Influencer Marketing – Why Should You Use It?

We are at a time when brands can no longer rely purely on celebrity endorsements or ads. With too many false advertisements and too many celebrities pretending to use a product they really  do not, the time for a change has now come. With a change like this, a new wave of marketing called influencer marketing was introduced. In simple terms, influencer marketing is the process of using a famous person on social media to promote your brand. While the person may not be a major celebrity, the number of followers the influencer has is so vast and varied, the reach of the brand increases multifold. Here is why you should use influencer marketing:

1. Influencers generate stats

Perhaps one of the simplest benefits of influencers lies in the fact they generate stats for brands. The moment an influencer starts talking about your brand, generation of sales starts and as a result, so does the generation of statistics. The views your brand gets depends on the length of your campaign and the kind of influencer with whom you interact. One of the best ways to understand this point is by looking at how luxury watches producing company, Daniel Wellington, used both celebrities and regular influencers to further its brand. Averaging between one and two posts a day, Daniel Wellington’s Instagram started doing so well, the reach jumped to at least 1.4 million a day!

2. They help build brand awareness

Another advantage of using influencers is they help build brand awareness and spread the word about what your brand does. Diageo, a whiskey distillery, used the cult actor Nick Offerman (from Parks and Recreation) to promote their brand. What Diageo did was to place Nick in a strategic way in front of a fireplace and shot a 45 minute long video. The obscure placement of the product and Nick’s charm made the video go viral, it garnered over 3 million views since the time of its launch! By using Nick, Diageo got over 17,000 subscribers for its YouTube channel and almost 840 million social media impressions to date. Not only did Diageo use a slightly off beat celebrity for its brand, it also made the best use of an influencer!

3. Influencers are extremely influential

According to a recent study, 84 % shoppers buy products only after getting information about the product online. While not all products are talked about by major bloggers or celebrities, influencers help bridge this gap. According to a poll done by Adweek, influencer campaigns earn $ 6.85 for every dollar spent. If this is not a great return, then what is?

4. Influencers know their audience

One of the other advantages of using an influencer is that you can work with someone who knows their audience really well. Influencers really understand who their target audience is and with the kind of content they create, they work on reaching a large group of people you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. Take Nissan for example. They utilized influencer marketing to the very max and with four inhouse influencers, they create multiple influencer campaigns at the same time. One of its campaigns did so well, it got 470,000 views in just a day!

5. They know how to think outside the box

Perhaps the best thing about influencers is they know how to think outside the box. All you have to do is to give them a brief about your campaign and tell them what you want to achieve from your collaboration with them. When Pepsi was working on increasing its sales at Walgreens, Pepsi collaborated with multiple influencers all over the place to distribute the 200 bottles of special emojis. The influencers created content so well, they helped drive the audience to multiple Walgreens and Duane Reeds stores!

Done right, influencer marketing can really make a strong difference for your brand. If you think we missed mentioning any other reasons as to why influencer marketing is important, comment and let us know!