Influencer Marketing & Its Importance for Strong Branding

With the continued rise of digital marketing and popularity of various social platforms, influencer marketing plays a prominent role in how businesses can further connect with their customers. Businesses should utilize influencer marketing to help add another dimension to their marketing campaigns and brand overall. In this article, we will explore in greater detail what exactly influencer marketing and branding are and how influencer marketing can play a significant role in brand building efforts.

Brands:

The idea of a brand has evolved from something more tangible, such as a logo helping consumers identify a certain product from another, to now encompassing the entire user experience with a specific product or service. This definition has expanded to include intangible concepts such as reputation and value expectations. Branding is important for several reasons which we will explore in more depth later on in this article. Most importantly, brands are essential for constructing marketing programs.

Influencers:

To fully understand what influencer marketing is, it’s critical to first develop a solid understanding of who influencers are. While not necessarily defined by the amount of followers they maintain, Influencer Marketing Hub defines “[a]n influencer is someone who has:

• the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of his or her authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with his or her audience.
• a following in a distinct niche, with whom he or she actively engages. The size of the following depends on the size of his/her topic of the niche.”

Influencer Marketing:

Now knowing exactly who an influencer is, we can begin to understand what influencer marketing entails. Sprout Social describes influencer marketing as “a type of social media marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from influencers…Influencer marketing works because of the high amount of trust that influencers have built up with their following, and recommendations from them serve as a form of social proof to your brand’s potential customers.”

In other words, influencer marketing entails companies utilizing an influencer’s “influence” in the consumer decision making process with an already established audience in order to promote their own products or services. Influencer marketing approaches promotional campaigns in both a unique and highly collaborative way, which is why it’s becoming an increasingly popular strategy for marketers.

Influencer Marketing In Today’s Landscape

Influencer marketing isn’t limited solely to celebrity endorsements, which were popularly used in traditional marketing campaigns. It works well because consumers tend to trust the influencers they follow, especially those “micro”-influencers who don’t have as hefty of a following compared to celebrities who may be seen as promoting certain items inauthentically. Influencer marketing serves as a glorified version of electronic word of mouth, to put it simply.

Using influencers in marketing campaigns became more and more prominent with the rise of YouTube, where ordinary users made a name for themselves while sharing their hobbies and talents with others. I explored this topic more in a previous post relating YouTube and influencers, which I’ll have included here if you want to go back and read it. I quickly wanted to re-explore one of my favorite instances of influencer and brand relationships, in order to provide the best understanding of this trend.

Bethany Mota is a beauty, fashion, and lifestyle vlogger who found fame early on from YouTube and who has grown with the platform ever since. Growing up watching her videos, I have always been intrigued by how she grew her empire essentially from the ground up. As she became more and more popular, relevant companies began to partner with her in order to be featured in her videos and tap into a new audience. For instance, if Neutrogena sponsored one of her makeup tutorial videos as long as she used their products, Mota’s fans were likely to run out and purchase these items to achieve her same makeup look.

Now:

• 70% of teens trust influencers over celebrities
• 67% of marketing & communications professionals choose influencers for content promotion

Why Is Strong Branding So Important?

Before diving into how exactly influencer marketing campaigns help to strengthen brands, let’s quickly break down why branding is important. As mentioned previously, marketing strategies cannot be built without having an established brand. Moreover, strong branding results in many rewards for a growing company.

TRUST: One element of branding is a brand’s promise, which helps create an expectation of benefit for customers. When branding is consistent and when customer expectations are consistently met, trust is built and strengthened. Companies must make sure not to lose a customer’s trust, as consumers are not as likely to give second chances.

BRAND LOYALTY: When trust is built between a brand and consumer and a relationship is formed, a company should continuously work to increase brand loyalty. The ultimate goal of a company should be to build a loyal customer base who will go out of their way to purchase the brand they trust. Companies want loyal customers who will not be easily claimed by other competitors.

TOP OF MIND AWARENESS: Strong branding also helps to increase brand awareness and thus top of mind awareness for shoppers. Popular brands with large followings are likely to be more well known than other competitors and thus will likely be considered first in the consumer decision process.

How Influencer Marketing Campaigns Strengthen Brands

Let’s revisit this idea of influencer marketing as a type of eWOM marketing. This is critical. Especially since word of mouth is one of the most effective marketing tools. Just as individuals are more likely to trust product recommendations from their friends or family, people are also likely to trust recommendations from their favorite influencers, or their online friends.

Partnerships with influencers also help to develop a brand’s personality as an element of successful branding. With an already established element of trust between the influencer and their followers, this trust can translate well to brand loyalty with authentic and relevant collaborations. In my next article, I will continue addressing how to develop an influencer marketing campaign, including how to find the right influencers to represent your brand.

Influencer marketing also serves as a way for brands to generate additional branded content. It serves as another form of user-generated content, but is typically more professional. However, influencer marketing could even include brand rep programs, which I’ve also covered in a previous article. This is another great way to rally a community of brand loyal customers while also collecting great amounts of user-generated content.

Influencer marketing has already and will continue to take the business world by storm. Hopping along on the bandwagon will present many benefits for your brand, including strengthening your brand and increasing brand loyalty. Ultimately, partnering with influencers in your company’s promotional strategies will help drive increased brand recognition and sales.

I hope this article was of value for you. If you learned anything new, I’d love for you to give it a like and follow along for next week’s post about where to begin with your influencer marketing campaign. Make sure to stay tuned for more posts regarding social media and digital marketing!