If you have been reading the latest news on digital marketing in the last few years then you have surely read about “influencer marketing” somewhere before. Maybe you’ve even done some research on the topic or tried it out yourself. The point is, influencer marketing has been rising in popularity over the past couple of years and it is becoming increasingly popular every year. This type of marketing technique has numerous benefits over many other digital marketing techniques – it is often seen as a more affordable approach to increasing brand exposure and engagement, especially when compared to paid advertising services such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook Ad. Influencer marketing is also a technique that can help a business build a long-term relationship with an influencer in its own niche, which may lead to additional business opportunities in the future.
Why Businesses Should Use Influencer Marketing For Brand Exposure
Influencer marketing is not new, but the traditional way of implementing this marketing strategy often came with a lot of expenses and did not always yield positive results – mostly due to the fact that celebrities often charges millions of dollars to “endorse” a brand’s products or services. Luckily, the world of influencer marketing has changed and it is now possible to utilize this marketing strategy with a budget of less than $250 in some cases. The key to being successful with this marketing strategy, however, is to fully understand how it works, the pros and cons of the technique, and to determine how much you should really spend so that you do not blow your budget while testing the ground.
How Does Influencer Marketing Work?
Before we dive into the pros and cons of influencer marketing, let’s consider what this marketing strategy is and what it can do for your business. Flockler explains that influencer marketing still takes a lot from the traditional way that the strategy was implemented, which was usually through celebrity endorsements, but now rather utilizes social media celebrities, which comes at a lower cost than celebrities who has reached fame through television channels, movie releases, and music, among other. They also report that up to 82% of all major brands are now using influencer marketing in some way to their advantage. Square Dot explains that influencer marketing works because the strategy helps companies and brands tap into the success that influencers have already built for themselves. The influencer has spent years building up authority and a following on their profiles and even their blog – and by implement influencer marketing as part of a promotional strategy, the company or brand gains access to the followers and authority that the influencer has built throughout the years.
Looking at how influencer marketing has helped other brands and companies climb the ranks can help you better understand how the strategy can help your business succeed in the online and offline world. Even micro-influencer marketing seems to offer brands a lot of opportunities to rise above the competition. Social Media Examiner provides the following examples of brands that successfully utilized influencers to grow:
- Daniel Wellington, a range of luxury brand name watches, grew from a $150,000 business to a $220 million brand in five years by utilizing influencers. The brand also experienced a 214% boost in profits in one year, from 2014 to 2015, thanks to influencer marketing.
- Chanel, a popular brand, especially among women, was able to generate 40,000 Instagram likes by using bloggers that are famous on the internet, including Sincerely Jules and Julie Sarinana.
- Try The World, a company that offers subscription food boxes was able to generate over 500,000 views and experience a significant boost in brand awareness by teaming up with Missy Lanning, a famous YouTuber with 400,000 subscribers.
What Are The Advantages Of Influencer Marketing?
Now that we’ve covered how influencer marketing works and shared with you some success stories of brands, let’s consider the advantages that this type of marketing strategy has for your business.
- Influencer marketing can be utilized by businesses of any size. Both small business and multi-billion dollar brands can benefit from utilizing an influencer in their niche to expand brand exposure.
- If you decide to start out with micro-influencer marketing, you can get started with as little as $250 – sometimes even less, as WeRSM reports that as much as 84% of influencers with a smaller follower count (micro-influencers) charge $250 or less for an Instagram branded post.
- While some platforms will take months to provide adequate results, by utilizing an influencer on certain platforms like YouTube, may yield faster results – sometimes in as little as a few days.
- Influencer marketing is also beneficial for your company’s SEO, which may help to improve your website’s ranking in Google and other major search engines.
- Other types of marketing strategies can be implemented while an influencer marketing campaign is being executed as the two campaigns will not interfere with each other.
- There are social media influencers in just about every niche, which means, no matter what your business offers and what industry it targets, you will find influencers that could help you expand brand exposure.
What Are The Disadvantages Of Influencer Marketing?
While there are many advantages to using influencer marketing for your business, you should also consider the fact that there are some disadvantages that need to be considered as well.
- Even though you’d see a lot of publications report that influencer marketing is easy and the influencer usually does most of the work, the company or brand that using this strategy still needs to be an active party throughout the entire campaign. Marketer Gizmo explains that a lot of research needs to be conducted prior to launching such a strategy and the process may take as much as 90 days.
- Some influencer marketing campaigns do not offer a brand or business immediate results, but rather helps them build more authority in the coming months. This means that you will not always be able to see effective results right after launching your campaign.
- It can sometimes be very difficult to accurately track and monitor the progress of an influencer marketing campaign. Some businesses find that they need to spend quite a lot of extra money on advanced tracking tools in order to better track how their campaigns are performing.
- Another concern is the fact that influencer marketing comes with absolutely no guarantee. Even if you’ve done extensive research to come up with the most appropriate influencer, there is no guarantee that your brand’s exposure will be a booster or that your sales will increase.
Conclusion
Not utilizing influencer marketing strategies as part of your brand exposure campaigns means you are missing out on a lot of opportunity for your business. Companies have been able to grow exponentially through the utilization of influencers in their niche, but it is important to consider the pros and cons that this strategy has. We’ve gone through a list of pros and cons here that will help you decide whether or not influencer marketing is for you.
