Why Influencer Marketing Works
If you use social media in any kind of capacity, for work or even just in your personal life, you’ve probably noticed the power that influencers have when it comes to marketing. In 2020, the influencer marketing industry is expected to be worth $9.7 billion dollars and shows no sign of slowing down.
Influencers are our secret weapon when it comes to drawing the right attention to a client’s brand. In fact, we would go so far as to say that they have become just as important as the journalists we seek out. They are an invaluable partner as they have the ability to reach audiences in a way that the mainstream media can’t. We’re very selective when it comes to choosing the influencers we work with; their style, message, and overall ethos must be aligned with that of our client and we spend a huge amount of time looking deeply into their content and engagement to make sure that they are a fit. It’s also incredibly important to us that the influencers we work with genuinely love and identify with the brand they’re promoting - soulless, staged and obviously sponsored ads are never the goal.
So, why does influencer marketing work?
The reality is that traditional advertising and marketing methods are becoming less effective. Consumers are skeptical of the promises that brands make and they’re demanding more from the products and services they use. They want to see products in action, and they want proof that something really does what it says it will.
An influencer will generally have a niche audience who follows them because they admire them, so they trust their opinion and are interested in the content that they create. As they are already engaging with your target audience, they are in the perfect position to get your brand message out to the people who want to know about it, and who are highly likely to make a purchase. Many brands can credit influencer marketing with significantly increasing their sales. According to HubSpot, 71% of marketers for brands say that they see a much higher quality of customers and traffic from influencer marketing compared to other advertising sources.
A perfect example of a successful influencer partnership is some recent work that we did for our client Jerome Alexander Cosmetics with Beauty News With Angela Cruz. Angela is a popular beauty blogger with an engaged and devoted audience who tune in to her YouTube channel regularly for beauty tips and to see her reviews and demonstrations of new products. She reviewed Jerome Alexander Cosmetics MagicMinerals Airbrush 5 Piece Set and filmed herself applying the products step by step. While the video is professionally edited so it looks great, it’s not staged at all and through Angela’s engaging, warm and straight-talking style she shows her followers real-life proof that the product really is as amazing as it claims to be. You can check it out here.
If you need more evidence of how effective influencer marketing really is, research from HubSpot also reveals that 49% of consumers say that they depend on influencer recommendations when considering the purchase of a new product and 60% say that they have been influenced by an influencer’s endorsement of a product. According to Big Commerce, 89% of brands say that ROI is just as good, and in some cases even better than other marketing channels, with Instagram being the platform that generates the best results.
If you’re interested in learning more about how influencer marketing can help build awareness for your brand, get in touch with us today! We’d love to talk through your marketing strategy and see how we can help.