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Not yet familiar with influencer marketing? Don’t you worry; you’re not the only one. Even in 2019, influencer marketing is a gray area for many brands in their overall marketing strategy. Time to brush up your marketing knowledge! Influencer marketing goes hand-in-hand with two other types of marketing that are possibly more familiar to you: social media marketing and content marketing.
As the name suggests, at Influencer Agency we’re all about influencer marketing, which is a type of marketing that uses content creators (influencers) that have a unique relationship with a specific audience to promote a brand and its products or services. Instead of marketing directly to a large group of consumers, you use an influencer to do it for you. This involves finding the right influencer to work with and create powerful campaigns around your brand. Where you pay influencers to spread your brand’s message through their personal social platforms. It is very likely that your current- and potential customers are using one or more social platforms. Reaching out to them on any of the social platforms might be very profitable. However, with fierce competition, changing algorithms and the easiness to block out advertising and other commercial messages on social media it gets harder and costlier to reach your target audience via traditional advertising on social platforms.
Influencers are often seen as an expert in a certain field (e.g. fashion, fitness, food), they have a high reputation and are seen as a knowledgeable en reliable source. Collaborating with influencers gives you access to their followers, who see the influencer as authentic and trustworthy.
To secure these above named elements many influencer campaigns carry a content element, where a brand creates content for the influencer, a brand creates content in collaboration with the influencer or the influencer creates the content himself or herself. We see the latter happening more and more often, in order to create the most authentic conversation and engagement around your product and message. Adding the influencer’s voice to your brands content hugely increases credibility and engagement rates. Which consequently has a significant impact on lead generation, sales and the overall growth of your business.
Do realize that in order to maximize the results of your influencer marketing campaign you need to ensure value on both sides, the influencer does not provide value to your brand only, you add value to their social presence too.
What is an influencer marketing strategy?
Influencer marketing is not a totally new marketing strategy; you’ve probably seen it in action many times over the past few years. But, with the growth of social media, the growing use of Adblock technology and consumers becoming more skeptical and often find it hard to trust brands, marketers are moving their marketing budget towards influencer marketing in favor of more traditional types.
The total number of brands engaging in influencer marketing is proof that this strategy works.
Content and recommendations from influencers are seen as more reliable. Even those influencers with fewer followers, but high credibility, can provide some pretty impressive results for your brand.
Excited to begin with influencer marketing? Great! Let us know and we will start creating the perfect influencer marketing strategy for you. This might not sound like the most exciting part to you, but it is definitely critical to the success of your next influencer marketing campaign.
We begin with defining your goals, a step that is often overlooked in influencer marketing, but as with any marketing campaign we need metrics in order to identify what is working and what is not. Depending on your goals your strategy might be slightly different. If your brand wants to reach a new audience, we put extra attention to the audience of an influencer. If you want to make you brand more credible, we focus on authenticity and trust building. If you want to have the highest return on investment, we create a strategy that revolves around this. In addition to your overarching objectives, the metrics will also be different; metrics could for example be impressions, followers, clicks, leads, or conversions. With your goal(s) in mind, we can design a campaign and corresponding tactics in order to reach your goals and get the results you aim at.
Influencer marketing benefits
When you want to try a different type of marketing, you are looking for a project that will be beneficial, in terms of return on investment. Whatever the investment may be and whatever the benefits you’re looking for. Influencer marketing has proven to be extremely beneficial for various goals. Brands are realizing how powerful it is, particularly as an alternative to traditional advertising. Traditional advertising can be expensive and inefficient and consumers don’t like to be advertised to, plus ads have less credibility every day.
The beauty of influencer marketing is that the audience is already there and if you’re using it correctly the audience doesn’t perceive content regarding your brand as advertising. You, as a brand need to establish a partnership where both the influencer and the brand are offering value to the audience. This is why:
Understanding the various benefits of influencer marketing to strengthen your social strategy can help you decide how and whether to start with your first or next influencer marketing campaign.
High quality content
Never underestimate the importance of good content. And certainly do not underestimate the extent to which an influencer can contribute to this. Influencers know what content their audience is invested in, how else would they have this amount of followers? They are an expert in their niche and exactly know how to inform and entertain their audience and your target audience about a product or service.
Brand awareness
An influencer has the power to introduce your brand to thousands of people within your core audience. As the influencer has an audience in your niche, you don’t have to spend as much money on testing and finding your audience. The more people who become familiar with your brand, your story, who you are and what you offer, the greater the chances become, that they will purchase your product or service later on.
