Agency Blog

Influencer marketing continues to have a great, well, influence on audiences. While honest and transparent influencers and the brands they represent have had strong relationships—both professionally and financially—recent studies reveal a genuine surge in this type of marketing. Will future generations look back and wonder if 2022 was “The Year of Influencer Marketing”? It’s possible…

Influencer marketing is growing on a grand scale

According to statistics in Influencer Marketing Hub, the last several years have seen dramatic increases in the ad dollars allotted to influencer marketing budgets. (And we mean increases of leaps and bounds.) Influencer marketing increased from $1.7 billion in 2016 to $9.7 billion in 2020, and then grew to $13.8 billion last year. The projected sum for this year is $16.4 billion.

What is it about influencer marketing that makes it so powerful? 

For brands that have not pursued influencer marketing as a way to make their presences more visible, the enormous sums listed above may be hard to believe. These brands should therefore consider the benefits of influencer marketing, as broken down in Alpha News Call, all of which are connected:

• Brand awareness: This may seem obvious, but there isn’t a brand or business in operation that cannot have too much awareness of what it has to offer. An influencer who has a considerable number of members in his or her following translates to a greater number of potential customers.
  
  
• Additional followers on social media: Tying in with brand awareness, influencers can encourage their followers to “like” and “follow” a brand’s representative social media page. And the more likes and followings a brand page has on social media, the greater its credibility—which, once again, leads to more customers.
  
  
• More sales: Another obvious point under the “cannot have enough of…” heading is additional sales. Once a brand has a strong understanding of its target audience and demographics (e.g., age and gender), matching them to an influencer that genuinely likes a particular brand will create opportunities for more sales.
  
  
• Additional created content: Brands that already have collateral such as a website and social media pages can relax if they reach out to an influencer. That’s because influencers create their own content that is diverse and has a distinct style. Often, brands will negotiate with influencers to repost this content in other places.

So, when planned and executed properly, influencer marketing can create a genuine “ripple effect” of extra success to brands. It is therefore small wonder that this method of reaching audiences continues to increase, both in practice and ad dollars. Businesses and brands are loving influencer marketing. This circles around to the fact that customers love influencer marketing.

The customer is always right—with help from his or her favorite influencer

The most important factor in influencer marketing centers on the followers who may become customers of brands that a favorite influencer promotes. In a recent G2.com article, Shalaka Joshi noted that 49 percent of consumers look to influencers for recommendations on whether or not to purchase a product or service from a particular brand. In correlation to this trend, brands are focusing more attention and budgeting on influencer marketing. And the return-on-investment has not disappointed…

Interesting detailed finding from Deloitte Digital

Ms. Joshi pointed out an attention-grabbing finding in Deloitte Digital which noted that when brands chose to exclusively apply influencer marketing to their campaigns, returns were higher than those of other methods of marketing. The average return on one dollar spent by brands resulted in a $5.20 profit from influencer marketing, while digital advertising received $2.63. (This is not to deny the value of digital advertising, but imagine the strength of a campaign that utilizes both digital and influencer marketing to promote a brand’s message.)

If you are considering influencer marketing as a way to get your brand seen—and loved—by potential customers, contact EGC. We have the expertise to create influencer programs that would be specifically catered to the online habits of your target audience. Just think: Your brand could be one of the many that could define 2022 as the “Year of Influencer Marketing.”

Give us a call. We have the influence to help your brand grow.