Influencer Marketing in 2022: Why is it important - Wizard

Influencer marketing is currently booming and there is no one in digital marketing who does not want to take advantage of it.
However, this is a fairly specialized way of digital marketing that requires subtle manipulation and experience to deliver.
Let's see below what influencer marketing is and how it can, with the right steps, help promote a business.

Influencer marketing - What is it

Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing, which relies on reports and positive reviews for a product or service provided by influential people on social media.

These people, known to all influencers, have a loyal audience on social networks and are considered experts in some fields.

Thus, influencer marketing works well due to the influence that these people have on their followers, with the result that their suggestions serve as social proof for a brand. 

The benefits of Influencer marketing

A marketing campaign based on influencer marketing has many advantages for a business:

• Quickly builds trust with the target group: A social media influencer has built relationships of trust with their followers, with the result that their followers respect and trust their suggestions.
  Thus, through the influencer you can also gain good relations with your audience, gaining their attention and admiration.
• Improves brand awareness: For exactly the same reasons and of course if you choose the right influencer, with a campaign that adds valuable content on social media you will gain exposure, higher engagement and recognition for your brand to a wide audience.
• Enriches your content marketing strategy: Content marketing relies heavily on sharing and promoting your content on social media.
  With influencer marketing you can be sure that this content will be enriched and will reach the right recipients.
• Reach your target audience effectively: The bottom line is that you do not need to spend extra funds to find and reach your audience.
  The influencer has already done so and has cultivated relationships with his followers. Thus, his followers will learn about your brand, will appreciate it and given that they belong to your target group it is very likely that they will become customers.

Influencer marketing statistics

Apart from what influencer marketing is and what its advantages are, in order to understand its value it makes sense to see some very useful statistics about it from the Influencer Marketing Hub:

• The Influencer Marketing industry will reach a value of 16.4 billion in 2022: 
  Starting at $ 1.7 billion in 2016 and reaching $ 9.7 billion in 2020, its momentum is exponential and largely due to the growing popularity of short videos on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube.
• Companies offering influencer marketing services increased by 26% in 2021: Now, there are over 18,900 worldwide.
• Instagram is the preferred social networking site for influencer marketing: Although Instagram showed a slight decline in 2020, its popularity increased in 2021, with the majority of brands choosing it for their influencer marketing campaigns, although as a platform it has fewer users than Facebook.
• The majority of marketers have used influencer marketing: Specifically, 93% of marketers have utilized its dynamics and now this is considered a basic strategy of digital marketing.
• Social media accounts increase per user:
  In 2014, each user had about 4.8 social media accounts. In 2020, there were about 8.4 accounts per person.
  As platforms grow in genre but also influence, it is imperative for brands to adopt a cross-channel approach to their marketing campaigns.
  Although many platforms have similarities, they also have several differences, as others are more interactive or have different audiences.
  Thus, it is essential that companies offer content tailored to each type of platform in collaboration with their respective influencers.

How to start a partnership with Influencers

If you want to take advantage of the opportunities offered by influencer marketing, then it is very important to find and reach the right influencers depending on the niche in which you operate.

You do not just want an influencer who works with everyone or someone who has a large audience but someone whose audience is directly aligned with what you offer.

It is, therefore, essential to find the right people with influence (e.g. for an e-shop with clothes a suitable influencer is the one who deals with fashion) and then they form a positive image for your brand.

Therefore, it is good to follow a few tried and tested steps to build your strategy on a solid foundation:

• Do your research and make a list of influencers relevant to your subject that you value.
• Send everyone a personalized message, in which it will seem that you have searched and positively evaluated their work.
• Clearly point out the positive features of your brand.
• Find common ground with the influencer so they know how to promote your brand and where to focus.

 Conclusion

In conclusion, we would say that influencer marketing is a powerful weapon that can be used as part of a company's social media marketing.

However, it should be well studied, so that the costs for this are properly invested and bring the expected results in the short and long term.

If you want to know more about what influencer marketing is and how the tried and tested well-followed strategy of Wizard can help you, contact us.