Quick Breakdown of Key Point
Influencer marketing is an advertising strategy that involves leveraging the influence of popular individuals on social media to promote a brand or product. This type of marketing can lead to increased engagement with potential customers and help businesses reach new audiences.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing involves the use of people with significant influence on social media, commonly referred to as “influencers”, to drive awareness and engagement with a brand’s product or services. These influencers are often seen as credible sources when they recommend products or services to their followers, and so have the potential to reach much wider audiences than most traditional marketing channels.
While it is generally accepted that influencer marketing can be extremely successful in driving product sales and raising brand awareness, its effectiveness has also been debate. Someone might argue that influencers use misleading techniques to culturally justify product promotion for the sake of financial gain – ultimately not providing an accurate representation of their experiences. On the other hand, it could be argued that when used correctly this type of marketing can actually create trust between a brand and a consumer. This is because influencers tend to be seen as more relatable than brands, making it easier for them to communicate messages in ways that resonate with the right audience.
Evidence would suggest that well-executed influencer campaigns tend to yield positive results. For example, GoPro leveraged YouTube videos with influential outdoorsy personalities gaining over 3 million views and doubling sales projections.(1) Similarly, luxury fashion retailer Net-a-Porter collaborated with popular Instagrammers resulting in a 25% rise in website traffic from new customers.(2)
It’s clear that when done well, influencer marketing can bring real benefits for brands but finding the right influencer – who uses authentic content – should be at the core of any campaign. With this in mind, let’s explore what benefits there are for brands willing to embark on an influencer marketing campaign.
(1) https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-case-studies-show-power-influencer-marketing/
(2) https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-marketing-case-study
Benefits of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing provides a unique platform for businesses seeking to build their brand’s success. This type of marketing focuses on using influential people to promote your products or services through word-of-mouth communication. It is an effective and engaging way to generate conversions without having to pay for expensive ad campaigns.
The biggest benefit of influencer marketing is its potential to reach a larger audience and increase sales. Studies have found that the majority of consumers are more likely to purchase a product if it has been recommended by someone they trust. Influencers not only provide product endorsements, but also serve as reliable sources for credible information about a company. People respect what these influencers say because they have gained their trust over time by consistently providing high quality content. This can make them more receptive to purchasing recommendations made by brands they follow or admire.
Another great benefit of influencer marketing is that it can help build strong relationships with target audiences. By working with influencers who share similar values and interests as the business, companies can establish trust in their potential customers and encourage repeat purchases from existing ones. A well-executed influencer campaign can also lead to increased social media engagement and loyalty amongst followers as well as foster positive word-of-mouth advertising for the brand.
Overall, leveraging influencer marketing is an effective way to reach consumers, build relationships, and ultimately bring success to any brand. Through carefully selecting an influencer who resonates with the intended audience and crafting an impactful message, businesses can maximise the benefits of this powerful tool. Not only will this lead to increased engagement and sales, it also helps to strengthen customer relationships while broadening a business’s public reach. As companies strive to keep up with fast-paced shifts in consumer behaviour, establishing meaningful connexions through reliable influencers is key to helping brands remain competitive in a crowded market space.
As the importance of building relationships with customers continues to grow, so does the opportunity presented by reaching out with tailored content via influencers. In the upcoming section, we explore how businesses can effectively engage with their audiences through strategically crafted messages delivered by trusted third-parties from within the same community.
Reaching an Audience
The reach an audience achieved through influencer marketing is perhaps the most valuable benefit of all. By partnering with individuals or organisations that are experts in their field, it gives a brand credibility and visibility within a larger circle of influence. It can also help a brand break into new markets that they may have not been able to access before.
However, this type of marketing isn’t without its drawbacks. For example, some brands may find themselves stretching too thin and targeting the wrong people when selecting influencers. Since partners are not always chosen for the right reasons, their message may get lost among others in the industry and fail to reach the intended audience altogether.
At the same time, there are many success stories out there so long as these pitfalls are avoided. When done well, influencer marketing has not only increased brand awareness but also customer engagement and conversion rates. For instance, North Face was able to garner over two billion impressions from its campaign featuring outdoorsy micro-influencers, resulting in high customer engagement and conversion rates on both Instagram and YouTube channels.
Reaching an audience is just one part of leveraging influencer marketing for success; however taking the right steps to engage consumers plays an even greater role in unlocking greater returns on investment. To learn more about effective ways to engage consumers through influencer marketing, read on!
- According to a 2018 global survey by advertising research firm Magna, 82% of marketers said influencer marketing provided better ROI than other marketing methods.
- In 2020, 77% of marketers reported that influencer marketing is effective in reaching targeted audiences with specific interests and demographics.
- A study published in the Journal of Advertising Research concluded that consumers may be more likely to trust an influencer’s opinion over those of traditional brands or advertisements.
Engaging Consumers
Now that you’ve established an audience to reach out to, it’s time to consider how to engage those consumers. Many businesses and brands make the mistake of going straight for the sale instead of offering something valuable in the way of building relationships and trust.
