Our comprehensive guide is designed to help you find answers to all the burning questions about a successful online marketing strategy. In the coming months, we will be adding a new article every other week, which you should not miss!
This time, we will focus on the question of what makes influencer marketing so valuable, especially for younger target groups.
For these reasons influencer marketing is worth its weight in gold for you
Old marketing methods have had their day! This or similar statements can be heard more and more from circles that deal with modern and alternative advertising possibilities. And they are not entirely wrong: it is becoming increasingly difficult to reach younger target groups in particular through classic advertising media such as banner advertising or TV commercials. In contrast to this, there is a “modern” marketing method that is enjoying ever-growing success: influencer marketing. But as euphoric as this is currently being met with, the practical implementation of suitable campaigns is proving to be just as demanding. The following article is intended to remedy this situation and clarify what you need to pay attention to in order to carry out your influencer marketing measures successfully.
What does influencer marketing actually mean?
Although influencer marketing is often described as a new phenomenon, especially in Germany, it is a matter of the tried and tested in a new guise. The journalist who publishes a product test in an established trade magazine; the celebrity who wears a designer’s dress on the red carpet or the politician who highlights a particular company as a positive example in a speech: They are all “classic” influencers, whose judgements have a great influence on specific target groups. The only new elements in the current discourse about influencers and their advantages are the influencers that are increasingly coming into focus:
These are bloggers and social media influencers, which in theory could include anyone with a certain talent, a PC, a camera if necessary, and a lot of luck and/or commitment. However, the boundaries between classic and new influencers are increasingly disappearing and show the importance of Youtuber, Blogger and Co today. A few years ago considered a temporary side issue, the most successful of them now fill whole halls with fans and interested people – and that without losing touch with their followers.
The influencers are distinguished by their expert status in their respective fields: They have a great deal of knowledge about the topic they deal with and accordingly enjoy the fullest trust of their mostly comparatively young community, which is difficult to convince with classic channels like TV or radio. As opinion leaders, they use their existing expertise to influence the image of their followers and either recommend or advise against certain products or services. At the same time, they serve as multipliers in that they communicate the message in the best possible way, both in terms of speed and breadth, through a high degree of networking and a large number of very different contacts. Influencers therefore have an ideal advertising potential for every company due to the ideal combination of persuasiveness and reach.
Influencer-Marketing now tries to use the trust of the followers and to win over the influencer as advertising medium, multiplier and brand ambassador. By recommending their own products or services, potential customers should be made aware of the offer and positively influenced in their decision-making process. Thanks to the high degree of enthusiasm and passion of the influencer for the offer in question, the product or brand receptiveness can be increased as well as the company’s reputation – after all, the influencer would never advertise a product or company as a trusted person if he himself did not evaluate it positively.
Why are influencers so important?
The consumer landscape has changed massively in recent decades, forcing companies to rethink. Two central developments in particular have led to a profound transformation process:
In combination, both aspects have led to the formation of a demanding and emancipated “critical consumer” who, bounced by obtrusive bad advertisements, no longer trusts the classic advertising methods, questions them and at the same time is less and less willing to make the high investment costs for an independent purchase research of low or medium-priced goods. Consumers are therefore no longer looking for empty advertising promises from players who have a legitimate self-interest in seeing that your product looks particularly good. Since the recommendation of a friend, acquaintance or colleague is far more trusted than that of strangers or an abstract company, more and more consumers today want to receive feedback from people they trust, people they identify with and “know”.
Influencers are increasingly taking the position of these well-known trusted people in times of the advance of Web 2.0. They are independent, i.e. they are not tied to one or more companies as permanent employers; they are experts in their field and have many years of experience; and unlike classic “celebrities”, they are much closer to the needs, wishes and criteria of the common onlooker.
What are the benefits of influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is particularly suitable for improving the success of a brand by influencers triggering brand or product communication as digital word-of-mouth through the recommendation of a product or service. In contrast to classical forms of word-of-mouth, the message is spread exponentially with the involvement of a much larger number of actors. On the credit side, however, influencer marketing not only has a high reach. The relevant advantages include the following aspects:
Influencer Marketing Study”, for every dollar invested there is a return of $6.50. So, on average, investing one dollar in influencer marketing can yield more than six times the return.
