- How to enhance brand awareness with influencer marketing
- Published 23/03/2023
- Updated 20/06/2024
- 8 min Read
- Written by Anastasia Zaichko
Each business has always been concerned with its brand awareness to this or that extent. But nowadays it becomes more challenging to acquaint your target audience with your brand product or service for a number of reasons. First, people tend to doubt traditional intrusive advertising. Second, cyberspace is overwhelmed with brands trying to promote their products and this leads to one more problem – use of adblockers on computers and mobiles. The estimated YoY increase of ad blocking tools usage is 9% both on desktop and mobile.
Today businesses are in constant search for solutions that will help them to overcome this growing lack of confidence from customers. Traditional advertising is therefore being replaced by indirect methods. Influencer marketing has meanwhile become one of the most popular trends. 60% of marketers acknowledge that the content generated by influencers has a higher performance rate and evokes more engagement in comparison with messages made by brands. So let’s see how to increase brand awareness with influencer marketing.
INFLUENCER MARKETING LANDSCAPE
Influencer Marketing is a sort of cooperation between a brand and an influencer to reach brand goals – creating brand awareness among them.
Recent researches say that ROI of influencer marketing is 11 times greater than other kinds of advertising. 61% of consumers rely on influencers’ recommendations. Compare it with 38% of customers who still have trust in branded posts.
It’s no secret that the vast majority of influencers are now online because more and more people become social media users. In this context we mostly speak about bloggers-influencers. However it’s not about celebrities or mega-influencers with a huge number of followers worldwide. On the contrary, micro-influencers who have between 10,000 and 100,000 subscribers are preferred by marketers. The reason is that micro-bloggers’ content is more engaging, they are more approachable and reliable among their followers.
BRAND AWARENESS: TO BOOST, OR NOT TO BOOST?
It’s worth mentioning that brand awareness is not always a top priority for a business because it’s difficult to “measure” brand awareness as it is. According to the latest research by Influencer Marketing Hub, sales increase remains the main objective for brands launching influencer marketing campaigns. However, the percentage of marketers who pay more attention to awareness is almost equal: it’s 35,7%, and that is up from 33,5 % in the previous year.
The role that awareness plays in your product success is immense. Brand awareness shows how your target audience is acquainted with your brand, and how people are quick to recall your brand if asked. For example, your friend asks you about a pizza delivery over there.The one that comes to mind first is a delivery company with very high awareness. Even if you know at least three pizza deliveries and all of them are good, the one that you’ve named first has a better awareness rate because you recollect it at once. Apparently, this will be a brand with perfect visibility, strong reputation and your own positive experience with this company. Brand awareness is built on a quintessential combination of all your perceptions and interactions with the brand.
Brand awareness serves to build a brand-consumer relationship of trust. When people both recognize your brand and have confidence in it, they are more disposed to use your products repeatedly. That means that brand awareness influences your revenue in a direct way because people are more ready to buy products they are familiar with than those they know nothing about. Consequently, boosting awareness efforts should be an integral part of your marketing strategy.
INFLUENCER MARKETING AS A DIGITAL FORM OF WORD-OF-MOUTH STRATEGY
The best advertising has always been word of mouth. And this is exactly how influencers increase brand awareness. Influencer marketing has become a digital form of the word-of-mouth strategy. The good thing for marketers is that now they can measure the target audience’s response with definite KPIs. So the process of building brand awareness is not so unpredictable in comparison with traditional word of mouth.
When it comes to deciding on the right social media platform to implement word-of-mouth digital tools on, it’s worth considering which one, or maybe more, to choose. It depends on whether you are a B2B or B2C company, what type of products or services you offer, and what is the geography of your target audience. For example, USA, Indonesia and Brazil are top-3 countries by the number of TikTok active users, while Youtube and Instagram have the majority of active users in India. Besides, analysis of data has revealed that 88, 5% of content creators with more than 10,000 followers on one social network also have huge audiences on others. The number of social media users continues to increase thus cross-channel influencer marketing campaigns are of high priority for brands.
HOW INFLUENCERS CAN INCREASE YOUR BRAND AWARENESS?
Marketers have a very efficient strategy at their disposal, and that is influencer marketing. Let’s now examine how to boost awareness with influencer marketing tools.
Marketers and social media content creators can collaborate in a variety of forms, performing lots of activities that will serve to increase brand awareness. These actions may vary from one social media platform to another. But in general, there are some marketing tools common for all platforms that help increase brand awareness with influencer marketing.
MAKING MESSAGES MORE ENGAGING
Subscribers are very loyal and dedicated to their influencers. They like their content, tone of voice and style. When a marketer starts cooperating with this or that influencer it’s very important to let content creators have freedom of making authentic messages to their audience. People are very quick to distinguish natural posts from promotional ones. So, it’s better to provide creative freedom for influencers you work with. They are very talented at creating the content their followers will enjoy. Thus, it will be enough to control the overall commitment to your brand values suggesting some guidelines about the messaging desired from your influencer.
DISCOUNT PROGRAMS WITH INFLUENCERS
It’s no secret that peer recommendations work very well. An influencer’s recommendation to buy something or to use some new service is perceived as a peer word of advice, as if your friend recommends this for you. When an influencer shares a promo code that is exclusive to this particular audience, it encourages people to use it. Remember that subscribers are always ready to try the product or service that their influencer has already tried or is going to try. Even if followers understand that the content is sponsored they will not use ad blockers because of their high loyalty to their influencer.