Trustworthiness
Influencers already have an established relationship with their audience. Their followers respect their recommendations and view them as authentic. Way more authentic than customers see most brands.
Influencer marketing influences people
It actually works, various studies showed that people made a purchase after a recommendation of an influencer.
Influencer marketing has a higher ROI
One of the most important, not to say the most important benefit of influencer marketing is it’s high return on investment in comparison to traditional forms of advertising. This totally makes sense; customers have never been hungrier for reviews, ratings and word-of-mouth recommendations.
Now that it’s clear that whether you’re trying to maximize revenue, improve your brand’s reputation or make more connections, influencer marketing can definitely help you reach your goals.
Why you need influencers
Banner ads, commercials, and other types of traditional advertising don’t have the reach nor impact they once had. This combined with all the benefits of influencer marketing campaigns is why you need influencers.
Pros of becoming an influencer
Being an influencer sounds like a dream to many of us. Simply because of the benefits people associate with begin an influencer. Some of the benefits include:
1. Free products
2. Collaboration with brands, charge per post!
3. Opportunity to become a thought leader
4. Flexible working hours – influencers have the ability to decide their own workings hours.
5. Authenticity pays – authenticity and integrity are vital, you should never write about content you aren’t excited about.
6. Being able to communicate with people all around the world – as an influencer it is super easy to connect with people from all over the world.
Cons of becoming an influencer
Just as there are pros for of becoming an influencer, there are cons.
1. It’s a 24/7 job – it may look glamorous on the outside, but in reality it’s far from it from a 24/7 standpoint.
2. Building a following isn’t as easy as it looks
Influencer marketing statistics
Influencer marketing is definitely a buzzword, but in the end it’s all about statistics. Here are some influencer marketing statistics that might surprise you 😉
1. Teen trust influencers more than celebrities
2. If consumers feel confident about the recommendation of an influencer, they are more likely to make a purchase
3. More and more Internet users are installing Adblock technology, content from influencers isn’t blocked
Influencer marketing market size
By 2020 the influencer marketing industry is set to reach $10 billion, to give you an idea; this market was worth $2 billion in 2017.
In fact, in a survey among brand strategist and marketers carried out by Statista, leading provider of marketing and consumer data 58 percent of respondents expressed their belief that influencer marketing would be integrated in all their marketing activities in the next three years.
Influencer marketing ROI
Instagram marketing trends in 2019
Influencer marketing is a major trend around the world, and it seems that this industry will continue to grow and expand. 2018 has been an interesting year for influencer marketing, it became more prominent, it was closely examined by believers as well as unbelievers, and at times more controversial than ever. It will be interesting to see how it further evolves in the coming years, as up until the year 2019 there are no signs of slowing down. It is rapidly exceeding other more traditional marketing channels in the face of the growing use of Adblock technology. It is no longer the questions if you start with influencer marketing; it is when you start with it.
1. Micro-influencers
2.
Top Instagram influencers of 2019
We like top 10 lists, probably just as much as you do. Wondering who has the most followers on Instagram? Here we go!
1. Instagram | @instagram | 298 million
2. Cristiano Ronaldo | @cristiano | 165 million
3. Ariana Grande | @arianagrande | 154 million
4. Selena Gomez | @selenagomez | 149 million
5. Dwayne Johnson | @therock | 142 million
6. Kim Kardashian West | @kimkardashian | 137 million
7. Kylie Jenner | @kyliejenner | 134 million
8. Beyoncé | @beyonce | 127 million
9. Lionel Messi | @leomessi | 118 million
10. Taylor Swift | @taylorswift | 117 million
Interesting facts about Instagram
Let’s talk some Instagram facts, we will pay more attention to this in a subsequent article, promised!
Active users
With 1 billion monthly active users Instagram is the third most popular social media network, right after Facebook (2 billion monthly active users) and YouTube (almost 2 billion monthly active users). Of the 1 billion users logging in to Instagram every month, 500 million of them use the platform every single day.
Stories
In January 2019, Instagram reported that there were 500 million daily Instagram stories users, which makes it one of the most popular features of Instagram.
Instagram demographics
Age and gender
Research by Statista, conducted in April 2019, found that 15 percent of Instagram users were females between the ages of 18 and 24 years old. Of the global Instagram population, half is 34 years or younger. Gender wise, the division is nearly equal.
Teens on Instagram
Although sometimes stated otherwise, for teens Instagram is the top platform, it even surpassed Snapchat by the end of 2018.