Love them or hate them, influencers are making big waves in the world of marketing today. While some business owners refuse to give away anything for free to get a mention from an influencer, others understand the level of outreach that some of these users, and just how big of an impact it can have on their brand. Whatever your view on influencers is – whether you’re happy to incorporate them into your marketing strategy or don’t agree with the whole idea of them – the truth is, you can’t afford to ignore influencer marketing today.
What Do the Stats Say?
It’s easy to talk about how good something is, but nothing speaks quite as clearly as the numbers. And when it comes to influencer marketing, the statistics are in the influencers’ favor. Today, influencer marketing delivers eleven times higher ROI compared to traditional digital marketing strategies, and almost 50% of people say that they rely on influencer recommendations when making purchase decisions. 40% of consumers say that they have purchased an item online after it has been used or recommended by an Instagram influencer. After looking at the numbers, it’s easy to see why more and more businesses are increasing their influencer marketing budgets and turning to professionals like ESBO to get an influencer marketing outreach strategy in place.
Why Is Influencer Marketing So Big?
The statistics show how effective influencer marketing can be in theory, but what got it to this point? Billions of people today are using social media daily – they are spending more time than ever before on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. The people that today’s social media users engage with and look up to are not only their family, friends, and peers, but also influencers – experts and industry leaders within certain areas and niches. Influencers are often people who have built up a large fan base on social media, allowing them to communicate with their followers in seconds. Theyareviewed as experts or leaders in their given industry, so people tend to trust them when they provide advice and recommendations. Because of this, having an influencer recommend your company can have huge marketing results.
The Power of Influencer Marketing:
Influencer marketing is currently a marketing strategy that is generating incredible and undeniable results. The statistics are clear, and when compared to display advertising and other forms of digital and online marketing, the difference in ROI is shocking. The main reason for this is that influencer marketing is often much more targeted compared to other traditional marketing types. The good news for businesses today is that no matter how large or small their budget might be, you can use influencer marketing to get the best ROI possible from your marketing and advertising budget. This is why today we are seeing more and more companies who do not advertise their products and services traditionally but still manage to generate millions in revenue by working with influencers.
Why Use Influencer Marketing:
The marketing landscape is evolving rapidly, and influencer marketing is just one of the biggest ways that this is evidenced. Traditional display ads, TV advertising, and even more digital marketing formats are beginning to lose their reach and impact. Traditional ads are barely targeted and offer a very limited ability to target people who might be interested in your brand. As a result, it often means that businesses end up paying just to reach people who were never going to show an interest. For example, putting an ad on TV means that only a very small percentage of the people that end up watching it will be interested in what you have to offer, and the rest will be people who do not matter to your brand. As a result, a big part of the money that you invest in TV advertising is pretty much wasted. On the other hand, influencer marketing is much more targeted, which has allowed it to revolutionize the way that companies spread awareness of their brand, products, and services.
Influencer Marketing and Word Of Mouth:
It is no secret that people today are more likely to buy products and services that have been recommended to them by people that they trust. People are more likely to buy a product or sign up for a service if they read positive reviews by other users or if it is recommended to them by a friend or family member beforehand. It’s clear to see that word-of-mouth plays a huge part in successful marketing and building a customer base. Influencer marketing takes advantage of this by allowing word-of-mouth marketing on a much larger scale. By asking social media users with thousands or perhaps even millions of followers to recommend a product or service from your brand, you can tap into the power of word-of-mouth marketing and generate trust among your potential customers.
Final Thoughts:
It’s clear to see that influencer marketing is here to stay. And no matter how you feel about influencers, it’s hard to deny that they are offering one of the most powerful marketing strategies currently available to businesses of all sizes. Influencer marketing can generate an ROI that’s very difficult to beat, but a lot of brands are not realizing the power of influencer marketing as they should. What’s even worse is that many brands don’t even know about influencer marketing or how to go about getting started with it. In marketing, your main goal is to get the biggest ROI possible for the money that you invest in it. This is why it’s so important for businesses to evaluate the marketing that they are doing right now and compare it to the possible results that they could get from influencer marketing. If you are currently using more traditional advertising forms, there’s a chance that you could be losing a lot of money.
Influencers aren’t just big social media stars – they hold the key to success for many businesses in every industry today. No matter what you offer, you can’t ignore influencer marketing in 2021.