Why Coronavirus-Hit Businesses Need the Unique Properties of Influencer Marketing

At first, everybody thought it would fade away in a week. The modern society is too far off now spanning millennia of knowledge that wards us against unthinkable misfortunes. Yet here we are, maintaining the now fragile scaffolds of civilization through the invisible liaisons of the Internet.

The coronavirus pandemic pushed life online. Almost nothing happens anymore without accessing either a website or an app. Storefronts are counting on delivery apps to carry on their businesses, events are either being rescheduled or having a digital transformation, and the only way to meet family, friends or colleagues is through a web camera.

Based on the current setting, there’s no doubt about it. Businesses with no intention of giving in to eCommerce and social media are bleeding sales.

Those already versed in online marketing are busy making adjustments. Businesses of all kinds felt the pressure of making hard decisions on the spot. Most of them targeted financial aspects resulting in cuts across advertising departments.

Influencer marketing was one of the most affected areas with the number of partnerships collapsing. Social creators have only the limited space of their home at their disposal to produce fresh content. But this encumbrance can only draw them closer to their otherwise isolated audience. Here are the real reasons why businesses can safely navigate the uncertainty of a pandemic side by side with influencers.

An instant spread of information

How long does it take to create a concept for a Facebook ad that guarantees the manager’s approval? And how many more hours does the ad need to be launched? No matter the answer, influencers can post that sponsored content faster.

There are two reasons for that. First, influencers usually are a one-person show. It may take years to perform as a marketer, designer, photographer, editor, artist, and storyteller all at the same time. But once they get it right, influencers are unstoppable at guiding online users through their shopping experiences, unlike any other ad.

Secondly, each influencer knows exactly how their audiences prefer to be served their bites of information and entertainment. No ad can be flexible enough to answer the wide plethora of tastes and dispositions. Yet when a multitude of channels receive and broadcast the same message in their own terms, that campaign becomes everybody’s cup of tea.

All in all, sponsored posts are crafted in record time. Plus, they are highly compatible with their target public. In a crisis when rules are bent overnight, whoever gets their announcement first in front of people wins their attention for the rest of the week.

A customized context

This is the first time when marketers know exactly where consumers are. Everybody is trapped indoors. But how much does this predicament bring people into line and how much does it drive them apart?

Apart from drawing data from their online activity, marketers don’t have insight within their customers’ four walls. But influencers do. By keeping their dialogue with followers active through post comments, Instagram Live sessions, Q&As, and Stories, social media creators are welcome inside these intimate spaces.

Equipped with this knowledge, influencers can understand their audience and customize their sponsored posts accordingly. After all, it’s in their best interest to help their communities grow during difficult times. Trust and authenticity provide the fuel big accounts require to keep their popularity hot.

In other words, a brand might put the majority to sleep if their discourse on its main channels concerns a few. However, having partners spreading dedicated versions of a brand’s story to their own audiences can turn a mishap into a win.

For instance, Samantha Jarvis knows she can act boldly in front of her audience without repercussions for her or her clients. She is making a fearless and loud statement. She took up the courage her client can’t afford to incorporate into their main campaigns and made the sponsored post relatable to her followers.

Flexible budget

Marketers can perform endless combinations of partners while reviewing their unique assets and pricing. Maybe a macro-influencer was always an unattainable contract. However, even a limited budget can pull together a pool of creative accounts well matched to the brand.

On top of that, let’s not forget that this is a dry season for influencers. With no events to attend to, their paying projects are numbered. This means that it’s become possible to negotiate contracts and gain access to niche audiences that were unreachable before.

Thanks to this level of flexibility in pricing, businesses enjoy the freedom to create the right mix of social partners that doesn’t put more strain on their already outstretched budgets. Usually, companies enter partnerships with up-and-coming micro-influencers with a knack for their industries. The financial case for influencer marketing makes it quite clear: for every dollar spent with social creators, marketers can be looking at a return of $20 or more.

Influence is powerful in good times and in bad

Critics are imputing the disappearance of glam to influencer marketing during a crisis. With creators’ space of work reduced to a few square feet, who is going to watch them anymore?

However, this reasoning proves shallow in hindsight. Look at all the celebrities keeping it stylish within their expensive properties with tens of rooms, Victorian furniture, miles of backyard, pools, Hawaiian-sized kitchen islands, and so on. One glimpse into their quarantine heaven, and comments started pouring in with words that belittle the discomfort these owners say are feeling while staying at home.

Now back to influencers. Is it truly losing their glam the factor that stopped people from considering their recommendations? Or the measures of safety the majority took to counteract any financial repercussions of the health crisis?

Considering the increased activity of influencers online, users have been given more relatable content to digest during their days of arrest. Therefore, the influence creators emanate is still there. What changed is users’ shopping behavior in times of crisis.

Therefore, influencer marketing remains a strong strategy for brands. Yet marketers are going to reap the benefits later once the general shopping precaution loosens up.

Create new value

We’re not going to stress any longer how different things are in light of a pandemic. Truth is, brands don’t move fast enough to reflect the transformational events of the day.

The corporate environment is hindering innovation from unleashing its full potential. By the time the logos started distancing their elements apart in support of the self-isolation initiative, the world was already half-way there.

That’s what differentiates brands from influencers. The latter works with the perks and responsibilities of being a freelancer. Once they get a brief, it’s only a matter of hours before they post an elaborated and unique concept that their followers are guaranteed to like and comment on.

Final Word

Influencer marketing remains a natural channel of peer-to-peer recommendations. How so? Unlike other marketing platforms, this one reacts in unison with the real world.

Is the world thriving and seeking glam? That’s exactly the type of content you’ll see on popular social accounts. Is humanity recovering after a major blow to the health system? Influencers are going to voice these concerns as well.

By injecting recommendations into influencers’ flow, brands are making their products an organic element into influencers’ narrative. Even in a crisis, creators are finding ways to make the market relevant to the times by acting with empathy in real time, with no delays.