Influencer Marketing - one of the emerging trends in digital marketing. Till a few years ago, this marketing arena was only limited to celebrities which were hired as brand ambassadors. But now, with the expansion of the online world- the opportunities for these social media influencers are on demand.
You might feel that influencer marketing has recently boomed. But in reality, this marketing started by PayPerPost about 15 years ago, a platform that paid bloggers for their branded content. During those years, blogs were considered as online diaries, numerous adepts were suspicious that adding publicizing or sponsorships into the content would really feel credible and genuine.
As it is a buzzword and mainstream media regularly uses it, yet some people don’t understand what influencer marketing is and why it should be in your next brand campaign?
So, 9 o’clock media has brought you a comprehensive guide that includes all the key points you must know about influencer marketing.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer Marketing is a hybrid of traditional and modern marketing techniques. It picks up the concept of celebrity endorsement and uses it in content driven marketing campaigns. Instead it associates brands and influencers, many of those who never view themselves as well known in offline settings.
You’ll find the majority of influencers on various social media platforms and blogs, but now other creators are stepping into podcast apps to fit the bill. Influencer marketing was primarily used to build brand awareness but now it has also resulted in conversions and sales.
What influencer marketing does for your brand?
Customers trust word-of-mouth from loved ones more than advertised content from brands, thus making influencer marketing to be the most blazing, most dynamic form of marketing strategy in modern day.
Due to their reputation and trust, influencers help to build honest relationships between brands and their potential customers, who are already visiting their online sites through content or paid advertisements.
It is more focussed on building a trustworthy relationship, not about the number of conversions you make. They act as a voice for your brand, who directly or indirectly advertise and share their experience with the brand. Customers are searching for a trusted voice online and advertisers who work with influencers enjoy the benefit to build relationships with their brand and influencer’s audience.
Rise of Influencer Marketing
There are some key results concluded from the Influencer Marketing Hub 2021 study which share awe-striking statistics.
Searches for “Influencer Marketing”
Since 2016, there has been an increase of 465% in searches for the term ‘Influencer Marketing’ on Google itself. There has been a 465% increment in looks for the expression "powerhouse advertising" on Google alone beginning around 2016. Obviously, it is presently an intriguing topic and now people want to learn more about this trend in marketing and find influencer marketing platforms and agencies.
Influencer Marketing Grows to $13.8 Billion in 2021
Covid sped up the expansion of influencer marketing in 2020 and 2021, and this is assessed to go on in 2022. From $1.7 billion in 2016, it is assessed to have developed to a market size of $9.7 billion out of 2020 and $13.8 billion in 2021.
Increase in Influencer marketing platforms and agencies
Now, after seeing so much potential in influencer marketing, many digital marketing agencies have started a platform to build an easier and transparent system for both influencers and brands. Now, few agencies also solely specialize in influencer marketing campaigns. To match the requirements of existing and new clients, many digital marketing agencies added influencer marketing to their services they offer.
Stand alone budgets for both content marketing and influencer marketing
Marketers have a stand-alone budget for content marketing. But with exceptional results shared by the influencer marketing campaigns, many brands now have separate budgets for influencer campaigns. There has been a rise of 37% in budgets allocated by the brands in 2017.
Influencer Marketing yield great results
Many marketers and brands believe in the effectiveness of influencer marketing, and which has led to the explosion of content on different social media platforms. From high end brands to small scale businesses, every brand is collaborating with their niche influencers to achieve their respective goals. The green flag from marketers and brands shows that this form of marketing is only going to be explored and not getting diminished anytime soon.
Instagram is huge!
It’s mind boggling to know Instagram is exploding with content. With more than 95 million photos and videos shared and like 4.2 billion posts everyday. The reach on Instagram is extensive so as for brands and influencers.
The users love to explore the different formats that Instagram offers. From Instagram stories to reels, users actively leverage such formats to produce content. Over the past few years, Instagram has come up with changes and formats to keep their users engaged and entertained. And the users happily enjoy these. And not so! More and more people are joining Instagram everyday.
After the Indian government banned tik-tok, a chinese application to make videos upto 60 seconds. The media platform gained popularity within a short period of time. But, it was banned in 2020.
After all this happening, Instagram immediately launched the reel format, a lot similar to what tik tok offered. And eventually people jumped on Instagram to explore this format. Today, Instagram users in India upload nearly six millions short videos everyday.
In 2021, nearly 55% of marketers used Instagram for influencer marketing, youtube being the second. In 2021, Instagram came up with tighter regulation regarding sponsored posts, the trend seems to rise substantially to more than 6 million sponsored posts.
Possibly because an Instagram post sticks around for a while, Instagram posts tend to give higher engagement rates. Nano level influencers with a few thousand followers find it easy to build up their engagement rate than those with higher followers. For the mega level followers, that have followers in million tend to have an engagement rate of 1% - 2%.
So if you're a brand or an influencer, start with Instagram that provides organic reach and a much higher engagement rate compared to any other social media platforms.
How E-Commerce brands use Influencer Marketing?
Influencer Marketing works for all kinds of brands. Big budgeted brands work with celebrities while the start ups work with different levels of influencers depending on their marketing budget. And you, as a brand can leverage this form of marketing in different ways:
To promote a brand or website
One of the most common and basic ways that brands use influencer marketing. When an influencer talks about your brand or website to it’s followers, the brand is able to connect to its potential customer. Through their social handles, the influencer can easily link your ecommerce store. Instead, they can attach a link directly to the brand’s page which helps the customers to land on the brand’s online store and explore the products/services.
Share user generated content
One more extraordinary advantage of influencer marketing is by sharing the user generated content. People tend to trust others more than they trust brands. Whenever you work with an influencer, you can use their content on your page. Then, at that point, you'll have the option to re-post or use a collaboration feature (available on Instagram), which shows your target audience the association you have with this influencer as well as their pictures.
Tip: Create an influencer marketing strategy for sharing UGC so you can completely augment the advantages. Assuming you realize you're promoting a specific item soon, save your UGC for that item until that promotion comes around so you can have the full impact.
Use Testimonials from influencers
Each brand needs more reviews and testimonials on their website and brand’s social handles , yet now and then clients don't remember to return and write a review about their experience. At the point when you work with an influencer, you can catch their reviews and their story. By putting their data on your site in general or the page of the products they're reviewing, you can give more social evidence to your target audience so they feel more confident on buying.
Influencer Marketing is here and isn’t going to go anywhere in the coming years. If you’re planning to switch to full-time influencer, then it can be a great career choice if you have a reasonable number of followers on social media platforms. And if you’re a brand, then you must allocate a separate budget for influencer marketing to see huge differences in your sales and conversions.
If you’re looking for an agency to rock your social campaigns in 2022, then We, at 9OM, a digital marketing company based in Delhi-NCR & Mumbai provides 360 degree marketing solutions. From Smm services to Design Services, we are best known for our creative campaigns.
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