“A brand is no longer what we tell the customer it is—it is what consumers tell each other it is.” – Scott Cook.
One of the ways to market a business is to get to know your target audience better.
From there, you can establish a connection and start building trust.
Unfortunately, if you are a brand that keeps its customers at bay, then you will find it incredibly difficult to learn about them. As a result, the connection and trust you build with them are tenuous at best and non-existent in the worst-case scenario. These days, brands put so much emphasis on brand loyalty, and to improve loyalty with customers, you need to be as authentic and trustworthy as you can be. For that reason, influencer marketing is something most businesses capitalize on.
Influencer marketing allows brands to leverage their reach and harness authenticity through the trust and connection built by brand influencers and digital content creators with their followers. Today, most consumers rely on social media for advice on purchases—a trend that brands should take note of. That said, partnering with brand influencers will definitely help you give your brand that much-needed boost.
If you are skeptical, below are just some of the reasons why they are considered game-changers in today’s digital marketing landscape:
1.) Brand influencers already have their ready-made following
Established influencers who have had success in the industry already have their own loyal fan base. They have built and nurtured this following over time by chatting with them and sharing their content with their audience in mind. As a result, this type of influencer already knows what works and what does not.
Keep in mind that when looking for brand influencers to represent your business, quality over quantity matters. Look for micro-influencers with a proven record of strong influence. By collaborating with a brand influencer, you can raise awareness. In this way, their followers will be more interested in your product by association. That said, you can leverage the trust and connections an influencer has built and developed with their follower base.
2.) They are essentially the personification of an endorsement
At times, brands struggle because they lack tangibility that makes them more relatable to their consumers. A brand influencer works to address that by putting a face and personality to your product. A brand influencer’s opinion on your product adds weight to your brand. Moreover, their reviews and testimonials are incredibly marketable and would give your products or services that much-needed thumbs up.
3.) They have their own tried and tested ideas
Successful brand influencers have carefully curated their content. They continuously work on building their following and credibility. As a result, they have the know-how on marketing trends and ideas. More importantly, they know how to creatively incorporate these into their sponsored content in such a way that they would not sound like they are heavily pushing a product or service while still making a promotion.
By getting advice from influencers on how to market your brand to millennials, you can shape your content and find out which social media platforms deserve more of your budget with the specific demographics you are trying to target.
4.) They are practically this generation’s word-of-mouth
Today, word-of-mouth still remains one of the most effective ways to sway a decision. In fact, it has been estimated that around 20—50% of all decisions are influenced by it. Influencers are seen as trustworthy individuals. Many of their followers see them as friends or acquaintances in terms of recommending a product or service because of the quality relationships the influencer has built.
5.) Reach different groups
Many brands do not know the first thing about targeting demographics. More often than not, they treat different groups of individuals as one homogenous category that think the same and enjoy the same thing.
Brand influencers are aware that what works for one demographic does not certainly mean that it works for all. Influencers who form part of a particular demographic or at least have a solid follower base in that area will have a lot of insight into the perspective and issues that affect specific niches. This is because they regularly engage with them and would know certain talking points that brands may need to address.
That said, influencers can help you create marketing campaigns that are interesting, inclusive, and, most of all, not patronizing. Also, they can help you access and engage with certain niches that may be a little challenging to access.
