How to increase brand awareness with influencer marketing
Getting brand visibility is not an easy task to perform, a fact we can agree on. Most brands are undoubtedly getting visibility but what’s disappointing is they are getting it in ways that either don’t build their brands or getting their brand in front of the wrong people. The second is most common, which leads to wastage of resources and of course low sales margins.
What can a brand do to change this?
My answer? Do what Apple does — Influencer marketing.
You see, when Apple wants to launch a new product in the market, they don’t just mass market it. Apple calls a conference where (mostly) influencers in a number of industries (mostly tech) ‘grace it with their presence.’
How do these influencers help increase brand awareness? And most importantly who are these influencers?
Well, influencers are people or sometimes companies that have a huge following, readership or audience. They have managed to build such a huge following by creating or gathering their own unique content that mostly focuses on one target audience. Their following is usually proactive and share the content extensively making it reach even a much bigger audience.
How do they help increase brand awareness?
Let’s get back to Apple.
So, when Apple launches a new product it wants people who are interested and enthusiastic about their product to be the first to hear about it. Then spread the word. Most of these influencers are enthusiastic about Apple products and are even fans. And since their audience would love to read about the new iPhone and its features, they don’t hesitate to give them what they want. Quite simple. And the tradition goes on even after the death of Steve Jobs.
That’s why when Apple launches a new product you will see many blogs and publications featuring it.
You can also leverage influencers to build your brand and increase your brand’s awareness. You probably can’t call a conference and invite top rated influencers.
But what you can do is work with influencers who influence your target customers in one way or another. These might be bloggers, YouTubers, magazines, columnists etc.
Now don’t confuse a person with a huge following on social media to be an influencer. This is not always the case. What matters is the engagement; views, clicks and shares. I wouldn’t advice creating content then giving it to an influencer to share it with their audience. Remember I said these are people who have built their following by creating their own unique content, so I would advice you to work with them in creating the content you wish to be featured. So in the end, you have content created around your business that at the same time feels authentic (like something the influencer would post or publish) and not an Advert or anything like that.
So there you go. I hope you use this information and increase brand awareness with influencer marketing, and of course, create more leads and increase sales.