Many industry insiders are saying that influencer marketing is similar to the celebrity endorsement or modeling contracts of traditional marketing. However, most influencers would argue that it is much more authentic than that.
The fact is influencer marketing is increasingly chipping away at the resources and attention dedicated to traditional marketing. In fact, there is an increasing number of companies that have prioritized influencer marketing to drive sales and gain profit.
Just how important is an influencer marketing campaign?
Utilizing influencers allows advertisers to reach consumer niches that were much harder to reach before. Specifically, when traditional marketing is ineffective, Influencer Marketing can save the day by offering access to millennials and Gen Z in an incredibly authentic way.
Data does not lie. Numbers from last year tell us that an influencer marketing campaign yields more per every dollar spent compared to traditional media. Many CEOs and top-ranking managers do not believe that it is possible to measure active engagement with influencers and link it to conversions that lead to revenue.
However, there are many ways of finding out whether influencers lead to revenue. For blogs, companies can use a conversion pixel. You could also measure page views versus page read ratios.
Companies should only engage with bloggers who have the highest read ratios, not the highest page views. This data is very crucial because now we see influencers actually promoting themselves, and brands should be able to tell whether they will bring value or not.
Brands shouldn’t be confused with influencers claiming that they have many followers, or that they are credible sources of information. These days, it is very easy to set up an account, accumulate masses of followers on social media, and call yourself an influencer.
Companies need to understand whether a certain influencer will be successful or not, and the current model incentivizes influencers to exaggerate their impact.
That is why influencer marketing platforms such as HYPR is a very important resource for companies. These platforms sifts through millions of demographic, geographic and psychographic information and tells the company who the major influencers are for their specific brand; and helps marketing teams manage a deluge of information from influencers and streamline engagement only to those who will benefit them the most.
By targeting the right influencer, brands will see a dramatic surge in inquiries and sales. The right influencer’s true power lies in their ability to convert products into sales.
Influencers are not the hard-to-reach celebrities and models, but friends you would have a chat with at a pub. Consumers expect this type of relationship from brands they engage with. They don’t want products to be sold to them, but they want to be entertained and informed.
Good influencers also protect their credibility by being very selective about accepting commercial projects. Somehow followers know when you have “sold out” completely, and that’s when influencers lose their power. For a significant percentage of influencers, being authentic is a critical part of why they are ‘influential’ in the first place.
Influencer-based marketing is a growing part of the marketing landscape. The bottom line is, influencer marketing can create buzz for a brand and can drive business to a company’s website. If this process is executed well, the results will show through an increase in sales and eventual profit for the company.
