What Is Influencer Marketing?
Online Marketing is the heart and soul of every operational task in today’s scenario. Nobody notices but our daily tasks are influenced by it. While there are a zillion ways to go by when it comes to online marketing, influencer marketing has emerged as the mainstream form.
Every brand and every individual is part of this type of marketing and has proved beneficial to every single person in the world, one way or the other. The popularity of influencer marketing is quite evident yet there is a reasonable sum of people who are still mused by the question – “What is Influencer Marketing?”
Despite the seeming complexity of the topic, in this article, all your doubts will be answered while we discuss everything you need to know about Influencer Marketing.
What Is The Fuss All About?
Influencer Marketing isn’t rocket science. The concept of Influencer Marketing is quite simple and evident in today’s scenario. It is just a marketing strategy that if executed well can bring fortune to brands and influencers. It is the type of online marketing where brands and big companies collaborate with online influencers to promote their offerings and bring audience attention to their products or services so that the conversion rate of potential customers can be increased.
This type of marketing is a win-win strategy for all three parties involved – Influencers, Brands, and Viewers where influencers get paid their cut, brands get their sales boosted and viewers get to buy new and trusted products. Till now, it is quite evident that Influencers play a key role in influencer marketing but the question that you might ponder is – What is an influencer?
Well, Influencers are more or less like Celebrities. While celebrities have fame in the offline setting, it is not necessarily the same with Influencers who are popular in the online world. Nevertheless, Influencers have more influence on the boost of this marketing than celebrities despite it being a hybrid version of Celebrity endorsement.
Why Is Influencer Marketing On A Boost?
An Influencer is somebody who influences a group of people the amount of which could be a handful or worldwide but as humans, we tend to change the meaning according to our needs and feelings. Something similar has been done with Influencer and influencer marketing. Jumping back to the topic, you must be wondering when Celebrity endorsement already had its impact on people what was the need for a hybrid version of the same.
It is quite cliched to say that as humans we live a fast life. Everybody is regularly on a run which is lowkey very true. Another fact is that everybody lives a fast life to make time and money for good leisure and entertainment but there’s a constant battle between both worlds. This fast lifestyle calls for a quick way to spend some leisure time. Hence emerges short-form content.
Ever since the introduction of short-form content, celebrity endorsement has taken a major drift toward influencer marketing as everybody shifted from long-form movies to short-form reels and shorts.
As a result of this, the stats have changed so dramatically that the majority of firms tend to increase their influencer marketing budget whereas, Instagram has witnessed a major boom in the past couple of years since the engagement rate of this platform has surpassed YouTube, Twitter, Twitch and similar social media platforms. With all these statistics, Influencer marketing does seem quite beneficial.
What Are All The Benefits?
We are well aware of the fact that influencer marketing is a win-win strategy with many benefits. There are usually two parties in a deal and both win with this strategy. So let’s discuss all the benefits influencer marketing serves to both Influencers and Brands.
Benefits To Brands
As discussed above, Brands have been keeping their marketing budget influencer centric. Brands tend to publicize their affiliation with a certain influencer more loudly. It is only because influencer marketing gives huge benefits to the brands.
Increased Brand Reach
Due to the emergence of short-form content, every single person is consuming short-form media on daily basis for longer periods which is why all the short-form creators and influencers on YouTube have millions of followers. All these followers are generally influenced by their respective influencers which makes all these people a potential customer base for the brands. There are all types of influencers available on social media. Brands select an influencer that matches the niche they want to target and hence approach millions of potential customers.
Benefiting Partnership
While it all seems a fairy tale, conversion from influencer marketing is not a quick and one-off task. It takes time and patience to witness results in the case of this marketing. Even statistics depict that almost half of the brands and advertisers like to work with influencers on a long-term basis say, a six-month or so contract. While one-off campaigns are executed as well, companies prefer long-term partnerships more.
Improve Credibility
Influencers are great at building trust. Content creators are quite impressive at building the trust of viewers which brands can easily use for their profit. All the followers of an influencer believe in his/her opinions on any given brand. Partnering with an influencer helps in building credibility and trust among customers.
Economic
Brands usually depend on paid ads to improve their sales and performance. The sad fact is that paid ads have been becoming increasingly expensive and harsh on budget with falling ROI (Return on Investment). Investments made in Influencer Marketing are rather more effective because it helps you increase sales on a large scale and reach more potential customers at less cost.
