Understanding the importance of influencers in Digital Marketing strategies

In a time when a strong presence in social media is worth more than an elaborate advertising piece, the role of influencers grows stronger and stronger.

Stemming from the appeal they have on the audience, these influencers have now grabbed the attention of brands, which seek to attract more customers.

Therefore it is now increasingly common to see web personalities in adverts, and promoting products to their own fans.

But, as in any digital marketing strategy, it is necessary to be well prepared before you turn to an influencer for a helping hand.

So, do you want to know the secrets behind a successful partnership with influencers? That’s what we’re going to show you in today’s post. Shall we?

Who are influencers?

It’s important to be able to tell the difference between influencers and celebrities. Of course, sometimes these roles overlap, but they are not necessarily synonymous.

Obviously, an influencer will always be recognized and respected in her niche, but that doesn’t mean she has great media exposure, for instance.

But still, they do share some characteristics with celebrities, such as a large audience and recognized authority among their followers.

This audience may be found in social media, YouTube channels, blog, or online community.

Why you should have influencers in your digital strategy

Building an audience takes time, and converting some of the people into customers is yet another challenge.

That’s where influencers come in, since they already have the attention of the audience you want to reach, as well as the means to take you to action.

And this is the reason why it makes so much sense to go after influencers to promote you brand.

Now, let’s take a deeper dive and see 4 ways in which they can become powerful allies:

A Marketing strategy that works

First of all, it is worth counting on the help of influencers, simply because this is a Marketing strategy that works.

Every self-respecting business venture is looking for results, and the great number of major companies that resort to influencers is proof that this model works.

Ads and commercials have become so commonplace that they are easily overlooked by the public, especially now, with the adblocks.

Another reason that proves that working with influencers works is that the actions carried out by them are integrated to the content they produce, which keeps the audience interested.

Mass word-of-mouth

Another major advantage of resorting to an influencer is the time it will save you to reach a qualified audience. What do we mean by that?, you might be asking.

If your blog still hasn’t got enough traffic and your social media profiles are growing in number of followers slowly, it will naturally take a long time in order for you to build a large audience.

Starting a partnership with an influencer might be that little push to speed up this process with your buyer personas.

And even if you already have a large audience, online word-of-mouth from a partnership with an influencer may further increase the reach of your message.

Specialized content to the right audience

As we have already mentioned, influencers are highly respected in the niches they act in, which means that, one way or another, they create content.

That’s why you probably won’t need to worry about the quality of the content, if it is adequate to the buyer personas, and so on.

After all, the audience that follows the influencers already approves what they do.

What you should really pay attention to is the choice of the influencer, to make sure that what your company offers really meets the needs of her audience.

Exposure and increase in brand value

Exposing your brand to thousands of people – which, in turn, can present it to thousands more – is surely a great opportunity for success.

With well-planned and carried out actions, you will also be able to increase the brand value to your customers, partners, and even your competitors.

Naturally, exposure alone is not enough, but as more and more people interact with your message, the easier it will be to build a relationship with them, which will lead to more conversions later.

How an influencer can help you out

Now you know what they do and why it is important to resort to influencers to strengthen your brand.

But what exactly can they do for your business? Check out some of the ways in which they can help out:

Raising expectations

Before you launch a product or a service, it is essential to have a marketing campaign that raises the expectations and interests of your customers in potential.

This is one of the key factors in a successful launch, and having an influencer as a part of your promotion strategy will certainly help.

In this case, the product or service cannot be described in detail. Instead, it is better to provide only a glimpse and let the imagination of the public fly high.

In some cases, the mere recommendation of an influencer and a Landing Page ready to convert can do wonders for your campaign!

Generating credibility

Another way of taking advantage of the powers of persuasion of influencers is to bet on the authority they have to generate credibility to the brand.

You know that saying, “a man is known by the company he keeps”?

The association of a respected person to a product or service is a testimony of how trustworthy it is.

This is one of the reasons why companies and influencers love working as a team: in both cases, the credibility of one of them is beneficial to the other one.

Increasing sales

The end game of every company is to make followers and fans into customers. So, how could we leave the possibility of increasing sales out of this list?

Whenever you promote a product with the help of an influencer, it should have a positive impact on your sales.

If that’s not the case, the campaign is not performing as well as it should be, and your marketing team should evaluate what needs to be adjusted.

Building customer loyalty

Taking advantage of the popularity of influencers doesn’t necessarily have only an immediate effect, as long as you use this exposure to build customer loyalty.

How can this be done? Being well prepared and use this new “shop window” to get customer loyalty once and for all, and impress those who are just now coming into contact with the brand.

4 steps to connect to influencers

Finally, you have to know what to do to connect to the right influencers, so as to achieve the expected results in your campaigns.

Those who think that the work consists only of finding famous people to promote their products are mistaken.

There are many steps that have to be followed in order to build a positive partnership with influencers. Let’s take a look at what they are:

Find the right influencers

How can you tell who the right influencers to work with your company are?

There are three factors to be taken into consideration. They are:

• Context: you need to choose someone who has an engagement with the audience you want to approach;
• Reach: one of the requirements is that this person has a large audience, otherwise the effect of the partnership will be very limited;
• The power of action: this is the ability the influencer must have in taking the audience to perform an action.

When these factors are aligned, you will have the right choice for your marketing strategy with influencers.

Consider the payment

Having chosen the ideal partner, it is time to think about the payment you will offer, not only to her, but to her followers as well. What do we mean by that?

Many influencers are already used to establishing partnerships with brands, and some of them even have some material ready for those who want to hire them. Then, this part should not be complicated.

But you can take a step even further, and think about what the company has to offer to the fans – a discount, a trial period, so on – to convince them even more quickly.

Offer a convincing project

Influencers are busy people who, above all else, have a reputation to uphold. In other words, they won’t be convinced if you only offer them money.

With this in mind, it is necessary to come up with a convincing project that you want to achieve with the partnership and how you intend to go about it.

Then, you only have to present the proposal, listen to what the influencer has to say, and the final arrangements to establish the partnership.

Monitor the results

Even after having a deal, the work is not yet finished. To make sure you have a positive Return on Investment, it is essential to monitor the results.

This is something that has to be set beforehand, including the main KPIs you will monitor.

By doing this, you will learn how to improve your future campaigns, as you will know if you made a right choice about the influencers, and also about the elements involved in this kind of action.

Seeking out influencers to help your digital marketing strategy really makes a difference when it comes to reaching a greater audience in a shorter period of time. Just make sure you are well prepared, in order to build partnerships that are advantageous to your business.

And you know what else is a very profitable way of doing digital marketing? Your own blog! Learn now how to make the best of it.

Guest post written by Rock Content.