Influencer marketing has grown its popularity significantly. Every business wants to take advantage of influence marketing in 2021. Learn how.
As the world grows more technologically determinist, it’s ironic how the majesty of marketing is evolving while traditional advertising strategies are dissipating.
Attention is a commodity, and the demand for attention is ever-increasing. With an overwhelming amount of products on the market, consumers everywhere are starting to lose sight of who or what they can trust – so they turn to adblockers to help drown out the noise.
Consumers are taking measures to avoid being bombarded with ads, which poses a hindrance for brands trying to keep up with the digital landscape.
So what can you, as an entrepreneur or a small business owner, do to get your consumers’ attention?
Two words. Influencer. Marketing.
What Is Influencer Marketing?
In layman’s terms, influencer marketing is a branch of social media marketing where individuals with a significant social following across different social media platforms use their ‘influence’ to endorse people, organizations, or products. Influencers build a strong reputation in a particular niche by supporting your brand to help drive sales.
It’s about building connections. Influencers bridge the gap between consumer and product, showing audiences how they can connect with your product and how it can benefit one’s life.
As the power of social media proliferates, Influencer Marketing has become an ironclad way to get your target audience’s attention – and who better to help you garner attention towards your brand than someone who already has the public’s ear?
The results are irrefutable!
According to Business Insider, the influencer marketing industry is well on its way to becoming a multi-billion dollar industry by 2022, $15 billion to be specific.
And according to a study conducted by Tomoson, influencer marketing yields a good $6.50 return on investment (ROI) for everyone one dollar spent
It’s no wonder why influencer marketing is such a hot marketing trend right now. But where is it heading? And more importantly, how can you, as a business owner, capitalize on it?
You’re about to find out.
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Building Your Strategy
Let’s start with how you can build your influencer marketing strategy.
Determine your business’ goals and key performance indicators, so you develop a sense of direction in the influencer landscape. Doing this will also help you determine which path has the least resistance.
But it’s also important to understand that this route can feel like a gamble, especially if you’re working with influencers for the first time. To avoid taking unnecessary risks and ensure that your decisions guarantee a decent ROI, you can take the following steps:
- Build Brand Awareness
Building an online presence can be measured by your follower count, the number of likes/views you get, and the level of engagement you receive on your posts.
- Attract a New Market
To do this, you need to enlist influencers who can generate buzz and drive traffic towards your service or product through the creation of unique social media content. Attracting a target market is the paragon or brand awareness.
This way, once your goals are set, you’ll be able to measure your ROIs.
Understanding the Influencer Landscape
A crucial part of an effective campaign is building a relationship with your chosen influencer – but they must also be relevant. A relevant influencer is someone who understands your audience’s needs and consumer habits, someone whose opinions your audience will trust, especially with regards to making buying decisions.
You have to find influencers who can deliver based on audience demographics – someone whose identity aligns your brand’s vision and voice.
Instagram is ideally the first place to look as that is where the ‘influencer culture’ originated. But don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Instagram culture is constantly evolving, and with it, other opportunities on other social media platforms are growing too. The best way to make the best of your influencer marketing strategy is to capitalize on influencers from other platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube.
The idea is to essentially go wherever your consumers are active – influencers on platforms other than Instagram are more cost-effective.
Influencers exist at all levels come with a considerably large following, some with lesser than that, and some up-and-comers. But influencers from each category can get a brand’s attention.
Brands will also want to take advantage of the “micro-influencer” market to specialize and cater to niches instead of mass markets. It is also understood amongst avid social media users that the more popular the influencer, the lower the level of engagement.
Audible by Amazon partners with influencers and celebrities of all sizes, especially micro-influencers. Take Jesse Driftwood, for example; in the Instagram post below, and he talks about how he uses Audible to learn about business management and productivity, all whilst being involved in other activities. Jesse Driftwood has fewer than 100,000 followers on Instagram, but the Amazon marketing team noticed that his followers are loyal and engaged. His suggestions seem like “that of a friend.”
Influencers with a few thousand followers normally receive likes on their posts, while those with a few million followers will generally receive less. You should find an influencer with a following ranging between 10k-100k. That is considered the ‘sweet spot’ for maximum engagement. The number of followers is not as important to monitor as compared to overall engagement and quality of relationships.
Why You Should Consider Influencer Marketing
Spending your entire budget on influencer marketing based solely on statistics is counterproductive. Here are some points to consider when deciding to take the ‘influencer’ route.
#1 Evergreen Content
Influencer content is green – it can be re-edited, repurposed, shared on multiple channels, and monetized. Even once your campaign is over, your content will live on and will continue to be discovered by more and more audiences, increasing its level of engagement. Other branches of marketing typically require more investment in order to reap a decent ROI.
Social Media influencers started out as regular social media users – this means they learned the ins and outs of social media platforms before finding their place in the higher ranks and becoming social media experts. They have been on either side of the spectrum – both consumer and producer hence why influencer marketing content stays relevant.
#2 Influencer Marketing > Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing has pretty much chased consumers away by bombarding them with advertisements. Influencer marketing reaches those consumers; that is their niche. We live in the of millennialism – and every millennial has more or less declared their hatred towards advertisements.
Millennials are constantly on the lookout for content that they can relate to. That’s how you get them – through connections. There’s a sense of authenticity to influencer marketing that makes it easy to engage with.
#3 Cost-Effectiveness
With traditional marketing, you’ll find yourself spending more on redundant advertisements that give you little-to-no results and, in some cases, only manage to convert a small percentage of your target audience. With influencer marketing, you can easily get a decent conversion rate with the same amount of money or even lesser.
#4 Fosters a Positive Brand Image
Audiences will perceive your brand in a positive light when an influencer endorses your brand. It’s exactly like getting a good review. It will help you build a good brand image that traditional marketers work so hard to build.
Whenever an influencer posts about your product or reacts to it positively on a public forum, they develop trust with your brand, which translates into the way they endorse your product or service or brand. This will help grow your customer base as it boosts customer loyalty.
#5 Improves Search Rankings
Social mentions are important for off-page search engine optimization. Influencer marketing helps magnify your brand presence on social media, which gives you better rankings on search engines.
Although social media presence isn’t directly related to Google search engine rankings, it helps link popular influencers to your brand. With that said, search engine optimization shouldn’t be the sole reason you should pursue influencer marketing, but it is an indirect benefit.
Key Takeaways
So to sum it up, here’s what we know about Influencer Marketing so far:
- Influencers can help your brand build a diverse and strong backlink profile.
- Influencers create authentic content that is trusted by audiences of all demographics.
- Social media is the primary source for influencer marketing content and has a huge reach for your brand.
- Influencer marketing is more cost-effective as compared to traditional marketing.
- Influencer marketing is the best way to get through to your niche market organically through effort-based content.
- A good influencer strategy means identifying the right influencers, building substantial relationships with them, and collaborating with them to help your brand reach your audience.
- Never underestimate the power and reach of good social media content.
Conclusion
In conclusion, influencers are highly adaptable individuals, and influencer marketing is always evolving – the demand for trendy and authentic content will never cease, and now is it the time to strike while the iron is hot and get your brand noticed with the help of the right social media influencer. Since the world has now made a drastic shift from physical to virtual spaces, influencer marketing is now relevant more than ever!
