Social media plays a significant role in society by allowing people to share their day, favorite local hotspots, and favorite products and services. Influencers have become experts at growing a defined audience tailored to their lifestyle and niche. They are the go-to for brands around the world. Over the last few years, influencer marketing has become a way for brands to get their product in front of a larger audience, giving them an edge while boosting sales and improving brand image.
If you’re looking to maximize your brand’s potential, influencer marketing can help propel your brand into the spotlight and lead to extraordinary growth. Learn more about influencer marketing and how it can benefit your brand.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is when a company partners with an influencer to boost brand awareness, increase website and social media traffic, deliver a strong message, and improve sales. The influencer has built a significant following throughout social media by engaging their audience. Their audience is fiercely loyal and trusts them as someone they can look up to. Many companies rely on this collaboration to help expand and grow their business to their target audience.
How does Influencer Marketing work?
There are thousands of influencers across all industries building relationships with the perfect audience that can work for any business, from fitness to fishing. Influencers use several channels when promoting products beyond social media, including blogs, videos, Instagram Reels, TikTok videos, paid ads, and more. As more of the public spends more time online, it’s one of the most effective ways to reach your brand’s target audience through someone your customer trusts.
Brands Identify Potential Influencers For Promotion
Qualified Captain has over 1 million followers on Instagram.
Influencer Makes or Shares Content for the purpose of Promotion
Example #1
Example #2
Influencers will use their platforms to promote products or services by trying or sampling and sharing the information through a video or written word. If someone sees one of their favorite influencers using your products, there is a relationship and a foundation of trust that encourages them to check out your website and even move straight to purchase your product. Your sales will increase exponentially, and in return, the influencer makes a small commission on the revenue generated from your sales.
Influencer Marketing Examples
Smaller brands once used influencer marketing to help get the word out about their business. Many major companies turn to influencers to reach new audiences and improve brand image and reputation. There are a lot of
great influencer marketing examples to highlight the success of these partnerships.
Nike
While larger brands with a massive following don’t need to use influencers to boost their brand image, they can see the value of partnering with an influencer their audience trusts. They have partnered with countless fitness influencers in several videos to reach their audience to not just sell their products but to bring in an element of storytelling.
They can also have endorsement deals with the top influencers in sports.
Glossier
Beauty brands understand that the relationship with their influencers is vital to success. Influencers across all channels try out and rate their products through many different types of videos, from “get ready with me” style videos to a general review. Glossier is one of many brands that partner with hundreds of influencers from micro to major to boost their reputation and grow their brand.
Restaurants
It’s difficult to choose just one example of influencers’ impact on the growth of small and large chain restaurants. Influencers that have taken to social media to try different food combinations, highlight the aesthetic, and rate the restaurant can greatly improve their image and encourages people to give their food a shot.
Buffalo Wild Wings worked with Ahmad Gardner, who has the nickname “Sauce” for a campaign.
Influencer Marketing Strategy
If you’re considering partnering with an influencer, you need a great influencer marketing strategy. You don’t want to just partner with anyone. This influencer marketing strategy can help you boost your brand’s awareness and maximize your marketing campaign to help you reach your goals.
Set Your Goals
With any marketing strategy, you need to set the goals you want to reach, whether it’s to grow your own social media following, boost sales, or increase brand awareness. Setting goals can guide your strategy, help you find more success, and ensure you stay on track.
Define Your Audience
Who do you want to reach with your influencer marketing? Identifying your audience will help you narrow down the influencers you should partner with and improve the effectiveness of your campaign.
Choose a Campaign Type
There are many different campaign types to choose from that can help you reach your goals. You can promote a giveaway, have influencers try and review your product, host a social media takeover, plan unboxings, or try sponsored social media and blog posts. Choose how you want your brand to appear in front of your audience and with whom.
Establish Your Budget
With any marketing campaign, you need to set a budget. The budget will cover the content creation costs, any upfront retainer fees, and how much you will provide as commission based on your sales.
Select Your Influencers
Once your goals, budget, and campaign type are defined, you will want to choose your influencers to partner with carefully. Finding the right influencer is the most laborious part of the process. You have to search through hundreds of influencers in your market, industry, and niche that aligns with your values.
Choose Your Social Media Platforms
With social media an important part of many people’s daily rituals, there are several platforms to choose from. Your chosen platform is best based on your target audience’s preferred platform and the type of product you are promoting.
Benefits of Influencer Marketing
There are many benefits to utilizing influencers’ platforms across social media, blogs, ads, and vlogs. By partnering with popular influencers within your brand’s industry, you are maximizing your ability to get in front of potential customers.
Increase Brand Awareness
Influencers can be a game-changer for smaller, family-owned businesses and even larger local businesses that need to reach new audiences. Partnering with influencers can introduce your brand to audiences you may not have been able to reach before.
Cost-Effective
Influencers not only can boost your sales, but the partnership cost is significantly lower than paying for traditional ads. You can optimize your marketing budget and improve your sales with small and large influencers.
Establish Trust
The newest generation of consumers rely on their favorite influencers to provide products and services they can trust. The recommendations of influencers tend to hold more weight than even the recommendations of friends and family. An influencer recommending your products can help build trust with your audience, which boosts your sales.
Build Better Relationships
Influencer marketing allows you to get in front of your audience in an authentic and genuine way. It allows you to tell your brand’s story and inspires a human connection that traditional ads struggle to attain.
In Summary
Influencer marketing can be a powerful strategy to increase your brand’s exposure and is a cost-effective way for you to grow your business. It allows you to get your product in front of people that will benefit and are the most likely to be interested through a person your target audience trusts. Carefully choose your influencers based on your industry and who best fits your brand. You will be able to connect with your audience in new ways, building relationships to help your business reach its goals and experience tremendous growth.
