.

This is a good system to use in the short term, as it is easy to set up, easy to create a campaign and easy to measure.

Relational Influencer Marketing

The other way to use influencers is to more naturally integrate your products and services into an influencer’s content. Younger audiences are increasingly savvy when it comes to marketing, and in some cases playing the long game will yield better results.

This involves spending more and having long relationships with influencers, but rather than paying for single posts, you have individuals popular within your target market who can act as ambassadors and spokespeople.

Whilst this tactic is harder to measure using standard analytics, it can be better for your brand throughout a long term commitment.