Trying to reach many by influencing a small group is nothing new. Companies have always wanted to associate their brand with influential people. As long as marketing has existed, celebrities have been able to make money from letting their persona decorate cereal packages, billboards, commercials and other media.
What is new about Influence marketing is above all the platform and the technology.
Influencer marketing has recently become a hot topic for marketers – probably because we realize how powerful it is, especially as an alternative to traditional advertising that can be expensive and ineffective.
Consumers are not always so fond of ads and promotional messages have less credibility every day. Influencer marketing, marketing via selected influencers, is therefore becoming an increasingly important part of how companies reach their target groups.
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Bloggers and Youtubers
Influencer Marketing is first about identifying the people who have the confidence and ability to inspire potential buyers and consumers. In other words, it can be people who are from journalists, politicians, researchers, bloggers or other people who made an impression.
The companies want to be seen and heard where there are customers. And today, customers are on social media. Bloggers and Youtubers are the ones most associated with influencer marketing and carry the new professional title of influencer.
If you get the right person in the blogosphere to write about a product or get broad visibility on Instagram or YouTube, it can be crucial to get the buzz around the brand started. However, an influencer can be anyone who influences a person’s perception, behavior and purchasing decisions.
What is an Influencer?
Customers have always influenced their environment by telling us what they have bought and whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied with the product. Customers’ buying experience then determines how they convey their impression of the brand and the product to others.
Therefore, marketers have been aware early on of the importance of word of mouth – word marketing. However, it is not simply affecting it. However, a major improvement has been made thanks to social media. By analyzing and capturing what is written about the brand and product names online, it is possible to detect and implement measures.
Influencer marketing means that a company uses a celebrity, a blogger, social media profile or other influential person to communicate their message – usually via the profile’s own channels. This has long been prevalent on the PR side, but more and more people are seeing the benefits of buying exposure in these channels and thus gaining greater control over their visibility.
The whole reasoning is based on a basic truth, we are more likely to listen to a small number of people whom we regard as credible or expert in one area than in any other. An influencer is therefore someone who has the power to influence our perception or causes us to do something new or different.
The emergence of the internet we use today, and not least social media, has made influencers and their ability to deliver a message to a large number of people even more important to make a difference.
This could be a reader of a publication, the audience of a TV host, or the number of social followers someone has. Reach is important but insufficient. Those with little reach but high credibility and sales creation are called micro-influenza.
Here’s how to do the right marketing influence
The easiest way to work with influencers is to pay them money. Advertisers have used celebrities in their campaigns for decades. Marketers essentially lend their credibility and confidence to sell a product.
This is a tactic that can work, but it’s not what we define as marketing influences – we call it celebrity reports. Consumers know that the actor or athlete gets paid to market a product, so its effectiveness is limited.
Another way to work with influencers is to borrow their reach. This is how most marketers use influence marketing today. They are looking for someone with many Instagram followers and pay them to promote a product. This is really sponsored advertising and does not maximize marketing opportunities for influencers.
Good influencer marketing is focused on building sincere personal relationships with influencers and sharing useful, unique, exclusive or early information.
The goal of influencer marketing
Influencer marketing should be honest and authentic. An influencer talks about your product not because they are paid to do it, but because they want to – because they think your business is interesting and the information is useful to your readers.
Therefore, influencer marketing takes time, commitment and focus, and it must be open and honest. An influencer will talk about the good and the bad with your products. But they will do in a way that is much more credible and useful than any ad could do.
What does it take to become an influencer?
Exactly what it takes to be titled “Influencer” is open to debate. There is no given quantity of followers who automatically diplomatize you as “Influencer”. For you to make money from your influence, it does not only require a certain quantity of followers. It is also required that companies can see a commercial value in your influence. Many followers can be important. But is not everything.
A little simplified, the following is required to make money as Influence Marketer:
- That you have a clear target group as a follower
- That you have a real influence over the target audience (ie that your followers engage with your content)
- That companies can see a commercial value in reaching your target audience
