Ten to twenty years ago, the influencer marketing field was primarily limited to celebrities and a few elite bloggers. However, in 2020, influencers are everywhere. In some markets, they are over-saturated.
As social media has infiltrated every aspect of our lives, influencer marketing has exploded. It is quite common for ordinary people to turn to their favorite Instagram models, Twitter personalities, and YouTube stars for recommendations on purchasing decisions.
Since these influencers are trusted by millions of consumers, over 85% of marketers now use influencer marketing in their business, and budgets for influencer marketing are increasing year by b year
What exactly is influencer marketing?
First, to understand influencer marketing, you must understand who an influencer is. Basically, an “influencer” is a person who has a dedicated social following and who may be considered an expert within their niche. Essentially, influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing that utilizes product mentions and endorsements from influencers to grow their market reach and business. Influencer marketing is primarily successful because of trust. Specifically, most influencers have built a high amount of trust amongst their followers.
Influencers can be categorized into two categories, reach and niche.
Reach. As a general rule, marketers may reach out to influencers based upon their targeted reach and engagement. For example, a beauty influencer who over 20K followers and has authentic engagement amongst her followers may be a good candidate for a cosmetic brand.
Niche. Brands can leverage relevant niche influencers to certain audiences or ideal customers. For example, a cosmetic brand may reach out to women of color beauty influencers to promote their new culturally diverse foundation line.
The Value of Influencer Marketing
If you’ve done some research about influencer marketing before, you may have found conflicting information, or you may not entirely understand the field and its value. In short, influencer marketing addresses the primary flaw of traditional advertising. First, with traditional advertising, you don’t see a direct return on investment. Additionally, most traditional forms of traditional advertising it’s not targeted to the right audience. In any event, trust is why influencer marketing is highly effective. Essentially, your audience doesn’t trust shiny logos or flashy commercials. They trust people.
Moreover, it should also be noted that over 86% of women use social media for purchasing advice and recommendations. This is important for any brand whose primary target audience or ideal customers are women. In general, if you want to reach more women and influence them to buy your products, you need to have a solid social media presence.
The Current State of Influencer Marketing in 2020
Despite the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the influencer marketing industry is on track to be worth close to $15 billion by 2022.
While every social platform attracts influencers to a certain extinct, but Instagram is the most well-known platform for influencers. Almost 80% of brands look to Instagram for influencer campaigns, followed by Facebook.
Organic influencer marketing can be a somewhat tedious process, particularly when it comes to finding and securing the right influencers to promote your company’s products or services. As such, it’s not surprising that the industry has attracted support companies and apps to simplify the process for brands and influencers alike.
Overall, this billion-dollar industry is not going anywhere anytime soon.
