What Is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is a popular way brands choose to market their products or services. Have you ever scrolled through Instagram and not seen a sponsored post by an influencer? or an influencers Instagram story showing the latest food products or restaurants, clothes, makeup brands or candles? No right? I didn’t think so, it’s almost impossible to scroll through social media without seeing some form of influencer marketing.

What Is Influencer Marketing?

Let us get straight to what you came here for. What is influencer marketing? An Influencer is a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media. Businesses promote their products or services through influencers and content creators on social media to increase brand awareness, conversion rates and sales. Businesses tend to use platforms such as Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube and more as they are are the leading social media platforms of 2022.

Why Is Influencer Marketing Important?

1. Amplifies Brand Awareness– Influencers have the power to increase brand exposure and boost brand awareness through their followers, so collaborating with them can help your brand gain exposure and potential customers. It gives increased visibility to your brand and helps start meaningful online conversations about it.
2. Precise Targeting- Identifying and targeting the right audience is a crucial part of a marketing strategy. Influencer marketing allows you to skip the step of trying to find the right audience as they already have a loyal fanbase. All you have to do is question, is their audience the right audience for my brand? am I targeting the right people with this collaboration? You have to ensure that the influencer is relevant to your niche and their public persona aligns with your brand’s image and morals.
3. Enhanced Credibility and Trust- When collaborating with influencers it helps you win the trust of their audience. For long term benefits, this is instrumental for developing a group of loyal brand advocates. It increases brand awareness even more and helps you earn more revenue! Which is what we all want, am I right?
4. Increased Audience Engagement- Working with influencers improves the quality of your content and makes it more user-centric. This style of content is more likely to find traction among your target audience, and when an influencer shares your content on their social media profiles, their audience will also engage with it, causing the reach to increase.

3 Reasons Why Influencer Marketing Will Continue to Grow

1. More people are becoming influencers. As social media platforms are growing, opportunities for people to become influencers are also growing along with it. It may feel like there are too many influencers out there, however that’s not the case. This benefits you as a business because it means you have a better chance to find someone whose followers are your ideal audience that’s perfect for your brand.
2. Influencer marketing agencies are growing in popularity. As influencer marketing is becoming standardized and continuing to grow, the marketing itself will also keep expanding. Many agencies that represent influencers and that are designed to help brands find the best influencers for their business are becoming more and more popular. These agencies are a great option for those who don’t want to dedicate their time or resources to keep up with influencer marketing trends. You can still take advantage of the benefits that come with influencer marketing without having to learn everything yourself. Trust me, as a business owner or manager, I understand how busy you can get. On that note, here is how to choose the best influencer marketing agency or if you would rather learn yourself here is a guide to choosing the right influencers for your brand.
3.  There are more content options. The very first type of influencers started with creating written blog posts talking about their favourite products. Then when social media platforms were introduced, the kind of content influencers was creating change. Now videos and picture posts are the most popular type of content for influencers to make when it comes to promoting products or services. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok have all become the most popular platforms to use. If you want to know more about the impacts of social media on businesses are here in this article ‘Is Social Media A Must For Businesses In 2022?’

Summary

Using influencer marketing as part of your marketing plan to increase your brand awareness, engagement, credibility and customers is something you should do as it will generate enormous success for your business. However, if you don’t partner with the right influencers for your brand, the campaign could fail from the start, so remember to take your time when choosing the right influencer to work with you.