Suppose you’re on a 10-hour bus journey, the journey is long and tiresome and anything regarding buying or marketing is at the way back of your mind. During your journey, would you rather pay attention to the passing billboards and the flying descriptions on them or your phone with an active Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube? As much as you’d like to deny, the latter is the hard truth. Maybe on your journey, buying something is the least of your priorities. Still, the moment you open your phone, the moment you go through Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube, something eye-catching will grab your attention and will make you re-think your buying intentions. The same, however, could not be said for billboards.
That is the power of online marketing, which is always incomplete without the mention of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is a form of online marketing that is carried out with the help of influencing people. In the modern era, it is nearly impossible not to follow an influencer, unintentionally, or intentionally, we all are following some, local or international, and we do tend to listen to them. Naturally, if you see them promoting a shampoo, a restaurant, or any product, you’ll get inclined and think ‘Hey, if he/she is recommending this product, then it has to be good!’ That is the magic of influencer marketing. Influencers carry a huge following or fanbase on their social media account by blogging or vlogging about their respective niches. They take on deals with various brands and businesses and promote their products or services on their social media account. Highlighting all the pros and cons of that product or service, and giving their following a real-life experience of what it feels like, they tend to gain full control over their fanbase. Referring to an influencer before buying something is like going through a simulation to witness the results before actually setting foot in the pond. The real-life experience of the product or service before getting it to your hands is what makes influencer marketing so special and influencers the kings/ queens over their niches.
Whether be it a fitness blogger, a lifestyle influencer, a home-based cook, or a fashionista, the modern age of social media has made it inevitable not to refer to these influencers before making any decision. From simple decisions like where to eat or what to wear to complex ones like where to go for vacation, influencers have the tendency to shape your opinion and give you a direction on where to head. That is all that influencer marketing is about. Not only does it benefit the end-users by being completely satisfied by a recommended and rated product, but also gives the influencer a monetary advantage and the brand the required promotion they were looking for. After buying something on the recommendation of an influencer, you’re most likely to refer it to a friend who’ll refer it to their friends and the chain goes on!
Wanna know more about the charisma of influencer marketing and the chokehold it has on all of us? Keep reading to find out!
The Power of Social Media Influencers
Social media influencers have all the hype in the modern age, especially among millennials and Gen Z. From buying dishwashing soap to choosing a restaurant for date night, according to a stat, 50% of Gen Z and millennials tend to rely on the recommendations of social media influencers and 72% of them are already following them on social media. These stats emphasize the significance of influencers in the marketing domain. Due to the impact that influencers have on their following and due to their ability to mold the decision-making power of their fanbase, brands are targeting them for their promotional campaigns. According to a statistic, 92% of marketers believe that influencer marketing is the most effective form of marketing. The major reason behind this is that influencer marketing directly reaches the audience, it is a sort of active marketing. The traditional means of marketing via billboards and advertisements are considered passive means of marketing as they do not directly reach the audience. Marketing via these mediums reaches the masses and the target audience gets blurred during the process. As a result, the final outcomes in terms of sales are less as the marketing failed to reach the desired target audience. But fortunately, influencer marketing removes this trouble.
In the realm of influencer marketing, there are 2 kinds of influencers - macro-influencers and micro-influencers. Both of these are explained below:
Macro-Influencers:
Macro-influencers are the ones who have a huge following base with followers anywhere around 100K to 1 million. They are popular online creators and are even recognized as celebrities in the influencer marketing world. Usually, some of these influencers are even celebrities who get paid by brands to promote their products or services. The area of influence of these people is quite high as they have greater exposure. They can either belong to a specific niche or be generic lifestyle influencers promoting various products. Some of these influencers are even Hollywood celebrities so don’t be too surprised if you see Kylie Jenner promoting the new Adidas, it is all a part of influencer marketing! You, as the end user, may either approve or disapprove, but the point is, that you got the message!
Micro-Influencers:
Micro-influencers are opposite to the macro ones in terms of fanbase and exposure. These are small influencers who are usually hobbyists. Their following range is below 100K and they are usually local influencers. They have small businesses and have very specific niches. They also promote specific products relative to their niches which is a big help for brands to reach out to their specific target audience only. In fact, among marketers, 56% of them prefer to work with micro-influencers as they generate up to 60% more engagement as compared to macro ones. This is because their fanbase is coherent with their niches which helps them to reach the target audience directly.
Impact of Influencer Marketing on Consumer Behavior
Whether on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, or TikTok, influencers have full control and power to develop a perception in their following regarding a brand. They can either make or break a brand. For instance, if a beauty influencer speaks ill about a skin care product, chances are that the sales of that particular product are going to drop down heavily. Simultaneously, if they promote a product or speak about its highs, chances are that the product will become the next hot seller. Influencers are known to give customers an honest, real-life, and experimented review. The promotional campaigns of these influencers actually involve using the product so they really can't promote it unless they test it themselves. The following of these influencers consider them like the gurus who are going to guide them on what to use and what not to. So brands can take advantage of them to reach the desired audience. If a brand carefully handpicks the influencers relative to their product and understands their niche, then they can launch a skyrocketing campaign and make millions in sales through influencer marketing.
