Influencer marketing is one of the fastest-growing marketing mediums and it is expected to reach $10 billion this year (2020). People spend more time on a video that shows a “real person” testing a product and giving a quick review instead of a more traditional commercial of the same duration.
Research shows audiences consider influencers to be more authentic than brands. The reality is that today’s influencer advertising isn’t very different from traditional commercials.
It just feels more accessible, since it’s on our phones and gives brands a human face. Not just any human face, but a face which the audience is familiar with.
Most of the time the followers of the influencers trust them because of their expertise in that particular niche.
And also because he is someone who is not a representative of the brand or a pushy salesperson.
What is influencer marketing?
In simple words, influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing where influencers endorse and mention a product and recommend it to their followers.
These influencers have a dedicated social following and are viewed as experts within their niche.
The followers of the influencers trust them a lot and hence they consider their recommendations for the products they recommend. Their recommendation also serves as social proof of the brand’s potential customers.
What is Market Value of Influencer Marketing?
Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook, etc., are well-known platforms for influencer marketing.
There are other networks as well which are growing fast into influencer marketing. In 2020 the influencer marketing is expected to become a $10 billion industry.
As per a survey conducted by Mediakix in 2018 about the ROI from influencer marketing, results were really thought-provoking.
89% of the respondents said that the ROI from influencer marketing was better than other advertising and marketing mediums.
Out of that 89 % of people, nearly two-thirds were willing to spend more into influencer marketing.
So, this clearly states the situation and future projections of influencer marketing.
Future of the influencer marketing is bright and more and more brands will follow in the steps to market their products through influencer marketing.
Why Influencer Marketing is Important?
No matter how much we refine our marketing funnels and try to control the buyer’s journey the reality of the fact is that the consumers now control their buyer’s journey themselves and not the marketers.
Even now they are becoming harder to reach through digital advertising.
Though there are various reasons for that, which are not a matter of discussion in this post. So we will cover those reasons in some other posts later.
But, yes it is true that the ROI nowadays from digital advertising is not as good as it used to be five or six years back.
Around 67 percent of marketers in developed countries are engaged in some form of influencer marketing.
This number is going to increase further because of the social media influencers gaining more exposure.
The Shift in the Influencer Economy is for the Good
Even now the influencer economy is shifting towards better solutions and embracing tools like dedicated influencer networks, it will help brands reach out to the influencers more easily.
Brands that are not part of it are losing control and they quickly need to think about it and include influencer marketing into their marketing mix.
Conventional digital marketing is now going through a sea change.
Ad blockers, expensive advertisements, fraud clicks, irrelevant ad placements, etc., are just offering diminishing returns to the advertisers.
According to a survey conducted in 2018, around 66 percent of consumers see an ad multiple times a day on different places they go online and that’s overwhelming.
20 percent of consumers said they would boycott a brand and its products because of the excessive advertisements they show to the consumers.
So, so it goes without saying that influencer marketing is the best way for brands to reach out to their customers without ad fatigue.
Best Features of the Influencer Marketing
The best part of influencer marketing is that it delivers authenticity and social proof, unlike traditional digital and non-digital ad campaigns.
Influence marketing is not just about the reach and clicks, rather it goes beyond that.
It offers to drive continuous engagement and conversation with the consumer which builds trust, generates revenue, and also helps build loyal customers.
If we talk about the marketing matrix and business goals that align to those matrixes we see that it helps:
- Attract new customers
- Increase repeat purchases
- Driving customer loyalty
- Maximizes customer lifetime revenue
- Delivers better ROI than other traditional marketing platforms
- Less expensive than the traditional advertising mediums
Today consumers want authentic voices, not faceless sales executives who use the same old tricks. Brands and marketers no more can ignore influencer marketing.
Influencers have the power to drive business growth and deliver authenticity to the products and brands that engage with audiences.
So, influencer marketing is a powerful tool to reach out to your audiences with more authenticity and social proof.
How does Influencer Marketing work?
The marketing landscape has significantly changed and now consumers determine what message they want to see. Marketers are under the constant pressure of more customer acquisition and grow revenue.
But, at this point, it is very important to understand that the marketing is no longer about showing ads, creating storylines, punch lines, celebrity endorsements, and offering discounts, rather it is about delivering delightful consumer experiences.
Brands don’t have the center stage at present, whereas the consumers have.
To be the part of the conversation which consumers want you to have to play by their rules.
Social media is where consumers are having their conversations and influencer marketing is the best way to reach out to them in the most impactful manner.
Why?
Because consumers mostly ignore the thousands of ads they see online.
Brands and marketers connect with those influencers on social media and the influencers create content having branded engagement.
This helps brands introduce their products to new audiences through the voice and trusted relationship of these influencers.
When influencers write or talk about their own experiences and share compelling content about a brand or a brand’s product, it can have a dramatic effect on their audience.
Brands understand that partnering with social media influencers would create an authentic voice for their products.
Because the influencers have the ability to share product and brand information that shapes purchase decisions by their followers and brand audiences.
It’s No More about the Celebrity Endorsement
The early days of influencer marketing were all about celebrity influencers like sportsmen, fashion models, film stars, and social media stars.
