The Power of Influencer Marketing
In a world that has grown to put emphasis on digital content, we are seeing traditional advertising, such as print advertising, decline in effectiveness for the majority of target audiences. Today, a large portion of consumers have a strong social media presence. So it only makes sense to advertise on these platforms. To successfully promote products and services, many organizations have embraced influencer marketing.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is the practice of brands partnering and collaborating with individuals with a strong social media presence, to promote their product or service. The influencer is often a prominent figure in the community that you wish to target. For example, an athletic wear company may wish to partner with a fitness influencer. The benefits of this would be that the product or service gains visibility online and to the influencer’s followers. In doing so, the brand is able to reach new potential clients and customers. Overall, increasing your brand exposure through influencer marketing is proven to boost your conversion rate.
Almost 70% of consumers trust what consumers say and recommend
In order for
influencer marketing to be successful, it’s important that the influencer has established trust and loyalty with their following. If your best friend or family member came up to you raving about the latest product that they tried, you’d likely be more intrigued to try it for yourself. Influencer marketing follows the same idea. When an influencer you trust and admire is endorsing a product, you trust that you will also have a positive experience with the product or service. You would have more confidence purchasing a product or service, because word of mouth promotion has become much more effective than other forms of advertising.
Micro or Macro?
You may have heard about nano, micro and macro influencers before, but what does it mean?
Nano-influencers have approximately 1,000 followers
Micro-influencers have 1,000-100,000 followers
Macro-influencers have 100,000-1,000,000 + followers
Just because they have a larger following, doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be more effective promoting your brand. Often, smaller influencers have a close relationship with their following and may have a higher engagement rate. They also may be more flexible with their fees and content schedules. On the other hand, macro influencers have a more diverse audience, have a more established position within the industry, and may have more experience working with brands.
68% of brands prefer Instagram for influencer marketing, followed by TikTok
What’s Trending on Social Media?
Ever wonder how a product becomes trendy? Often, it is due to social media influencers promoting the product. When influencers showcase a product, it creates a buzz. When this buzz is created for a product, it can quickly be spread across multiple social media platforms. People often have the tendency to follow trends due to our need for social acceptance alongside the persuasive power that the media has. Additionally, when we start to see our peers purchasing items that are trending on social media platforms, we are more drawn to purchasing them ourselves.
While there is never a guarantee that a product or service will become trendy, working with social media influencers to broadcast your product or service on their platforms is an effective way to increase your reach to potential clients.
Influencer Marketing Benefits:
How can partnering with an influencer help your brand? Here are some of the benefits of influencer marketing:
Builds Trust and Credibility
Successful influencers have built a strong foundation of trust and loyalty with their followers. Building upon this trust is an effective way to promote your business.
Engaging Way to Reach your Target Audiences
Influencer marketing is able to use precision targeting to reach your desired audience with influence.
Demonstrates your Product or Service Hands-on
The content created through influencer marketing is able to showcase the features of the product or service, which intrigues potential clients and provides them with the opportunity to determine if it is the right fit for them.
Boosts Brand Awareness
Influencers are able to promote your business to their platforms and to their audiences. In doing so, it has the ability to increase your social media presence and drive sales.
Tips and Tricks
Here are four tips for marketing with influencers:
Clearly Define your Goals
Determine what objectives you’d like to achieve through influencer marketing. Is it to increase social media engagement? Drive sales? Promote a new product?
Know your Target Audiences
To effectively reach your target audiences, you must know their preferences, platforms, and interests.
Choose the Right Influencers
Not only is it important to choose influencers who align with the type of product you provide, but it’s also necessary to find partners whose values align with those of your organization. Make sure they have a strong and loyal connection with their audience.
Track Performance
Monitor the performance of your marketing efforts so that you know what’s working and what isn’t. In doing so, you are able to adjust accordingly.
