Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
The digital marketing world is not different from the jungles. Only the fastest, the wittiest, and those who adapt to the changes the best will survive. The problem is in digital marketing, unlike in jungles, everything changes with a mind-shattering speed: those trends that work today – don’t work tomorrow when you finally decide to implement them.
That is why any digital marketer knows he/she should play with forecasts and do everything possible to catch up with trends. What are the major trends in online marketing today? Look around, it’s influencers. They have always been trendy; you remember all those ads with footballers and actors on TV. But today is the era of social media influencers.
If you’ve read about Snapchat’s $1.3 billion drops in value because of one tweet from the Kardashians, you understand what I am talking about.
Social media influencers can put your business high in the sky and they can make your company drop in value in 24 hours.
In other words, influencers rule, and companies can either pretend they don’t know it or grasp this opportunity for promotion. Another fact that may surprise you is that according to Forbes micro-influencers are the future of digital marketing, not the Kardashians with their millions of followers. So those brands that can’t attract influencers with millions of followers, this is very good news.
Content:
- Social Media Influencers are the Best Storytellers
- What is a Social Media Influencer? It’s the Person Whom You Trust
- Influencer Marketing Campaign Gives Excellent ROI
- Emotional Connection with the Brand
- Influencers deliver the message of the brand directly to the customers
Yet, if you don’t believe that influencers are that influential, here are 5 arguments for you to check:
Social Media Influencers are the Best Storytellers
If you can influence and change someone’s opinion- you are gifted. It’s a huge power that can seem quite abstract when in reality, this power is priceless. Those who can move the tectonic plates inside the human mind and win hearts rule this world. Politicians, actors, writers – all those with the invisible power of influence.
Today, content creators on social media have joined them as well. But why do modern social influencers on Instagram and Facebook have such overwhelming power over the hearts of millions of followers? The answer is simple: influencers tell their personal stories so craftily and so emotionally that people react to these stories naturally.
Storytelling is the most ancient means of entertainment of humanity, and the most popular people of the world tell the most captivating stories. We learn to tell stories about our lives to others and ourselves and these stories shape our identities. We adore listening to stories of other people because these stories guide us through life and serve as scenarios.
Social media influencers are authentic content creators and storytellers. That is their superpower. According to TapInfluence, more than 70% of social media content creators admit that their authenticity and good sense of humor are two factors that keep people engaged. A brand story can be interlaced into a social media influencer’s personal story naturally and painlessly. Influencers are also people, after all, and they must wear clothes or eat in restaurants occasionally. They use brands and thus, they tell stories about these brands.
Do you understand what I am saying? It is easy to include a brand’s story into an influencer’s story not breaking the whole plot.
Trust to social media influencers and authenticity keep readers interested and engaged. And for brands this authenticity becomes a convertible good: it’s always more productive to interact with customers who already trust your brand because they trust people which endorse it.
What is a Social Media Influencer? It’s the Person Whom You Trust.
When discussing influencer marketing, we talk about abstract feelings, such as trust or loyalty. Most marketers ( and me among them) feel confused reading these elusive terms. What are you talking about when you are talking about “trust”?
It might take a life to explain such a complex term as loyalty to someone. Yet, at the same time, it’s the basic concept of marketing which is why it must be explained in the simplest terms. Albert Einstein once said that if you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough. So loyalty.
When Joe goes to a store to buy a pack of cereal, he faces a dilemma. No, not even a dilemma, but a real puzzling choice: what cereal to choose.
He recalls that his wife often buys one type of cereal, let’s and grabs this pack. In this case, its’ Joe’s wife who served as an influencer. But his wife saw the post on Instagram in which her favorite actor was feeding his son with this cereal. So Joe grabs this pack of cereal because he trusts his wife while his wife trusts the actor whom he follows on Instagram.
All these people are connected with the one abstract feeling – feeling of trust. It’s the invisible texture of the relationships between people: you trust your friends and family. You trust your partner. That is the feeling that keeps you together.
Social media marketing has trust at its core that is why it is working. More than that, it is organic trust: nobody forces it, it grows naturally in case if the brand can guarantee a high – quality product.3
Influencer Marketing Campaign Gives Excellent ROI
ROI is the ultimate argument in every marketing discussion. And influencer marketing campaign can produce a stunning level of ROI. Blogovin’s study revealed that 54% of marketers who invested in social media marketing were satisfied with results: they experienced engagement growth and the number of followers increased.
The ROI can be different: an influencer marketing campaign can help marketers reach many goals: boosting sales, generating more website traffic, raising brand awareness, and reaching target audience easily.
Influencer marketing campaigns boosted sales by 53% of marketers and 47% observes traffic growth to their website. 71% of marketers claimed that influencer marketing campaign had a positive impact on their brand awareness. 67% said that it was easier to reach target audience using social influencer marketing.
There is another return of investments regarding media presence. This will give its return of investments in terms of social sharing very soon and will increase digital media exposure.
Emotional Connection with the Brand
There is one common problem of all brand managers: they struggle to form the strong emotional connection between their brand and their customers. And emotional bonding is what transforms common customers into loyal customers. What emotions should a brand provoke in users to make them stay? According to Business Insider, there are 5 emotions that make users share content online:
Awe – the sense of being present or being involved into something bigger than self. Being a part of something stunning. Influencer marketing stimulates this feeling by uniting people around influencers. Think about it: people who follow an influencer often share his/her philosophy in some way ( no matter if it’s travel philosophy or family philosophy). That’s how they feel being a part of something incredible – a community of like-minded people.
Surprise – the feeling which arises when seeing something totally unexpected. Influencers are wired to surprise their followers by things they do or say.
Laughter – a good sense of humanity is a real superpower. Have you noticed that all those people who can attract large audiences have an awesome sense of humor? It may be slightly twisted but still social media influencers are almost often humorous in a very ironic and intellectual way.
Amusement – maintaining a positive experience. Influencers often try to live the lives that other people only dream about: they travel, go to restaurants, have amazing family relationships. They are capable of maintaining positive image and contaminating others with amusement.
Influencers are real people like you and me, that is why when customers interact with them they feel something genuine. And if these feeling is positive, they want to feel them more and more. Would you refuse from being entertained or amused?
5
Influencers deliver the message of the brand directly to the customers
There is no need to hire a copywriter who will spend nights and days trying to find the most appropriate tone of voice for your marketing campaign.
There is no need to print your message on T-shirts. Influencers will speak for your brand and they will deliver your message directly. More than that, they will speak the language your clients understand naturally – even if it’s the language with slang!
So influencer marketing campaign is basically your life–saving jacket in the stormy world of digital marketing. First of all, it builds trust between the brand and customers. Trust is one of the most valuable things in the modern world of marketing and influencers have it in abundance. More than that, influencers are real storytellers and humanity can’t live without stories.
The good thing is that influencers turn brands’ stories into personal stories organically and stimulate emotions. Social media influencers never leave their audience indifferent: they evoke awe, surprise, and amusement. Brand managers and digital marketers never have to worry about emotional attachment again if they find the right influencers.