Investment in an influencer depends on the reach of the influencer and the niche he/she targets. A good way to keep costs in check is to pay the influencer based on the performance through commission.
Better ROI
Influencer marketing has much more potential in it as compared to other marketing formulas as per studies. Companies prefer to spend a good amount of money on influencer marketing because the ROI (Return on Investment) is better than other marketing strategies. This gives a chance to small businesses to gain more visibility among the potential customer base.
It is thoroughly studied that the cost of any sort of influencer marketing is way less than the returns you get on it. Stats tell that about 50% of marketers prefer influencer marketing because they believe that the returns on it are way better than other marketing strategies.
Benefits To Influencers
While Brands make loads of money off influencer marketing, influencers gain benefits from this strategy as well because it is a mutual deal between both parties where both make profits. Now that the grounds have been set, let us discuss all the benefits one might gain from Influence marketing as an influencer.
Reimbursements
Influencers play a key role in this type of marketing where companies build their brand awareness and influencers are usually paid $1000 for every 100,000 followers on Instagram. reach modeling the influencer as its face. The face value of influencers in influencer marketing hence is the selling factor here. Since an influencer advertises the product or service of the company with his/her creativity, he/she is paid for the service, therefore, provided to the brand. On a usual basis, an influencer is paid by the brand for each post they create. The cost metrics are different for different platforms.
- Influencers are usually paid $1000 for every 100,000 followers on Instagram.
- This increases to about $2000 per 100,000 followers on YouTube.
- Metrics for Snapchat are $500 per campaign in 24 hours.
Besides these, there are a few other methods through which an influencer is paid. A few of these include Gifts, Trips, Store Credit, and many more.
Exposure
Well, if we talk about the benefits that influencer marketing has for an influencer is not limited to just money but a few other things as well. Influencers not only get reimbursed for the services they provide but also get more exposure on how to interact professionally with brands and make business deals. While money plays a driving force in influencer marketing, exposure one gets as an influencer comes as a complimentary benefit.
What Tools Are Used In Influencer Marketing?
Till now, you must be aware that influencer marketing is an extensive marketing strategy. There is a great load of nodes branching out from it and not surprisingly enough, something similar is with the tools involved in it. There are various tools available in the market for brands to utilize to their benefit some of which have been discussed below.
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a great influencer searching tool that is used to search for an influencer while analyzing his/her metrics and statistics concerning others in the niche and platform. It helps you make a better decision by analyzing the statistics of the desired influencer.
Hunter
Hunter is a tool used for brands to easily search for any influencer’s email address or contact info. This helps the brands to reach the right influencer through appropriate mediums.
Awario
Awario is another good tool to track the performance of the brand on social media. This tool helps the brands to monitor this performance by tracking the mentions of your brands across the selected social media and giving out a rating based on it.
Upfluence
Upfluence is a very popular all-in-one influencer marketing tool that helps brands not just reach an influencer but also create curated campaigns and discuss things. This platform provides a professional space for both parties to finalize a deal, work, and complete the business transaction.
Keyhole
Keyhole is another multipurpose influencer marketing tool that helps a brand to track all the brand mentions and analyze trends and image of the company among the audience, competitor analysis, and influencer analysis.
Conclusion
Even though we have concluded the topic, it shouldn’t be neglected that there is more to influencer marketing than we know. What has been discussed till now is just the tip of the iceberg that settles in the sea of marketing. In further blogs, you will get to explore more about Influencer marketing and its expanse of it. While this officially concludes the current topic here, stay tuned for more as we disclose the world of influencer marketing in front of you
Frequently Asked Questions About Influencer Marketing
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer Marketing is a type of marketing strategy wherein, brands collaborate with influencers to promote their products or services and increase brand awareness.
How many followers make you an influencer?
Your following does not make you an influencer but your intent to be one is what makes you an influencer.
How do brands find influencers?
Various tools available in the market as discussed above helps brands to find their desired influencers.
Does Instagram pay influencers?
Yes, Influencers are paid by Instagram using various features like IGTV Ads and badges in live sessions.
Does Influencer Marketing lead to sales?
Yes, Influencer marketing leads to sales.
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