In an era known for its plethora of information, customers seek something that guarantees credibility. This is why influencer marketing is important; it provides that coveted seal of authenticity and trust.

To the ones who are new to the term ‘influencer marketing’ (were you existing at all?), here’s the definition of Influencer Marketing:

Simply put, influencer marketing involves collaboration with ‘Influencers’ who, as the title suggests, are people that managed to ravish the trust of so many souls out there. They have their own wolf-packs and niches where they sit in their own thrones among their hard-earned sycophants.

That’s why 80% of marketers find influencer marketing to be an effective strategy, according to new research from Mediakix.

So, using influencers for marketing can be crucial for your business not only to win consumer trust but to stay in competition as well.

In this post, we will walk you through:

• How and why does influencer-based marketing work
• 10 influencer marketing benefits for your business
• Influencer marketing challenges you should consider

How and why does influencer-based marketing work?

Influencer marketing surpasses traditional advertising, donning a new mantle engraved with the term “influencers” for innovative brand promotion.

Collaborating with companies, influencers become opinion leaders for specific admirer groups, driving product preferences among their followers.

Would you believe that in a survey,  80% of the consumers reportedly purchased things by clicking on the links of their favorite influencers?

Influencers, emerging from social media, leverage the same platforms to gather a multitude of customers for your brands. So, no need to blow your own trumpet anymore as you will be using the influencers’ shoulders to point your gun! 

This avant-garde marketing strategy has become a groundbreaking success because it has its roots in sentiments like trust and faith which are nowadays diluted due to the abundance of things.

10 Benefits of Influencer Marketing for Business

Here are the 10 key reasons why influencer marketing can work like a charm for your business:

1. Improves content strategy

It is quite a challenge for many brands to keep providing content afresh. No, sweat! Influencer marketing saves you some brain fluid as the influencers who you pick to be your ambassador will be doing that in your stead. 

The contents that they provide always look hot as they have their own trial and tested methods out of their own experiences, they know the soft spots of their followers and know exactly when, where, and how to infiltrate into the rarest places possible

Their approaches without a doubt shower a new zeal on your brands though they are a bit old (no offense).

It’s no wonder that 24% of brands tactfully use the opportunity of reposting the influencers’ posts which triggers their followers to create user-generated content. That’s your perk to count.

2. Ignites brand awareness

The top three goals of influencer marketing for businesses include increasing brand awareness (85%), reaching new audiences (71%), and generating sales and conversions (64%).

As already mentioned, the strategy which you are reading about here is being built upon social media platforms. Since 3.8 billion people use social media, these platforms are completely capable of bringing to you a plethora of consumers, if only you can pick the right sort of influencer whose followers could predictably become interested in your products. 

With earned trust, influencers effortlessly promote your brand in their niches, often touching sentiments to resonate with followers.

For example,6 in 10 YouTube subscribers would follow advice on what to buy from their favorite creator over their favorite TV or movie personality and 70% of teenage YouTube subscribers say they relate to YouTube creators more than traditional celebrities. And as analysis has it, 61% of consumers like to click a sponsored link from influencers to know more about the products, say, that’s your cue.

3. Strengthens brand credibility

If there is something that keeps compromising over time, then it must be ‘credibility’. Compromised trust in advertisements backlashes many brands slumbering under traditional marketing strategies. The fact that two-thirds of consumers use ad blockers is proof!

But this marketing behemoth known as influencer marketing has got your back. Using influencers to win the trust back has become the best possible way in times as uncertain as these.

Influencer promotions, a trustworthy source, fortify brand credibility, aiding in the reconstruction of your empire with unwavering confidence.

4. Shoots up ROI

Return Of Investments (ROI) has ever been a concern to the marketers, no matter what sort of industry they build. 

Influencer marketing has been proved to be a gladiator who lifts up the integrity of the kingdom fallen to dust. 

89% of the marketers who feel confident about influencer marketing as a channel, say ROI from influencer marketing is comparable or better than the other marketing channels and 80% feel that this strategy is pretty effective.

Influencer marketing generates 11x more ROI than the traditional forms of marketing, yeah, what else do you need?

5. Boosts the SEO

When the fact that the influencers always have their ears to the ground is being laid out bare to our eyes, it’s an inevitable truth that they can provide you the highly necessary keywords which pushed them forward in the conversations and debates with their followers.

So, when you let them take over your social media handles they will automatically be mining out their most successful blogs and contents to pepper them on your sites in order to embellish it over time.

The campaigns they host remain the fastest searched content on the internet, to be honest, companies are earning $7.65 on average for every $1 spent on influencer campaigns ( some even harvest more than $20, psst, what are you still waiting for?):

As an afterthought, influencer marketing is 2x faster in acquiring customers than organic searches.

