Why Influencer Marketing is Taking Over

Marketing Under The Influence

There used to be a time, in social media’s infancy, that the value of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram was keeping in touch with friends. Now, social media is big business. A plethora of followers doesn’t just make a poster popular. It makes her an influencer. It makes her someone others aspire to follow and sometimes to emulate. And, when it comes to marketing, it makes her a reputable, easily-identifiable spokesperson ideally qualified to reach a very specific demographic. Influencer marketing is target marketing at its most effective.

Influencer Marketing: Some Interesting Statistics

Lest you be skeptical about the effectiveness of influencer marketing … lest you question whether teaming up with a YouTube vlogger or Insta-Celebrity can benefit your bottom line, consider the following compelling statistics.

• A survey of 14,000 U.S. millennials found that nearly 75% are influenced by recommendations from peers before they buy something (be it a product for their pet, electronics, a car, makeup, energy drink, etc.)
• The same survey found that 30% of millennials considered product recommendations made by non-celebrity bloggers to be more influential than product recommendations made by celebrities. Why? Social media influencers are far more relatable than celebrities with seven-figure incomes.
• Facebook and YouTube seem to be the platforms where most consumers’ purchasing decisions are influenced by social media influencers. Twitter is the least influential platform for this purpose.
• People between the ages of 13 and 24 are twice as likely to purchase products promoted by social media influencers with the highest number of followers. People ages 45 and over pay less attention to influencers’ follower counts and more attention to “household name” influencers. Moms are the demographic least inclined to care about social media influencer recommendations.

Effective, When Done Right

If you’re interested in incorporating social media influencer marketing into your marketing plan, that’s probably a smart idea – as long as you do your homework and know your customers and potential customers very well! Typically, it’s best to align with a select few influencers whose values align with your brand(s) and your customers’ values. Engage customers at the micro-level (the more specific the better!) And by all means, take a no-holds-barred approach to authentic, creative, fresh content that cuts through the noise of all the rest of the content on the Internet.

Are you in? Do you feel like you’re in, but doing it yourself would be jumping in over your head? Don’t sweat it. Hire It Crowd Marketing. Launching influencer marketing campaigns (actually launching marketing campaigns of all kinds) is in our wheel house. Check us out!