How does influencer marketing work?
The purpose of influencer marketing is to get the brand in front of the target audience of an influencer in a good, natural, and meaningful way. This is accomplished by striking an agreement with the influencer to expose their audience to the brand’s messaging or content via social media video demos or blog evaluations.
When launching an influencer campaign, it is critical to understand that careful coordination is frequently required. It’s sometimes helpful to think about influencer marketing as having three significant participants who must be satisfied:
- The brand
- The influencer
- The audience
For influencer marketing to be successful, the messaging must be comfortable and natural for all – it must adhere to company rules, suit the influencer’s style, and be perceived as genuine by the audience.
What kinds of results might be expected from influencer marketing?
Let’s look at a concrete scenario to understand better how influencer marketing works and the business benefits that may be gained. Olay, a well-known skincare brand, used influencer marketing to increase interaction by 8.33% and connect younger audiences via more real messages.
They collaborated with various personalities for their campaign, encouraging women to be “unapologetically themselves” and embrace their inherent beauty. Among the influencers were athletes, models, business executives, and other women who embraced natural beauty.
They shared selfies with the hashtag #FaceAnything and notes encouraging women to be confident in facing unreasonable expectations.
What were the outcomes?
Olay has increased:
- Exposure by 1.4M views
- Comments by 11K
- Hashtag uses by 1K
Influencer marketing vs. word-of-mouth marketing
Although the terms are sometimes interchangeable, influencer marketing is not synonymous with word-of-mouth marketing. Influencer marketing entails endorsing a product or service by persons who are recognized as experts in their field and have a large following.
Influencers typically meet specific criteria, such as having a certain amount of Instagram followers or being linked with a given industry. An example of an influencer marketing campaign is a well-known personal trainer giving their thoughts on your treadmill in a YouTube or Instagram video.
Their endorsement or review may persuade their followers to investigate your products, interact with your business, or perhaps purchase your product. Word-of-mouth marketing, on the other hand, comes from your existing, satisfied consumers, who may or may not have a social following. Word-of-mouth marketing occurs when customers tell their friends, family, and intimate acquaintances about their positive experience with your company.