This post was originally published on November 8, 2021, and updated on April 22, 2023.
Information for this blog post was obtained from Single Grain, Hootsuite, and Quintly.
We’ve all been there, scrolling on Instagram when an ad for a meal delivery service pops up on our favorite influencer’s page. If you’re anything like me, 7 times out of 10 you'll click on the link in their bio to check out what it’s all about! Even if you don’t end up making a purchase, you are now more aware of the brand than you were previously – and that’s what it’s all about.
Influencer marketing can be an overwhelming concept when you haven’t utilized it before. The idea is simple, companies who utilize popular Instagram users to talk about or recommend their products are engaging in influencer marketing. If you’ve ever been on Instagram – you’ve almost assuredly witnessed an example of this type of campaign.
Benefits to Influencer Marketing
According to Single Grain there are 6 key benefits of using influencer marketing:
Allows your business to reach a larger audience
Helps build trust for yourself and your business
Grows your following
Increases traffic to your website/shop/etc.
Generates more leads
Drives sales
Many brands utilizing influencer marketing will agree that their top priority is to reach a new group of target customers. Partnering with a popular social media personality allows that company to promote their product or service to their audience or following more easily than they would through traditional marketing methods. The key to getting your brand in front of a new audience is repeated exposure and having them see your company or product on multiple occasions (preferable on multiple platforms/accounts). Having a small list of influencers that you can work with on a semi-regular basis will do wonders to get your business in front of their audience and keep it at the forefront of their mind.
The advantage to using influencers over a celebrity, is that influencers are more relatable and their audiences trust their recommendations more. According to this article from Hootsuite, 14% of users aged 18 to 24, and 11% of users 25 to 32 have purchased a product within the last SIX MONTHS on the recommendation of an influencer. To further convince you of the value in this method, Quintly reports that on average businesses generate $6.50 per $1.00 put into influencer marketing.
Word-of-mouth has been the superior form of marketing for a long time and using bloggers and influencers to support your business is just an extension of that notion. The challenge for this form of content is to select the right influencer for your brand and/or product. Many businesses will go straight to the top of the food chain and hire the largest and most followed social media personalities (like the Kardashians). Depending on your company and what audience you’re targeting, this might be the right choice. More often however, micro-influencers are more relatable to their audience and tend to foster more trust for their opinions.
Single Grain breaks down the average rate that a social media personality would charge based on their status. Micro-influencers (follower count: 10k-50k) on average will charge anywhere from $100-$500 per post on their account. In comparison, mega-influencers (follower count: minimum of 1 million) will set their rates to $10,000 or more for a single post! The rates that smaller influencers will charge are much more reasonable than many traditional and/or digital media options.
Influencer marketing is an amazing tool to successfully reach new target audiences online. Hopefully some of the benefits described in this blog post have encouraged you to entertain this form of online marketing for yourself or the business you work for.
To learn more about influencer marketing, visit The SMMU's post from May Yu.
References
GmbH, quintly. (n.d.). A complete guide to influencer marketing. Social Media Analytics and Competitive Benchmarking Tool. Retrieved November 6, 2021, from https://www.quintly.com/influencer-marketing
Influencer marketing in 2021: How to work with social media influencers. Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. (2021, August 10). Retrieved November 6, 2021, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/influencer-marketing/
Team, W. B. S. G. (2021, October 18). Influencer marketing strategy: The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Business with Brand Partnerships. Single Grain. Retrieved November 6, 2021, from https://www.singlegrain.com/content-marketing-strategy-2/guide-influencer-marketing/
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