It is essential to build loyalty among your followers through thoughtful interactions and conversations. Not only are you connecting with potential customers, but you are also reinforcing your brand’s values and mission. Influencers are also powerful tools when it comes to engaging with followers; as more people exhibit personal brand faithfulness, they will recognise the influencers who play a part in promoting the company’s brand.
On the other hand, some may argue against using too much engagement as it could lead to higher customer service costs due to such efforts taking up more resources and time within the organisation. This is true however research has shown that customers who feel like their questions or requests have been heard and responded to promptly are more likely to become loyal customers in the near future. Therefore investing in meaningful customer interactions can have long-term benefits for a business or brand in terms of customer loyalty and increase in sales.
Overall, a successful marketing campaign should involve meaningful engagement with consumers through conversations, polls, or Q&As conducted by influencers or your own team. You need to provide value in order for people to come back for more and even spread the word about your brand – which requires consistently engaging with them accordingly. With this strong footing, it will be easier to properly introduce various types of influencer marketing campaigns that will capture consumer attention in creative ways.
Types of Influencer Marketing Campaigns
Engaging consumers to market your brand requires careful consideration, and influencer marketing campaigns are one of the most effective tools available. Influencer marketing campaigns can be tailored to target a specific demographic and are powerful because they often come with trust, as influencers align their personal brands with those of the companies they partner with. There are several types of influencer marketing campaigns that can be implemented, each with different goals and results.
Brand ambassadors are an example of influencer marketing strategy – this particular type of campaign involves partnering with one or more influential figures in order to create a long-term relationship between the brand and fan base. The idea is that the ambassador is seen as an extension of the company, which gives direct access to their target audience. Brand ambassadors have been used effectively by companies such as AirBnB and Benefit Cosmetics.
Another type of influencer marketing is content collaborations – these involve working directly with influencers to create original material for the promotion of a product or service. This includes sponsored posts, tutorials and reviews. Content collaborations are great for reaching new followers and engaging current customers, creating high quality content without putting too much effort into production. Popular examples include Nike’s collaboration with YouTube stars on sneaker unboxing videos and Buzzfeed Tasty partnering with McDonald’s on recipes.
The third type of campaign to consider is event sponsorship. This involves sponsoring an event in order to access its attendees, building brand loyalty amongst them while providing industry exposure. Event sponsorships provide an opportunity to connect face-to-face with customers as well as introduce new products or services through demonstrations or interactive activations. Allegra recently collaborated with Advertising Week Europe in order to gain exposure amongst marketers, while Gillette sponsored a variety of events at Wimbledon 2018.
No matter what type of influencer campaign you choose, selecting the right influencers who represent the values you wish to communicate is key – make sure they match the identity and tone of voice you want your target audience to know from your brand. With the right influencers on board, you can build relationships and extend your reach beyond what traditional advertising methods would ever be able to achieve. Now that we’ve explored types of influencers and how you can leverage them for success, let’s look into how you can craft a strategy for your own unique situation – starting with understanding who your target audience is based on demographics and interests.
How to Build an Influencer Marketing Strategy
It’s essential to build an effective influencer marketing strategy for your brand’s success. It should be custom-tailored to suit your target audience, the market you are working in, the goals of your business, and the type of influencers you will be working with. To build a successful influencer marketing strategy, there are five key steps that need to be taken:
1. Identify Your Objectives: Before creating any influencer campaign, it is critical to set measurable objectives, both short-term and long-term. Doing so allows you to track progress and determine what type of results were achieved by the influencers. This will provide valuable insight into the success of your campaign and enable future campaigns to be refined and improved.
2. Research Your Target Audience: Knowing who your target audience is and understanding their needs is essential for developing an effective influencer marketing strategy. Analysing the demographics, interests, behaviours and values of your target demographic will give you insights into what types of influencers they’ll want to connect with and what content resonates best with them.
3. Find and Reach Out To The Right Influencers: Rather than randomly selecting and contacting potential influencers, use data-driven analysis to identify the right people for your brand that possess massive followings within your target audience. When reaching out to these individuals, it’s important to come off as genuine and authentic–not like Solicitors/ spammers–and address how their collaboration with your brand can benefit both yourself and their followers.
4. Create Engaging Content: Once you’ve established a relationship with an influencer, work with them closely to develop meaningful content that resonates with their followers–tailoring each post to specific holidays or seasons or topics related to your industry for example–in order for the content created during the campaign period look consistent across all distribution channels (e.g., blogs, Instagram posts etc.). Taking time to craft customised messages specifically tailored towards each influencer’s followers will help boost engagement on each post and make sure that messages don’t feel too generic or spammy.
5. Measure Results And Refine Your Strategy: To assess the effectiveness of an influencer campaign over time, use analytics tools such as Google Analytics or other social media platforms analytics tools (such as Instagram Insights) which allow you measure engagement levels on each post in addition to website traffic conversion rates in order refine your strategy accordingly if necessary.
Ultimately, building a successful influencer marketing strategy requires creativity coupled with strategic planning in order ensure maximum ROI (return on investment). By taking these five steps into account when creating campaigns, brands can make sure they are optimising resources while still generating net positive results prior investing heavily in future campaigns.
