Bill gates said for a 21st century company or brand to keep thriving in coming years it needs to have an active online presence, in retrospect, he means that it must be able to reach a wide heterogeneous audience and should not be restricted by its proximity, bearing in mind that a form of awareness creation or publicity will be embarked on by the said brand.
There are two key words that need to be intricately discussed; the first is ‘influencer’ , an influencer can be said to be an individual that is prominent in a particular industry that has a form of sway over a brands target audience, in other words, an influencer is someone who has the power and dexterity to affect purchasing decisions of others as a result of his or status be it achieved or ascribed. It is pivotal to note that these set of individuals are social relationship assets with which certain brands use to fulfill marketing objectives.
The other key word is “marketing”, marketing can be excogitated to be the series of activities carried out by a company to stimulate the market (a potential buyer of a product)to carry out a form of action in form of purchase. According to the American marketing association (AMA), marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchange that satisfies individual and organizational goals.
In related light, influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing, involving endorsements and product placement from influencers, people and organizations that have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field. It is basically using prominent persons to drive ones brand message to a larger target audience instead of marketing directly to a large audience, you hire/pay influencers to get out the word for you, using their various social platforms.
With all these explained, it is pertinent to note that the influencers have a certain effect to bring about a number of purchases or a form of publicity/ awareness creation, if they didn’t have I doubt they’ll be awarded the title, influencer. Influencer marketing is germane for promotions of brands on different platforms, the more followers or prominence that the influencer has the better the promotion of the brand and the better the sales of goods and services.
The relevance of influencer marketing cannot be under emphasized as it includes amplified awareness: influencer marketing helps the company with brand exposure and boost brand awareness, when a particular influencer endorses or gives authentic testimonies about a product their followers tend to take cognizance. Most times using an influencer to create awareness for a product helps you cut through the noise and reach your target audience.
Identifying and targeting the right market for a product is very important component of marketing strategy, it can be a knotty and rigorous stage in planning, influencer marketing helps you to overcome the obstacle and hindrance of overly brainstorming as the influencers will get the work done for you, in retrospect, influencers help brands with precise targeting. Let’s say you run a food company, you can collaborate with food bloggers and models, this will give you access to their audience, making them interested in your products.
Influencer marketing tends to bring about an augmented credibility and trust; when an influencer shares candid feedback about your brand, service or product, it gives the brand a stronger and more credible reputation. Most times, influencers help you win the hearts of your target audience.
Influencer marketing helps to increase audience engagement, increasing the number of likes and comments on your social platforms should be classified under one of life’s struggles. In the absence of good engagements levels, having a million followers might yield little or no result. This is where influencer marketing can be of tremendous use.
The ultimate aim and objective of any brand or business is to drive sales and record profit. Influencers have the power and dexterity to publicize your product or services and this is because consumers trust the testimonies and recommendations made by their favorite influencers.
Every strong and known brand has at one point or another employed the repertoire of an influencer to bring about creation of awareness and publicity for that brand.