Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
There is no-one who can deny that influencer marketing is currently the best form of marketing. Itās popular, effective, and delivers quick results. Consumers want to listen to people they look up to and this often means that thereās a trust already developed.
If youāve never used influencer marketing before, you may be wondering where to start and how it all works. The benefits of this type of marketing are endless but here are some you should know about.
Visible Brand
Your brand canāt do what it sets out to do without visibility. The strength of your brand dictates the success of your business. Influencer marketing is the ideal way to increase visibility for your brand.
Your influencer can work to develop trust in your brand by endorsing it. This leads to more interest in your brand and, inevitably, more sales. Keeping your brand in the thoughts of your target audience is something every business strives for.
Perfect Fit
You should choose your influencer according to your audience. Itās no good working with an influencer who has an audience that wonāt be interested in anything you sell. Once you find an influencer that perfectly fits your target market, you canāt lose.
Your influencer will not only help to reach their current audience but also help to target those who are new followers of theirs or people who could be potentially interested in their content. As youāve probably already seen, sites like Instagram like to make suggestions to users on influencers they may be interested in.
Professional Job
An influencer isnāt just someone with a large reach. Influencers are often famous or followed for their specific knowledge of certain industries. They know how to create good content.
Itās likely that they have a content management team behind them that perfects material before releasing it. They can even use a split screen video editor to have your content on one screen and the influencer on another.
Close Relationship With The Audience
Influencers arenāt just people with a large following. Part of being an influencer means developing a close relationship with those followers and allowing them into their worlds. It can often involve being very candid with the audience.
However, the result is admiration and trust. So, when an influencer advertises a product, the audience has automatic faith in it. Youāre not just hiring an advertising tool; youāre buying the relationship that comes with it.
Less Work
Putting your marketing in the hands of an influencer means less work for you. It can be time consuming to create online content for a specific audience. When you hire an influencer, youāre handing that job over to someone else.
When youāre free to work on other aspects of your business, it helps to drive your brand forward and create a sense of security among your employees and your customers.
Duration
Video content posted by influencers sticks around. Written content has a much shorter expiry date than video content. When people search for influencers, itās easy to find the content theyāve posted, no matter how old it is.
One post can reach your target market for much longer than any other type of marketing venture. Influencer marketing is the best way to make sure that people see what your business has to offer at any given time.
Influencer Incentives
Influencer marketing isnāt just about brand visibility. Itās about sales. Using an influencer is a great opportunity to offer incentives to potential customers and increase your sales.
Many influencers offer unique codes (usually their name) to give followers a special discount. Reduced prices paired with the fact that someone you admire is vouching for the product is a winning combination. If you want to increase interest in your products or services, an incentive like this works every time.
Manage Costs
Many business owners are inclined to think that influencer marketing is too costly. This couldnāt be further from the truth. There are different levels of influencers that have varying costs.
For example, a micro-influencer is a cost-effective solution for small businesses whereas a famous influencer is more expensive but will have a larger reach. The type of influencer you get will depend on your marketing budget.
Accuracy
Itās easy to measure the success of influencer marketing. Key performance indicators are obvious when it comes to content put out by an influencer. These indicators are in the form of likes, comments, or clicking on the links that have been shared.
This way itās easy to monitor the content thatās working and indeed, the influencers that are working. The right influencer for your business may take some trial and error but the results will speak for themselves.
Product Feedback
People are often more willing to give honest feedback to influencers than to the businesses the products came from. Whether the feedback is positive or negative, it all helps your business to move in the right direction. You can monitor customer feedback via influencers posts and content.
If there are any queries or concerns, you can address them directly without having to go through the influencer first. Influencer posts can tag your business, alerting to you any new comments when they come up.
Crack New Markets
Influencers can help you to make a first step into a new market. There are always untapped possibilities when it comes to reaching new people through marketing. You may be surprised by how much influencer marketing reveals to you.
Not only will you be able to reach new potential customers but it can also help to inspire new ideas for products that are needed by your target audience. You may be able to reach people in a way that your competitors havenāt thought of yet.
Influencer marketing is a goldmine and one that shouldnāt be left untouched. If youāre ready to drive your business forward, influencer marketing could be exactly what you need to make the leap. If youāve found this article helpful, take a look at the others.
Andrea BellĀ is a blogger by choice. She loves to discover the world around her. She likes to share her discoveries, experiences and express herself through her blogs. You can find her on Twitter:@IM_AndreaBell