Introduction of Influencer Marketing to Grow Your Business
Influencer marketing has become one of the mainstream marketing strategies now. It is helping the brands to reach a maximum number of people in a short period. In a recent study, nearly 40% of marketers said that they are now dedicating a budget to influencer marketing, and 80% report influencer marketing to be effective. However, still, there are still some marketers or brands who are confused regarding this. So, in this blog, we will inform the ways that will help you to use influencer marketing to grow your business. Connect with IEPL for unique digital marketing strategies for your brand.
1. What is Influencer Marketing?
As its name suggests, it is all about using the network of an influencer to market your product.
Now a question may arise who is influencer? Is it a celebrity or whom? An influencer is somebody who has a significant amount of influence on people. People love to follow his/ her, people love to hear his/her voice, etc. Additionally, an influencer is somebody with the power to affect the purchase decisions of others.
An influencer can do this because he or she has authority, knowledge, position, and a special relationship with his or her audience. Influencers usually have a significant following in a niche or topic and actively engage with them.
It’s very different from celebrity marketing. Influencers usually have a lot of knowledge of his/her niche. They influence people by sharing that knowledge which makes them the influencer.
2. How can you use influencer marketing for your business growth?
Now the answer is very simple, you can take the help of an influencer to inform people about your product or service. If the influencer praises or talks about your product or service then his/her followers will come to know about it and they will be interested in purchasing your product or service.
Typical ways that influencers could help you include:
- Creating an article/blog post or video about your product or service.
- Sharing information promoting you on their social media accounts, for example, publicizing an article you have written on your blog.
- Giving you access to their site so you can write a guest post.
- Posting pictures on Instagram or videos on YouTube showing them using your product.
- Writing or filming promotional items for your brand.
Let’s focus on briefly that how to use influencer marketing to grow your brand:
a. To build brand awareness:
As a business owner, you can make a group of influencers who will educate the consumers about your products or services. They will talk about the benefits, why it is ahead of the market etc. This will increase the brand visibility and will help in creating brand awareness.
b. Create a user experience:
When an influencer talks about a product it gets the desired visibility. However, it does not assure that they will buy the product or service. To ensure the purchasing decision, you can create an experience of the product through influencer marketing. How? For example, you have a cosmetic brand and you make a giveaway through the influencer.
If the user uses the product and is satisfied, he/she will recommend it. It will work as a word-of-mouth. There is also a probability of making a real purchase after that use.
c. Use their network in product development:
Apart from promoting your existing product, you can use the network of an influencer for product development as well. This way the users feel more connected with the new product. For example, Fendi partnered with model Liu Wen to design a new handbag known as the Fendi Peekaboo. The model, who has 2.9 million Instagram followers, promoted the project through her Instagram account. In just one day, the photo has already received more than 43,500 likes.
d. Use their network to build your family:
When you collaborate with the right set of influencers, you get the right set of networks as well and when that influencer showcases your product, there is a probability that the specific network will follow your website or other social media handles. So, always hire the right set of influencers and use their network to build your family. For example, MVMT Watches hired fitness influencer Tim Rodriguez who has close to 90,000 followers. This right collaboration helped MVMT Watches boost its audience.
e. Use the influencers to build hype:
So they will also know how to excite their followers and build hype around a new product, even if it’s from a completely unknown brand. If influencers build up enough hype about your product or service, it can help you become an established name in the industry.
3. What are the necessary tips that need to be followed in this influencer marketing?
We hope that by now you have understood the ways of using influencer marketing to grow your business. However, the whole concept can go into a vein if you do not follow some tips, and here are those tips:
Always do the research about target audience before hiring an influence. If the niche doesn’t match, it will not serve your purpose.
- Always have a clear idea about the goal you want to achieve.
- Always hire an influencer who has creative ideas to showcase your product and has knowledge to share. Any mistake on this can lead to misinformation & bad reputation.
Final Words on Influencer Marketing to Grow Your Business
We hope that this blog has helped you to understand how you can use influencer marketing to grow your brand. Connect with IEPL for more strategies like this.
Some common FAQs on Influencer Marketing to Grow Your Business
Is influencer marketing expensive?
Well, it depends on the amount of followers the influencer has. If he/she has a massive followers, then there are probability that they will charge a lot.
Is influencer marketing & celebrity marketing the same?
No, both are totally different. An influencer becomes an influencer by sharing their knowledge in that specific field. Influencers are specialists whose followers all have an interest in the same subject. They are not superstars with lots of indifferent fans. Influencers spend considerable time building their brand and cultivating their audience.
Do influencers always do paid promotions?
No, not always. If influencers understand how your product could benefit their followers, they may be happy to work with you and many influencers promote good products for the audience without taking any money from the brand. They do it for the audience.