After the seismic shifts in our media landscape that were introduced by the advent of the Internet, the field of marketing has evolved in response to the new opportunities that the World Wide Web has offered to everyone in the digital space. Unlike radio, print, or television, the Internet is an easily accessible user-driven medium for communication that has crept its way into every aspect of our lives. The Internet’s ubiquitous presence has cultivated the rise of a different type of celebrity: the influencer.
Influencers are online content creators who have cultivated a large audience and established themselves as experts and thought leaders in their chosen field. Beauty, lifestyle, travel, technology and gaming influencers are highly sought after in particular by many brands seeking to leverage their influence over the hearts and minds of their target audience. The persuasive power of influencers has inspired many influencer marketing campaigns with varying degrees of success.
Brands interested in influencer marketing usually organize marketing campaigns through influencer marketing agencies such as HireInfluence. These campaigns can be a boost to brands’ success for several reasons. First, influencer marketing represents a style of advertising that comes off as more authentic to people who follow influencers. By working brand messaging into organic content, the messages resonate with followers more and are mediated through the likability and credibility of their favorite influencer, making them more likely to listen.
Secondly, influencer marketing enables more cost-effective strategic targeting of niche audiences. When a company buys an advertisement on a billboard or in a newspaper, there is no guarantee that the right people who will benefit the most from their product or service will see it. With the help of online analytics, brands know exactly which target demographics an influencer is reaching and what their lifestyles and interests are. For this reason, influencer marketing is ideal for strategic audience targeting.
Influencers also reap a variety of benefits from being involved in influencer marketing campaigns, making the campaigns a mutually beneficial arrangement. After working with an established brand, an influencer will be seen as more credible and reliable as a business partner, making them more likely to score more brand collaborations and partnerships. Sponsorships from brands are also an extra source of income for them, giving them another avenue for monetizing their content and increasing their total profits.
More than that, at the end of the day, the promise of a lucrative collaboration for both parties won’t be what seals the success of an influencer marketing campaign. Success in this aspect will also depend on the influencer/brand fit since some partnerships will be more ideal than others in light of both sides’ goals. The larger ones, also called macro influencers, may be too expensive to fit in your budget or simply a poor fit for your brand, even when their audience engagement numbers are the best. Communication will be an issue on both sides, with each having to clearly outline what they aim to achieve through the said collaboration. As long as the atmosphere of mutual collaboration and creativity is cultivated, there is no limit to the height influencer marketing campaigns can take.
