How Your Brand May Benefit from Influencers
Influencer marketing has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years. Because it has proven to be an effective marketing channel for many brands, experts predict the influencer marketing industry will be a $5 – $10 billion dollar market as more brands shift their budgets to focus on influencers.
If your business is hoping to boost its social media presence, you may already be wondering how your brand can get in the game and gather the attention of powerful influencers. Let’s take a look.
What is influencer marketing?
Consumers today have come to expect easy access to companies and want to interact with brands via social media. This is how social media influencers first began and gathered the attention of marketers. Top content creators with specialty niches can raise and improve brand awareness, drive a message, and increase traffic. Instead of companies having to market to the masses, these key brand advocates organically take the message to larger audiences.
Does influencer marketing really work?
Eighty percent of marketers say influencer marketing is effective for their businesses, and 35 percent say it’s very effective. Unlike celebrity endorsements, where a well-known person is tied to a brand to promote it, influencers are trusted figures who develop a loyal following.
When faced with purchasing decisions, today’s consumers do online research and have come to trust other people. Thus, finding someone who provides testimony for a product or brand can make all the difference. In fact, 88 percent of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Are they good for my business?
To benefit the most from influencer marketing, it’s vital to understand your target audience. Consider: Are they on social media? What platforms are they using? If those are questions you can’t answer yet, it’s important to make the investment to find out before you consider jumping into trying to work with influencers.
A good influencer can:
- Establish brand trust.
- Become an authority.
- Create content.
- Improve SEO.
- Drive traffic.
- Grow your following.
- Convert leads.
- Generate sales.
- Take advantage of limitless social sharing.
- Engage audiences.
- Build relationships.
And some businesses can benefit more than others due to their product or service and the nature of social media. For example:
- Travel and tourism: With the rising popularity of Instagram, influencers are making a great impact on the industry. Photo-worthy destinations that receive good reviews and showcase enticing experiences become instantly desirable.
- Food and beverage: Creative influencers use social media to showcase every day eating as mouth-watering offerings and tempting libations.
- Fashion and beauty: YouTube and Instagram serve these industries so well that nearly 60 percent of these brands have an influencer marketing strategy.
- Health and fitness: Pew Research found that one in three American adults have gone online to figure out a medical condition and nearly 90 percent of people aged 18-24 trust health information or engage in health activities found on social media.
Where do I find influencers?
Having the wrong influencer can end up being less effective than not having one at all. Thus, identifying the right influencer to help you improve your brand awareness and reach is important.
Outliers author Malcolm Gladwell identified three types of influencers:
- Connectors: Word-of-mouth communicators who build a network filled with a wide range of people.
- Mavens: People who consume and share what they find.
- Salesmen: Those who possess great charisma and are fantastic persuaders.
When you decide on the type of influencer you want, Hubspot suggests doing your homework: search via Google, dig into social media, use professional connections to network and read industry blogs to find people you might consider. There are also a number of software tools such as Klout, BuzzStream, Traackr and BuzzSumo that will find influencers for you.
Where do I start?
Once you recognize how beneficial influencer marketing can be, you may consider implementing it for your brand. Don’t know where to start? Fell a little overwhelmed with the process? Give T.E. Digital a call. Let’s have a conversation about your business goals and how it may benefit your brand to develop an influencer marketing strategy.
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