Top 7 Reasons Businesses Should be Using Influencer Marketing

One of the recent trends in the world of marketing is none other than influencer marketing. It refers to the practice of creating strategic messages and delivering them to individuals who tend to have a lot of influence over your target audience. An influencer can be anyone, whether it is a blogger, YouTuber, Instagrammer, a retail sales associate, a makeup artist, a popular forum personality or even a journalist. This form of marketing is different from traditional marketing because a business doesn’t communicate directly with their target market. Instead, it identifies individuals who can influence the purchasing decisions of your target market and communicates with them.

Put simply, influencer marketing can be referred to as a hybrid form of marketing. This is due to the fact that it combines traditional components of public relations, branding and celebrity endorsements and brings them together in today’s social and digital world. 75% of businesses have now begun to use this marketing tactic as in today’s world, customers are seeking meaningful brand experiences and demanding authenticity. Thus, using influencer marketing can turn out to be an effective tool for helping a business in building its brand and creating awareness.

If you are still unsure of whether or not your business should be using influencer marketing, here are some great reasons to consider it:

Reason 1: Influencer marketing is helpful for building credibility and trust

Bringing in influencers can be immensely useful for a business in building their credibility and trust amongst the target audience. If your product is new to your customer, it is highly likely that they will be wary of it, but if they hear about it from someone they know and trust, there is a good chance that they will be more receptive to your offerings.

People follow influencers because they trust and like them. They have common values and interests. In a number of ways, influencer marketing is not different than celebrity endorsement because lots of people wish to be like the influencers they follow. When they come across their favorite influencer using a particular product, they will also want to use it or at the very least, want to know more about it. Hence, when your business is endorsed by an influencer, it boosts your trust and credibility with the target audience.

Reason 2: Integrated marketing is effective

The strategic approach of combining all components of a marketing program is referred to as integrated marketing. In this way, all these components build upon one another, work together and also strengthen each component. The different marketing activities and other initiatives have the same key messaging, which creates one seamless and cohesive marketing program that’s highly effective and gets the desired results.

Well-executed and strategic influencer marketing programs will reinforce the message you wish to communicate through content marketing, public relations, advertising and other programs. This can strengthen every part and make it more effective. When someone comes across your ad and hears about the product from an influencer they trust, it can be enough to convert the person into a customer.

Reason 3: Influencer marketing is essentially niche marketing

When you want to reach niche markets, influencer marketing can be extremely effective. The reason influencers become influencers is because they specialize in a certain activity, field or category. They are really good at something or know about something really well. Since they specialize, they are followed by like-minded people who have the same interests.

If a business identifies influencers whose niche or specialization relates to your products and services or business directly; they will be discover a segment or following of potential customers that are interested in the topic relevant to your brand. Hence, with an influencer marketing program, you can get access to specific segments of your target audience.

Reason 4: Using Influence marketing is not that costly

While there is some legwork needed to get influencer marketing right, it can be a cost effective solution. It can provide huge returns that exceed your investment. As it is a new form of marketing, the terms and conditions between businesses and influencers are still developing. In some cases, you may have to invest some time and give some freebies while in other cases, some monetary payments may be required to influencers with large followings. While the reach of an influencer is certainly important, this doesn’t mean that micro influencers will not be able to give you any returns. Your brand, products and your audience will determine what kind of influencers will work best for you. Sometimes, a small following is a better option because it provides access to a more targeted audience.

Reason 5: Social media is constantly growing

The number of social media users and the social media channels themselves continue to grow. This growth has contributed to the introduction of influencer marketing. As social media continues down this path, influencer marketing will continue to play a very important role in strategic marketing programs.

Reason 6: Influencer marketing gives access to user-generated content

The reason influencers were able to get where they are is because they generate excellent content, which their follows find useful and are able to relate to it. A business can take advantage of this user-generated content by leveraging relationships with these influencers. This helps you in developing great content for supplementing other social media programs. In most cases, followers like to engage with this type of content as it is authentic and real.

Reason 7: It works wonders for content distribution

Content distribution is a vital part of any content marketing program. Every business is dedicating a lot of resources for developing great content and these influencers can be extremely helpful in distributing this content, which allows you to maximize the return on investment.

As more and more customers demand authenticity from businesses and seek out engaging experiences, the importance of using influencer marketing will only increase. It is turn out to be a cost-effective and strategic component in a business’s marketing program to help in creating brand awareness and exposure.