Influencer marketing: why it’s important for companies and how to use it5 min read

Many thought it was a fad, but influencer marketing, over time, has become essential in the digital communication landscape. Many brands rely on this marketing strategy to reach their target audience in a unique and authentic way. 

The precise use of this marketing strategy by famous and non-famous brands has transformed the way in which brands interact with their customers, creating a strong impact on brand awareness and conversions. 

So, let’s see what are the characteristics of influencer marketing and why it is so beneficial for companies. 

What is influencer marketing? 

Influencer marketing is when a person with a large following on social media works with a brand to promote its products. 

Influencers, who have many passionate followers who appreciate their tastes and opinions, have a certain influence on their audience and are therefore able to shift interest towards a certain product or service by exploiting their own celebrity. 

It’s easy to understand the potential that this phenomenon has for brands that want to sell something using social networks in a strategic way. In fact, although influencer marketing was not taken too seriously at first, companies today consider it one of the main channels for attracting new audiences and increasing sales. 

What are the advantages? 

Influencer marketing offers many advantages to those who decide to use it. Let’s try to understand how this marketing strategy can help you achieve your goals. 

Using the collaboration of influencers can be a great help for your brand. The first and perhaps most obvious benefit for the company is the increase in sales. Influencer marketing, in fact, requires an initial financial investment, but if you apply the right strategy and choose the right people, it guarantees an excellent return on investment. 

A second element that comes into play when it comes to influencer marketing is social proof. This is an important concept for any marketing strategy, but here it’s amplified. In fact, when people notice that something is also of interest to others, they automatically become interested in that product as well. On social media, followers trust the opinions of influencers more than most other people and thus let themselves be more easily convinced to buy that particular product. 

The two situations described above cannot occur if you address the wrong audience or if you do not establish a direct relationship with the public. This is precisely where influencer marketing comes in, allowing you to get the message to your target audience. In addition, the method of advertising on social networks is more natural and less forced and studied compared to a classic television commercial. Authenticity, storytelling and inspirational content are all factors that can actually build brand reputation with enormous advantages for the company. 

Types of influencer marketing 

An influencer marketing strategy can be implemented in different ways. Let’s take a look. 

The most popular option is to create sponsored content, that is, posts where the influencer promotes a certain product or service on their social pages. The aim is to arouse the interest and curiosity of followers, convincing them to buy. 

Companies can also ask the influencer to create social media posts to be published directly on company profiles. This can happen through a single post or with a “takeover”, where the influencer, who has access to a brand’s social channels for a day, publishes stories and/or live videos. 

A third marketing strategy involves influencers offering special discounts to their followers. These discounts are tracked using affiliate or referral links provided directly by the company and are useful for monitoring and analyzing the campaign. 

Finally, companies can take advantage of the popularity of some people on social media by making them brand ambassadors. In this case, the collaboration between influencer and brand will last for a longer period of time. 

How to use influencer marketing for your business 

At this point, you are probably wondering how you can use this type of marketing to promote your products and services. The steps to creating an effective influencer marketing campaign are very simple. 

First, you must choose the most suitable social media platforms to represent your brand, and where it is possible to more easily convey the message, the added value and the quality of your products. For example, Instagram is perfect for sharing attractive images with a young audience, between the ages of 18 and 34. 

YouTube is obviously the best platform for video content, while Facebook allows you to share texts, photos, and videos. Finally, TikTok allows you to share videos with an audience of very young people. 

In general, it’s best to leave influencers free to express their creativity, but to make sure that they best represent your brand, you can develop guidelines to follow. For example, the values and distinctive elements that best represent your brand and your product, the words to use or the terms to avoid completely. 

Then identify the influencers you would like to work with and who are in line with the qualities and characteristics of your brand. Don’t just focus on the number of followers, but on the number of interactions per single post. In addition, the stronger and more direct the link between followers and the influencer, the higher the conversion rate. 

Once the collaboration has started, monitor the progress of the campaign with special platforms, in order to know exactly what worked and what didn’t. 

Influencer marketing is an excellent strategy to put into practice if you want to increase brand awareness and conversions, so much so that you can compare it to word of mouth or to the advice of a friend. The sector is still new and constantly evolving and, over time, will become increasingly important for the promotion of a brand and for increasing the volume of business. 

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