Why every brand should use influencer marketing in 2024
Social media influencer marketing works. As a relatively new channel, the world borne witness to a lot of public trial and error. As companies were figuring out how to make this channel work, they made mistakes - and we paid attention so you didn't have to!
In today's digitally-first world, social media reigns supreme and consumer trust is paramount. Influencer marketing is not just a passing trend. Having an influencer marketing strategy is incredibly important for brands looking to connect authentically with current and prospective customers.
Continue reading to discover why and how to integrate influencer marketing into an omni-channel marketing strategy.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is when brands collaborate with individuals on social media platforms to promote products, services, or events. These individuals, known as influencers, leverage their credibility to endorse brands and drive engagement and sales.
Their influence can be within a community, region, in a specific niche, or a mainstream celebrity. Examples include a local influencer in Madison, a regional influencer in the midwest, a parenting influencer, and Candice Parker from the WNBA.
At its core, influencer marketing is a word of mouth strategy with a one-to-many relationship. Like all word of mouth marketing, it’s successful because of trust between the communicator and recipient.
Why are influencers so popular?
Since the dawn of time there have been celebrities. But, instead of waiting to get cast for something, there’s very little barrier to entry in the influencer world. You can talk about what’s interesting to you, and if it resonates, build an entire community around it
The popularity of influencers stems from their ability to build genuine connections with their followers. Unlike traditional celebrities, influencers often share more relatable and authentic content, making them more influential and trustworthy in the eyes of their audience. And according to recent research by Harvard Business Review, the smaller the influencer, the better for your marketing efforts (and your budget).
Additionally, as social media platforms continue to evolve, influencers have become key players in shaping trends and consumer behavior.
How influencers elevate marketing strategies
Influencers play a pivotal role in elevating marketing strategies in several ways. We'll discuss how they can increase awareness, create testimonials, give your brand a library of UGC, and generate sales.
Increase awareness
Influencers have the power to significantly increase brand awareness by exposing your products or services to their engaged audience. For example, someone trying to increase traffic to their restaurant partnering with a local foodie influencer will increase awareness by reaching that influencer’s followers. Bonus here is that their followers already trust them and are looking for new food places to try.
And don’t count out those creators with smaller follower counts. Hiring multiple influencers versus one large celebrity partnership is an emerging trend for 2024 and beyond.
According to the Influencer Marketing Hub’s report, “In a reverse of the “size matters” maxim, 70% of marketers prefer using “nano” influencers (between 1,000–10,000 social media followers) or “micro” ones (10,000 to 100,000 followers) rather than larger scale influencers and celebrities.”
When an influencer authentically promotes a product or service, it resonates with their audience, resulting in increased trust and likelihood of conversion. Searching your own hashtags can be a great way to find influencers who may already be sweet on your brand.
Generate authentic testimonials
Influencer marketing provides brands with a platform to generate authentic testimonials and user-generated content (UGC). By partnering with influencers who genuinely enjoy and endorse their products, brands can leverage the influencer's content as valuable social proof.
Nano and local influencers, in particular, excel at creating authentic testimonials that resonate with their audience on a personal level. For example, when a local influencer shares their experience dining at a local restaurant, it can spark interest and drive foot traffic from their followers who also live in that region.
Library of UGC to use
User Generated Content is King in 2024.
When you work with influencers of any size, part of the benefits is the ability to repackage and share this across channels. You can turn them into Meta ads, share them to your email list, and feature them on your website. Stretching your influencer marketing dollars and getting that credibility bump that authentic creators provide is a no-brainer.
New customers and sales
Ultimately, the goal of most influencer marketing is to increase sales. Whether you are driving online sales or offline behavior (going to a store to make the purchase), your campaigns should be results driven.
Finding the right influencer for your business before starting is key to make sure that you get the results you’re looking for. I've seen multiple influencer campaigns outperform other marketing channels in successfully driving offline behavior. If you haven't tried it yet, now is the time!
Start working with influencers
When I first started working with influencer marketing nearly a decade ago, there weren’t many agencies or platforms. It was all done manually through traditional PR firms or DIY. I took the DIY approach, which can be effective but time consuming.
In 2024 you have more options on how to work with influencers, here are 3 of those ways:
DIY: Take influencer collaborations in-house by reaching out to influencers directly and negotiating partnerships.
Platform: Utilize influencer marketing platforms that connect brands with influencers. It streamlines the collaboration process and provides access to a diverse pool of influencers you can tap into.
Agency: Partner with an influencer marketing agency to handle the entire process.
Starting with DIY can be a great way to test the waters, but if you don’t get the results you were looking for - don’t count out influencer marketing as a channel. Just like with legacy marketing channels, it can take a while to get it right. If you’d like to increase your chances of success - check out this guide to local influencer marketing.
In 2024, the question isn’t “should I invest in influencer marketing” it’s, how much time, money, or resources should we dedicate to this channel.
Additional influencer marketing resources:
More about the author: Andrea Mills is a brand strategist, media relations professional, and former celebrity stylist. She first saw the true power of working with Influencers in 2015 to promote her brick + mortar boutique. She loves Hummingbirds’ approach to influencer marketing, which helps keep more dollars in communities.
