As time has gone on people have grown more cynical toward traditional advertising. It is untrustworthy; making ridiculous claims, playing to our most basic instincts, and often downright unrealistic in nature. In a world that is saturated by advertising, it is hard for us to trust any of the claims that marketers make with traditional adverts.
This cynicism is often eroded when recommendations for products come from friends or family members. This trusted recommendation comes with more credibility than an advertisement featuring actors or unspecified data. 2017 saw huge strides taken in influencer marketing. Brands have eagerly adopted this tactic as part of a wider marketing strategy and the appreciation of influencers grew. We believe you are simply missing out if you don’t make use of influencer marketing, as it offers at least these top 3 benefits:
1. It is the online version of ‘word of mouth’. Consumers have effectively given their permission for people of influence to follow them and will therefore be more inclined to trust their opinions on brands and products, thus being far more likely to purchase!
2. Influencer marketing can have higher ROI than other forms of digital marketing – A study by TapInfluence found that Influencer Marketing generated as much as 11X banner ad ROI when they used it within a marketing campaign.
3. Reaches the audiences you actually want to engage with your brand – through relevant influencers, your content is placed in front of social users that are already interested in your niche. You don’t have to spend additional funds on testing and finding your audience – the influencer has already fostered this audience on social media.
Last year searches for ‘Instagram influencer’ increased three fold as companies seized the opportunities that the newly defined ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing presents. These figures are only set to rise: 39% of marketers confirmed that they will raise their influencer marketing budget in 2018, whilst many more brands who never attempted to reach out to creators before will be joining the trend. 2018 is likely to be a year of great change. The major social media channels are already fighting to attract brands on to their platforms and introducing new features to make influencer marketing more effective. We are certainly looking forward to seeing this flourish and continuing to use this strategy for our own campaigns!