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47.4 billion and 66 billion USD, respectively, businesses need to use social media in order to be relevant.
To establish a lasting impression on customers, businesses must actively utilize social media channels, particularly the influencer market, to increase brand awareness and customer engagement.
Types of marketing on social media
Businesses often have two options for marketing their goods and services. They can use their own handle. We call this content marketing. This type of marketing builds exposure and interaction based on the quality of the content and product/service.
The other method involves a person with influence or simply known as an "influencer”, endorsing the product to their audience. We call this influencer marketing. It is more direct than celebrity endorsements in terms of increasing awareness and audience engagement, resulting in a personalized recommendation for the audience/users.
Content and Influencer Marketing
Who do we call an influencer?
According to Veirman, influencers are persons who have amassed a sizable following and are recognized as reliable tastemakers in one or more niches. Accordingly, the main definition of an influencer is a person whose word or advice is valued by a group of others.
There are characteristics of an influencer like credibility, leadership in opinion, and physical appeal. The acceptability of an influencer's brand endorsement is determined by those factors. As their customers view them in familiar settings, their marketing push feels more like a suggestion from a friend rather than an endorsement, which makes them unparalleled in their capacity to connect with the audience.
The growing influencer market
Since 2019, influencer marketing has grown at an exponential rate. In 2023, the worldwide influencer market is expected to reach a record high of 21.1 billion USD. Influencer marketing is currently the primary strategy used by 25% of the market to promote their business. Influencer marketing is akin to celebrity endorsements in the modern era. Celebrity endorsements were successful because a large portion of their target audience aspired to be like their idolized starts.
Nowadays, it's difficult to distinguish between influencers and celebrities. According to reports, 69% of social media users believe the advice given by their favorite artists and influencers. This gives an opportunity for the businesses to make use of the customers who are ready to engage with a product/service, if only it comes from a specific voice that caters to them.
How to use social media marketing
On Instagram, there are 2 billion active users each month. Getting their attention is the difficult part; they are all potential customers.
These days, a company must use influencer and content marketing. Even while influencer marketing performs far better statistically than content marketing, it is still crucial for developing a brand's reputation. To give a more thorough description of how:
- An influencer promotes brand ‘X’ on their platform to their users.
- This prompts some of those users to view the said brand and product.
- This is where the product’s content marketing comes into play. Depending on how good the product is, how well is the content showcasing the product.
- The merits of both these aspects will determine for the user if the product is worth their purchase or not.
Marketing through social media requires businesses to build a symbiotic relationship between their brand content and how their content reaches their audience. Hence, influencer endorsement bridges the gap between the two. Businesses should identify the following to use these strategies effectively:
- Who is their target audience?
- Who are their favored creators?
- Do these creators have good outreach?
- Is their brand content catering to the target audience?
If a business can positively answer the above four questions, then they will be able to replicate the following success stories.
Success stories in influencer marketing:
- Iceland Foods- This frozen food brand faced the challenging task of creating an enticing frozen meal experience. By collaborating with fifty smaller influencers to demonstrate how these similar meals can be incorporated into the lives of diverse people, Iceland meals was able to achieve retention rates of 55% on Facebook and 59% on Youtube. To capitalize on this popularity and promote their own material, they launched the "Power of Frozen" campaign.
- Dyson-The electronics company Dyson realized that the main market for their Air Ball Vacuum product was pet parents. However, few others were aware of the same. In response, Dyson collaborated with five pet-owning influencers and gave them free rein to use their own originality to promote the product. This was quite successful because the target demographic connected with the material, which resulted in an average of one million interactions with the product page and a 10% increase in user engagement overall.
If your business needs help with marketing your products or services, look no further. Contact Marketing Eye today to have our dedicated team assist you in your success story.
