6 arguments to convince your boss to invest in influencer marketing
It’s the end of the year, and that means you’re getting ready to pitch new marketing strategies to your boss for 2019. You’re looking for ideas that will help you generate brand awareness, inspire new customers, and increase sales — and sure, make you look good, too!
This brings you to one of the most valuable strategies in the industry: influencer marketing. You know that it involves paying or gifting social creators to produce content on behalf of your company. And you probably know that major brands like Glossier, Fenty, and Huda Beauty have made it part of their advertising operations.
Still, even with all of this buzz around influencer marketing, you have a major obstacle ahead of you: Convincing your boss that it deserves a portion of next year’s budget. Hey, maybe you even have to convince yourself first.
To help, we’re serving up seven solid arguments you can use right now to convince your superiors — and yourself — that influencer marketing is worth the investment.
People ❤ social media
Social media already plays a huge part in the lives of people across the globe. The proof is in the numbers. There are over 2.6 billion social media users worldwide and major influencer platforms like YouTube and Instagram have 1.9 billion active monthly users and 1 billion active monthly users, respectively.
Evidently, many people are comfortable sharing and consuming content on these channels. That’s why brands should be looking for new ways to reach audiences there and stand out from the noise.
Enter influencer marketing.
1. Customers trust influencers like family and friends
Social media influencers got their title for a reason — because they have an impact on their followers’ interests and buying behaviors. In fact, Twitter reports that users trust influencers almost as much as they trust their friends. And according to Olapic and Censuswide, consumers are 75% more likely to trust content posted by other consumers than content posted by brands. Add to that the McCarthy Group’s finding that 84% of millennials don’t trust traditional advertising, and the case for influencer marketing becomes even clearer.
Micro-influencers, in particular, earn consumers’ trust — even more than major celebrities do. As a study from L2 found, there is an inverse relationship between follower count and engagement for Instagram influencers. Why? Because micro-influencers have built niche audiences who know they can rely on these creators for authentic product recommendations and industry opinions. According to Experticity, 82% of consumers are “highly likely” to follow the recommendation of a micro–influencer.
That authentic relationship between micro-influencers and consumers is crucial when it comes to brand marketing. According to Bonfire Marketing, 91% of customers identified authenticity as the most important factor in motivating their purchase decisions. So while celebrities with, say, 10 million followers may have a bigger reach, they can’t provide personalized messaging and engagement like micro-influencers with 10,000 followers can.
2. Influencer marketing helps you reach new audiences
If you’re just starting your company, influencer marketing can help you build your audience from scratch. Or if you’re looking to skyrocket your current audience growth, micro-influencer marketing can help you expand your reach and engage new, niche communities with targeted content.
Just look at Swedish fashion retailer NA-KD. The company is only three years old and has already become one of Europe’s 20 fastest growing companies, generating 1.6M Instagram followers and over $70M in annual sales. How did they do it? With a solid influencer marketing strategy.
The brand gifted thousands of micro-influencers with free products in exchange for Instagram reviews. In just the first year of this initiative, NA-KD racked up 750,000 Instagram followers from 150 countries.
3. Influencer marketing is cost-effective
Influencer marketing on social media is cheaper than traditional marketing like TV and print ads. And as eMarketer reported, every $1 spent on influencer marketing generates an average of $6.85 — an impressive return on investment.
Influencer gifting, for example, is basically free. Brands can simply send influencers free products without dipping into their marketing budgets. In return, influencers post authentic reviews across social platforms. That’s how Anastasia Beverly Hills became the most powerful beauty brand on Instagram. The brand generated the highest number of posts (4,594) and interactions (7.38M) among US beauty influencers in just one month.
4. You can reuse influencer content
Influencer content is the gift that keeps on giving. Once influencers create their posts, brands can repost them and repackage them to extend their reach. For example, you can integrate them into your blog posts, website pages, social ads, or email newsletters. You can also share them on your own social feeds, like cosmetics brand OFRA did after generating over 3,200 influencer reviews in just a year.
With influencer marketing, you’ll essentially have an archive of content that you can use to drive more engagement and increase your credibility among target audiences. Just don’t forget to discuss this with them first and ensure they’re happy for you to share their pictures and videos.
5. It’s the antidote to algorithms and ad blockers
Algorithms and ad blockers are two of the biggest thorns in marketers’ sides today. The Instagram algorithm now prioritizes posts from friends and family over posts from brands and publishers. And as consumers get increasingly frustrated with digital ads, they’re putting ad blockers on their devices — leaving advertisers without a chance to even reach them.
Influencer marketing is a solution to both of these problems. Influencer posts show up natively in people’s Instagram and YouTube feeds, so they aren’t cut out by ad blockers. And as long as consumers engage with an influencer’s Instagram, they’re likely to see their content despite the algorithm.
Instagram Stories beat the algorithm altogether. Over 400 million people use this feature every day, and it’s proven to be a valuable tool for influencer marketing. Brands and influencers can use Stories to share behind-the-scenes looks at products, poll customers about their preferences, and repost standout content.
These arguments prove that influencer marketing isn’t just worth the investment; it may actually be crucial to your success as algorithms and ad blockers threaten marketers’ reach online.
6. You can turn influencers into long-term ambassadors
Once you build strong partnerships with influencers, you can continue to work with them on new and innovative campaigns. The longer you collaborate with an influencer, the more the content they create seems organic and natural. In fact, influencers are starting to sign long-term contracts that treat them more like traditional talent.
For example, you might invite influencers to include promo codes on their next posts, giving their followers a special discount if they follow a link to your e-commerce site. You could even ask influencers to help design your next products as NA-KD did. This helped show that the brand truly cares about the influencer’s voice and understands that they truly know what their audiences want.
So, how do you start?
Now that you know how to convince your boss to invest in influencer marketing, you need resources to help you start your operation. This way, when your boss says, “Yes!” you can get going right away.
Octoly is a comprehensive solution that will save you time and manpower in launching your influencer marketing strategy. We use the “pull model” — inviting our network of over 12,000 high-quality creators to choose their favorite products and come to you. Then you simply gift them those products in exchange for reviews. Octoly also provides detailed analytics like earned media value (EMV), reach, likes, and engagement rate so you know which posts are working and how you can optimize. Basically, it’s an all-in-one solution where you can connect with influencers, get hundreds of reviews, and analyze the results of your campaigns.
Ready to get started today? Request a demo!
You can also use our Gifting 101 guide for actionable tips on how to find the right influencers, reach out, and begin building those campaigns.
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