If you ask someone under the age of 25 about who their heroes are, you might be surprised to hear what they say. Where heroes were once limited to historical figures and celebrities, todays’ youth idolizes influencers primarily. Why should that matter to your business? It should matter significantly because Influencer Marketing has become one of the biggest trends in recent business history, and it is not set to go anywhere anytime soon.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Social media is where most people receive their information these days. Apps such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram have become a gold mine for the masses' information and entertainment. Influencers are a part of this world, and Influencer Marketing is a way to tap into these successful people and use their success to your business’s advantage. Promotions from influencers for your products can lead to substantial revenue. Some influencers use product placement to help promote products. Thankfully, many influencers these days are not always just focused on large corporations. SMBs can get in on the action, too and here are just some of the ways Influencer Marketing can help your business thrive.
Creates Trust for Your Brand
30 years ago, if you wanted to sell a product or service, you contacted a celebrity to endorse it. The same thing holds today, but more companies are turning to influencers for their endorsement needs. Influencers who use your product tend to talk about it online to their subscribers, providing you with an unbeatable marketing strategy. Through Influencer Marketing and its effectiveness at reaching the public, your customers will come to trust your brand just as much as they trust the influencer showing it off.
Creating a trust for your brand is vital for the overall success of your SMB. Too many companies have had issues related to trust in the past, and consumers are naturally more cautious and conscientious about which products and services they use and support. Studies have shown that up to 60% of YouTube subscribers claim that they trust advice and products endorsed by influencers, and that is just one of the over 200 social media sites in existence right now.
Boost Existing Marketing Efforts
If you are like most SMBs, you do everything you can to help boost your marketing strategies, and Influencer Marketing is another step that should be taken. Influencer Marketing is a stand-alone marketing strategy, but it also works following other marketing strategies as well. Influencers that endorse or write content to contribute to your website enable you to access their vast link system. When they link to your site, their followers can easily find you, and other forms of marketing, including, but not limited to, social media marketing, SEO, and email marketing, can see a boost as well.
Enjoy a Broader Reach
Have you ever thought of why you use the products and services you do? If you really think about it, you likely started using a product or service based on someone else's suggestion. Actually, it is estimated that 84% of buyers begin using a product or service based on a suggestion from another user. This can include suggestions from friends and family, but reviews of products or services as well. When you place an influencer at the helm suggesting something, those numbers can increase drastically.
Influencers can allow you to reach your target audience more efficiently, but they can also add to your reach. SMBs can sometimes be limited in their ability to break out of their box, so to speak, and reach new customers for their products. Influencer Marketing is an amazing and effective strategy that can generate up to 90% more ROI when compared to other marketing strategies. Yes, it can be that powerful when you find the right influencer to promote your products or services.
Are Some Social Media Platforms Better Than Others?
According to seasoned marketers that have invested in Influencer Marketing, some social media avenues should be avoided while others should be embraced. Surprisingly, some of the most popular social media sites are not exactly ideal for Influencer Marketing. Snapchat has proven to be the most effective for Influencer marketing at 62%, while Instagram seems to be the worst for it at 4%. Not surprisingly, especially for the SMB world, Linked In is ranked second for Influencer Marketing strategists for its effectiveness coming in at 55% effective. Facebook at 22% and Twitter at 32% come in at the middle of the road for Influencer Marketing effectiveness.
The next time you see an influencer online promoting a product or service, remember, with the right contacts, that could be your business one day. Take the time to examine your overall marketing goals and do a little research into which Influencer lines up with those goals. Once you locate the right influencer, make contact. They are always looking for businesses to endorse, so it might as well be yours. You may even have a little Viral Marketing on your hands before you know it.
