Basic Guide To Influencer Marketing
The rise of social media means that businesses have to build a powerful presence online in order to stay relevant, and remain ahead of their competitors.
Remember, your brand isn’t just pitted against others within your geographic market; it has to stand out on an international scale due to the global nature of the online world.
This has prompted marketers to come up with innovative marketing strategies and techniques that can be used to spread brand awareness and build brand loyalty – without coming off as too sales-oriented.
One such strategy is influencer marketing; not only does it encompass all these elements, but its success in recent years has been undeniable.
In fact, for every dollar spent on influencer marketing, businesses make around $5.20 in media value. This has resulted to over 63% of brands wanting to increase their budgets for this strategy in 2020.
Here’s what influencer marketing is, and how it can be used to build a successful brand online.
Decoding Influencer Marketing
In short, influencer marketing is the collaboration of a brand with a social media influencer for promotion and increased credibility.
When carried out properly, this can help businesses increase lead generation and ROI on their marketing strategies.
With over 320 new agencies and influencer marketing platforms created last year, it’s clear that influencer marketing is here to stay.
Who Is Considered An Influencer?
There are absolutely no particular qualifications required for someone to be considered an influencer.
Anyone with a large enough social media following can share their reviews regarding products and services – which soon leads to them being perceived as experts in that niche.
Influencers can be bloggers, photographers, or even activists who use various social media platforms to connect with their audience, and build a following.
However, influencers should not be confused with mainstream celebrities; not only are influencers more ‘accessible’ and ‘relatable’ than celebrities, they also develop personal connections with their followers by sharing experiences, telling stories, and through daily interactions.
Their influence stems from the fact that their viewers and followers can relate to their problems, and success. Rather than being put on pedestals, these people are every day humans living their lives and inspiring others.
This relationship ensures that their opinions aren’t simply brushed off as fake, biased, or even sponsored; around 33% of respondents in a study revealed that influencers were their most trusted source for recommendations while shopping.
Unearthing The Rise Of Influencer Marketing
While celebrity endorsements have been in existence for decades, they are slowly starting to die out as influencer marketing takes over.
While the concept of influencer marketing was rather foreign to marketers when it was first introduced, over time, it has become one of the most effective social media strategies today.For example, when a rather bold brand, i.e., Daniel Wellington, chose to ditch the conventional way, and opted for influencer based marketing, it went from $15k to $220 million in four years.
Such success stories have inspired modern marketers to work alongside influencers. According to MediaKix, 80% of marketers now speak for the effectiveness of influencer marketing, while 71% agree that it can drive more qualified traffic to their sites.
Benefits Of Influencer Marketing
The personal relationships formed between the influencer and their followers’ is the main reason why this marketing strategy is so successful.
This, added to the fact that influencer marketing is more cost effective, makes it the perfect way for brands to build trust with their target audience.
Businesses that partner up with the right influencers observe massive social media popularity – take for example, SugarBearHair. The brand has managed to build a loyal followers base of 2.4 million, due to their collaborations with popular influencers like the Kardashian sisters.The reason behind this is that when influencers endorse a product, their dedicated followers start following the brand – and eventually turn into customers.
Developing the right content and enough of which is just as important. Majority of influencers usually just take a quick snap of your product and that photo becomes the only asset you recieve or that goes live, its critical to encourage your influencers use video given that it is undoubtedly the most powerful medium, checkout our “why invest in video marketing 2019” article. Using the right type can make all the difference to an influencer campaign.
Deciding on the right types of content can be challenging, choosing what’s most appropriate for your market and what platforms certain content types work best on can just be confusing. Checkout our “4 best content types for social media” article. to find out the best types of content for different platforms.
What Does The Future Hold
With brands now planning to maximize their budget for influencer marketing, it’s expected that the quality and effectiveness of this avenue of marketing will also increase over time. Experts also predict that influencer marketing is set to becoming $5 – $10 billion market by the next year.
In other words, influencer marketing is no longer a mere tactic to consider, but a profit-driving strategy that will soon become a norm for all industries.
