How many times have you gone to a restaurant or web store because your favorite influencer recommended it? After all, it’s only natural to trust the people that we admire and respect. If a brand tells you that their product is good, you’re likely to brush it off assuming (correctly) that they are just advertising it. It’s a similar situation to when your mother compliments you- even though it is genuine and she means it, a small part of your brain goes, “oh she has to say this, she is my mother after all”. However, if a third person who is unbiased tells you that a product is good, it is much more credible. This is the crux of Influencer Marketing.
What is Influencer Marketing?
It is a fairly new type of marketing that takes the help of popular celebrities, leaders, or other key important things to drive the business to success. It is closely associated with digital marketing and content marketing. In this type of marketing, brands/companies hire influencers to advertise their products to their followers/audience.
Benefits of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is gaining widespread popularity because of its undisputed success. It is not uncommon for people to judge influencers for making easy money. But it’s not actually easy and the people who engage in this profession are future-ready business-minded people with a clear vision.
They know what sells and they put in the time and energy to make it look so effortless that to the naked eye, it seems so effortless that people misjudge it as easy work.
The reason why new influencers pop up every single day is because of how much companies rely on them. Let us look at the reason why businesses are ready to pay these influencers good money for their exposure:
1. Increases brand awareness and Reach
Any influencer worth his/her salt has thousands and thousands of followers. By partnering with an influencer who is related to your niche, you can unlock access to more than thousands of new potential customers.
The extravagant and in-your-face promotions have become overused and overrated. The customers are smarter and more aware of the brand’s advertising techniques. A good influencer marketing strategy will help you increase your brand’s exposure and positioning online by making piquing the user’s curiosity know about your services and brand.
2. Build credibility and trust
The influencers who are close to their audience and understand their needs better than the companies are trusted. They have a strong relationship with their audience which is strongly responsible for attracting people to your service. Therefore, it is safe to say that collaborating with these influencers will bring more audience and trust to your brand and services.
3. Enrich your content strategy
It is normal for your marketing campaign to get monotonous if you keep following the same prototype for all new releases, products, etc. It is also normal to run out of creative ideas. This is when you need external help. Influencers can help you bridge these gaps in your content strategy by providing a fresh perspective and bringing their own unique style.
4. Win-win long-term partnerships
The people you surround yourself with speak volumes about you without even saying anything. In the end, it boils to building strong partnerships with someone who shares the same beliefs as yourself. Not just this, you should aim to foster relationships that increase sales for you by collaborating with influencers based on their field and the audiences they can influence.
A long-term partnership has two-fold benefits- you get the influencer’s commitment and you don’t have to expend resources in finding new influencers after every campaign.
5. Boost SEO, ROI, and bottom line
Influencer marketing also creates a positive impact on your page’s SEO. According to statistics, around 86% of advertisers use influencer marketing to boost their marketing campaigns, and 57% state its performance even exceeds the other brand-created content. So how does this impact SEO?
Well, it impacts SEO indirectly as influencer content will lead to more opportunities for you to build backlinks as you hit a larger audience through influencer marketing activities. In fact, according to analysis from QuickSprouts, social media engagement, indirectly or directly, enhance SEO endeavours.
Influencer marketing exposes you to new communities and thereby, giving an opportunity to expand your follower base, interactions, organic traffic, etc. and other metrics that improve Search Engine Optimization.
The influencer marketing’s benefits far outweigh the costs, positively impacting your ROI’s, boosting sales and saving more money.
6. Drive purchases decisions
Influencers have a strong relationship and healthy rapport with their followers. People trust them to give them content that is authentic and in their best interests. Where as brands are seen as big ominous capitalists only out to make money, the influencers care about their audience on a personal level. That is why, when an influencer promotes your product, the communities are much more easily convinced in the product.
In fact, according to DMI Blog statistics, 49% of people surveyed admitted that they had made purchase decisions based on influencers’ referrals. The percentage sits even higher for teenage audiences at 70%. Google revealed that 60% of Youtube viewers make buying decisions based on their favourite content creator’s recommendations.
7. Increase sales
The end goal of any marketing campaign is to increase sales and conversions. Whatever money companies spend on sending messages/interacting with users through influencers, they make about 18% or more of that!
These numbers are testimony to the importance of the role of influencer marketing in sales.
8. Cost-effective & Saves Time
Paid Ads are extremely competitive and consequently, the prices are always rising. Influencer marketing can be comparatively cost-effective. How much money an influencer charges for their services depends on their audience and the relevance of their niche.
Influencer marketing opens doors for new and creative opportunities for companies with more reliable and unique social media strategies on sites like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Some companies choose to pay influencers based on affiliate marketing, providing performance-based commissions. The strategy adopted by different companies varies and one isn’t better than the other. It depends on the company’s needs and resources.
It is time-efficient as you don’t have to start from scratch to build your follower base. The influencers are existing players in the social media scene and they allow you to outsource their audience and social media endeavors, saving considerable time and effort. According to research, 41% of advertisers have saved money on content production by involving content creators.
9. Unlimited Sharing Potential On Social Platforms
Influencers need to post content regularly to stay relevant and any renowned influencer interacts with his/her audience multiple times through comments, posts, blogs, etc. There are so many ways influencers can use this to amplify your brand exposure- inspiring storylines, positive product reviews on Instagram/ Youtube are a few to name.
10. Suitable for any Business
There are thousands of influencers, with new ones coming every day. Influencers usually have a particular niche, it can be anything from beauty, cooking, fitness, politics, etc.
So, no matter what business you’re working with, there will be influencers you can identify with. How you choose depends on your needs and the scale of your business. For instance, small businesses can benefit from collaborating with influencers whose following coincides with their target audience. On the other hand, larger businesses can afford to collaborate with celebrities for longer and more widespread campaigns.
Some other advantages of Influencer marketing
There is no way all the aforementioned benefits of Influencer marketing haven’t sold you on its allure yet. If, however, you still need some reassurance to get on the bandwagon, here are some other advantages of participating in Influencer Marketing:
- More reach and brand awareness.
- Better rankings and traffic.
- Helps in driving conversions.
- Quick, efficient and cost-effective.
Conclusion
By means of daily-engaging content and unlimited sharing potentials from the audience, influencers make your social media presence stronger and bolder. If you collaborate with the right influencers making them part of your content creation strategy, you will reap much more than you sow!
