You might have noticed that your Instagram feed looks pretty different today than it did in 2013. Instead of a casual photo-posting app, pictures are now almost always of professional quality (inspiring the #KeepInstagramCasual movement). Another way your various timelines might look different is through the presence of product advertisements. Even though you may barely get ads on your Instagram and Twitter, brands still make it to your feed by way of influencers. You might question why influencers even exist.. I mean, do they even work? In short, yes. So, here are 10 reasons why they’ve become one of the most popular new methods of marketing.
1. Influencers Are Creative
Marketing itself demands a need for creativity. The great thing about using influencers is that they are also a part of the brand’s creative process. Influencers can come up with ways to present a product that the brand may not have thought of! You can use the creative videos and content the influencers make in your various paid marketing ads to target similar audiences.
2. Everyone is Doing It
Overall, 80% of marketers agree that using influencer marketing is generally sufficient. As a result, nearly two-thirds of marketers are planning on increasing their influencer budgets this year. If everyone is doing it, why should you be left behind?
3. Influencers Gain Trust
Consumers’ trust is difficult to acquire as a brand since only 4% of people think of advertisers as people with integrity. However, consumers are much more likely to trust a face they see on their social media feeds every day. And, influencers want to make sure that they maintain the trust of their followers—meaning if your brand is being promoted, integrity likely isn’t being questioned.
4. They Are Engaged
Influencers, especially micro-influencers with smaller, niche audiences, are used to engaging with their followers regularly. As a brand, however, it can be challenging to interact with consumers on social media daily. Thus, influencer marketing is a great medium, where consumers can have questions answered and learn about the product through a firsthand account.
5. Targeting a Niche Market
Using influencers allows a brand to focus their niche market directly, rather than hoping individual customers find their way to the brand. This means that brands are spending on a form of advertising that will positively reach their target niche, rather than a mass audience that may or may not require the product. For example, Instagram influencer @butterandbeauty exclusively posts various collections of makeup and beauty products for the following base that likes to keep updated on these trends.
6. Followers Seek Brand Content
No one likes ads cluttering their social media feeds. So, when we see a paid brand ad on our timelines, our eyes glaze over and scroll past it without a second thought. Followers are already purposefully following the influencers’ social media accounts because they enjoy the content. This is better for the brand because followers want to explore the content influencers post, rather than avoid it.
7. Driving Conversions
If a consumer already knows about a product and is considering making the purchase, seeing an influencer with the product might be enough to convert them into a paying customer. In fact, seeing an influencer with the product is often the tipping point for customers to buy the product.
8. Followers See the Transparency
It may seem that everything influencers say is scripted. However, influencers typically do not work with brands they don’t support. They are transparent when a product they are promoting has been gifted to them by a brand and give honest reviews. Brands ought to take comfort in this because a useful review from an influencer carries value.
9. Grow Following
An obvious benefit to using influencers is increasing a brand’s social media following. When a brand’s handle is used in an influencer’s campaign, there is inevitable traffic to the brand account. Although this is not the fastest way to grow following, nor the primary goal of using influencer promotion, it certainly is a nice perk.
10. Looking at the Numbers
According to a 2019 survey, nearly 50% of marketers believe that influencer marketing produces a better ROI than other marketing channels. With the growing presence of e-commerce and digital marketing, this is the future landscape of the industry. So, what are you waiting for?