What is influencer marketing? This is the question that most people seem asking in today’s world of marketing shift.
Influencer marketing is to encourage the reach of a current influencer who has already built a strong brand reputation and a large following in a specific niche to endorse your product, support your brand, and co-create content with the intention to grow the brand awareness and increase sales.
It is obvious that no one would like to be threatened by the US FTC (Federal Trade Commission). Unfortunately, around 90 marketers and influencers received a warning letter from FTC in 2017. These letters reminded them to reveal influencer’s partnerships through their relevant social media posts. These sorts of regulations are likely to become prevalent as influencer marketing keeps growing at a rapid pace.
According to research performed by ANA (The Association of National Advertising), about 75% of brands deploy influencer marketing and around 43% of them have plans to enhance their budget with the coming year. Through a partnership with genuine social influencers, today’s marketers can easily reach the built-in audiences of sincere followers with original and authentic content.
Another research done by Paid and Nielsen Insights shows that influencer marketing generally has a positive impact on the buying intent and brand attraction. Also, it is two-timed more effective in engaging viewers than advertising on television. The influencer content paves your way to work around different ad blockers, which are currently being used in over 600 million electronic devices. This new mode of advertising has affected digital advertising up to a great extent.
Here are important points that brands should take into consideration when it comes to excelling in influencer marketing.
Clarity
Shockingly, about 71% of consumers living in the United Kingdom wrongly believed that the trend of influencer marketing was not even regulated. According to a study, 61% of consumers feel that brands do not offer what they advertise. It means they have an understanding that brands are not transparent in using influencers to advertise their products or services online. Another research performed by Bazaarvoice reported that about 47% of respondents feel exhausted by the influencer content.
Absolute transparency between brand influencers and their followers is essential in order to tackle the culture of mistrust around influencer marketing. Clear guidelines should be followed to avoid any ambiguity. Influence marketers can use custom writing login to get help with transparent copywriting. Instagram itself has developed a sponsored content pin along with proper hashtags for influencers using its platform. This facilitates clearing the uncertainty between sponsored influencers and all their followers.
Both brands and influencers should conduct sessions of conversation to maintain transparency at all levels. Some of the influencers have started to share their first-party data with their relevant brands. This builds a level of confidence between both parties.
Authenticity
All the marketing campaigns led by influencers assured to personalize the user experience of a brand, yet many have failed to deliver what they promised. It is not surprising that users will negatively react to the content that they consider dishonest. Now, industry leaders urge marketers to invest some time in choosing the correct influencers for their marketing campaigns. Brands should not buy personalities according to their large customer base. The first focus of brands should be their customers and they should try to deliver authentic information based on facts.
A large number of users feel that different influencer posts are very much materialistic and they misrepresent the reality of a product or service. Various organizations are working hard to push honesty across social media platforms. Therefore, authenticity is a big factor that a brand and influencer marketing agency should take into consideration to win customer’s trust.
Cross-Checking
It is imperative to perform the cross-check and vetting process on all influencers if brands want to protect their hard-earned reputation. Proper research should be conducted to check the suitability of influencers before getting into an agreement with them.
Check their career trajectory as well as career history. All major brands adopt this tactic to use the best influencer marketing services. Chances of customer’s distrust are reduced when selection is made through proper channels after in-depth analysis.
Conclusion
The digital landscape has started to shift at a rapid pace. It has become very significant for brands to understand their marketing requirements and spend their budgets in the right direction. You will lose your brand reputation, customers, and money as well if you keep following the traditional ways of advertising your products or services. Influencer marketing is gaining solid popularity from all the big brands. So, you should also follow their way to flourish in the business industry.
Author’s Bio:
Nicole Cowart is a writer who has been writing for the past five years, and she is very experienced in the marketing industry. She is fully acquainted with the latest marketing trends and changes being made in the advertising sector.