Are you aware that influencer marketing has reached almost 13.5 billion in the previous year? Yup, you read that right. Influencer marketing has become so successful over the past decade that even huge brands are investing a large chunk of money in this marketing strategy and, of course, are not disappointed with the results.
Are you wondering what Influencer Marketing is?
A form of marketing, in which brands and influencers work together. It is a powerful strategy that can boost growth strategies. It’s a marketing strategy that thousands of companies and brands are utilizing and has continued to grow over the past decade. The most effective and popular form of influencer marketing is social media influencer marketing.
Who are social media Influencers?
In other words, social media influencers are people who have influence over the general public. These people have certain knowledge and have a following of people who follow their everyday essentials. Their opinions matter to people, especially their daily followers. People trust their choices about the products or things they use.
How social media Influencer marketing works
These people have some knowledge and people are largely impressed by their activities, products, or brands they use, which is what is taken advantage of by these companies. They hire small or big social media influencers, which are, of course, a lot cheaper to pay than starting a marketing campaign all over. People trust their opinions and recommendations and mostly use the products or services they use or suggest.
These social media celebrities market these products or services in different ways. It could be through a review video on their profile or posting a picture with the product they have collaborated with, and the least minimal would be posting a story or reposting the products from their page. This encourages their followers to buy from that company, with at least 2 out of 10 followers being convinced and ending up buying that product.
Working with social media influencers
Who are the right social influencers for your product?
Your top priority needs to be authenticity. Find someone whose content, style, and niche align with your brand or product instead of solely focusing on the creator’s reach. For example, if you sell skin care products and are looking to hire an influencer to market and sell them, look for an influencer who relates to your product. Even if an athlete has 2 or 3 times more followers than a beauty/health blogger, you should hire a beauty or health influencer who specializes in your niche. An influencer in your niche can help you convert 5 out of 10 visitors, whilst an influencer outside of it may only help you gain 2 out of 20 followers. The reason is that a beauty product influencer has an audience that actually follows her to learn more about the best beauty products on the market, which is actually your product, whereas an athlete’s audience or followers are people who follow sports or athletic content or related products, so the chances are higher. By conducting thorough research on them, you can determine whether potential influencers’ objectives and materials are actually compatible with yours.
Another point to consider while hiring a social media influencer is what platforms they use. Not every product or service has potential followers or audience on every platform that is looking for that particular service or product. There are so many social media platforms nowadays, and each platform serves an audience with different goals.
Some Types of Influencer Marketing
Reviews
One of the most typical influencer marketing instances of reviews is a brand giving an influencer access to a product or service for free in exchange for the influencer submitting a review.
Sponsored Content
The most effective form of influencer marketing is sponsored content. In this, the influencer you hire will post on their account with your product and write a small blog about it. It’s his job to create content or photos with your brand’s product in such a way that it is pleasing to the audience and pushes them to buy. But they key is to give creative freedom to content creators for making this content
Free Giveaways
One of the ideal ways of influencer marketing is Giveaways. It is a win/win situation for both the influencer and the brand. The brand offers the influencers products to be given away and the influencer to their followers in return for:
Liking and commenting on the post
Share or retweet
Use a certain hashtag or phrase
Fill a form for the brand’s website
Tagging up-to 3 people and many more
Due to the influencer content’s creativity and popularity, it generates brand awareness as well as increases the influencers reach.
Gifts
Long-term ties with the influencers are also beneficial. You have the chance to experience your product firsthand as well. The influencer will post a good product review on social media if they adore your product and it would convince the followers to buy your product
Additionally, by giving your influencers a product link or a discount code that they can use to advertise your product, you can boost sales.
Affiliate Marketing
A marketing strategy where collaborators are used to promote products. It will advertise a product sale there or it could drive them to your website. The affiliate partner will be compensated or rewarded when a sale is made based on the pre-agreement or contract you both agreed on. A percentage of every sale made as a result of the influencer’s content and influence is paid to them as a commission.
Don’t Get Fooled with Fake Influencers
According to a Google search query in 2018, “Buy Instagram Likes” had an average of 8,400 searches. According to Statista , 55% of influencers are involved in fraud activities. But how to identify fake influencers? There are several ways to identify them. But a decreasing engagement rate with an increase in followers and likes is one of the most common ways to identify a fake social media influencer.
Conclusion:
Influencer marketing is key to getting more sales through social media users and is an easy and less-costly way to market your product to potential buyers. As social media is growing day by day, this strategy will keep on dominating, but a brand shouldn’t be dependent on just social media influencer marketing. I believe, but after all, it all comes down to what your goals are for the brand. You can always count on the webvital.com for any assistance.