LIVE STREAMS
Live streaming means broadcasting of a video in real time. It has become incredibly popular among game developers. The idea is that gaming influencers plaing games online thus promoting these games to their audiences. Twitch and YouTube are the main platforms suggesting lots of tools for content creators. Live streams can also be used to reach the target audience with this or that information about your product, or about special conditions, discounts and offers for these particular followers. Remember that there are two most effective time periods during a livestream – the first and the last 15 minutes – when you can reach your audience with a necessary brand message through a game influencer. Thoughtful cooperation between marketers and content creators can contribute greatly to brand awareness in the computer and mobile games industry.
MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL PARTNERING
Invite content creators to contribute to your blog. This is a win-win strategy for both an influencer and your brand. Your blog will be perceived as more trustworthy when people see their influencer’s article on it. Besides, an influencer is going to share the link to the article on his or her personal account, increasing your brand mentions once more.
UNBOXING AND TUTORIAL VIDEOS
It has become very popular to send your influencers products to review, a kind of ‘gift baskets’. Influencers receive them for free and then share their experience with the audience. A lot of content creators capture the whole process of how they receive a goody bag, unpack it and try the products.
The same is with tutorial videos. People are more likely to watch a how-to video on YouTube instead of reading boring instructions in a booklet. So these are two more forms of collaborating with influencers that are sure to enhance your brand awareness.
TAKEOVERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
Such a form of partnering with content creators means letting your influencer take over your social media platform, for example for a day. The influencer is going to create branded content on your social media channel. The advantages of such cooperation are enormous. It increases the engagement rate of your followers as well as attracts your influencer’s followers to your platform. Besides, it will give a sense of reliability to your business and definitely will have a positive impact on the awareness of your brand, products and services.
SPONSORED EVENTS FOR INFLUENCERS
One more interesting way of brand-influencer collaborating is when you organize an event for your influencers and invite some respected expert or a panel of experts – leaders in your niche. It can be a master class, a discussion club, or whatever. The invited guests communicate in an informal setting, discuss problems and learn from the best representatives of the sphere. You can also provide the participants with gift bags familiarizing them with your products. Later on, influencers are going to share this experience with their followers, and awareness about your brand will increase significantly.
SUMMARY
Summing it up, creating brand awareness should definitely be among the primary marketing goals, especially when you are a new brand, when you enter new markets, or when you are going to launch a new branded product or service. Brand awareness is also crucially important for high-consideration brands such as furniture or jewelry. The vast majority of consumers admit that they make a purchase decision in favor of the product they can recognize. Thus, brand awareness first, and increase of sales second. You might consider turning to a full-cycle influencer marketing agency in order to optimize your brand awareness efforts. Such agencies are ready to help you with your ad campaign from analyzing and planning to launching and reporting. A savvy influencer marketing campaign can help you enhance your brand awareness and drive your business to a new level.
Frequently asked questions about how to enhance brand awareness with influencer marketing
What exactly is brand awareness influencer marketing?
Brand awareness influencer marketing is a strategy where brands collaborate with influencers to increase the recognition and recall of their brand among target audiences. This approach leverages the credibility and reach of influencers to communicate brand messages in a more authentic and engaging way than traditional advertising.
Why is influencer marketing considered effective for increasing brand awareness?
Influencer marketing is effective because it taps into the trust that influencers have built with their followers. By partnering with influencers, brands can create more relatable and genuine content that resonates with the audience, leading to higher engagement rates and better brand recall.
How do I choose the right influencer to enhance my brand’s awareness?
Choosing the right influencer involves looking at their audience demographics, engagement rate, content quality, and alignment with your brand values. It’s crucial to select influencers whose followers mirror your target customer and who consistently engage with their audience in a meaningful way.
What are some KPIs to measure the success of brand awareness campaigns through influencer marketing?
Key KPIs include engagement rate (likes, comments, shares), reach, brand mentions, traffic to your website from influencer posts, and audience growth on your brand’s social platforms. Advanced metrics might also track audience sentiment and recall through surveys or brand lift studies.
Here is the article that will help you: How to set and measure influencer marketing KPIs
Can influencer marketing replace traditional advertising completely?
While influencer marketing is highly effective for brand awareness, it works best as part of a broader marketing strategy. Traditional advertising still holds value in reaching larger audiences and in situations where precise, controlled messaging is required. The best strategies often integrate both approaches to maximize reach and impact.
Learn more about it from the article by the Famesters agency experts: What is an integrated marketing campaign and how to run it for your brand’s profit
What types of content work best for influencer marketing aimed at boosting brand awareness?
Content that works best typically includes genuine testimonials, product reviews, unboxing videos, tutorial videos, and collaborative posts where the influencer creatively integrates the brand into their regular content. Live streaming events and takeovers are also powerful for real-time engagement.
It all depends on the peculiarities of your product or service, target audience, the region you wish to promote your brand in, and many other factors. At Famesters, we do our research thoroughly and consider them all before crafting a successful influencer marketing strategy for you.
What are some common mistakes to avoid in brand awareness influencer marketing?
Common mistakes include not vetting influencers thoroughly, leading to potential mismatches between their audience and your target market; overly scripted content that lacks authenticity; not defining clear objectives and KPIs; and failing to establish a continuous relationship with influencers, which can lead to disjointed messaging. To avoid all these pitfalls you may simply start working with the Famesters agency – contact us via [email protected] to learn more.
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