Influencer Marketing: How to Leverage It for Traffic and Conversions
There’s all sorts of strategies that digital marketers use to create awareness in the minds of new brand consumers.
In the past, they used traditional marketing avenues such as print and radio advertising. While these strategies are still in play, marketers have definitely added an array of digital marketing strategies to the mix. These include targeted and re-targeted online ads, social media communities and posts, blog posts, streaming videos, and more.
Commonly, many of these tactics fall under the digital marketing umbrella known as content marketing. And while content marketing works well for a lot of reasons, here’s a challenge that marketing teams around the world face:
How will anyone find this content?
On the one hand, producing content without a large audience to consume it is fine because SEO and PPC will largely take care of getting eyeballs (or ears) on the content. But on the other hand, there’s no guarantee that anyone will care enough to read or listen to the content.
But consumers are willing to consume content when it’s either produced or promoted by someone they trust. And that’s why influencers are key.
Who are influencer marketers?
In digital marketing terms, influencers are the people who have an influence on site visitors and potential consumers. But don’t let the fancy title fool you-digital marketing influencers aren’t usually comprised of C-level executives, or even, company founders.
The group isn’t even comprised of the names you read about in the newspapers, or the names you’d recognize on the inspiration speaking/book publishing circuit. Influencers are regular Joes and Janes who have figured out how to brand themselves while creating a tribal community of followers of the brand.
What’s their angle?
The goal of digital marketing influencers come down to this: They want to generate revenue by promoting the products and the services that they love.
They do this by creating branded blogs, and streaming video channels. In order to promote this type of content, the influencers will usually created branded social media accounts-these accounts serve as marketing pipelines and sales funnels.
Keep in mind that while all influencers want to generate revenue, most of them are ethical and brand-savvy. They won’t promote a product unless they love it and believe in it. They honestly care about the well-being and happiness of their followers, and they won’t tarnish their hard-earned brand simply out of greed.
Since influencers hold the keys, you have to earn their trust in order to access their followers. Brands should build strong relationships with properly identified influencers. Just as there are no quick wins with SEO, effective influencer marketing takes time.
Once a brand has built a long-term relationship with an individual who shares a target audience, that person can either be engaged to participate in an existing digital marketing campaign or a unique one. And there is a paid, owned and earned model for engaging with influencers.
Regardless of how you interact with your influencers, always ensure that you are able to measure their activity through to engagement with your website, and ultimately, to sales.
Why is targeting influencers a better use of your resources?
Targeting influencers to market your products or services is akin to shopping inside of an already well-stocked pantry instead of rushing off to the grocery store. Sure, you’ll find the items you need at the grocery store, but why waste your time and resources?
Digital marketers can certainly go it on their own, creating keyword groupings, organic campaigns for content, and paid ad campaigns, too. They can pelt social media followers with ad messages, but a better use of their time would be to approach influencers who already have the attention of the digital marketer’s target audience.
Business.com notes:
If your relationship with an influencer is genuine, there’s a huge chance they’re going to genuinely become fans of your product. This means that they’re going to spread the word among their own followers. The Tomoson report also showed that 40 percent of marketers use influencer marketing to help with brand exposure.
Influencers allow marketers to overcome a plethora of barriers, including:
- Trust
- Authority
- Quality control
- Affordability
- Exclusivity
- User Experience
…and more.
Are they right for your brand?
Keep in mind that just because an influencer marketer receives a lot of attention, this doesn’t mean that they are a good fit for your brand.
Make sure to observe the influencer. What is the demographic and the buyer persona of their audience? How does they present themselves within their content? How high (or low) is the quality of the content that they’re producing? How do their followers respond to them in the comments section of their content?
When executed correctly, forming these type of relationships is a win-win for all parties involved.
Terri Scott
Terri is a content marketing storyteller and strategist. She teaches marketing and entrepreneurship through stories for marketers of all stripes. Her specialty is creating narrative and she writes essays and memoir in her spare time.
