6 Ways Influencers Make Your Content Fly
If you’ve been reading our posts, you probably know about influencer marketing already. This form of marketing has been fast becoming integrated in digital marketing, particularly in content and social media marketing. It’s about finding key people who can put your brand in front of their audience and in so doing influence their audience in your brand’s favor. Influencers can be bloggers, specialists, and even celebrities who talk about your brand or feature you, thus driving following to you as well.
Influencers, social media marketers, and content marketers do one thing in common. They promote brands. Promoting brands isn’t always in the form of advertising. The creative tactics that we have to do is more effective than simply telling people to buy this or that product. When it comes to targeting influencers, the approach is not to just find them. We build relationships with them, and we encourage you to do the same.
Two of the strongest points of having an influencer is the credibility and trust that come with being featured by an authority in your niche and even a social media celebrity (someone with huge following). The endorsement doesn’t only attract followers but also increases conversion.
However, there is much more that your influencer can do than simply share your content or feature you in a post. Working together with your influencers is part of influencer marketing, you can think of as a series of activities from finding key people to marketing with them. Influencers can create content for you. You can invite them to post on your website or blog. Or they can write about you on their own social media channel or blog. They can take your brand to a whole new level with something as simple as sharing your newest product.
1) Influencers generate content for your brand
They do it for free! Why pay for advertisers when you can have someone who is more effective in putting a voice on your brand for an untapped audience? Sometimes all you need to do is ask. Most of influencers don’t mind writing a post about your brand or recording a video to talk about what they think about your latest product or service or promo. An influencer who happens to be an authority in your niche can do quite a lot on your behalf. They can write a review or do a demo. It’s not about creating quality content. It’s much about creating one that gets to a wider audience.
2) Influencers help you build your brand
If influencer marketing statistics is right, then we’re confident influencer marketing is only going to get bigger. More companies are investing in it because it works. Again, we have to tell you that it’s about who’s trusting whom. People don’t trust advertisers anymore. But they trust someone they follow, someone they tune in for live videos, or someone who they see as an expert in a certain field.
3) Influencers dramatically magnify your audience
There are different influencers. Social media “celebrities” can be influencers. Popular bloggers can be influencers. Specialists and professionals in related fields can be influencers. If you’re not marketing with them, you only have a single group of audience, which is your direct following. If you have an influencer, your brand gets exposure in someone else’s network.
4) Influencers make your content relevant
When they share your content with their audience, they are not only opening doors for you to a different network. They are also lending their power and influence to your brand. You are in effect able to tap into the trust they have built in their network. That is the biggest advantage of marketing through an influencer. When someone with huge following shares your content, their followers will think you’re worth checking out, because they trust the person. They think highly of the influencer and take their recommendation or suggestion with less reservations. Unfortunately, you and your advertisers don’t get the same benefit.
5) Influencers are consumers
This is an important truth that isn’t apparent at first. Their audience don’t see them selling products. They don’t own companies. They just share interesting and fun posts. They share stuff they have bought. And therein lies their power. People see them as consumers, not business owners. So when they share a brand, it looks more like a recommendation than an endorsement. When they talk about a brand, it sounds more like a review or a testimonial than an advertisement. In many ways, influencer marketing shares similarities with word of mouth marketing. The only difference is it’s not from person to person, but from person to a group of people. The potency of online influence is huge.
6) Influencers have built relationships
Building relationships is a crucial, but often overlooked task in marketing. So many companies have been busy trying to shove their businesses down people’s throats without investing in what truly matters to customers. Something is missing on your marketing pie when you disregard the value of relationships. It is the fact that consumers are humans. As humans, we crave interaction, conversations, and that sense that we belong in a community. That is what influencers have successfully done either intentionally or inadvertently.
When you market with an influencer, not only are you evading the natural cynicism that comes with it but also are you taking advantage of the relationship an influencer has built with their community of active followers. We’re talking about organic relationships and thus organic influence.
If you’re looking for influencer marketing companies, find one that knows these relevant truths.