What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is one of the most popular internet marketing strategies. Its essence is to use the influence of popular network users on decisions made by other people. Repeatedly conducted research clearly shows that the recommendation and information received from the influencer are one of the most important sources of shopping impulse.

Who are influencers?

Influencers are people who run blogs and vlogs, accounts on instagram or other similar platforms – channels that are distinguished by high viewership. They are usually experts in a given field, sharing knowledge about specific products, etc. Although they have a lot in common with the so-called brand ambassadors belong to the group of opinion leaders.

What distinguishes influencers from other network users is the relatively high trust of recipients. This is due to a simple fact: Internet users treat them as equals. At the same time, they are considered as completely objective persons whose purpose is to present the actual features of a given product, and not to maximize their own profits.

It is worth emphasizing that influencers are not celebrities. They are “ordinary” people who – thanks to valuable content posted regularly – managed to build a large audience. Of course, their credibility is directly proportional to the quality of the shared content. If viewers sense that the posts are tilted too much towards regular sponsorship, then they can get discouraged or even turn away from the influencer. In addition, research has already appeared on the market indicating that the larger the group of recipients of a given person, the relatively less involved they are and the less willing they are to duplicate purchasing decisions of a given person. It turned out that at least in some cases organizing a campaign with a hundred micro or small influencers brought better results than working with two relatively large influencers. Taste is added by the fact that in the first case it was also … cheaper.

Why use influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is very popular – especially due to the results obtained. According to the Paraphrase-Online.com survey, as many as 84% of marketers believe that influencer marketing activities are effective.

Cooperation with influencers brings many benefits. This is because the activities carried out by influential users are characterized by such features as:

– trust – the influencer is treated as an objective person who does not induce to buy,
– authenticity – the influencer tests a given product, paying attention to
– important issues – the same as those of ordinary users,
– multi-channel – influencers reach the recipients through various channels, undertaking cooperation with the brand on many levels at the same time,
– involvement – influencers care about the quality of their content, take an active part in discussions, respond to comments, etc.

However, it is worth remembering that there are many variables that determine the effectiveness of a given campaign in the influencer environment. It’s worth knowing your goals, matching the product to the right people, and setting real indicators.

So why should you take advantage of the potential of influencer marketing?

The ability to precisely reach the target group

The effectiveness of marketing activities largely depends on reaching the right group of users. Influencers make it easier because their blogs or vlogs are watched by people interested in a particular topic. If the target group are pregnant women, it’s easy to find them on a channel dedicated to parenting topics. If you want to reach photography enthusiasts, work with a photographic expert.

Attractive cost of cooperation

Influencer marketing often turns out to be much cheaper than other reach forms of brand promotion. One specific amount cannot be indicated here, because everything is an individual matter. However, several factors determining the price can be mentioned. These include range, cooperation channel, scope of activities, industry. The influencer’s recognition is not without significance.

Usually, the settlement takes the form of a specific rate. Sometimes, however, influencers operate on the basis of affiliate programs or barter exchange. Here, everything depends on the company’s internal policy and the influencer itself.

High power

The spread of the Internet has led to significant changes on the brand-consumer line. While many years ago all advertising messages were one-sided, a lot has changed in this respect. People want to know who is behind the message, they want to interact, etc. Therefore, influencer marketing has much more clout and impact than traditional marketing messages.

Influencer marketing and SEO

Influencer marketing is also worth considering because of the impact on SEO. Cooperation with influencers not only has a positive impact on the brand image and not only contributes to the promotion of products.

A good strategy allows you to get much better positions in search results. Why?

Building a strong link profile

Cooperation with influencers gives you the opportunity to get good quality links leading to e.g. an online store. They come out of blogs or other external services that enjoy a high reputation and popularity among Internet users.

Access to unique content

Influencers create high-quality content in which they present a specific product or brand. These actions are welcome from Google’s point of view, therefore access to unique texts may increase your position in search results.

The ability to increase website traffic

There are quite a lot of opinions about whether website traffic is one of the ranking elements. Either way, the influencer helps in getting traffic by recommending specific products and posting links to the site. Interested persons will click and go to the brand website, etc.

Remember that influencer marketing can only be one of many forms implemented as part of the strategy. By operating on several levels at the same time, you increase the chance of achieving your business goals. In addition, you also have the opportunity to simply test what will have the most cost-effective ratio for your business.