The essence of marketing lies in its ability to attract customers to a business. Before the rise of social media, brands utilized celebrities for their digital marketing. In 2010, social media became a force to reckon with and gave room for influencers to be born in the business sense. The influencer marketing world, worth $9.7 billion, is expected to rise by $3 billion in 2022.
The sales generated from influencer marketing are obvious indications that this marketing strategy works. To tackle the question that has plagued some advertisers, this blog post will cover the main reasons about why does influencer marketing works.
What is Influencer Marketing?
To understand why does influencer marketing work, we should understand what it really is first. Simply put, influencer marketing is an advertising strategy where brands hire the services of online influencers to promote their brand or particular services they offer.
While brands utilize influencers for large-scale marketing and promotions, other brands engage influencers for brand exposure. The uniqueness of influencer marketing is that influencers are formed based on their social media following. Depending on the number of followers they have amassed on social media, influencers are grouped into Mega, Macro, Micro, and Nano influencers:
- Mega: Mega influencers are those with one million-plus followers. The relationship they have with their audience can be distant, but they still play a determinant role in the actions of their followers.
- Macro: These influencers have followers within the 100,000 and 1 million mark. While macro-influencers can be lesser-known celebrities, some often become famous for their activities on the internet.
- Micro: Micro-influencers are probably the largest in number, occupying the greatest section of the influencer market. They often have followers within the 10,000 – 100,000 mark.
- Nano: Of all the influencer categories, Nano influencers have the most interaction with their followers. They often have followers of less than 10,000.
How and Why Does Influencer Marketing Work?
With run-of-the-mill advertising, a brand places billboards or runs television ads but has limited control of the audience it reaches. One of the reasons to explain why does influencer marketing works is that it creates directed ads.
Rather than pitching products to a random audience, brands can direct their ads to consumers who interact directly with the products they offer through influencer marketing. Influencers are selected by brands based on the type of interests their followers have and the niches they operate in. For example, if SHEIN wanted to partake in influencer marketing, they would choose an influencer whose niche is fashion-based.
There are so many reasons to explain why does influencer marketing work, but one that stands out is that it reaches a direct audience with a higher chance of utilizing the products/services that the brand offers. This direct audience is met through market pain spots, market trends, and self-advantages.
- Market pain spot: Pain points are specific problems that your customers experience. In influencer marketing, influencers can address the issues consumers face regarding your brand’s services directly.
- Market trends: Market trends can change rapidly or over a long period depending on the demand and supply of items. To remain relevant as an influencer, one needs to be up to date on what is acceptable in the market. This reduces the leg work DTC brands have to do in that the content the influencers create will be upmarket.
Benefits of Influencer Marketing
There are many tested and proven strategies that demonstrate why does influencer marketing work, but these are the essential practices and benefits of influencer marketing to answer the question regarding does influencer marketing really work?
1. Cost-effective
Before social media advertising, brands dedicated large advertising budgets to a single celebrity in the name of endorsement deals. Yet influencer marketing is cost-effective because the advertising budget previously dedicated to a single celebrity can be split amongst various celebrities to reach a broader demographic.
2. Reach a highly specific audience
If an influencers’ followers are the mirror image of previous customers of that brand, it becomes easier for conversion rates to be higher. The brand can operate assuredly knowing that its ad strategies are meeting people who would do more than visit the site. The target audience might also purchase products.
3. High conversion rate
If an audience is interested in what the influencer is promoting, there is a better chance of visitors going to the site and carrying out the required call to action. These calls to action can be signed up for newsletters, register for email lists, or buy products.
4. Reap a return on marketing investment
The right choice of an influencer coupled with a well-executed campaign result in greater brand exposure/ awareness and, ultimately, more sales generated.
If a company spends $500,000 split across five influencers and three of the five influencers generate $200,000 in sales throughout their marketing contract, the company has not only made back their marketing budget but a solid profit on it. This method is more beneficial to Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands.
Conclusion
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Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.