Targeting the Right Audience
The whole foundation of influencer marketing relies on reaching a specific targetted audience. However, the target audience needs to resonate with the niche of the influencer as well. If a fitness influencer promotes candy bars then the whole message is lost and the promotion a designated fail. Therefore, it's a must to choose the right kind of influencer to reach the desired target audience. So let's take a look at how this can be done.
1. Identifying the Right Target Market
As a brand, before getting an influencer on board with your promotional campaign, you first need to identify the target audience. You need to first understand what your product is about and assign a niche to your product, be it fitness, beauty, or hardware. The better you understand your product, the better you will be able to determine the right type of target audience. Hence, the key to identifying the right target market is to determine the niche of your product.
2. Customize Influencer Partnerships
Now that you, as a brand, have determined the niche for your product, the next step is to select your desired influencer. Skim through the variety of niches that exist and select the niche corresponding to your product. In that respective niche, choose an influencer based on your marketing guidelines and opt for the influencer that best resonates with your brand. Once you’ve opted for the right influencer reflecting your brand, work out a customized partnership plan with the influencer to initiate the promotional campaign.
3. Reaching Niche Audience Through Influencer
Once the influencer is selected, it is time to launch the promotional campaign with the influencer. The niche of your desired product, the influencer you’ve selected, and the audience you want to target are all the same. The influencer you’ve selected as a brand acts as a bridge that will connect you with your desired target audience.
Authenticity in Marketing
The most unique aspect of influencer marketing is that it is 100% authentic. There’s no fluff, no CGI, no editing, just pure authentic content. An influencer gives the end users a real-life simulation of what the product is actually about and its pros and cons. Once the users know the recommendation about a product is coming from someone they trust and rely on, they’ll instantly jump to get a hold of the product. The influencer, through their daily engagement with the followers, develops a trust bond with their fanbase. They share their life with their followers and also share tips and hacks with them to gain their trust. Once the trust is developed, the followers will tend to rely on the recommendations of the influencers. Now whatever product the influencer will promote or use in their daily lives, they will their followers a daily update about it. Due to this factor, the followers will become more inclined toward the influencer and will appreciate their authenticity and consistency in providing them with updates on product usage. This level of authenticity always works in the best interest of the brand.
Influencer Marketing Tools
With so many influencers out there, it becomes quite a challenge to choose the right one that perfectly resonates with your brand. Fortunately, there are a few online tools available that can help you in this regard!
1. SocialBook
In the dimension of influencer marketing tools, SocialBook is certainly the one on the top! SocialBook is not just an influencer marketing tool but its actually an Instagram and YouTube analytics tool that helps both brands as well as influencers. It helps brands to reach out to their desired influencers and at the same, it helps influencers to present their portfolios to brands with the hope of working with them. This is an example of one of their tools:
https://socialbook.io/remove-background
SocialBook is an all-in-one platform that allows you to reach influencers, e-meet them via online meetings, craft promotional plans with them, track their progress, monitor the campaign, and also track the sales for the brand. Due to its ease of use, it's very accessible to both brands and influencers! Please check it out here!
2. AspireIQ
AspireIQ is an online influencer marketing tool that helps you choose your dream influencer. It has over 500,000 influencers in various niches. These influencers are categorized on the basis of niche, target audience, demographics, and content. Due to this categorization, brands can choose an influencer that best suits their product according to the desired target audience demographics. You can get these influencers on board for your promotional campaigns and then craft engaging and creative content with them that will drive you customers and the influencer some followers!
3. Upfluence
Upfluence is another influencer marketing tool that helps you, as a brand, to choose the right influencer for your promotional campaign. Upfluence allows you to select the desired influencer from the pool of influencers and schedule meetings with them. You can openly communicate with your preferred influencers via meetings and work on a promotional plan with them. You can also track their progress and monitor their content to see how many customers they are driving to your product and in return, how much ROI (return on investment) are you obtaining from them.
Conclusion
With the evolving world and in the age of social media, influencer marketing is not going to die out anytime soon, in fact, it's only going to get more elevated. With the rise in influencer marketing, brands as well as end users are becoming more and more particular about the promotional campaigns they want to launch and about the products they want to purchase respectively. In a world with so many choices, recommendations have the upper edge. Hence, influencers are the key that are going to bridge the gap between the brands and the end users. All you, as a brand, need is the right type of influencer marketing tool in hand to choose your dream influencers and get your promotional campaigns on track!