Influencer marketing has been growing in the past couple of years. It's helped a lot of businesses reach new customers and a lot of individuals start their own businesses. So what exactly is influencer marketing and how can it benefit you? That's what we are going to talk about today. Heads up, the entire month of March we will be discussing this topic from many different angles. So get ready, we are going deep into this.
What is Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is almost the same as Celebrity Marketing - getting someone super famous to say a few nice words about your brand and recommend your products on (social) media. The difference between the two is that influencers don't have to be movie stars or popular singers worldwide. They can be just established leaders in the niche your target market sits. For example, one of the best kind of influencers you can get for your brand are bloggers with highly visited, read and shared blog posts. Another type of could be social influencers. Well, it's true that most full-time bloggers are very active on social media (it's kind of a necessity to grow your blog), but there are also those who don't write blogs and instead, focus solely on growing their Instagram or YouTube accounts. We will talk more about Social Influencers in another article in March.
What are the Benefits of Influencer Marketing
You know that the best form of marketing you could ever use for your business is word of mouth. It's the most reliable and inexpensive method to get real sales in. I mean, think about it - you are more likely to buy something that a friend recommended than something you saw on a Facebook ad. Right? And if you saw your favourite celebrity wearing a certain type of make up or use a certain product to get fit, you'd probably want to get it too. Influencer marketing operates on a very close level. Influencers are leaders. They lead a specific community that can relate to them and is inspired by them. So influencers are the middle point between a friend and a celebrity, which makes them the perfect means of advertisement.
So, first important benefit of influencer marketing is getting brand recognition on the market you want to target.
Second, depending on what your goals are, this form of marketing can be very affordable, even if you have a really tight marketing budget. Some people get lucky and they get discovered by influencers who just share reviews of the products with their audience for free. But even if you've chosen and approached the people you want to work with, the chances are, you're still not going to spend as much as you would on a celebrity or a Google Ad for, example.
Third, you can reach exactly the people you want to in bulk by choosing the right influencer (and that's another thing we will touch on one of the coming weeks).
Last, but just in this article, influencer marketing is a relatively new technique. Using it will position you as an innovative, forward-thinking brand who is in-line with the trends.
Do you have any questions about influencer marketing? Please do ask them in the comments section below or connect with me on social media - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest.
