“Engage, enlighten, encourage and especially…just be yourself. Social media is a community effort; everyone is an asset.” -Susan Cooper.

In this time and age, brands need to market themselves effectively in order to stay relevant or run the risk of losing to their competitors.

However, marketing trends can be quite challenging as they are continuously evolving along with the modern consumers’ palate for advertising. Needless to say, traditional marketing no longer makes the cut these days as audiences have grown rather cynical of brands who try hard to market themselves to them. In the famous words of Scott Cook, “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is—it is what consumers tell each other it is.”

That said, it is inevitable for influencer marketing to take off and be the effective marketing strategy that it is today. As a brand, you need to embrace your customers so as to learn more about them and build trust. Today, brand loyalty is an excellent way for businesses to improve loyalty with customers. Moreover, it is an avenue for authenticity and trustworthiness. This is where influencer marketing comes in, as it enables brands and businesses to harness the reach through their collaborations and partnerships with influencers. In a nutshell, influencers are personalities or individuals who have built and developed their own following in a specific niche with a particular target audience. If you still have any doubt left about the effectiveness of influencer marketing, research has shown that 49% of consumers actually take to social media for advice on prospective purchases. All that considered, having influencers on board and partnering with your brand is definitely something you should be considering.

If you are wondering how influencer marketing services have become a game changer, below are just some of the reasons why:

1.) It is the new word-of-mouth marketing

Like everything else, marketing evolves with time and technology. Before the digital age, marketing was quite a challenge, and it limited your options. Back then, only big brands with massive budgets could unlock optimal opportunities for their business. The rest had to rely on other traditional means and word of mouth. The arrival of the internet, however, placed everyone on an equal footing. Needless to say, technology and the internet have changed the marketing landscape entirely. Back then, brands wanted to hire only the best calligraphers to design letterings for newspaper ads and signposts. Today, however, these do not make the cut. For a brand to get noticed, it needs to tell a compelling story. That said, the aim of marketing is to establish a personal connection with customers, which is why word-of-mouth marketing is seen as one of the most effective ways to facilitate marketing.

To arouse consumer interests, marketers use word-of-mouth marketing where they ensure that these interests reflect in consumers’ daily actions and interactions. This is where influencer marketing comes into play.

Brands contact influencers to tell their stories and unveil the authentic and believable aspects and features of their products and services. In most cases, influencers can tell better stories than the brands themselves. Also, it is worth noting that modern consumers trust influencers so much more than a celebrity endorsement. As a result, businesses who are seeking results should consider influencer marketing.

2.) It improves brand awareness

One of the fastest online customer acquisition and brand awareness methods is influencer marketing. With brand awareness, your customers can familiarize themselves with your products or services. More importantly, it is a good indicator of just how memorable a brand is to its core. Building a brand has always been a challenge, and social media, albeit helpful in reaching marketing objectives, has not made it any easier.

So, how do influencers make it easier? Well, for starters, influencers can make the brand improvement process a lot more manageable. Unlike big brands that can exclusively engage with fans only on marketing campaigns, influencers have dedicated their time to relate with customers on a personal level. As a result, they can create engaging content to make their audiences touch base with their realities. Brands who wish to do the same level of engagement with their customers would need to break the relationship barrier first and find a way to connect with them. That said, influencers clearly have the upper hand.

3.) Offers easy access to different established markets

Influencers can impact brand awareness campaigns as their business is focused on building a following. Influencers with the most active following are known to be the ones with ultimate power. However, this does not mean you should be considering influencers with massive following alone. As it is, influencer marketing involves a twist that companies may find helpful. Undoubtedly, many of the difficulties in marketing have stemmed from the inability to locate a specific target audience for niche products and services.

Thankfully, influencer marketing makes this a little easier by finding your target audience for you. Essentially, influencers are a reflection of the fanbase they built. To illustrate, an influencer who loves toys are likely to have toy enthusiasts dominating their follower base. If your product revolves around children’s interests and toys, you will fare better by partnering with that influencer. That said, you can choose different influencers to lead you to different target groups. In this way, you can cast your net wide through influencer marketing.

4.) Directly impacts sales

In 2021, influencer marketing spending grew by thirty percent. In fact, about ninety percent of companies have increased their influencer marketing budget as they entered the current year. For many, the statistics may appear off, but keep in mind that the sole reason companies are spending more on influencer marketing is because the ROI rate has been proven to be quite lucrative.

5.) Influencers are walking and talking endorsements

Many brands struggle because all that they are is a brand. Partnering with an influencer helps you put a face to a product and, more importantly, a personality. An influencer’s opinion holds value, and if you add that into a marketable testimonial or review, your products and services can have that much-needed boost.

6.) Helps build credibility

Influencer marketing’s effectiveness and growth are hinged on the trustworthy relationship influencers have built with consumers. In fact, a huge percentage of modern consumers have said that they rely on influencers as trusted sources when it comes to shopping decisions. Many of them even trust influencers over recommendations they get from family and friends. In today’s marketing, trust and authenticity are paramount. Unfortunately, there is little to no possible way to make brands as trustworthy as influencers are given their position as product manufacturers and service providers. That said, influencers come in handy as they appear to be neutral and more reliable.

7.) Brands become more attractive to the younger generation

Today, Generation Zs have become the coveted demographic marketing. Unfortunately, attracting them can be quite difficult considering that their tastes and preferences are rather meteoric. As their tastes vary widely and change unpredictably, you need to collaborate with an influencer who knows their audience well. Keep in mind that an influencer’s core business is to grow their following. As a brand, your responsibility is to earn revenue. That said, an influencer who can speak the Gen Z language sounds more believable than a brand who tries and might be seen as someone with ulterior motives.

8.) Influencers have tried and tested strategies

There is no straightforward way to become an influencer. There are no courses to prepare you for it, nor are there any books to teach you about influencing. Influencers produce results solely because of their own hard work. They live by their own ideas, which they constantly test. That said, they test strategies routinely and evaluate and tweak them as they grow. Doing this is how they can help you capture the attention of the younger generations and help you achieve your marketing goals faster.

9.) SEO Knowledge

More often than not, influencers can give you an insight into the types of issues and keywords that are frequently used in questions and interactions they have with their followers. In this way, they can also let you know about their most successful content and what it primarily features. In turn, this can help you create your own SEO strategy and content. If you wish to link build, ask your influencers to link your content and products on their own platforms.

And as said above, always track, measure, and analyze your campaigns.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Make the most out of your influencer marketing budget by doing thorough research. Choose influencers that are relevant to your brand, has a strong following, visible engagement, lots of reach, and who regularly create valuable and relatable content.

If you truly wish for significant game-changing results, do something out of the box and consider influencer marketing. After all, there is no reason you should shy away from building a relationship with influencers as a business which you can mutually benefit from.