All You Need to Know about Influencer Marketing

There are various forms of marketing in the digital space. Influencer marketing is one of the newest entities to join the league which is both powerful and affordable.

What is Influencer Marketing?

While traditional marketing covers the target audience directly, influencer marketing takes a more focused approach and uses influential people to do the marketing instead. The idea is that these popular individuals i.e. the “influencers” are able to influence a large number of potential customers for the certain brand they are promoting.

Influencers are typically social media users who have a huge following. Many of these have hundreds of thousands or even millions of users as subscribers or fans. Popular platforms include YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

How does it work?

Typically, the interested brand approaches a suitable influencer whose social media persona is in line with its own (opinions, motives, content format, etc.) and offers the product/service to them for free. The influencer can then review the product and discuss its features, pros/cons, etc. through a video or blog.

What are the objectives of Influencer Marketing?

The main objective of an influencer is to promote a brand in a positive manner. For instance, if the influencer is a fashion blogger, then they will wear their brand’s line of clothing and post photos on Instagram/Facebook for publicity. Similarly, a tech blogger may review a new smartphone and highlight its best features which may convert several of their followers into actual buyers.

Influencer marketing is today’s word-of-mouth marketing, only it’s much grander in scale and impact. This is because a single influencer can instantly market a product to millions of people in a short period. In fact, when done right, influencer marketing can deliver great results.

Photo credit: wegewerk. on Visual Hunt / CC BY-SA