As the popularity of social media has increased, so too has the prominence of influencer marketing. A form of marketing in which online influencers vouch for particular products, it has been a proven success for many companies throughout many industries.
Interested in learning more about influencer marketing and why it’s poised to be the next big thing in online marketing? Then read on. Here’s everything you need to know.
It Has a Personal Touch
Traditional advertising makes an effort to connect with consumers but often falls flat. The reason for this? It feels impersonal.
After all, traditional ads are distributed by companies, not individuals. While branding can help to personalize these companies, it’s rarely enough to humanize them. As such, these companies’ ads often end up feeling sterile and sales-y.
On the other hand, when influencers advertise companies’ products, they offer a personal touch. These influencers already have established followings, meaning that they’ve already connected with the audience that they’re advertising to. This pre-existing connection ensures a level of trust that can make all the difference when it comes to converting a sale.
Whereas a company advertising a product is like a stranger knocking on the consumer’s door, an influencer advertising a product is like a chat between friends, one being the influencer and the other being the consumer. It stands to reason that the latter would be more effective.
It’s Targeted Toward a Specific Niche
Generally speaking, influencers work within their little niches. Some influencers’ accounts might revolve around makeup; others’ accounts might revolve around music recording or guitars. Some have even more specific niches, such as repairing old books or woodblock carving.
Of course, with these niches comes an audience that is interested in said niche. So, if an influencer works in, say, the guitar niche, those people who follow that influencer are likely to enjoy the guitar as well.
This is highly beneficial for companies that are trying to sell. These influencers essentially have pre-built audiences for companies’ products. These audiences are interested in a very specific thing and, therefore, would be much more likely to buy a product that relates to that thing.
In essence, influencer marketing is highly targeted marketing. Regardless of the industry that you’re in, you can find an influencer whose niche relates to that industry. And because their niche relates to your industry, their audience is probably interested in your industry (and your product or service) as well.
This certainly beats throwing an ad on TV or radio, where only a select few listeners will have any interest in your product or service at all. With influencer marketing, you’ll essentially be selling to people who want to buy your product.
It Can Be Easily Tracked and Analyzed
Another reason that influencer marketing is poised to be the next big thing in marketing is that it can be easily tracked and analyzed. See, social media platforms track what’s clicked and how often. As such, you can see which types of ads consumers are watching, which types of ads are converting sales, and more.
Over time, this allows you to learn about consumer trends as well as how social media users respond to your products. This knowledge is vital, as it enables you to devise informed selling strategies.
This is one of the great benefits of digital marketing in general. It provides a level of monitoring and analysis that you just can’t get with traditional marketing.
Without this monitoring and analysis, you’re essentially just shooting in the dark. You never really know whether your advertisement campaigns are effective or not.
Influencer marketing changes that and provides you with a wealth of measurable data. When used and analyzed properly, this data can score huge returns down the road.
It Has SEO Benefits
It’s not just consumers who are positively influenced by influencer marketing; search engines are positively influenced by it as well. In short, by engaging in influencer marketing, your Google, Bing, and other search engine rankings will improve.
This is all about getting your company mentioned on social media platforms. The more your company’s name appears on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and the like, the more familiar it will become to search engines, and the more authority those search engines will give it.
How do you get your company’s name mentioned on search engines? Influencer marketing is a good place to start.
Let’s say an influencer shares a post advertising your company and product. A few of the influencer’s followers like what they see, and decide to, say, re-Tweet the post. Now, your company’s name has been mentioned not only on the influencer’s account but on several followers’ accounts as well.
From there, the followers’ followers might like what they see. This can result in even more re-Tweeting and even more instances of your company’s name being published.
In essence, by having one popular influence advertise your product, you can gain tons of traction online. This can strengthen your prowess in search engines, allowing you to reap benefits down the line.
Need Help With Influencer Marketing?
Are you interested in pursuing influencer marketing? Need a little help? If so, we here at Legacy Marketing are the people to see.
Our team is well-versed in the management of influencer marketing efforts. We’ll work with a bevy of social media platforms as a means of getting your product or service noticed.
Contact us now to get the process started!