Why Influencer Marketing is an Opportunity You Can’t Afford to Ignore
Before we go into more detail, I thought I’d share some influencer marketing statistics to show how powerful it really is for brands.
Influencer marketing content delivers 11X higher ROI than traditional forms of digital marketing. (TapInfluence study with Nielsen Catalina Solutions, 2016)
49% of people say they rely on recommendations from influencers when making purchase decisions. (Twitter and Annalect, 2016)
40% of people say they’ve purchased an item online after seeing it used by an influencer on Instagram
After reading these facts, it is not hard to understand why many brands are increasing their influencer marketing budgets.
(Photo: emarketer.com)
Influencer marketing has a huge potential
There’s no denying that influencer marketing has a huge potential. The sad part is however that few brands are taking full advantage of it properly.
Influencer marketing has the potential to completely and fundamentally change the way brands and consumers are communicating but that time is not here just yet.
The transition of marketing sources
(Image: Neil Patel)
The world of marketing is evolving very quickly and influencer marketing is evidence of that.
The classical display ads such as billboard marketing and TV ads are slowly losing both efficiency and reach.
Firstly, they offer none of very limited possibility of targeting them to your audience.
If you are putting an ad on television, the reality is that only a small percentage of the total amount of people who will watch it are within your target audience and would actually buy what you have to offer.
This means that a big part of what you have to pay to display your ad on TV is invested money that does zero good for your business. A long story short, display ads are offering a terrible targeted marketing and is often generating a lousy ROI.
This is where the new ways of marketing are kicking in the door and revolutionizing the market. Influencer marketing is one of them.
When you are watching ads on television, most often, you see commercials from large corporates with a huge marketing budget. The reasons why large corporates are usually turning to classic display ads are several.
Firstly: Often, the people in charge of the marketing have often been working there for a long time and doing the same thing over and over, generating average marketing results. Next year they do the same because “well, it’s generating something”.
Secondly: Large corporates are often slow and it’s hard to make rapid dramatic changes.
Thirdly: Because of the sheer size of the company, it can often become outdated and struggle staying up-to date because it’s hard to implement new trends and adapt to new marketing tools and sources.
You should do everything in your power to ensure that you are staying updated with the latest news so your brand is seen as modern. On top of that, in today’s market, influencer marketing is one of those things that you really should implement into your marketing strategy if you want to stay relevant in the ever-changing market.
And frankly, based on the results it’s able to generate- why would you ignore it?
The power of influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is generating incredible results and if you compare it next to display advertising, you would see yourself as a fool if you’d choose the latter before influencer marketing.
I let the statistics speak for itself because they are real-life evidence measured on real businesses like yours.
Now, if you aren’t a large corporate that can spend millions of dollars on ads, you have to use more effective sources, so you know that you get the best ROI possible from your marketing budget.
Now, the reason why influencer marketing is an opportunity you can’t afford to miss as a startup, small or medium-sized business is because of its high ROI. These types of businesses are normally very picky with where and how they spend their money just to make sure they’re getting the most out of it but the big issue that many brands don’t simply know about effective sources such as influencer marketing.
This makes for a big leverage over your competitors. If you are using influencer marketing and they’re not, while at the same time you have the same marketing budget, the chances are – you’ll generate better results. And thereby, outgrow your competitors.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing is a marketing sources that generates an ROI that is hard to beat. A lot of brands aren’t cherishing influencer marketing as they should, based on the results it’s generating but worst of all – many don’t even know about it.
If influencer marketing isn’t a part of your marketing strategy, you should implement it as soon as possible. If not, there’s a big risk that you’ll evolve slower than your competitors. If you are using more traditional marketing sources such as display ads, there’s a big risk you’re throwing your marketing budget down the drain based on the terrible targeted marketing campaign you’re running.
