Would you purchase a product or service from a company that you distrust? Probably not. A business may offer products of the highest quality in the market and still not see their profits grow if they haven’t yet gained their customers’ trust. This happens for a simple reason, really: Customers are more likely to show brand loyalty for brands or businesses that they trust. As a result, many marketing strategies today are designed to influence consumers in a manner that builds trust and creates strong connections. This need to gain consumers’ trust has led to the rise of influencer marketing, an increasingly popular marketing strategy that leverages on other consumers to build trust in businesses and their offerings.

Influencer marketing is based on the simple premise that people would view a product or service more favourably and be more open to trying it if other consumers (instead of other marketing agencies) advocate it. This novel marketing strategy entices consumers to spread the word on a business’ products or services to fellow consumers on their behalf, banking on the fact that consumers would find the information shared by other consumers more trustworthy. Influencer marketing can be a boon for businesses, especially in the age of the internet, where almost everything is shared on social media. In this article, we take a look at seven ways influencer marketing can help businesses grow.

1. Raises customer-loyalty levels

One of the most common influencer marketing strategies is to offer incentives such as discounts, perks, or freebies to individuals who share and disseminate a company’s marketing information on their social media pages, via email or through word-of-mouth. Some companies even give influencers commissions when purchases are made as a result of their marketing efforts. Incentivising influencers brings more benefits to a business as even the influencers themselves are converted into long-term customers, happy at having received commissions and other goodies as a result of their marketing efforts. As for consumers who are newly converted to a brand by an influencer, the trust they have for the influencer translates to brand loyalty, which will ultimately be retained if the consumer is satisfied with the brand after the first try. It’s also a known fact that people are generally more inclined to respond to a human influencer, as face-to-face interaction is certainly more genuine and effective compared to static content.

2. Augments social media presence

The key to an effective marketing strategy is to capture your target audience at places where they frequent the most. Is it any wonder then that social media sites have the most influencer traffic, since studies have shown that 81% of consumers in the United States are regularly on social media? In the connected world that we live in today, not having a social media presence means that you would be missing out on a lot of information and opportunities! Businesses, being well aware of this, have jumped onto the social media bandwagon to advertise their products and services, in an effort to market to a wide audience that is almost always on social media. Some businesses even sponsor advertisements on social media sites, banking on the large site traffic to notice the advertisements and spread the word. Influencer marketing comes into play at this point, where social media users are paid or awarded for reaching out to their social networks with information on a business’ products and services. Also, by sharing links to the business’ social media profiles, influencers cast a wider net of outreach and enable the influencer’s already-large social network to further understand the business and connect easily.

 

3. Accesses niche markets

Influencer marketing makes use of individuals from the general public who naturally, are connected to other individuals through personal relationships, e.g. family ties or friendships, or shared interests, e.g. gardening. These individuals, being a ready niche market, have the potential to grow the outreach to your target audience by leaps and bounds. If your influencer is an avid gamer, for example, he/she would have a wide network of gamer friends, giving you plenty of access to market your products to them, generating more relevant leads than would be possible if you didn’t have access to a specific niche market. This group of individuals, once converted, becomes a big addition to brand loyalty numbers for your product or service!

 

4. Improves your outreach

Socially active individuals with a wide network of friends, families and colleagues play the role of an influencer very well, as they would usually have a strong social media presence as well. This works out splendidly for influencer marketing strategies as a big part of it is carried out on social media platforms. Influencers provide the wide outreach on which influencer marketing greatly depends, interesting their social circles in your product or service as a result of the influencers’ recommendations, thus bringing in more customers who offer brand loyalty. This marketing strategy surely beats listening to a sales pitch by salespersons to whom an individual has no connection whatsoever!

5. Evades ad-blockers and other snags

The proliferation of digital marketing strategies can sometimes result in consumers being overly bombarded with product or service advertisements. This leads them to set up ad-blockers to maintain some semblance of sanity and allow them some peace and quiet to surf the net without distractions. Unfortunately, this results in reduced outreach and effectiveness of native advertising for businesses, forcing marketers to employ more subtle marketing methods such as blending in advertising with other media. Now, this would not be necessary if influencers are used instead! People are generally more receptive to rave reviews of an actual person who has tried out a product or service and approves of it, even more so if that person is known or related to them.

 

6. Merges all methods of effective advertising

Influencer marketing is an all-in-one marketing strategy that is cost-effective and efficient. An influencer provides advertising through digital, social media, native and search engine optimisation (SEO) means, allowing marketers to cover all bases in one fell sweep. And because influencer marketing utilises media through individuals (as opposed to media on its own), it bypasses most marketing pitfalls such as ad-blockers, poor outreach or a lack of leads, putting it at a significant advantage over other marketing strategies.

 

7. Generates higher revenues

Influencer marketing is cost-effective in a sense that it utilises the general public to spread the word on their products or services, paying only a small commission for effective marketing. Businesses can also cut out the middleman by carrying out their own marketing campaigns instead of employing the services of a marketer. There are many inexpensive options for influencers to spread the word on their products or services, such as personal websites and blogs, as well as the various ubiquitous social media platforms, which are all readily available and free. This brings a tremendous return on investment for businesses, without the need for a large outlay.

Now that you are aware of how influencer marketing can actually aid in your business growth, why don’t you try it out? If you are in need of more business growth articles as such, pay a visit to our website today ThunderQuote

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