Influencer Marketing is a form of marketing utilized throughout social media platforms and other online avenues where companies leverage influential people in the community or online to push sales, leads, or brand exposure.
Influencer marketing can commonly be a lot more affordable than traditional avenues of marketing; hence, it has become so popular in the business world in the last couple of years. As social media continues to grow, so does the opportunity for influences and influencer marketing to grow and prosper as one of the most successful forms of advertising.
HISTORY OF INFLUENCER MARKETING
The original form of influencer marketing was utilizing celebrities to advertise your products. This could cost companies hundreds of thousands of dollars, but now with the influencer community growing, it does not have to. Nowadays, the average everyday influencer can sometimes produce more quality content and sales than an A-List celebrity could. Why, you ask? There is something to be said for the authenticity of a regular person influencing their tight-knit community and messaging going to your intended audience from a person that your audience trusts.
There are different ways you can utilize influencer marketing. You can offer discounts on your products in exchange for free advertising on social media platforms, blogs, or affiliate links. You can do product exchange – this is a free product in exchange for advertisement and endorsement, or paid advertisements. For the more influential people with wider audiences and reach, you can pay influencers to pitch your business to their followers and bring in sales. These three levels depend on the influencer you are trying to target, your company’s budget, and what audience you are trying to sell to.
Influencers can help you reach new audiences and the right audiences instead of mass advertisements that can be seen by people, not within your clientele. Stop wasting time advertising to broad demographics when you can select influencers within your business niche and get the audience that is actually interested in what you have to offer. If you are a childcare product, reach out to the mommy blogging community. If you are a beauty brand, reaching out to makeup artists and beauty influencers would necessarily be a better audience for you than someone in lifestyle.
NICHE INFLUENCERS
It is safe to assume that if an influencer is posting within a specific niche, their followers are there to see that type of content, so your product or service should seamlessly fit what the influencer has to offer. Suppose you position yourself within the right niche. In that case, you are automatically targeting an audience more likely to invest in what you have to provide through that specific influencer than you would with someone outside your realm of expertise. Find the proper niche by searching to discover pages or targeting particular hashtags. Also, assess what your competitors are doing and who they are advertising with. If you are looking for someone to advertise for your restaurant, target a local food blogger. Pick a local food blogger known for their unique food journey in the community. Other restaurants consider targeting people like this for their profile stature and influence within the community. This is just one example of finding someone to show you the right audience.
GROW YOUR AUDIENCE
Influencer marketing can also help you grow your business social media platforms, boost credibility in your niche, and serve as great testimonials.
The other purpose influencers serve for your business is content creation. Take the heavy expense out of photographers and models. Influencers make their living off of the content they create, so you can get creative and high-end content to utilize form influencers for yourself.
