Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing involves partnering with individuals who have a large following on social media platforms to promote a brand or product. This strategy has become increasingly popular in recent years, as it allows businesses to reach new audiences and tap into the credibility and trust that influencers have built with their followers. Let’s find out more.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencers can be anyone and can be found anywhere. Their substantial online and social media followings are what give them influence. A brand works with an online influencer to promote one of its goods or services through influencer marketing. Some partnerships between brands and influencers are less concrete than that; they merely aim to raise brand awareness. There are significant people in every field; you just need to identify them.
The influencer marketing landscape
According to an online survey, Influencer marketing’s expansion was driven by the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, and it is anticipated that this trend will persist in 2023. Influencer marketing’s market size is projected to have increased from just R28.4 billion in 2016 to R162.25 billion in 2020 and then further to R273.3 billion in 2023.
Influencer marketing has grown so popular that businesses are constantly creating platforms to aid in the identification and discovery of influencers, and also to make the process clear and simple. There are currently numerous businesses that are dedicated to offering services in influencer marketing. Many traditional firms have expanded their range of services to include influencer marketing since they don’t want to lose business.
How to incorporate influencer marketing in a strategy
- The first step is picking the platform on which you want to concentrate first. Expanding to additional platforms is always an option, but if you are just getting started, stay with one. Your brand should ideally already be active on this platform or be planning to do so.
- Outline your goals. The two most popular goals of influencer marketing are to increase brand recognition and sales. But, it will be better to start your plan by focusing on what the brand requires. Maybe you want to attract more young people as customers or you want to introduce a new product to a new consumer base.
- Finding influencers that align with the brand. When considering whether a specific influencer will align with the brand and its values you should consider if they post about things that are similar to the brand, if they have strong support from their followers, and if they have experience with influencer marketing.
- Contacting potential influencers. If you want to work with a micro-influencer, you could send them a private message on their account offering a partnership. If you want to work with a more established influencer, you would likely find information on their profile which links you to their email address for business inquiries.
- You will need to set aside specific dates to evaluate the success of your strategy. Although not all strategies are successful, you should be able to learn from each one you make.
Having a marketing degree would be advantageous when creating a successful influencer marketing strategy
A marketing degree would provide students with the skills needed to identify and work with influencers, as well as develop and execute an influencer marketing campaign. If you are a prospective marketer looking to explore this field, you should apply for the Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) in Marketing and Management Science at the IMM Graduate School. This degree allows you to build a solid foundation of business and marketing skills as well as affording you the opportunity to develop focused skills where you have the choice to major in either Supply Chain Management, Project Management, or Sales Management.
The bottomline
Influencer marketing is one of the hottest marketing trends at the moment and will likely not die down any time soon. To take advantage of this trend, marketers should implement influencer marketing strategies into their campaigns and have the relevant degree behind their name to know how to do so.