Rise of Influencer marketing: The benefits and pitfalls

Influencer marketing is one of the most upcoming social media marketing strategies that have a great connection with the youth. One of the best ways in which influencer marketing helps businesses is concerned with the factor of trust. Influencers usually are individuals having a dedicated social following who are viewed as the experts in their niche area of expertise. Their followers trust their recommendations blindly and often choose products and services based on their recommendations. Due to the emergence of social media, different niches have been created for influencers across various interests such as beauty, travelling, food, technology, health and wellness and several others. For most direct-to-consumer businesses, influencers are the first choice when it comes to promoting a brand.

Influencer marketing 101

(Source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/make-influencer-marketing-work/)

The emergence of influencer marketing has provided significant benefits to businesses in the last few years. The most important benefit of influencer marketing is enhanced brand awareness along with increased reach. This also helps in building credibility and trust among the customers. One of the most interesting contributions of influencer marketing is concerned with the content strategy of the business. Influencer marketing adds up to ensure the content strategy of direct-to-consumer brands. Hence, enrichment of content strategy is witnessed in this case. The impressive reach of the influencers to motivate and influence the customers' surprises companies significantly as this marketing also drives purchase decisions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, brick-and-mortar retail stores closed down and the physical events were also suspended. During this time, influencers helped businesses to reach the customers to communicate about their new products or service strategies.

Benefits of influencer marketing

(Source: https://smallbiztrends.com/2018/02/influence-marketing-for-hotels.html)

Even if it seems that influencer marketing only has a positive impact on the brands and the customers, it is important to understand the pitfalls associated with influencer marketing. A critical issue in this concern is finding the right influencer. Having a partnership with the wrong influencers does more harm than good for the brand as the reputation of the brand can be at risk. Moreover, a lack of transparency often arises in the relationship between brands and influencers. Brands intentionally hiding relevant information regarding a product from potential buyers does not benefit anyone. It usually hurts the public image of the brand and the reputation of the influencers. Furthermore, negative sentiment can be achieved by a product which is not desired by any brands. When influencers promote the products or services of a brand, the audiences are free to mention the positives and negatives related to the experience. Hence, brands can be wary about opening up the opportunity for inviting both praise and criticism from the consumers.

The problems with influencer marketing

(Source: https://medium.com/@esocmediatips/top-4-problems-in-influencer-marketing-how-to-solve-them-78758494f35d)

To summarise, it can be understood that the unique benefits provided by influencer marketing make all the difference in the marketing strategy of a brand. Responsible influencer marketing is the need of the hour for every business. In contrast, the effort from the front of the brands needs to be earnest, honest and authentic towards partnering with an influencer to ensure that favourable results are achieved through marketing. This will also lead to attracting potential customers and also help the influence to grow their reach. 

You can find out more about this in the video below.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=popowMuKyjY - How To Use Influencer Marketing To Grow Your Business (Strategies & Examples) )

UNDERSTANDING THE BASICS OF SOCIAL MEDIAL MARKETING

 

Social media marketing is being deemed the most powerful revolution in the field of marketing. This fast-growing marketing technique is a form of digital marketing that leverages the power of popular social media networks for achieving marketing and branding goals. Social media marketing is allowing marketers across the world to connect and engage with potential customers. With its inception in the marketing world, social media marketing has created a rage by making the customers closer to the businesses. During the pandemic also, businesses have been able to increase engagement and built a strong online brand community when the business was still in hibernation. Through the social media channels, new dimensions of services became easier to communicate in responding to the changing environment. For example, businesses started online delivery of products and services, and communicating these new services was easy for marketers due to social media.

It is imperative to consider that social media marketing is used in different forms for various businesses. Influencer marketing is a great way of using social media marketing. Through the use of influencer marketing, brands are able to achieve high brand growth by reinforcing the reputation of the brand. Influencers promote the brands on social media which helps in providing major credibility. Content marketing is also a popular form of social media marketing. Through content marketing, users are attracted, engaged, and retained by the creation of relevant articles, videos, and podcasts. Content marketing is conducive to gaining the brand drive as cohesive brand messaging is actualized. The brand identity is also driven through content marketing. In contrast, advertising is one of the main ways of engaging in social media marketing. Businesses across the world are utilizing the power of social media advertising to serve the users on social media platforms. Through this service, it becomes easier for businesses to interact with their customers. This, in turn, contributes to the popularity of the brand on social media resulting in a high level of brand growth.

In the brand growth of businesses in the present era, user-generated content has a significant contribution. The use of user-generated content boosts the social media reach of the brand which adds to the growth. Furthermore, businesses are able to gain the audience insights about a particular product, service, or even campaign. This guides the next decisions to be made by the businesses. Furthermore, viral marketing is utilized by brands to use existing social media networks for promoting a product. Porting viral content in the form of media, video or message is the aim of the business which instantly becomes popular. A major brand drive is achieved as with viral marketing, businesses become able to attract thousands or more customers quickly.

To conclude, social media marketing has become a panacea for the majority of businesses across the world. Businesses embarking on the journey of becoming a brand need to address the need for marketing on social media platforms. The execution of the social media campaigning makes all the differences in the experience of the end-users and decides the fate of the brand. This mainly decides whether businesses have become able to attract customers or not.