Influencer marketing has become an increasingly popular marketing strategy in recent years, with brands of all sizes leveraging the power of social media influencers to promote their products or services.
But why are brands using influencer marketing, and what are the benefits of this strategy?
According to a study by Influencer Marketing Hub, the influencer marketing industry is projected to be worth up to $21.1 billion in 2023. Link: https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-benchmark-report/
This demonstrates the significant growth and popularity of influencer marketing, as more and more brands are realizing the value of partnering with influencers to reach their target audience.
Brands use influencer marketing for a variety of reasons, as it can be an effective way to reach a larger audience and build brand awareness.
Here are some of the main reasons why brands use influencer marketing:
1. Increased reach and visibility: Influencers have built up a dedicated following on social media, and partnering with them can help brands tap into that audience and reach new potential customers. This can help increase brand awareness and exposure.
- Choose the right influencers: Select influencers who are relevant to your target audience, have a genuine connection with your brand, and possess a high engagement rate. An influencer’s follower count is not the only factor to consider; their authenticity, content quality, and audience engagement are equally important.
- Collaborate on content creation: Work closely with influencers to create high-quality, engaging content that resonates with their audience. Provide them with creative freedom and encourage them to incorporate their unique voice and style, while ensuring that the content aligns with your brand message and campaign goals.
- Utilize multiple platforms and formats: Expand your reach by partnering with influencers who have a presence on multiple social media platforms. Experiment with various content formats, such as blog posts, videos, Instagram stories, podcasts, and live streaming, to engage different segments of your target audience.
- Leverage influencer-generated content: Amplify the visibility of influencer-generated content by sharing it on your brand’s social media channels, website, and email campaigns. This not only increases the reach of the content but also showcases the influencer’s endorsement, helping to build trust and credibility with your audience.
- Implement long-term partnerships: Develop long-term relationships with influencers who consistently deliver results and align with your brand values. A continuous partnership allows the influencer’s audience to become more familiar with your brand, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversion. Additionally, long-term collaborations can lead to more authentic and impactful content, as the influencer becomes more invested in your brand’s success.
2. Authenticity and trust: Influencers often have a close relationship with their followers, and partnering with them can help brands establish trust and authenticity with their target audience. Influencers can help endorse a product or service in a way that feels more genuine and less salesy than traditional advertising.
- Authenticity: Influencers often share their genuine experiences, opinions, and interests, making their content relatable and authentic. This authenticity helps build a strong connection with their followers, who trust the influencer’s recommendations as they come from an honest and personal perspective.
- Expertise and credibility: Many influencers are experts or enthusiasts in their niche, possessing in-depth knowledge and passion for the subject matter. This expertise allows them to provide valuable insights and recommendations, further establishing their credibility and earning the trust of their audience.
- Consistent engagement: Influencers actively engage with their followers by responding to comments, answering questions, and sharing personal stories. This ongoing engagement fosters a sense of community and deepens the relationship between the influencer and their audience, making their endorsements and recommendations more trustworthy.
- Selective partnerships: Reputable influencers are often selective in the brands they choose to work with, partnering only with companies that align with their values and interests. This selectivity signals to their audience that the influencer genuinely believes in the products or services they promote, further enhancing trust.
- Relatability: Influencers are often seen as more approachable and relatable than traditional celebrities or brand spokespeople. They share their everyday experiences, challenges, and successes with their followers, making it easier for the audience to connect with them on a personal level. This relatability encourages trust and loyalty among their followers.
- Transparency: Trustworthy influencers are transparent about their brand partnerships, clearly disclosing sponsored content, and adhering to guidelines set by regulatory authorities like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). This transparency demonstrates their commitment to ethical practices and helps maintain the trust of their audience.
3. Targeted marketing: Influencers often have a niche audience, and partnering with the right influencer can help brands target a specific demographic or audience. This can help brands reach a highly engaged and relevant audience.
- Niche audience: Influencers possess a niche audience with shared interests, values, and preferences, enabling brands to target specific demographics effectively. By partnering with an influencer whose audience aligns with the brand’s target market, companies can ensure their marketing messages reach the right people. Influencers understand their followers’ needs and expectations, making them valuable partners in creating authentic marketing messages that resonate with the target demographic, resulting in higher engagement and conversion rates.
- Tailored content: Influencers are skilled content creators who can tailor their content to suit the preferences and interests of their audience. By working closely with influencers, brands can develop customized content that speaks directly to the target demographic, addressing their unique needs and pain points. This tailored content helps brands to stand out from the competition and create a deeper connection with their target audience.
- Cost-effective: Influencer marketing can be a cost-effective way to reach a large audience, especially compared to traditional forms of advertising like TV commercials or print ads. By partnering with influencers, brands can often get more value for their marketing dollars.
4. Improved SEO: When influencers share branded content on their social media accounts, it can help increase backlinks and improve a brand’s SEO. This can help boost search engine rankings and drive more traffic to a brand’s website.
Influencer marketing can improve SEO in several ways:
- High-quality backlinks: When influencers mention your brand or link to your website in their content, it generates high-quality backlinks that can improve your domain authority and search engine rankings. Search engines consider backlinks from reputable and relevant sources as signals of trust and authority, which can positively impact your SEO.
- Increased traffic: Influencer marketing can drive targeted traffic to your website from their followers, boosting your site’s overall visibility and credibility in the eyes of search engines. Higher traffic from relevant and engaged users can lead to improved search engine rankings.
- Social signals: When influencers share your content on their social media channels, it increases the chances of their audience engaging with and sharing the content further. These social signals are considered by search engines as a measure of your content’s popularity and relevance, which can positively impact your SEO.
- Content creation and promotion: Influencers can help create engaging and shareable content for your brand that resonates with their audience. This high-quality content can attract more organic backlinks and shares, further boosting your SEO efforts.
- Brand awareness and online reputation: Influencer marketing helps increase brand awareness and improve your online reputation. A positive brand image and higher visibility can lead to more organic searches for your brand name and products or services, signaling to search engines that your brand is relevant and trustworthy.
- Long-tail keyword opportunities: Influencer-generated content can target long-tail keywords and niche topics relevant to your industry. This can help your brand rank for a wider range of keywords and attract more organic traffic from search engines.
Overall, influencer marketing can be a valuable tool for brands looking to reach a larger audience and build brand awareness. By partnering with the right influencers, brands can tap into a highly engaged and relevant audience, and establish trust and authenticity with their target customers.
Social media influencers can vary depending on the platform and industry, but here are some of the most well-known social media influencers across various platforms:
- Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) – soccer player with over 255 million Instagram followers
- Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (@therock) – actor and former wrestler with over 229 million Instagram followers
- Kylie Jenner (@kyliejenner) – reality TV star and founder of Kylie Cosmetics with over 223 million Instagram followers
- Kim Kardashian (@kimkardashian) – reality TV star and entrepreneur with over 200 million Instagram followers
- Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) – singer and actress with over 205 million Instagram followers
- Ariana Grande (@arianagrande) – singer with over 238 million followers on TikTok and 250 million Instagram followers
- Zach King (@zachking) – social media magician and content creator with over 53 million Instagram followers
- Huda Kattan (@hudabeauty) – beauty influencer and founder of Huda Beauty with over 48 million Instagram followers
- Felix Kjellberg (@pewdiepie) – YouTuber and content creator with over 110 million YouTube subscribers
- David Dobrik (@daviddobrik) – YouTuber and content creator with over 18 million YouTube subscribers
Ask us more about how we can help you with your social media strategy to get an edge over your competition.
