Influencer marketing has already been here for a while but is still considered quite a fresh marketing channel. It is also often opposed to other, older marketing channels that, in comparison, are even called traditional. Because of this, uncertainty and a lot of questions arise around influencer marketing: is it really good? Can it attract customers? Can it actually sell? Is it effective, and if yes, how to use it properly to get all the possible profit?

In short: yes, influencer marketing works well, even better than some old-school marketing activities and methods. In fact, it can have an ROI 11 times higher than other channels – you will find more data and figures further in the article. And yes, it can be a bit tricky to use it effectively if you are very new to it and are used to traditional marketing, but it is no superpower, and an eager learner will get accustomed to it quite fast. 

And why so? To put it simply, Influencer marketing works because people search for advice from those who are either their personal authorities or have a lot in common with them – or both. Influencers are just like that: they are perceived as peers and experts at the same time. Consumers trust influencers almost just as much as they trust friends and family when it comes to buying advice or some product opinion. Promotional content from influencers is often seen as authentic and native, like it is something they wholeheartedly recommend to their followers. And, unlike brands, influencers are humans, quite close and approachable ones – it makes them more trustworthy in the eye of a common consumer.

Another reason for influencer marketing to work well is that influencers’ content is what people choose to see voluntarily. Traditional advertising is not: no one actually wants to watch some commercial that interrupts their favorite soap opera on TV or a banner stretched across the street – it just became what you cannot avoid, and it is irritating. Even on the Internet, people often use software for ad blocking so as not to see banners and ad pop-up messages that interrupt them, forcefully draw attention away from the content they were actually searching for. Even if not able to block the ads completely, Internet users develop banner blindness – their attention becomes highly selective and they just straightforwardly ignore whatever information presented in banners.

On the other hand, watching some YouTube creator’s video or surfing through an Instagram influencer’s account, users are ready to absorb what the selected person has to show them, even understanding it can be promotional content. Of course, it only works for the influencers who create high-quality content and make their ads as authentic as possible. A person (and their approach to content making) is always the core of influencer marketing: it is the personality of an influencer that helps them build a sense of trust, attract an audience and make it loyal and perceptive.

The term “authenticity” may seem a bit irritating already, as everyone in the influencer marketing industry talks about it. But there is a very good reason for it: authenticity is a key component of forming trust between brands, influencers, and target audiences. It is what makes influencer-generated content feel organic and natural, even if it was created solely for advertising, taking it beyond the product promotion request and involving the influencer in a broader story. 

So, why is influencer marketing successful? Read further to get some insights and relevant data on the topic.

WHAT IS INFLUENCER MARKETING, ACTUALLY?

Let’s start with the definition of influencer. Social media influencers are people who actively use social media platforms and have specific interests. And unlike regular active social media users, influencers managed to gain a relatively large following. There are few types of influencers based on their followers’ count:

• Nano-influencers have 1,000-10,000 followers on at least one social network.
• Micro-influencers – 10,000-100,000 followers.
• Macro-influencers – 100,000-1,000,000 followers.
• Mega-influencers – over 1,000,000 followers.

So, influencer marketing is an advertising channel, a type of advertising provided by the people who are powerful on social media platforms and have a strong impact on their followers’ opinion.

But people hate ads or at least find them irritating in most cases. Then why do they love influencers and still listen to them and follow their advice, even if it is quite clear that it is promotional? Why do people allow influencer marketing work on them?

To put it short, the presentation is the answer. Influencer-generated sponsored content is valuable to brands because of its timing and delivery, and what can be even more important – its context. Also, the importance of social proof cannot be overstated: did you know that influencers usually decline more offers from brands than they actually accept? Yes, it’s true, so social proof really means a lot – it is a full and valid part of influencer marketing.

STATISTICS SHOW THAT CONSUMERS TRUST INFLUENCERS MORE THAN BRANDS

Nadia Bubennikova, Head of Agency at Famesters, shares the statistics: “Consumers trust influencers more than brands – 61% vs 38%”. Content created by brands themselves is often perceived as a lot less trustworthy than user-generated content: brands are companies, and users – influencers – are people that other people, their followers, can relate to. It’s about human approach and the human image. Yes, it is important for businesses to be present on social media and create their own image. But influencers remain those whose calls to action work better. 

According to the research, 60% of marketers note that content produced by creators on social media performs better when compared to branded posts on companies’ accounts. Creators manage to get more engagement and drive more sales. 

What is also quite impressive is that the ROI of influencer marketing as estimated by the industries’ experts tend to be significantly higher than that of other channels. It fact, it can be 11 times greater than that of banner ads, for example. And as ROI is one of the major metrics for measuring a marketing campaign’s success, this fact doesn’t fail to draw more marketers to the influencers’ side.

A bit more on consumers’ trust for influencers. 92% of internet users are more likely to believe an influencer rather than some more traditional and familiar advertisement or even a celebrity’s endorsement. If you need consumers to follow some advice or lick your links, you can rely on influencers with this. People see their favorite creators use some products or services – and have an urge to use the same things, specifically – buy them. This is one of the major reasons for influencer marketing traffic to be of such a high quality.

WHY MARKETERS LOVE INFLUENCER MARKETING

71% of marketers agree the quality is better than when it comes to other marketing sources.