Low cost, large audience, great return on investment? What’s not to like about influencer marketing. Whether you’ve heard of it or not, influencer marketing is a growing marketing strategy that has amazing benefits for small businesses. Read on to find out what the benefits are and whether it’s the right fit for your company.
What is influencer marketing?
If you are not sure what influencer marketing is, read our article on the subject first. We explain what it is and how it works. But here’s a brief summary. Influencers are anyone in the public eye, predominantly online, that has the ability to influence their following. The influencer creates quality content, that attracts an engaged audience who become followers that trust the influencer. Businesses then engage that influencer to endorse their goods, services or brand as a whole. Because their followers trust them, the influencer’s endorsement is more likely to result in sales for the business they promote.
What are the Business Benefits of Influencer Marketing
So, we know what influencers are and how they work but why would a business employ this tactic? What are the business benefits of influencer marketing?
Ready-made marketing campaign
As I said in the previous section, influencers have crafted their following already so you don’t have to. While I’d always advise influencer marketing campaigns be paired alongside other marketing such as SEO, social media, email marketing etc… it’s a fast way to get your brand out there.
High Return on Investment
Influencer marketing has proved time and time again to be a quality investment for companies. Research has shown that 84% of consumers have at least made a purchase based on an influencer’s recommendation. 89% of marketers say influencer marketing ROI is as good or better than other marketing channels. Some campaigns have even been shown to deliver ROI 11X higher than all other digital media channels.
Improving brand awareness in the right audience
If you select the right influencers, you can tap into their audience and boost your brand awareness quickly. It’s all about finding the right niche and you will find a loyal fan base that converts. Influencers can have some extremely dedicated followers and that can be extended to your brand. This is especially true if your influencers are positioned as brand ambassadors for your company.
Captive audience
As the influencer does the hard work of capturing their followers’ attention, your endorsement will be heard by many more people than a traditional ad. In the case of videos, your advert won’t be skipped, unless they fast forward a video. For more active viewing like blogs, if done correctly, a reader will want to learn all about the business their favourite writer is endorsing. Even social media that can be a flash in a pan view, can still reach a much more engaged audience than your typical social ad.
Can Improve your Off-page SEO
Depending on the type of content your influencer utilises, it could be a great opportunity to boost your off-page SEO. While social media does not have a direct impact on SEO, it can still aid your strategy. Social shares of your site will lead to better brand recognition and drive traffic to your site. Both of which can contribute to a better site ranking. However, it’s those influencers that have a quality website or blog that can really impact your SEO. Established influencers, where writing is their main medium, may have a website with high domain authority. A link on their site as part of an endorsement post can prove lucrative for your own domain authority and trust.
Aids your Content Strategy
Keeping up with a consistent content strategy is one of the biggest challenges for businesses. When you work with an influencer, you get the benefits of their endorsement but you can also generate more content through cross-promotion. Here are some of the things you can do to boost the impact of your influencer marketing.
- Write a blog post explaining why you work with a particular influencer.
- Include a section on your ambassador or influencer web page about the influencers you’ve worked with.
- Create social posts, stories and reels about the influencer. Tagging others has been shown to boost engagement on your own posts.
- Share the influencers’ content on your social platforms, email newsletter and on your blog. Ready-made content that is easy to distribute.
Businesses and budgets of all sizes
One of the main benefits of influencer marketing is that it works for a huge array of companies. You don’t have to be a multi-million-pound business. A small budget can work as effectively when you find the right influencer. A nano influencer of only a thousand followers in a particular niche or location can genuinely boost your sales. If you’re a small or medium-sized business that is struggling to reach people on social media, influencer marketing could be the campaign you need.
Will you invest in Influencer Marketing this year?
While celebrity endorsements have been utilised for centuries, the influencer marketing we know today was born out of the social age of the 2010s. Some research puts the industry as having generated $10.24 billion in 2021, with some estimates that the global influencer marketing market will reach $84.89 billion by 2028. While you don’t have to spend millions to get results, investing in researching the right influencer for your business is key to gaining that lucrative return on investment. So, the question is, will you be investing in influencer marketing in 2022?