How Effective Is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing has become a standard marketing tool for many brands and businesses. Over 60% of businesses intend on increasing their influencer marketing budgets in 2023.

Not only is it a promotions staple for businesses. Influencer marketing has become a key part of the customer shopping journey. Buyers are turning to influencer recommendations for insight into product choices.

But is influencer marketing an effective approach to marketing? Should your brand consider this option when trying to reach audiences and increase sales and visibility?

Our answer is yes!

This blog will show the effectiveness of influencer marketing and why it’s a brilliant way to achieve your marketing goals.

The Effectiveness Of Influencer Marketing

The truth of influencer marketing’s effectiveness lies in the stats – because these never lie, of course!

Here are some stats and insights pointing to the proficiency of this marketing approach:

• Businesses can make approximately $18 value on every dollar spent on influencer marketing campaigns.
• 93% of marketers have included influencer partnerships in their content marketing strategies.
• 8 out of 10 buyers purchased a product after seeing influencer posts recommending it.
• In contrast to the under 40% of customers who trust brand-created content, 61% of consumers trust influencer suggestions.
• A study showed that influencer marketing ROI was 11x that of banner ads.
• 87% of social media users took a specific action after seeing influencer content on Instagram.
• 49% of shoppers rely on recommendations from influencers when making a product choice.
• By 2023, influencer marketing spend is expected to climb to $4.6 billion just in the United States.

For more stats, see our post on Influencer Marketing Statistics.

Why Does It Work So Well?

The success of content today has become wholly dependent on how much audiences can connect to it. Where ads could be generically designed for mass consumption, current marketing campaigns and social media channels require more relevancy and specificity that connects with the target market.

This is where an influencer marketing strategy comes in. It enables your business to leverage what influencers and social platforms do better than other marketing channels: Connect.

Customers Trust Influencers

The power and effectiveness of influencer marketing campaigns lies in the relationships that influencers build with their social media followers.

Influencers hold their leverage in, well, their influence. Their audience follows them and supports their content. Followers embrace their recommendations and views because they trust them.

A strong influencer has a community of users who believe and trust in their content. When you work with them, you benefit from this pre-established trust.

Consumers see someone they trust using your product or working with your brand. So by association, they understand that the influencer endorses you. This means they can trust what you have to offer, too.

It Feels Authentic

This trust works best when it is authentic. And it is effective because it is more authentic than other marketing and advertising.

Consumers have grown skeptical of brand and corporate messaging and marketing. Influencer marketing, on the other hand, is premised on the idea of authentic engagement.

Users choose which social media influencers they follow on social media platforms based on their personal interests and the content they enjoy. They decide to engage in a relationship with their favorite influencer. This makes influencer marketing campaigns feel like a regular part of their organic feed.

The authenticity of influencer marketing is especially clear when brands work with people that fit the brand values and aims. Choose influencers that already have a mood, target audience, and personal brand you like, and make sure they don’t have fake followers.

When you integrate your brand’s message with the right influencer, it boosts authenticity. The influencer creates content for your marketing campaign in line with their brand, helping connect with their audience.

Doesn’t Have The Salesy Vibe Of Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing channels like TV, radio, broadcasting, print, etc. can feel pointed and impersonal. In contrast, influencer marketing prioritizes the consumer.

It works because it brings relevant content to each user’s screen. It isn’t a generic pitch for why they should buy your products or support your brand.

Instead, influencers can create content for the influencer campaign that impacts buyers’ views of your business and product range. They can show them how to use it, simply include it in their daily content, actively review it, offer free samples, and so on.

The diverse options for how to run an influencer marketing campaign reflect the nature of social media.

It’s not simply about getting your brand in the faces of potential consumers. Rather, it is about engagement and interaction. Arguably, even, engagement is the most important metric to measure when running an influencer marketing campaign. It tells you about how users receive the content, if they enjoy it, and more.

Enables A Targeted Approach

The last major reason why influencer marketing works so well is that it removes the gap between the brand as an idea and the audience.

Your brand stops existing as some big, imaginary name. It becomes a tangible entity that people engage with. In this case, people being the influencers you work with.

Your influencer campaigns bring your brand to your desired audience with minimal work from your marketing team. Your influencer already has the numbers and support from your target audience. And they give your brand humanity, a face, and personality.

This puts your brand directly in front of people who may be interested in what you offer. As a result, it boosts brand awareness while giving your brand credibility.

You can get people thinking, “I saw Influencer X’s social media posts about this product. Maybe, I should try it out.”

How Influencer Marketing Can Boost Businesses

Brands and businesses have much to gain by using influencer marketing. In addition to the trust and audience access you stand to gain from working with an influencer, there are other practical benefits of influencer marketing. These include:

• Increasing the value of your content to audiences. By collaborating with someone with influence and relevance, you draw audiences to your content and make them interested in your brand.
  Boosting your marketing strategy. Influencer marketing helps you promote your products and your brand to your target audience.
• Giving your abundant content archives to use in the future. The influencer creates content for your brand that you can keep, own, and later use when you’re running low on content ideas. Your campaign can also be a pool for user-generated content.
• Adding to your brand reach. You become visible to your influencer partner’s audience, other users that know of them, users’ social media platform organic search results, etc.
• Expanding social media presence, and digital visibility. Working with an influencer helps you increase brand awareness and promote your different social media platforms and other online accounts. You can use it to bolster your social media marketing and digital marketing strategies.
• Drives traffic to your website and product pages when influencers speak about your products.
• Raising sales through influencer recommendations, affiliate partnerships, giveaways, and other influencer marketing tactics.
• Nuancing your research and audience insights.
• Being an affordable and cost-effective approach to marketing. If your business doesn’t have the marketing budget to work with mega-influencers or celebrity influencers, you can partner with a nano-influencer or micro-influencer. You lose nothing, too, because affordability does not equal low quality in the influencer game. Micro-influencers often receive the highest social media engagement.

Final Thoughts On The Effectiveness Of Influencer Marketing

Much like word-of-mouth marketing, influencer marketing depends on trust. It is effective because it is personalized, social, authentic, and speaks to the audience directly. Social media users choose to belong to influencer communities and generally respect influencers as experts in their niche.

Brands and businesses can grow their following, build awareness, and shape their reputation and image by working with suitable influencers.

They can also set campaign goals that encourage business success. Influencer collaborations can drive traffic to their website, boost sales, and generate interest in their product range.

Including influencer marketing in your business’s marketing efforts is a must… The benefits speak for themselves. So now that you know the effectiveness of influencer marketing, test the waters and find influencers to partner with today using trendHERO.