More and more brands, from the biggest ones like Nike and Gucci, to less famous companies, are using influencer marketing as a regular means to attract consumers. It won’t take you long to guess the main reason — the huge impact the influencers have on their many followers.

And yes, it can bring you results. Here are some ways you can use influencer marketing to help your branding.

Followers trust the influencer’s advice

Word-of-mouth has been an effective marketing strategy for ages. And influencer marketing is a digital form of traditional word-of-mouth. However, because the entire activity happens in a digital realm, you can measure audience response accurately using indicators such as the number of likes, shares, etc.

Influencers, by nature, have large numbers of loyal and dedicated social media followers. These followers perceive them as experts in their niches and regard their recommendations highly. 

Unlike traditional celebrities, influencers enjoy a strong rapport with their fans. This makes influencer marketing highly effective for creating brand awareness and achieving other marketing goals. 

Influencers create engaging content for their followers

Influencers have amassed huge follower base because those followers find their content useful and/or entertaining. They understand their followers and know what kind of content they want to consume. So they create content that resonates with their audience and helps them establish a sense of bonding and trust.

Therefore, the best way to create content for brand promotion when working with an influencer is to let the influencers have creative freedom. Your marketing team can look at the content quality and relevance to ensure that it matches your brand value before it goes live; but if you’ve chosen to work with an influencer, you should already feel confident that they accurately represent your brand. You might know your product or service, but they know their followers.

Influencers are trendsetters

Influencers are go-to sources of information as it pertains to new products within their industry (beauty, fashion, tech, fitness, gaming etc.). Influencers’ followers deeply respect and often times even idolize their opinions within their categories of expertise. This is what makes influencer marketing so powerful.

Often times influencers are also given exclusive access to new products before they are even on the market and available to the general public. This provides ample opportunity for a brand to partner with an influencer and build a campaign around the influencers review of a hot, new product that they have exclusive access to, and in turn, potentially place your brand in the spotlight of a fresh and emerging trend around your product.

Influencer marketing does not appear pushy

One of the main reasons why influencer marketing is more effective in influencing purchases is because it isn’t pushy. The followers of an influencer have willingly chosen to receive content from them. So when you send across your message to them via an influencer, it does not come across as a push for a sale.

Influencer referral programs

Referral programs are one of the best strategies to can measure the ROI from your campaigns. According to a study conducted by Twitter, there was a whopping 88% increase in the purchase intent of consumers when the products were promoted by a trusted influencer. 

The easiest and most effective referral program strategy is to share a promo code that is unique to each influencer. The influencers can then share the promo codes with their audiences through their content. When the influencer shares the promotional link and discount codes exclusive to their followers, it draws their attention and inspires them to visit the link or use the code. 

Influencer marketing can be cost-effective

Influencer marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. Unless you’re keen only to work with celebrities, of course. However, the problem with celebrities is that their audiences are more generic. So your chances of conversion are very very less even though your message might reach millions.

Instead, micro-influencers can give you a better bang for your buck. Their followers are much lesser than that of celebrities and hence more engaged and focused.