Gone are the days when the influencer marketing field was limited only to celebrities and a few bloggers. But, now, it seems like influencers are rising and saturating the market. Now, marketing has moved into the social media landscape. In today’s world, customers prefer credibility over established advertising. They want to be informed and delighted by brands instead of being asked to buy products. Customers want real reviews and ratings from people with similar tastes like them. And this where influencer marketing comes. If you haven’t heard of marketing influencers, you might think of it as yet another marketing branch. Yet marketing for influencers is more than that. It is a very effective technique that allows you, along with growing your brand recognition, to publicize your products and services online. In this post, we’ll talk about what you need to know about marketing influencers.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that focuses on targeting influencers and people with expertise and popularity to influence consumers to make a purchase, write a review, etc. Individuals who have a dedicated social following or social influence and have an expert level of knowledge within their niche are viewed as influencers. Instead of marketing and asking directly to a group of consumers to buy your products, you inspire, hire, and pay influencers to promote your brand. Basically, influencer marketing involves a brand collaborating with a social media influencer to market one of its products or services. Influencer marketing allows you to expand your online reach, increase brand awareness, and build a strong reputation for your company. Influencers act as third parties who create an impact on the customer’s purchasing decision. Influencers offer more value to your company’s brand.
How to reach a potential influencer?
When you start looking out for a potential influencer, you will find countless influencers on each and every social media platform. Influencers are generally active on social media and almost always create the content of their own. The great content produced by them is the reason that their followers see them as reliable sources of valuable information. Finding out so many influencers in social media means you have many potential opportunities for influencer collaboration. But, this also means that you need to put effort into finding out the right influencer for your brand promotion. The reason why you need to find the right influencer is that you don’t have to simply collaborate with the influencer who has thousands of followers, instead you want the influencers to be a contextual fit with your products or services. This increases the possibility of generating leads and sales, every time they mention your brand and its products.
To reach out to a potential influencer, you need to consider the three R’s of influence:
1. Relevance:
Relevance is an important characteristic when looking out for a potential influencer. A relevant influencer will share content relevant to your business and industry. The influencer you choose needs to have an audience that associates with your target market. An influencer to one brand is not necessarily an influencer for your brand, as it is all about relevance. You need to find out whether the influencer shares the content and develops a relevant following to your business and its brand. For example, if your business is about cosmetics, then you need to find a beauty influencer and if your business is about travel and tourism then you need to find a travel influencer.
2. Reach:
It is not only about finding someone to promote your brand but it is also about the number of people your chosen influencer can actually reach.The number of individuals you might probably meet via the follower base of the influencer selected is called reach. You need to make sure that you actually hear a reference to your brand. The number of individuals you can reach through the base of influencer followers must be able to add value to your organization. Basically, you need to see if that person has the kind of power and is worth investing in.
3. Resonance:
Resonance is referred to as the potential level of engagement the influencer is able to create with a group of people relevant to your brand. Resonance is important because you want an influencer who’s not only relevant and reaches many people but also who can reach the potential audience. Someone with a huge follower count is of no use to your brand if those followers aren’t interested in your offer. Whereas someone with a smaller follower count can be a perfect choice if those followers are interested in a particular area.
Why is influencer marketing important?
Influencer marketing is important because it helps in the continuous growth of a company’s brand. There are many marketers who are engaged in some form of influencer marketing. Nowadays, many brands believe that partnering with influencers is a number one marketing strategy. Smart brands are winning the competition by using influencer marketing to converse with consumers and making them informed about their products and services. Brands that aren’t part of it are losing the battle. With traditional advertising, it is now hard to reach potential customers, hence; it becomes important for companies to use influencer marketing to reach their potential customers. Influencer marketing is important as it includes the following benefits:
- Reach a bigger audience
- Grow your social following
- Increase your site traffic
- Build trustworthy your brand
- Drive sales
- Get more sales
Influencer marketing is a very powerful strategy to promote something like a product, service, or campaign with the help of an influential person. It is an established form of online marketing and helped numerous companies to build their brand awareness and reach a bigger audience. There are many influencers out there who can help you to reach your target audience, increase your site traffic, get more sales, and increase your brand awareness.
In this article, we discussed everything you need to know about influencer marketing and how it is beneficial to everyone. I hope that this article has provided you all the necessary information. If you have any doubt about influencer marketing, then feel free to contact us on our website.