How Businesses Are Utilizing Influencer Marketing

Historically, if you wanted to advertise your company or get a brand name into the public eye you would advertise through media outlets. Newspaper, radio and TV were seen as an advertising safe haven. Whilst these mediums remain popular even today, with the advent of the internet age, companies are relying more and more heavily on getting their message across online.

Celebrity has always been a big enhancement to advertising, large companies will frequently employ celebrities to advertise/use their products in the hope that the public aspire to have those products as well.

Combine these two factors and the resulting marketing strategy is known as influencer marketing. Influencer marketing can have a huge impact on a company’s standing, high profile criticism of Twitter and Instagram by famous celebrities like Rihanna have seen share prices in those companies drop significantly. It is definitely the case that influencers hold a lot of power to form people’s opinion.

There are a number of ways businesses are utilizing influencer marketing, below is a list of 6 influencer marketing strategies that companies are finding to pay off in a big way.

Instagram:-

Pioneering the influencer marketing arena is Instagram. This simple picture-based platform has long been used by companies to showcase their products and generate buzz about upcoming launches. Instagram works in two ways; as a social media platform and as a popularity platform.

There are many "non-celebrity" individuals that have vast numbers of followers on the platform. People find them or what they are doing interesting and follow them in droves as a result. The term “insta-famous” has now become synonymous with influencer marketing.

Sometimes companies are subtle with promotions through these individuals. They may send them products to try in the hope that they publish it on Instagram. They may invite them to events or restaurants for free, again in the hope that they publish how wonderful the experience was.

Most serious influencers on the platform accept paid promotions whereby they will partner with a company to run an ad through their Instagram. You will notice for transparency reasons that these particular posts on Instagram show as “paid partnership”.

Facebook :-

Along with Instagram, Facebook has all the features that would allow a company to approach an individual and set up a paid partnership. The types of influencer vary from Instagram to Facebook though, so companies will focus on which platform fits their brand most before reaching out. Where as Instagram is very visual, Facebook allows for lengthy word posts to be made and as a result some companies prefer Facebook for influencer marketing over Instagram because they can get a detailed message across to the target audience.

Unlike Instagram, Facebook has limitations with regards to how far the advert will reach. Ordinarily a Facebook ad will be limited by the amount of people on that influencers news feed, where as Instagram is a far more open platform for sharing information.

YouTube :-

Venturing away from social media platforms, there are many influencers on YouTube. This video sharing platform is a great addition to the marketing bow, offering companies the ability to pay an influencer to make a video that could be seen by millions of people.

Unlike the Facebook and Instagram route there are no time constraints to the ad. On the previous two platforms, once the ad drops down their feed it near enough becomes obsolete, but with YouTube the ad stays on the channel forever.

There are many influencers who build successful careers on YouTube, broadcasting regularly and working closely with marketers that fit their channel. Examples of these would be AlphaM, Jenna Marbles and Jake Boys, all of whom have huge followings and regularly interact with their viewers.

AlphaM is an exceptionally good case of a YouTube influencer as he creates bespoke videos to advertise that are not marketed as adverts. Instead he provides insight through his video and drops in product placement at an appropriate time.

Another aspect that should be considered with YouTube is that the videos are easily sharable on the other platforms anyway, so hiring an influencer to promote your product on this platform is likely to yield good ROI.

Implementation Of Influencer Marketing :-

On a basic level, marketing departments are using a very traditional method of product placement through influencers to advertise. There are 3 other really effective ways that they are using this advertising medium though. VM Interactive a UK based marketing company have identified these key areas that a company can use to use influencer marketing more effectively.

Marketing To Influencers :-

This is a strategy that can work if a company targets an influencer correctly. Essentially, instead of paying an influencer to market their products directly, a company will advertise to the influencer in the hope that the influencer will like the product and broadcast it thereafter. This is particularly effective in the clothes/apparel industry because a product can be placed in front of an influencer and they might wear it on their next YouTube video.

Marketing Through Influencers :-

This strategy gives the company an opportunity to showcase their brand through an influencer. Oftentimes this is done in the leisure, catering and hospitality industries. An influencer will be sent a booking for a free hotel stay or a free meal. By placing the influencer within the company for a period of time the aim is to have the influencer share the wonderful experience that they have had.

Marketing With Influencers :-

This builds on the basic premise of a paid partnership and often takes course over a number of months or years. The repetition of the brand name or product will build over time. A really good example of this is the paid partnership that Under Armour has with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. They send him free merchandise to wear, have their logo in his videos, have him mention them frequently and he even goes as far as endorsing them in a lot of his Facebook posts.