Why to incorporate Influencer Marketing in your Marketing Mix
In May 2022 I attended the BAM Marketing Congress. The congress highlights 3 main subjects: meaningful marketing, inclusive diversity, and MarTech.
How to make marketing meaningful again. Traditional media might not be dead yet. However, it has lost a big chunk of its impact. Therefore, working with influencers is a powerful tool to make your marketing meaningful. Influencers have high credibility and have earned much trust by being transparent and relatable.
4 four key figures about influencer marketing why to incorporate it in your marketing mix.
90% of consumers trust peer recommendations
Imagine you’re in the market for new headphones. Your friend or someone you look up to talks about how great his new noise canceling headphones are when listening to his favourite music or podcast during a long flight between a crying baby and a group of girls on a bachelorette weekend.
The kind of headphones you want
Imagine that friend also gives you a link with a discount code. You would be hurrying to that website to buy the product, wouldn’t you? Well, you’re not alone. 9 out of 10 consumers trust peer recommendations.
User generated content 50% more trusted than traditional media
90% of consumers trust peer recommendations.
User generated content is 50% more trusted by internet users than traditional media.
Your friend posts on Instagram about a product he likes. Or an influencer promotes a brand or product. In those cases, the published post will have a stronger impact than when the brand itself promotes its product via traditional media.
Consumers are 71% more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals or influencer
So the higher trust in peer recommendations and user generated content, the bigger the impact on sales will be. More specifically, 71% of consumers are more likely to buy a product based on social media referrals.
81% of US consumers trust advice and information from blogs
In addition, more than 8 out of 10 US consumers trust advice and information they read on blogs. This might be a statistic from the United States.
However, we can see comparable results in Europe. Independent blogs get higher trust rates than brand websites. Bloggers write from their convictions and experience. They give more hands on advice. Often they also mention the disadvantages of a product, increasing their credibility.
How to do influencer marketing?
Hence, including influencer marketing in your multichannel campaigns can have great benefits. It will improve your brand’s credibility and ultimately increase sales. There are 3 different ways to go ahaed with influencer marketing.
DIY
First of all, you can do it yourself. You can track, contact the influencers on your own and ensure the follow up and reporting in house. That might become a time guzzling project.
Influencer platforms
Secondly, you could reach out to influencers is via a self service influencer platform. There is a wide variety of content creator platforms online. The principle is mostly the same. You choose specific settings such as geo location, number of followers, topic (mom blogger, travel influencer, fitness YouTuber, etc.), and many more.
Next, you write a briefing explaining your campaign, target audience, key message, etc. You choose the content creators directly on the platform. Most platforms immediately show an overview of each influencer (name, different channels, followers/subscribers/fans, etc.), making it easy to pick and mix. The entire campaign will run on that website, from first contact to reporting.
Influencer agency
Thirdly, you might consider to work with an influencer agency. Those agencies are specialized in working with influencers and often have large databases of social media personalities or work with a platform as mentioned above. This option is mostly the more expensive one, as you’ll have to pay the agency fee on top of the influencer fee.
Conclusion
In conclusion, no matter your campaign objectives, make use of influencers in the marketing funnel. Whether you want to increase awareness or boost sales, influencer marketing is a proven way to successfully promote your brand or product.
Many 4P consultants have worked on influencer campaigns and have experience with agencies and platforms. Get in touch!
About the author
Pieter-Jan is a trilingual T-shaped marketer and a dynamic, enthusiastic digital native with a creative, strategic, and analytical approach to marketing. Currently he is working as a Marketing Consultant at 4P square, a leading sales & marketing consulting company.
Want to know more about Pieter-Jan? Feel free to start a conversation with him on LinkedIn.
