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Brands want to reach their customers using the most innovative ways. Helps improve brand recall.
Influencing marketing is now a well-known strategy that many brands take advantage of to reach and attract customers.
More and more brands are choosing to incorporate influencers into their marketing mix. In fact, 71% of marketers believe that influencing marketing is more effective in generating good traffic and leads.
But there are still experts who feel influencer marketing is in the doldrums. A major drawback of influencer marketing is the irreversible damage it does to the brand if not done properly. It is difficult to recover from the damage caused by the negative impact on marketing.
A survey predicted that the influencer marketing industry will become a $5-10 billion market by 2020. There has already been significant growth in influencer ad spend since 2018, when it was somewhere between $3.2- $6.3 billion.
The attitude of companies to the use of this strategy has changed tremendously. Big companies with big budgets choose to work with famous influencers. However, micro-influencers can be just as effective.
Like everything in the world, this strategy has two sides, good and bad.
What are the advantages of influencer marketing?
Let's take a closer look at the benefits that marketing can provide.
1. Helps you reach a relevant audience
Collaborating with the right influencers for your brand can help you reach relevant audiences.
You should carefully select influencers that are relevant to your niche and industry.
Influencers have built their own communities of trust. By reaching out to these communities, brands can more effectively attract new potential buyers from branded content.
“We ask our customers to think about their audience first: demographics, what content they like, and what social media platforms they spend the most time on. Finding influencers, who often speak to this exact audience, is more important than networking.”
You can connect with influencers who endorse brands similar to yours. This makes it easier for you to identify influencers who have the audience you are trying to target.
For example, if you want to promote your hotel or restaurant, you need to find a successful food or travel blogger. Popular food or travel bloggers can help you attract your followers with beautiful photos backed by real recommendations.
2. Helps you build trust and credibility
Trust takes time to develop and people trust the influencers who follow it. So if an influencer speaks positively of a brand, their followers are more likely to believe it.
Therefore, one of the biggest advantages of influencer marketing is that it helps you build people's trust in your brand and improve their credibility.
The post below is an example of how influencers can influence their audience to trust a brand through positive endorsements. Posts like this can help your followers try out your product, as the influencer endorses it.
3. Expands your brand
You can reach thousands, or even millions of influential followers, that you wouldn't have reached alone. According to a 2016 survey of 22,000 women, 45% of women would buy a product recommended by an influencer.
No matter which social media platform you choose, influencers can help you add new customers to your cart. Consumers today consider influencers to be reliable, and they really value the opinions of the influencers they follow.
Influencers often post questions and engage their followers to form relationships similar to those of their friends. This makes it easier for them to influence the purchasing decisions of their followers.
4. It is relatively less expensive
If you are targeting small influencers, you will not need a huge budget. Micro influencer posts are cheap compared to collaborating with famous influencers.
Sometimes influencers who are new to the industry also agree to work for free products or services.
Although the standard cost for a sponsored Instagram post is $250, you can also find micro influencers that charge less.
Working with a number of closely related influencers can be an effective way to promote a newly launched brand or other niche business.
5. The sales cycle is reduced
Influencers spend a lot of time and effort building their audience. This is why most legitimate influencers have a highly engaged audience that they trust.
What's more, you ask?
When an influencer endorses your brand, your audience is more likely to trust your recommendation. Many of your followers may end up buying the product much faster than another customer who discovers your product through other channels.
What are the disadvantages of influencer marketing?
Now, let's take a look at the potential drawbacks of influencer marketing.
1. Working with the wrong influencers can do more harm than good
Brands take a lot of time and effort to find the right influencer for their campaigns. If you don't cooperate with the right influencers, it can seriously damage your brand reputation.
According to a survey, 61% of marketers find it difficult to identify the right influencers for their campaigns. It is difficult to assess whether the influencer has real followers.
For example, Sunny Co Clothing has received a strong backlash from consumers to give away free swimwear to those who posted pictures in a red bikini.
2. Influencer Marketing Mistakes Can Cost Your Brand
Impact marketing is still a relatively new strategy, so marketers are bound to make mistakes.
There is no guide to a successful influencer marketing strategy, so brands often learn from their successes and mistakes.
Some of the common mistakes that influencers make that can affect a brand include:
- Do not reveal that the post is sponsored
- Publish content that does not resonate with your target audience
- Ignore FTC Approval Guidelines
- Amplify followers and engagements with bots
3. Results are hard to measure
You put a lot of effort into finding the right influencers and launching a campaign. But your efforts may be in vain if you cannot track and monitor the performance of your campaign.
You should analyze whether the influencer can achieve the desired results. If not, you should stop working with them.
However, measuring results can be a bit tricky when it comes to influencer marketing.
4. High risk
The survey showed that nearly two-thirds of companies will increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2019. Unfortunately, the increase in cost will not guarantee the desired results.
If an influencer lacks the ability to create impressive content, it may not resonate with their target consumers. In such cases, the time and money you invest will be wasted.