The e-commerce industry today, is heavily thriving on influencer marketing to achieve their respective brand objectives. A popular form of social media marketing; several businesses these days use the approach to promote their products and services, partnering with content creators and bloggers for better sales, generation of leads and increasing brand awareness.
With a strong presence on social media and a diverse body of work, influencers have their unique way of promoting a brand or introducing a new product, which strongly resonates with the general public. Their honest reviews about products, help shape a follower’s opinion based on which they make their purchasing decisions.
In a 2019 report by influencer marketing agency, ‘Mediakix’, 80 percent of marketers strongly believe in influencer marketing, with approximately two-thirds of them raising marketing budgets of their business to accommodate this approach.
Social media has become an increasingly impactful tool, with users making several decisions based on what they witness on its various platforms. Gone are the days when people would be enticed by a simple advertisement and purchase a given product. Influencers not only display a product but provide a detailed review for users to better understanding the item they’re looking for. Their reviews not only help users make informed choices, but also help brands work on their feedback and further enhance their products and services.
E-commerce retailers have the added advantage of being able to design their website to make it as engaging as possible. Customers are looking for more appealing ways to learn more about a product and often find video content effective to meet this demand. With approximately 78 percent of people watching video online on a weekly basis, influence marketing campaigns can be designed according to cater to these requirements.
Prior to reaching out to any influencer it is extremely essential to understand the type of engagement your business is looking for. Businesses can approach either macro-influencers; with social media followers of typically 100,000 or more for massive reach. Otherwise, marketers can opt for micro-influencers with a compact audience of significantly lesser than 100,000 followers. A systematic analysis of your target audience helps in curating the desired brand message; subsequently making it easier to choose an influencer deemed fit to promote that message on various social media platforms.
The return on investment (ROI) is generally high on influencer generated content, especially considering their strong understanding of the target audience, with content strategies designed to reflect these requirements.
Influencer marketing campaign strongly reflect the goals and objectives of your business. Followers can be measured based on engagement, site traffic, follows, clicks, shares, comments and referrals among several other criteria.
In a nutshell, brands opting to go the influencer marketing route would be opting for a very unique approach of convening their brand message. Finding an influencer who can best represent your brand will definitely help in strengthening your online presence and drive more traffic to discovering your brand.
Opinion by Mauro Romano, CEO and Co-Founder of ArabClicks