The Evolution of Influencer Marketing Strategy

Introducing Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a new phenomenon, with its average spend increasing over 3 times backdating from 2017. What is the origin of this? The answer is social media and blogging, which has exponentially grown over the years so that marketers can use online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Personal Blogs to promote brands and reach out to a variety of audiences. Its rise opens up new channels for direct communication between brands and customers (Glucksman, 2017). Influencer marketing also promotes better collaboration with social media platforms through branded content (Freburg, 2010). The objective of influencer marketing strategy is to increase revenue, increase traffic and transform visitors of your website into customers. This marketing tactic is not a new concept but has grown in popularity over the past few years.

How Does Influencer Marketing Work?

Influencer marketing focuses on using key leaders or influencers to deliver or convey a message to a market audience. Typically, marketing companies pay for experienced influencers to reach out to popular figures that can influence buying and brand awareness (Gartin, 2017).

The brand and the influencer form a working relationship. The term brand awareness is developed from the artefacts of social reach, people engagement, brand lift and social sentiment and the higher the influence, the higher the market share (Malik, 2013). The influencer pushes out attentive content through social media to gain contraction, in the hope it leads to more and more conversions. 

Influencer marketing growth is definitively driven by the return-on-investment (ROI) a marketer or marketing company receives. But how? Data and metrics are significant in measuring a company’s marketing success. Different metrics are relevant to different goals such as audience relationships and engagement, improve reputation etc (Booth and Matic, 2011). 

Influencer marketing strategies can only be formed from goals or growth targets. Recording data is essential because the whole purpose of analytics is to develop reporting metrics that deliver results of your marketing campaign, determining how influential your strategy is, whether you’re growing or stagnating and consumer wants and needs are met (Glucksman, 2019). No matter the goal, your influencer marketing strategy needs to make an impression to your social media target audience. The success of your brand is typically measured through a wide range of factors for influencer marketing to be popular, such as quality of content, page views, search engine ranks and externally, building trust with followers (Gillin, 2008). 

The Success Statistics of Influencer Marketing

As part of the 2019 Influencer Marketing Survey, a report from Biaudet (2017) portrays the current success rate of influencer marketing today:

  • At least 80% of marketers are finding influencer marketing very effective for their business
  • 71% agree that influencer marketing traffic is more effective compared to other marketing sources 
  • 89% agree that return-on-investment (ROI) is more probable compared to the other marketing sources
  • 6% of marketers who are not familiar with influencer marketing, or have not internally engaged with influencer marketing, are expected to incorporate this as part operational budget in 2019. 

Biaudet (2017), performed a study which identified the general revenue from influencer marketing compared to other forms of marketing. The following breakdown statistics demonstrate the effectiveness of influencer marketing:

  • Over 51% of marketers believe influencer marketing is preferable to attract high-quality customers, specifically because social media platforms are more fluid in sharing and recommending product and service ads.
  • Over 70% of marketers generate better revenue through influencer marketing e.g. $1 invested returns $6.50 in revenue.
  • 37% say that blogging is the most effective platform to reach out to social media users, with Facebook being a closer second at 25%
  • 59% of marketers are incorporating influencer marketing within their annual budget
  • Influencer marketing is now the joint-highest cost-effective method to acquire customers, with email marketing campaigns a close second. 

(Supported Source  – Biaudet, 2017)

Influencer marketing is now surging through as the best customer-acquisition method 79% of marketers are now planning to or either use influencer marketing since 2018, compared to 43% in 2017 (Vamp, 2017). 

Concluding Thoughts

The statistics demonstrate that influencer marketing is on the rise. The return on investment (ROI) has proven to be a determining factor of influencer marketing strategy incorporation. This means that many marketing companies now rely on influencer marketing, and for good reason. Influencer marketing works because social media is a platform where the word can be spread instantly. It is a great way to connect with a variety of audiences, improve brand awareness and convert visitors into customers. Although this heavily depends on the effectiveness of company strategy, it helps develop long-lasting relationships with customers which only provides benefits. Influencer advertising is trustworthy, and more effective than email marketing campaigns. Strategy is key but studies have proven that ROI would be widespread with an effective marketing strategy. Ultimately, it depends on how well a message is marketed. If done correctly, brand reputation will improve, and companies will become more recognised. 


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