Despite its popularity, many business owners have not gotten on board. They keep asking ‘what is influencer marketing’ or ‘how can it be of any help” in their businesses. To millennials, this is a term that seems relatively new, but the concept is as old as the first days of advertising.

If you own a business but are not sure whether influencer marketing is for you, then read on to find out more.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing refers to a type of marketing that involves an influencer. An influencer is a celebrity with a massive following on social media platforms. They can spread or share brand messages to much wider audiences than what other forms of marketing can do.

Instead of marketing your services or products directly to a large group of potential consumers, you pay influencers to get the word out – on your behalf – to their followers.

Influencer marketing is a buzzword that even mainstream media refer to it from time to time. It goes hand-in-hand, in most cases, with 2 other types of marketing: content marketing and social media marketing.

The majority of influencer campaigns have a little bit of social-media element – when they share the information through their social channels – and a content component in which they create the content themselves or you create it for them.

Although content and social media marketing may fit into influencer campaigns, it must be mentioned that they are not synonymous with influencer marketing.

Why is influencer marketing important?

The economy has changed the way many people buy things nowadays. Up to 67 percent of marketers claim to have engaged in influencer marketing as part of their strategies to make sales. This number is likely to increase as social media influencers continue to gain more mainstream exposure.

Consumers are in charge of the buyer’s journey as they are getting a bit harder to reach via digital advertising. The following stats say it all:

• 62 percent of consumers do not trust brands as much as they should. (DoubleClick)
• Up to 56 percent of paid digital ad impressions are never seen. (Google).
• 40 percent of ad revenue are lost to ad-block by websites that target millennials. (President of IAB)

Conventional marketing is no longer as effective as it used to be as up to 66 percent of consumers are nearly always overwhelmed with too many marketing messages.

And as 20 percent of customers boycott brands due to excessive ads, smart brands combat this by utilizing influencer marketing. This is the only way to kick-start ongoing conversations with consumers as they are visibly influenced by different personalities and in different ways. These conversations drive commerce massively, thereby giving you accurate metrics that you can use.

Influencer marketing helps brands with overall performance

It can significantly boost your overall business performance, especially when used alongside email marketing. Many brands recognize it as the most cost-effective channel for acquiring targeted customers. And if your competitors are investing on it, you should definitely not underestimate it either.

Conclusion

The digital world is evolving every day. Many brands have started to recognize the effectiveness of influencer marketing when it comes to acquiring customers or its high ROI.

Website visits, social likes, shares, and even comments can be garnered and efficiently analyzed. These can be used as valuable insights into your ad performance.

If you have not started investing in this remarkable social media strategy, it is high time you started doing so.

Start with SKORR and become the influencer you always wanted to be! Download the new app now or learn more about how Skorr can help your company.