Have you broadened your research to know what is the latest in marketing tactics? Then you are in the right place, as here you are going to find something amazing. Yes, we are talking about marketing, which is more than just influencing your customers with your brand.
By enhancing the engagement, credibility, brand recognition, and ROIs (return on investment), you can jump into the competitions with influencer marketing. It is a powerful weapon, which will strengthen your brand’s growth. Do not bother yourself along with tangling thoughts.
All you need is to approach the right influencer for marketing as many of them have online following for specific niche. Without any objection, their followers trust their expertise and way of delivering convincing content. That is how they impact their followers to make their mind for purchasing your products/ services.
According to a study:
“Approximately 86% of the advertisers use influencer networks to empower their marketing campaigns while 57% states that it enriches the performance of brand-created content.”
Why is it the Need of the Time?
In the past, you have experienced how brands were working with testimonials and personal endorsements. Undoubtedly, they were not easy to handle as they lead your brand towards inauthenticity and low credibility. So, it is your digital marketing which will assist you in direct and indirect communication with your end users.
On the contrary, influencer networks are one of the strong mediums in online marketing to generate positive customer reviews for your brand. It is so, the people who are following the influencers already show trust in their words. So, when they review your product professionally and passionately, the end users are more likely to approach you for purchasing.
You might be investing in content marketing already, but collaborating with influencer marketing for small business can be a plus point for your brand. Picture it in your mind, how amazingly your brand can engender higher ROIs when your audience will willingly approach you.
Impacts of Influencer Marketing on Your Small Business
Let us start with this saying of Tara — Nicholle Nelson: “You cannot buy engagement. You have to build engagement.” Influencer marketing is not only a need of the time but also significant for engaging people with your brand. Or it is not wrong to say that it is a terrific marketing tactic.
With time, influencer marketing is evolving in many perspectives. Thence, these changes will affect your business accordingly. If you want to dive deeper into knowing its impacts on your business, then let us kick things off.
Brands Awareness
In the present time, recognition matters the most for running the online businesses. As Scott Cook has shared this amazing concept with businesspersons:
“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.”
Without any doubt, it can happen along with influencer marketing.
When you recruit influencers, they help you in enhancing your brand’s visibility with their strong following community on social media. It is so, their followers already trust them so when they promote your products/ services, they are more likely to get engaged to your brand.
Maximise the Transparency
It is obvious that everything can never show positive aspects all the time, they do have negative impressions too. Similarly, where people are using influencer marketing for a mesmerising reputation, there are many deceptive practices performed by fake people. It is the point which ensures the need for transparency to win the trust of end users.
In the influencer industry, customers ask for authenticity of the brand, products, or services from the influencers. To fill this gap, it is mandatory for the online businesses to ensure that they are doing legitimate partnerships with the influences.
Boost the SEO & ROI (return on investment)
Whether it is directly or indirectly, it is the influencer marketing which can impact your brand’s SEO and ROI. First, let us tell you about how it boosts the search engine optimisation for your brand. We are both familiar with Google’s ranking criteria.
Linking plays a significant role in the ranking then why not adapt it? So, if you enlist the influencer marketing into your digital marketing tactics then you can approach the wider range of audience. Which means you are intimating the more chances of building the backlinks.
You can say that it does not impact the Google ranking, but it can boost the SEO by assisting in brand awareness and driving the organic traffic to your website. On the other hand, influencer marketing for small business can enhance your businesses ROI and profits. For more precision, we have brought a study for you, put a glimpse at it.
Mediakix have unleashed a study in 2019:
“Nearly 50% of the marketers said that influencer marketing generates the ROI more than any other marketing platform. While 41% have claimed that it generates the ROI equivalent to other platforms.”
Strengthens Knots with Social Media Platforms
Social media marketing is the ocean which is deeper than your expectations. How strongly it can stand or drown your brand, you cannot even do an estimation of it. If we talk specifically. Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook are becoming great sources of getting the attention of the people. On the contrary, when it comes to influencer marketing, you ought to divert your attention to Instagram and TikTok influencer marketing.
There is a survey held in 2022. According to this survey:
“80% of brands stated that they use Instagram for influencer marketing.”
On the other hand, the same survey was held in 2023 for knowing the TikTok popularity in influencer marketing. It was recorded that “56% of the brands use TikTok in their influencer marketing campaigns.”
Challenges in Influencer Marketing for Small Business
We know that perfection does not exist but at least we can put our efforts into achieving the best possible ranks. In businesses, “The goal is progress not perfection.” Right? Today many brands are getting benefits from influencer marketing and even generating higher ROIs. At the same time, this marketing has brought many risks. It does not mean that you should divert your routes towards other tactics and leave behind this marketing.
Remember that: “Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.” Undoubtedly, the large organisations could use influencer marketing to certify their trust among end users. But they might not be good at recommending the paid influencers. On the contrary, the smaller brands might face some distinct challenges to overwhelm the market with their recognition.
Apparently, it is time to commence our journey of discovery about influencer marketing challenges. Let us tell you three major challenges:
Shortcomings in Campaign Execution
If you are not compromising on the quality, then why not take note of the shortcomings in your influencer campaign execution. We are saying this because many influencers do not provide satisfying work when it comes to content creation. Undoubtedly, it is a terrifying risk for your brands on social media.
As it will affect your brand’s reputation but also count as a wastage of time and money if they fail to approach the ideal audience. Pay heed to your marketing happenings, avoid investing for the influencers who lack in delivering your brand’s core message to your end users at the right platform.
Understand Beyond Follower Count
Marketing is never as easy as you think. It takes time and effort to add value to your business. Specifically, when it is about convincing your audience to buy your products, it becomes more complex to handle. As a businessperson, you might also follow this persona that more followers can lead to more sales. But you cannot say, it is true all the time.
Because if not done precisely, it can distort the bridge of communication between your brand and audience. Do you know what it signifies here? Without a hitch, it is showing the way of losing the engagement of your brand in the market.
As long as you are confronting this problem, you need to approach the influencers who can influence the people by their words and deliver the righteous message to the targeted audience for setting the brand image.
Addressing the Dilemma of Fake Influencers
One of the biggest issues is recognising the fake influencers. As fake influencers are everywhere on social media who are doing frauds with the people as well as with the brands. The selection of authentic influencers is obligatory for the businesspersons. As it will meld your brand’s campaigns and performance in the online marketing.
In many cases, it has seen that the influencers have fake followers which can impact your ideal audience negatively. Likewise, they will doubt your brand’s authenticity and quality work. What an amazing line it is by Warren Buffett: “Never invest in a business you cannot understand.” That is why you need to do a thorough research before paying anyone for your brand promotion.