But, it’s no longer about the celebrity influencers and their product or brand endorsements.
Rather it is now in the hands of the individuals who have a huge fan following on social media.
Nielsen reports 92 percent of people to trust recommendations from individuals even if they don’t know them over brands.
How Influencer Marketing Drives ROI?
Influencer marketing leverages the trust which followers place into the influencers.
Because people trust them and regard them as someone who has more knowledge and experience and any recommendation from him/her would be whetted.
Hence, the influencers have the powerful ability to move their followers into action.
For instance, if an influencer who is into the electronics and recommends a particular brand’s air conditioner because he has tested it and found it reasonably priced and a good fit for the people like him, that summer automatically that brand’s sale of air conditioners would go up without spending on traditional and digital marketing channels.
One influencer can influence thousands of purchase decisions (followers) in one go which probably thousands, even millions of digital ad impressions can’t achieve in several weeks.
A survey recently conducted by an influencer marketing agency and reported that influencer marketing delivers the second-highest ROI of any digital channel.
Even some marketers and brands have achieved 11X returns from influencer marketing whereas digital marketing was only returning 5X of digital spending.
Influencer content is evergreen, meaning that it continues to deliver value long after the period that the campaign is enabled.
How to Develop an Influencer Marketing Plan?
And now that you know what is influencer marketing and why it is important for the brands and companies those who understand the power of influencer marketing, let’s examine how to create a strategy for influencer marketing.
Set Goals
The first step in an influencer marketing plan is to set goals for the campaign. Usually, goals for influencer marketing are more about creating brand awareness and less about increasing sales.
A brand should define its goals in measurable terms, for instance, to create brand awareness among 3 million of its target audience.
And this should be done and documented even before you reach out to an influencer.
Identify the Most Relevant Influencers
Digital tools like SocMetrics, Upfluence, TweetDeck, Klear, etc, make it very easy for companies to analyze the social media landscape for the most influential influencer profiles based on geography, category, or other demographic data.
You can use any of these tools and find out who should be your influencer to do the influencer marketing for your brand.
Build a Relationship with Influencers
It’s always good to have a relationship with an influencer before asking them to advocate for a product or brand.
This helps you understand the influencer, their way of working, their comfort level, and how well you can use them for your influencer marketing campaign.
A simple email, Facebook, or LinkedIn message or even a tweet can help start building a relationship with your influencer.
It’s easier than asking them directly to talk about your product to their followers.
Provide Content in a Format which Your Influencer is Comfortable With
Deliver content and advertising material to influencers in the format that is more convenient for them whether that be print, video, audio, or some other format.
Also, if required you can explain to them the functionalities and features of the product which they show to their followers for a better impression.
Don’t Neglect Minor Social Networking Sites
Usually, brands approach influencers on Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter.
But there is plenty of smaller social network which has huge potential for the brands to leverage through influencer marketing.
Especially the regional small social media networks are best to reach out to your target audience in specific geographies.
Keep Tracking the Matrix
Marketers should keep tracking their goals every month to measure the success or failure of the influencer program.
If a plan is not having the desired effect, brands must reach out to new influencers.
The influencers who do it well and give results should be retained so that they continue to support the brand on their blogs and websites.
How to Track the ROI of Your Influencer Marketing Campaign
There are a few ways of measuring the success of your influencer marketing campaign.
You can create a specific hashtag with your brand name or product name to track what your influencers are doing.
Or you can also watch for mentions of specific keywords or brand mentions using tools like mention or even Google Alerts.
There are various ways influencer marketing can help a brand like:
- increasing brand visibility,
- increase social engagement,
- boost conversions, and
- generate leads, etc.
But of all of the matrix, sales, subscribers, and downloads are the most straightforward metrics to quantify to calculate a return on investment from the influencer marketing.
There are various ways to do this:
Set up a different landing page for the influencer
The page serves as an entry point for the influencer’s audience through which you can track visits and conversions. This will help you measure your goal completions and ROI.
Create a custom promotional code for signups or purchases
This is a win-win strategy as you’ll be able to effectively attribute conversions to a specific influencer who is offering his/her followers a special discount as an incentive.
Generate a unique affiliate link for each influencer
This allows you to track online sales made through the influencer’s blog and social media channels. And also the influencer can track it and calculate his commission for these sales. Or at least know the number of people who clicked the link and took action on the brand’s website.
Launch an isolated influencer campaign
Select a specific product and promote it through influencer marketing channels for a period of time.
Do not promote it through any other channel and track sales for the duration of the campaign.
This will give your real picture of your influencer marketing campaign.
Conclusion
Access to Social Media has changed the entire landscape of influencer marketing and it is no more just about celebrities. Rather it is now about the most relevant people who have expertise in their niche.
And their followers love and trust them even more than the well-known celebrities. Probably in the next couple of years, this area will see more change positively.
There is nothing to be scared of influencer marketing.
Set up your goals, set your budget, identify your influencer, and create content which your audience would love.
Push it through the influencers and you will see that your influencer marketing campaigns can create magic for your brand.
