Influencer marketing has recently gained momentum as an ace strategy for establishing brand awareness and reaching new audiences through Social Media. More companies than ever are relying on macro- and micro-influencers to get their brand in front of customer eyes and drive sales.

The reason why influencer marketing is taking off is simple — people trust other people more than any form of traditional advertising. In a world full of promotional clutter, real brand advocates with trustworthy voice and authentic messages are what helps businesses stick out from the masses and catch customers’ attention.

According to a 2017 study, conducted across different industries, 94% of marketers who incorporated Influencer Marketing into their strategy found it effective.

If you’re still unsure whether switching to influencer marketing is a right decision, here is some solid evidence of how leveraging the strong social presence of opinion leaders can help you improve your overall marketing strategy and achieve your business goals.

1. Engaging Your Audience through Authentic Storytelling

One of the key advantages of influencer marketing is that it allows you to weave authentic stories around your brand and tell them to your audience through the mouth of those they trust. Social media mavericks and niche celebrities usually express themselves through engaging content, overflowing with originality, unique style and natural humor. They use their authenticity to engage customers on a deeper level, giving them a nudge to “just do it”. And this is what most followers need to get inspired.

2. Generating Amazing ROI

Your Return on Investment is one of the key metrics to evaluate the performance of any marketing campaign. Influencer marketing generates highly targeted traffic, boosts brand awareness and drives customer loyalty, keeps your audience engaged and helps the SEO. In a word, it kills several birds with one stone, at a relatively low cost.

Studies have shown that, if leveraged correctly, influencer marketing can generate ROI 11 times greater than other DIgital Marketing tactics. Back in 2014, companies earned $6.85 for every dollar spent on a paid influencer campaign. These are compelling statistics. But are they the same for any business under the sun?

Well, it depends on whether you, as a business owner or a marketer, connect with the right voices of Social Media who not only create content but also become your brand ambassadors.

3. Building Customer Trust

Trust — that’s the cornerstone of any positive and long-lasting relationship. When looking for a place to dine out, we’d probably trust a good friend’s recommendation over a Google ad. The same goes for brand marketing. According to Nielsen Catalina Solutions and TapInfluence, 92% of customers believe in earned media, like recommendations from people they trust, over other forms of paid advertising.

It’s true that the good old word-of-mouth shows no signs of slowing down, and most of us would want to purchase almost anything recommended by our favourite Youtube personality or a social media celeb we follow. This is because when recommending a brand, people put on the line their reputation. Advertising poor quality products eventually leads to losing your followers’ trust and your position as an influencer. So savvy influencers are likely to endorse only products they love, no matter if they get paid for it.

4. Moving Beyond the Cool Factor

While no one has cancelled the “cool factor” of famous people and thought leaders for marketing, most people tend to give preference to recommendations that sound organic. Investing time and resources to find the right influencer marketing platform and connecting with people who have a genuine positive sentiment about your product gives you more chances to display your brand in the best light.

5. Increasing Brand Loyalty

In today’s highly competitive market, brand loyalty is extremely hard to achieve. Of course, having a large follower count enriches the perception of your brand in the eyes of potential subscribers, having a snowball effect. But follower count is not the only thing that matters.

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Real engagement and consistent interaction with your followers is way more important than their numbers and here’s where you can nail it with influencer marketing. By embracing the potential of Social Media influencers and sharing valuable, entertaining content, you can appeal to your customers on a deeper emotional level than you ever could with traditional ads and garner a base of active, engaged and loyal followers.

6. Bypassing Adblockers

Intrusive pop-ups, Youtube pre-roll ads, deceptive links, display and paid search ads — most of us often try to ignore and even combat them. No wonder ad blockers are becoming more and more popular. 236 million internet users around the world used an adblocking software in 2016 to combat irrelevant and annoying ads. In addition, with the introduction of iOS 9, Apple’s mobile browsers now also support adblockers — another hard blow to marketers.

However, brands discover new and innovative ways to reach their audience and keep their customers engaged and happy. Instead of imposing ads over customers, they turn to authentic content and real people to tell the story behind their products. Better yet, this is the content that customers are actually interested to see, since they have voluntarily followed or subscribed for it and can cancel their subscription any time. This is why influencer marketing allows you to break through the adblockers and reach your relevant audience, building trust and engagement.

7. Humanizing Your Brand

Customers don’t want to talk to chatbots. They look for genuine communication with humans who are consumers just like themselves.

Influencer marketing allows you to show the human side of your business, leveraging the credibility of opinion leaders and connecting with your customers on Social Media where there’s a human behind every like, share and comment. Connecting with your audience on a personal level and speaking in a way that relates to them helps you discover their pain points, interests and preferences and tailor your service to their needs.

How to get started?

In order to launch a successful influencer campaign, you should first find an influencer marketing platform which brings together some of the loudest and most creative voices of social media. Today, you can consider not only traditional platforms where brands can hire freelance marketers, but also influencer marketing platforms based on blockchain which bring a whole new level of transparency and safety to your business, allowing you to make payments with cryptocurrency.

Then you should nail down the key values you want to convey about your product and the exact type of content you need to create to keep your audience actively engaged. Having set the goals of your campaign, you can find the right influencer to present your brand online.