At one point in time, the word ‘influencer’ would refer to the likes of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr — people who had a voice to influence the masses for a better change in the world. However, with the advancements in technology and the creation of revolutionary social media platforms, the meaning of that word is now significantly different.
Today’s influencers, from Jim Chapman to Whitney Simmons, are using their online presence to propel messages to millions of people around the globe — and this has created a new trend of marketing. Yep, forget about television adverts and magazine spreads, promoting your brand through influencer marketing is the way forward. With this in mind we’ve teamed up with Cleveland College of Art and Design who offer a digital design degree that can help creatives run successful campaigns, to bring you 4 IDEAL reasons for brands to collaborate with influencers.
THEY GENERATE SALES
Brands that use influencers to their advantage to promote a product or service will reap the benefits of exposure and likely increase sales.Indeed, research Now found that 84% of consumers make a purchase after reading about a product on a blog. Moreover, according this article from ADWEEK a whopping 40% of people say they’ve purchased an item online after seeing it used by an influencer on social media. It’s a no brainer.
PEOPLE TRUST INFLUENCERS
Everyone knows that people trust the opinions of their friends and family over the messaging of brands. And this is one of the biggest advantages if using influencers as they are right up there with advice from family and friends. Influencers have established relationships with their followers, stay connected with them everyday and interact with them directly, as such people trust them. According to research carried out by the The Leverage Way almost half of consumers (49%) rely on influencer recommendations when it comes to shopping with a brand.
TARGET AN ESTABLISHED MARKET
Why cause yourself more work than necessary? Influencers already have a large following at their disposal and often share the same demographics and interests as their lackeys. As such, using an influencer marketing company allows you to be specific in terms of targeting an established market.
The targeting process has never been easier than today, thanks to software companies launching influencer marketing platforms such as Humanz, Grin, or Upfluence. These tools have multiple features and filters that make the searching process for the right influencers incredibly simple. Humanz even enables businesses to generate and run the whole campaign right on its platform without transferring your data.
GET AROUND AD-BLOCKS
According to the aforementioned research by Leverage Way, 47% of consumers have an ‘ad-block’ extension enabled when they’re browsing the internet. However, if a customer is already following an influencer, they’re guaranteed to see a post that they share. Interestingly, only 14% of people who did not use an ad-block extension said that they can remember what they saw in an advertisement.
Food for thought, don’t you think?