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Four key reasons: Why brands should invest in influencer marketing

In the last few years, Influencer Marketing has seen rapid growth as brands are relying on influencers to attain the attention of customers and potential customers. It is in a way their favourable strategy to promote any new service/product, and therefore they are incorporating it in their campaigns.

Govind Mahadevan 1 Stories

Tuesday April 17, 2018 , 3 min Read

As the recent research and stats have revealed that customers rely more on word-of-mouth opinions, social media influencer programme is reaching new heights. Additionally, according to a study by Ogilvy, Google, and TNS, 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision.

Grow Spectators:

Promoting a product/brand by an influencer, gives the opportunity to brands to introduce their product to a large audience, to a set of new eyes and ears, and hence grow their own following. Creating an influencer network is a great way to cast a wider net, having your content shared across a larger audience, with the added oomph of a testimonial.

Brands can benefit from working with influencers in a multitude of ways. Influencers can function as content creators and media channels to develop and distribute organic content that builds engagement, cultivates brand affinity and drives traffic. According to Nielsen – “92 percent of consumers trust recommendations from “known people” while only 70 percent trust any other form of referral or online review, which includes celebrity endorsements and paid-for quotes from random “happy customers”.

Vary Customer Base:

An influencer with a diverse following can provide greater opportunities to diversify a brand’s customer base. Partnering with an influencer with a more diverse audience sparks new life into your brand, as their endorsement will reach many different types of individuals.

Once they begin to promote your brand, their followers will become increasingly interested to learn more. Influencers go a step further, however, by adding their own spin to your product's story, letting their audiences see it through their eyes and positioning your brand in a way that demonstrates how it can (and should) naturally fit into their fans’ lives. - Gretel Going, Channel V Media

Much Reasonable:

Marketing plans are never easier to make nor easy on the pocket. Especially for small business, it’s a huge challenge to engage and retain key customers with the minimum marketing budget. The technique allows you to reach more audiences in less time that are more likely to retain.

According to Tomson – “Businesses are making $6.50 for each $1 spent on influencer marketing, with the top 13% earning $20 or more. This is true when you have a strong relationship with influential people; they share your product with their followers and fans so that you automatically save time and cost.

Establish Credibility:

Establishing credibility is a tough job, which is often a long and tedious process. However, your influencer can easily help you build credibility with their marketing efforts. When you hire an influencer, you don’t have to work on proving your credibility to audiences, because when an influential person supports your brand the company’s credibility is already established.

According to a study – 58 percent influencers said that it was important to them to be viewed as good brand advocates, while 49 percent felt that brands should recognise their efforts. A positive review or a mention that comes from a trusted influential person tends to go a long way, far more to build credibility than old traditional methods.