What Is It?
Influencer Marketing is not a new game in the marketing world, and the concept is pretty simple. You enlist an individual or group with influence and credibility, and you associate them with your brand.
The intent is to have their credibility rub off on your brand to gain credibility and, hopefully, a more considerable following of consumers. Examples of common types of Influencer Marketing might include Brand Ambassadors and Celebrity Endorsement.
With that said, it’s important to note the difference between credibility and fame. A common failing for brands attempting to engage in Influencer Marketing is recognizing this distinction and merely employing a “celebrity spokesperson.” Besides, To engage with an influencer marketing company for your brand, it’s important to select an association that meets the following criteria.
Relevant
They are considered by your consumer base to be authoritative and influential in the specific arena in which your brand is a player.
Relative
They can communicate and engage with your consumer base in ways that are easy to relate to and considered genuine.
Respected
They carry enough influence to generate both feeling and action on the part of your consumer base. Without a compelling call to measure, the association has too limited a benefit.
What Can It Do?
One of the apparent benefits of marketing through the use of Influencers is growing brand awareness. While this is helpful, this is certainly not unique to Influencer Marketing. The real strength lies in its ability to create a personal and powerful association between your brand and a specific group of consumers.
They are not just aware of your brand. They consider it relevant to who they are and what they believe in. In effect, Influencer Marketing can shift consumer perceptions and buying patterns through a very personal association that is unlike anything possible with mainstream media campaigns.
Additional Benefits
To close, we’ll note that there are additional benefits to Influencer Marketing that make it a very flexible tool that can be used for just about any company or brand regardless of size. The following are a few of the biggest ones. Scalability: With Influencers, it’s not necessary to have a massive national or international campaign. It is just as effective, if not more so, on a local or regional level. This allows for an incredible focus on key pockets of influence.
Affordability
Because it is scalable and investment levels are flexible, a program using Influencers like Brand Ambassadors can be affordable for just about anyone. The size of the campaign can be adjusted to virtually any size budget.
Visibility
The ability of the competition to see your Influencer Marketing campaign is largely under your control. If you’re a small brand, you can implement a grass-roots campaign that is nearly invisible to your larger competitors until you have momentum that is difficult to stop.
That covers Part 1 of Influencer Marketing. We encourage you to keep an eye out for Parts 2-4, which will include specific examples of successful Influencer Marketing campaigns and how they have proven successful against larger competitors.