6. Creates hype

Influencers give faces to your brands, infusing personality into products with trustworthy testimonials that resonate with authenticity. This creates a sort of hype that is much needed and hooks up the consumers on a wider scale. 

Some of them being the coolest content creators, provide your brand a fresh avatar. 54% of marketers agree to the fact that these contents outperform brand-created content. 

According to Mediakix, 75% of marketers use engagement as a measure of success.  Being the walking and talking endorsements they help your brand muster the much-needed hook-up and kudos!

No wonder 94% of marketers find these influencer endorsements more effective.

7. Time-saving

Influencers help the consumers narrow down the available myriad choices of brands and products having their admiration as a base. 

When advertising a product traditionally, people consider it unnecessary. However, when the same product appears on an influencer’s page, they find reasons to grab it right away.

Influencers transform a potato into Pringles, embellishing products, compelling ardent admirers to choose them amid numerous options available. In fact, 71% of marketers feel that influencer marketing is more effective at driving quality traffic and leads.

Hence, Influencer marketing becomes time-saving to both the streams of consumers and marketers. 

And as for marketers, they can piggyback off the influencers back letting them do the work lethargically.

That being said, one cannot escape yet another compelling perk, which is its cost-effectiveness. To spill some beans on that one can consider a Martechseries study which concluded the following: Instagram. 80% of micro-influencers ask for less than $ 250 per post on Instagram. 97% require less than $ 500.

Check out how micro-influencers can benefit your brand.

8. Leverages word-of-mouth

Image source: whatstheword.com

Consumers who prefer direct recommendations to indirect ads, fall readily for the word-of-mouth suggestions from trusted sources i.e. the media influencers. 

Many found to differentiate these influencers from their peers, friends, and acquaintances who heavily influence their shopping choices. 

It is analyzed that 20-50% of all customer decisions are impacted by the word-of-mouth strategy and this has become a prime factor that influences the decision-making of consumers.

9. Social Proof

The influencer marketing strategy has successfully earned an authenticity that couldn’t be acquired by most of the traditional ad campaigns. This is because it leverages the idea of borrowing third-part influence (on good terms) to sway potential customers. 

At a point, these influencers become social proof themselves by sharing their positive reviews and testimonials patting the back of the sponsored brands.

Yup ! by placing these social proofs on all the stages of your customers’ journey your brand can (and definitely will ) win the lottery of the trust of the consumers.

( P.S Here’s a small perk for you if you are from the fashion industry,  a fashion-forward Instagram is here for you to help you flourish with almost 25% of its sponsored posts centering around Fashion, why wait? )

10. Avoids patronizing

One aspect which should be highlighted in the success of influencer marketing is that it dodges patronizing.

Niche influencers value followers, ensuring mutual prosperity; they safeguard trust by staying true, avoiding compromise for marketers’ gains.

Hence, 47% of influencers prefer brands whose values align with their principles.  

Since this is not a secret to the followers of the respective influencers, they are no strangers to the fact that your brand is worth giving a shot if your brand is privileged to be found on the page of an influencer, 

If you want it, earn it!

Influencer marketing challenges you should consider

When this marketing strategy is found to be a golden goose, you should also be aware of the fact that a slight shiver of your hand holding a knife can kill the goose (no fuss, no muss ).

Here are some challenges you might want to be informed about before jumping into it in expectance of a bed of roses:

• To be logical, per se,61% of marketers agree it’s challenging to find the best influencers for a campaign – and making the wrong choice can set your campaign up for failure from the start.
• And About 96 percent of experts agree that you cannot fully automate influencer marketing.
• The media company’s 2019 “Influencer Marketing Survey” found that 50% of marketers, primarily from the US, named spotting fake followers as a chief challenge of influencer marketing.

So, to conclude, take heart, pick your call and make your business grab an enormous number of eyeballs you have ever witnessed by shaking hands with the RIGHT influencer. Because influencer marketing shows no signs of slowing down, the titanic ice-berg-sized challenges notwithstanding.

Image source: shanebarker.com

Warnings aside, let’s get back to focusing on the bright side, leveraging some sparks,

• The fastest-growing customer acquisition method is ranking influencer marketing strategy as #1.
• 17% of marketers are already switching to this manna from up above and will be spending half of their marketing budget on this tactic.
• An impressive 95 percent of businesses are planning to use up to half of their budgets on influencer marketing. The majority, 43 percent, will be spending between 11 and 25 percent.
• This year, two-thirds of marketers have plans to increase their influencer marketing budgets and the industry is set to reach a whopping $10 billion before you bat your eyelids.

Select an influencer aligned with your values, boasting a substantial following, and offering relevant content; witness the impactful difference.

To be crisp, surf for creative & quality content and on-brand hooking-up voice. If you find them, never let them go!

If you are new to influencer marketing, try our platform Happine.cc to collaborate with the best influencers in your niche.