Years ago, the influencer world was limited to only celebrities and dedicated bloggers. Today, thousands of influencers across the world make a living from influencer marketing. It is the best way for brands to authentically connect to consumers.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing includes endorsements and product placements from people with a large following online, focusing on influential people rather than the target market as a whole.
Nowadays, any business can market themselves by saying exactly what the customers want to hear. And customers are smart enough to know when it is authentic and when it is not.
Influencer Marketing allows businesses to connect with customers in a way they cannot ignore on channels they already love and visit frequently. This builds a high level of trust for your brand.
Using influencer marketing will help increase word-of-mouth for your business with true, authentic marketing your customers will believe. Influencers with high follower counts reach a broad, more niche audience than traditional marketing. It is even better if that influencer is passionate about the category of your product or service!
Growing Your Business’s Revenue
Influencer Marketing builds credibility and trust for your brand, and in return, drives sales.
In recent years, people have become more interested in posts that aren’t overly edited and posed. They simply no longer want to listen to, learn from, or take advice from someone whose life seems unattainable to them. Instead, they want to see an influencer’s reality, which includes having bad days, making mistakes, and sharing their own insecurities.
Because of this open transparency, more people trust and follow influencers, meaning there are more people to see and buy sponsored content.
- The Influencer Marketing Industry is set to grow to approximately $13.8 Billion by the end of 2021
- 9 out of 10 brands are using some form of influencer marketing
- Influencers with 1,000-5,000 followers can have higher engagement rates than influencers with 100,000+ followers
- As of 2020, 92% of consumers trust influencer marketing over traditional advertising, according to the Nielsen Consumer Trust Index
- On average, businesses generate $6.50 in revenue for each $1 invested in influencer marketing
Influencers have a lot of power and influence in what they say and do because they have a large audience that trusts them. A lot of followers want to be just like their favorite influencer and will purchase any of their recommendations.
Many followers believe in and will try almost anything their favorite influencer says is worth it. That is why it is crucial for brands to get their products to the right influencers who will then show it to their audience.
Instagram, blogs, podcasts, YouTube, and TikTok are some of the more popular channels you will find influencers on.
How to Create an Influencer Marketing Strategy
1. Find the right influencers in your industry
2. Set a budget and management strategy
3. Decide on goals and message
4. Contact the influencers
5. Review the campaign and refine your strategy after completed
Work with Micro-Influencers
Most companies want to work with micro-influencers who have up to 100,000 followers. Micro-influencers tend to focus more on a particular niche. They are often considered authorities in that niche, which is why their audience trusts them tremendously.
There are influencers out there who have millions of followers. These influencers are seen more like celebrities and sometimes don’t have the influence over their audience as influencers with a couple thousand followers.
Influencer Marketing has quickly moved from a start and stop, once or twice a year tactic, to a year-round strategy. After enough brand partnerships, some influencers have even turned influencer marketing into a full-time career.
Finding the right influencer with a niche in your industry, who will hopefully enjoy your product or service and share it with their followers, can be the hardest part. It is not guaranteed they will enjoy it and talk about it, but it’s always worth trying because the reward is so incredibly high!
Author Bio:
Jamie Walloch was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated from the University of West Georgia with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Mass Communications, with a concentration in Convergence Journalism, and a minor in Marketing. Through college, Jamie interned with the sales and marketing team of the national magazine publication ‘Modern Luxury’, while also managing social media for a large fashion designer. After college, Jamie moved to Madison, Wisconsin to be closer to family. She has been working at Mid-West Family Madison for almost 3 years total, with the past year and a half as the Digital Content Specialist, creating digital marketing content for social media, websites, etc. She enjoys fitness training and spending time with her two dogs, a white Shepard and a rescue Labrador-mix.
