Traditional marketing methods such as radio, TV ads and billboards have become, for the most part, a relatively ineffective way of reaching a target audience. Instead, most marketers are finding that the best way to expand their reach and get their message to potential customers is by targeting them through social media. And one of the most effective ways to do this is by working with influencers.
When you think of the benefits of influencer marketing, you probably think first and foremost about advantages including increased brand awareness and making more sales. However, although influencer marketing can help you with these things, working with an influencer can offer you so much more.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest benefits of influencer marketing that you might not be aware of.
Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing that involves collaborating with influencers who publicly endorse your brand. Because an influencer has already built up a reputation founded on trust and credibility, when you collaborate with them and they promote your brand you automatically gain a degree of social proof that persuades potential customers to buy into your brand. This helps you build your business and reach a larger audience.
Some of the more well-known benefits of influencer marketing include:
However, the advantages don’t end there, as we will see in the next section.
If you’re still on the fence about collaborating with an influencer, then the following lesser-known benefits of influencer marketing should convince you to include the tactic in your digital marketing strategy.
Over half (51%) of marketers believe that influencer marketing helps them to acquire better customers. And this is one of the most important benefits of influencer marketing as higher-quality customers are more likely to become recurring buyers, rather than one-off conversions. They are also far more likely to recommend your products to their friends and serve as unofficial brand ambassadors.
You may well already have an established audience, but influencer marketing can help you diversify your following and expand the demographics of your online community. And this can be especially beneficial if you are planning to launch new products or services or if you are in the process of rebranding in order to break into a new market and align with evolving market trends.
The benefits of influencer marketing also include increased engagement. In other words, collaborating with an influencer can help you get more likes and comments on your social media posts. This is because an influencer introduces your brand to their own established following made up of individuals who trust their reviews and recommendations.
Plus, your own content is more likely to be perceived as authentic and trustworthy if it is endorsed by someone with an established reputation. And this, in turn, helps you reach a larger audience so that more people find out about who you are and what you stand for. Hey, you might even go viral!
Influencers who share authentic content that provides their audience with added value tend to develop a more loyal and trusting following over time. If you develop a good relationship with an influencer and achieve their “buy-in,” their trust in your product or service will be transferred to their followers, translating into more reliable, long-term customers for your brand.
For this reason, long-term brand-influencer relationships are now becoming the norm, as they produce more credibiliy than the typical one-off collaboration.
Of all the benefits of influencer marketing, this is perhaps the most fundamental. After all, what’s the point in investing in a marketing strategy if it doesn’t have a positive impact on the bottom line of your business?
In fact, statistics have shown that influencer marketing delivers strong returns. On average, the ROI of influencer marketing is 11x greater than other types of digital marketing like banner ads. This makes it far more valuable than other more traditional marketing tactics.