75% of marketers were found to be using influencers in their marketing strategies in a 2018 survey, and the majority of those companies are still using them to drive purchase and improve brand perception. Influencer marketing clearly still has a place in a business’ marketing policy. So what benefits can influencer marketing bring for your business?
Business Marketing Influencers
Research shows that millennial consumers don’t respond to traditional advertising. Online and peer reviews play an important role here, but so too does influencer marketing.
Building Trust, Credibility And Reach
Customers are more responsive to what other people have to say about a brand than they are to a business singing its own praises. Successful influencers have already done a lot of work establishing trust with their followers, and collaborating with them will make your brand seem trustworthy to their audiences. Consumers turn to influencers for guidance and recommendations about the services and products they choose. Indeed, almost 50% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations, as partnering with influencers brings your brand credibility.
While an influencer’s reach will vary, many influencers have an audience of millions. Approaching just one influencer with a large audience can extend your reach dramatically, allowing you to speak to millions of consumers who would otherwise not see your product or service. A business’ network can expect to grow the longer it interacts with the influencer, constantly extending its reach and recognition.
A Bespoke Audience
Influencers largely operate online. Each time they mention your brand in their content, your business naturally generates backlinks to your site, boosting your Google search ranking and generating traffic on your page. The added bonus here is that this is highly-target traffic: working with an influencer helps you reach your target audience — as long as you choose your influencer wisely.
A business selling nutritional supplements, for example, would reap the most rewards from influencer marketing by working with a nutrition or wellness blogger. The two share the same target audience, so the business can be confident that its message is reaching an audience that’s interested in its product. That audience is an interactive one, and the business’ marketing will generate conversation, further driving traffic to its website.
Increased Customer Acquisition
The power of influencer marketing to pinpoint the target audience means an immediate boost to your customer acquisition too. By targeting the right audience, you’re more likely to gain customers rather than casual browsers. The traffic that comes to your page is already interested in your niche, which means persuading them to make a purchase will be a much quicker process. This will have a knock-on effect on your ROI. Indeed businesses across the board report seeing positive returns from incorporating influencer marketing in their policies.
It’s highly likely that at least some of your competitors are using influencer marketing. This is giving them the upper hand, and at the very least, adopting the approach in your own marketing strategy will help you net some of that audience. The bottom line is simple: so long as your competitors are harnessing the power of influencers, your business can’t afford not to.