Are you interested in boosting your marketing ROI by expanding your online reach and attracting new customers? Consider influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is an excellent option for boosting your ROI, as it allows you to promote your products and services and reach new customers.
Working with influencers is one of the best ways to reach potential customers that you might not be able to reach through traditional marketing methods. But what exactly is influencer marketing, why is it so important, and what are some influencer marketing strategies you can implement to maximize your marketing ROI?
What Is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing refers to the marketing method of using key figures in your industry, including celebrities, social influencers, and industry influencers, to help promote your products, services, and brand. These key figures tend to have a significant influence on potential customers’ buying decisions, and they can encourage them to buy particular products or services.
But who exactly are these influencers? You have probably heard the term “influencer” before, but when someone asks you to name an influencer, who pops into your head? Many people use the word “influencer” to mean one particular type of person, but there are multiple different types of influencers, including celebrities, social influencers, and industry influencers.
- Celebrities - Celebrities tend to be the most famous influencers. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian West, Selena Gomez, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson consistently endorse and promote products and services through social media and TV. Unfortunately, celebrity influencers are not always super effective at marketing the products, because it is difficult for customers to relate to their lifestyles, so they cannot necessarily see the products or services fitting into their own lives. However, celebrities can also be great influencers, simply because so many customers recognize who they are and want to use the same products and services that they use.
- Social Influencers - Think YouTubers and Instagrammers. This is probably the type of influencer that comes to mind when someone says the word “influencer,” but they are not the only type of influencer. Social influencers are people who have created a massive following on social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram because of the videos or photos that they post. Due to their massive audience, social influencers are often paid to endorse and promote products and services. Customers tend to trust them more than they believe celebrities because they seem more authentic and relatable.
- Industry Influencers - Industry influencers are people who are seen as experts or authority figures in your industry, including bloggers, business leaders, and social figures. These influencers tend to have a following in your industry because they are seen as experts in your field.
Out of the three prominent types of influencers, social influencers and industry influencers tend to be seen as the most trustworthy. Consumers tend to trust celebrities less because they know that stars are being paid to promote or endorse the products or services. Customers see celebrity endorsements as fake or forced and believe that celebrities are only recommending the product because they are being paid to do so.
On the flip side, while influencers are often paid to endorse and promote products, they usually only endorse products that they already use and enjoy, and their endorsement is seen as much more authentic than celebrity endorsements. Most customers trust influencers more than they believe celebrities and traditional marketing methods.
But how do people become influencers? Influencers tend to be people who create social media accounts like YouTube channels or blogs where they share helpful information, including beauty tutorials, DIY projects, or cooking tips.
Influencers usually gain popularity because viewers or followers genuinely love the content that they post or find it super helpful in some way. Most big influencers have subscribers or followers in the thousands or even millions, meaning that they can reach a diverse range of potential customers, whether they are social or industry influencers.
Why Is Influencer Marketing So Important?
Influencer marketing is crucial because it is so effective in helping promote businesses’ products and services. But why is it so effective? Word of mouth is considered one of the most significant factors behind buying decisions. According to several studies, about 20 to 50 percent of all purchases are affected by word of mouth. People often rely on word of mouth when making buying decisions, especially when they are spending much money or purchasing a product or service for the first time.
And influencers truly practice word of mouth. These are typically everyday people that happen to have a large number of followers that share their honest opinions about products and services.
Nearly 40% of Twitter users say they’ve made a purchase as a direct result of a Tweet from an influencer
The Benefits of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing has several benefits, including:
More Leads and Conversions
When influencers endorse and promote your business’ products, services, and brand, they are essentially telling their followers that you are a genuine quality business. The followers then want to check out your website, which gives you the chance to nurture leads into conversions and sales.
Increased Brand Recognition
Not only do influencers lead more people to your website, but they also make the majority of their followers more aware of your brand when they discuss your products and services. And those followers tell their friends and family about your brand, leading to increased brand recognition. Because influencers place your brand in front of a new audience, you receive more potential customers.
More Credibility
Influencers give more credibility to your business. Influencers’ followers already trust them, but by talking about your products and services, they lead their followers to believe you and your brand as well. They give credibility to your business by endorsing your products and services.
How influencers boost your ROI
But how do influencers increase your ROI? Well, for every dollar that you invest in influencer marketing, your business will generate about $5.20 in return on average, an ROI of about 520 percent. Influencers can reach thousands or even millions of people, some of whom are in your target market, and as their viewership increases, your sales increase. Compared to other forms of digital media, influencer marketing has an ROI that is almost 11 times higher.
Influencer Marketing Strategies
Here are a few ways that you can measure and boost your ROI from influencer marketing:
Set Goals
The first step to measuring and boosting your ROI from influencer marketing is to set goals. Setting goals will allow you to see if influencers are helping your sales. You need to set goals before you even hire the help of an influencer.
Consider setting goals like increasing sales by $5,000 per month, extending brand recognition to at least 2,000 potential customers, or increasing your social media followers by 20 percent.
It is super important that your goals are achievable, but you need to set goals to measure how effective your influencer marketing method is accurate.
Give Promo Codes
Another excellent influencer marketing strategy is giving promo codes to your influencers to extend to potential customers. They can then use this promo code and place it on their YouTube videos, blog, Instagram post, or whichever website or platform they are using. Their followers can then use the promo code to purchase your products or services.
This is a great way not only to boost your ROI but also to measure it. When your influencers’ followers use the promo code, you will know exactly where they came. This is a great way to measure how effective your influencer marketing method is.
Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to measure social media engagement. Influencers use hashtags in their social media posts and encourage their followers to use the hashtags. Promoting the use of hashtags will help boost your ROI.
However, it will also help you measure the effectiveness of influencer marketing because you can see how many people are using your hashtag on websites or platforms like Instagram. This method will help give you an idea of how many customers purchased your product because of the influencer.
Use Tracking Pixels
Tracking pixels are a great way to measure where your traffic is coming. Influencers place the tracking pixel on their website or page, and when someone goes from their page or website to your page, the tracking pixel will indicate to you where the person came. This, in turn, helps you measure your ROI much better.
Conclusion
But the question is how to find and work with these influencers for your business. Many companies believe it is a good idea to outsource the efforts as a part of their overall digital marketing service. Thus, GoodFirms decoded this complex puzzle to help service seekers find the best digital marketing agency. These industry leaders provide outstanding online marketing solutions to the global client base.