- Reputation: Influencers have the greatest possible reputation as product experts. Consequently, your judgement is particularly trusted. As soon as questions arise regarding the decision for or against the purchase of a product or service, you will be contacted as an expert.
- High Return of Investment: According to the “Influencer Marketing Study” by Tomoson, for every dollar invested, there is a return of $6.50. So, by investing one dollar in influencer marketing, on average you can recoup more than six times that amount.
- Better leads: Social media users tend to spend more money on products that have caught their attention as a result of marketing efforts. At the same time, they are more communicative and share their experiences/desires more in their personal environment.
- Activity: A large proportion of influencers are active on your channels daily and regularly. This is beneficial for maintaining a regular readership and improving the speed of delivery of your messages.
- Versatility: Influencer marketing can have a positive impact on a number of factors: if done correctly, it can help increase brand awareness, consumer loyalty and purchase decisions and improve the image of your offering.
- Emotionality: Influencers have a strong emotional relationship and identification with the products they present. They pass on the emotional impact to their followers and thus help your offer to be remembered longer.
- Multifaceted: Whether YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: most influencers are regularly active on more than one channel, which has a positive effect on the reach and advertising possibilities: whether blog articles, video or a simple picture: all options can be realized with the right influencer.
- Sustainability: Successful cooperations last for a long time. If you have been able to convince your chosen influencer of yourself completely, it will most likely share your offer in the long term, comment on your contributions and recommend you in the vastness of the World Wide Web.
- Future viability: At present, it cannot be assumed that the growth rate of influencer marketing will turn negative. Rather, there is a legitimate assumption that influencer marketing has not reached its limits: With every new generation of users who grow up with the digital world, new players who trust the judgements of influencers are added. At the same time, the number of products continues to rise steadily as a result of progressive developments such as the globalization of markets. The need for trusted recommendations will therefore also increase.
How do I get the right influencers?
The quickest way to reach influencers is to contact them easily via email, mail or related methods.
However, contact should not be made lightly or thoughtlessly, as influencers are increasingly aware of their relevance and value. The following aspects should therefore be considered:
added value: Your offer must clearly show an added value for the influencers. In addition to financial or material incentives, exclusive information or unique campaigns that benefit the influencer and its community are suitable for this purpose.
However, a considerable problem arises, especially for rather unknown small and medium-sized companies: Both large and small companies queue up to be able to work with known influencers. Desired influencers, who receive dozens of requests per day, can therefore be particularly choosy in their choice of partners – to the great disadvantage of rather unknown brands and companies. It is therefore not always a good idea to contact only the best known and most successful influencers.
On the other hand, there is another problem: According to a study by the private university Macromedia, almost 9% of the German population are influencers on social media, which corresponds to almost 8 million potential advertising partners. Even though only a fraction of these have really relevant followers, the number of influencers is enormous, impossible to see through and continuously growing. Search platforms such as Buzzbird or InfluencerDB can help in this case. But what is important when choosing the right influencer for your campaign?
An important factor is certainly the number of followers. High investment costs in influencers with small communities are rarely promising. How high the number of followers should be depends on the industry in which you are active. In highly competitive markets like the fashion industry, high followers are a must. In niche markets, however, even a few hundred followers can prove valuable.
However, the number of followers alone is not enough to initiate a promising influencer campaign. Thus, target group congruence proves to be another essential factor without which successful results are a long way off. Only if the target group of influencers shares your values and is interested in your offer, a partnership makes sense. If, on the other hand, they distribute drugs and try to advertise with influencers who are concerned with health and medicine but at the same time focus on alternative methods, your success will most likely remain manageable.
As a final selection criterion, the sustainability of the partnership proves to be relevant: is the influencer interested in a long-term cooperation or is it a one-off action? As expected, longer-term cooperation will yield better results, as your offer will be remembered more often by the followers.
Influencers such as well-known bloggers, Youtuber or Instagrammer can therefore be seen as promising marketing partners who can have a massive impact on your image, awareness and sales potential at relatively low cost.
For all those interested in the specifics of Youtuber-Marketing, we recommend our exclusive Interview with the German Youtuber ChrispyRob, in which he tells us about his secrets for successful influencer marketing.
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