Earning customer trust and increasing their engagement has long been a major concern for all businesses and brands in order for them to stay competitive and ensure their survival. If your brand has customer trust, you will win big time.
In this post, I’ll be presenting one of the most popular trust-earning methods that 71% of marketers report has better quality than other sources to generate leads, and that’s influencer marketing.
So without further ado, let’s dive in.
Influencer marketing has enjoyed rapid growth in the last few years thanks to social media, which allowed these “influencers” to get closer to their audiences by constantly sharing value with them. But first of all, what do we mean by influencer marketing?
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing aims to use the recommendations of a selected group of influencers, commonly referred to as digital influencers or ambassadors, and these can be humans or even animal influencers.
Originally oriented towards the most active members of communities or forums, influencer marketing now targets the most recognized bloggers on their topic, the most followed social network users on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, or established YouTubers. Public relations can also be considered an "old form" of influencer marketing. Today, public relations typically refers to media relations and engaging with journalists at national and global media outlets.
Statistically today, the preferred platforms for influencers are Instagram (89%), YouTube (70%), Facebook (45%), and Blogs (44%).
Thanks to influencers and ambassadors, your brand can increase its sales in a short time to both BtoC and BtoB audiences.
Influencer Marketing Statistics
Let’s take a look at the most interesting statistics about this promising industry.
According to the latest study from Statista, the influencer marketing market size has more than doubled between 2019 and 2021 with an estimated value of 13.8 billion US dollars.
In a recent survey carried out by Google, 70% of teenage youtube subscribers say they relate to YouTubers more than they do to traditional celebrities.
60% of marketers believe that influencer marketing has a better ROI (return on investment) than traditional advertising.
If done right, influencer marketing can generate up to $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer collaborations, according to a 2019 survey by The Influencer Marketing Hub.
In the United States alone, it’s estimated that businesses will be spending 4.62 billion dollars a year by 2023, marking an increase of 25% from 2021 to 2023.
Micro-influencers have a clear advantage when it comes to engagement rates compared to Macro-influencers and Social Media Superstars across TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube. (TikTok has a 17.9% engagement rate for Micro-influencers!)
Types of Influencers
Celebrity Influencer:
This type of influencer has more than 1 million followers on each platform they use, although sometimes they have less, and whose fame is derived from social media but not limited to it. They probably have some kind of TV, Music, or Movie presence and that’s a big contributing factor for their social media fame.
Mega-Influencer:
The next category we look at is Mega-influencers. They also have 1 million+ followers with a consistent viewership from their audience that has been loyal to them for a long time. These people work with a small number but notable brand deals consistently. Unlike celebrity influencers, these people got their fame primarily from social media platforms.
Macro-Influencer:
These influencers have 100k to 500k followers on one or more platforms (from 500k to 1 million is considered to be the grey area). Generally, these are people that are known for their expertise or passion in a certain niche and are open to collaborating with multiple brands.
Micro-Influencer:
This is where large volume influencer campaigns live because you have a lot of flexibility and these influencers are relatively affordable. They are people with 5k to 50k followers on each platform they choose but this small number is usually compensated by a high engagement rate thanks to their proximity and relatability to their community.
Nano-Influencer:
These influencers give a sense of personal interaction compared with unreachable celebrities with thousands of followers, and a lot of times they are friends following friends that’s why they enjoy a high level of trust. They usually have 1k to 5k followers and are used mostly for reaching a hyper-targeted audience in a specific niche, like a local event in a neighborhood.
Pros
There are many benefits for businesses when using influencer marketing.
As time goes on, it’s becoming more and more challenging to establish a presence on social networks. Using an influencer allows you to benefit from his community and bypass this obstacle.
Influencers are true professionals in the production of content. They are on the lookout for the latest trends and work hard to produce quality content that will resonate with their communities. From a technical point of view, this content also improves your SEO efforts with mentions and links that point to your website.
Influencer marketing requires less investment compared to advertising campaigns on traditional media. Brands can indeed offer non-paid partnerships by sending free products to the influencer.
Moreover, while digital marketing generally involves a delay of several months before obtaining interesting results, influencer marketing generates satisfactory results, almost immediately.
Cons
Influencer marketing also has few negative aspects that you need to consider. Here are some of them:
Influencer marketing does not give you a high level of control like other marketing methods, Facebook ads for example, where you can target by interests, age, country, etc. You can choose the influencer you are going to use and therefore the audience they have, but it is likely that there will still be people in that audience that you would not normally target.
If you use influencer marketing, you have to constantly search for contacts and talk to influencers who can potentially feature your next sponsored post. This can be stressful and time-consuming.
Choosing the wrong influencer can harm your brand image. On many occasions, the influencer is not committed to your brand and may say or do something that misrepresents your business when asked for a review for example.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing is a promising medium that businesses need to explore. Collaborating with an influencer can allow you to make your brand stand out or to differentiate yourself in an increasingly competitive market. Nevertheless, it is by conducting regular actions in your favor that these opinion leaders will succeed in influencing the buying behavior of their audience.
Need help with your influencer marketing strategy? Let’s work together.
Commenti