The exponential growth of the Internet during the last decade has made an undeniable twist on the daily lives of millions of people around the world, from the way we use the phone, to how we do banking, to the way we buy or sell products, everything now is done online.

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In the digital era, the way we do business has adapted and evolved to take advantage of the different tools and platforms provided by the Internet. Marketing is no exception, mainstream marketing has branched out to digital marketing and what was once known as word-of-mouth advertising has now transformed into influencer marketing.

Who are Influencers?

But who exactly is an influencer and how can we define influencer marketing?

An influencer is a person who has an important level of impact on what people decided to buy. In the past, this sphere of influence was limited to celebrities, movie and TV stars, and famous sports athletes who appeared on TV commercials, print advertising and billboards in major cities around the world.

Nowadays, an influencer is not only about TV celebrities, but what has come to be known as internet celebrities: a youtuber, bloggers, critics and well-known experts in different fields who have a huge number of followers on their bylines or social media platforms. People –in fact consumers- feel loyalty towards them and trust them when they share their opinion about a product or service.

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The main difference between paid marketing, and influencer marketing is that your business will get a huge hit as soon as you cut your advertisement budget, but with influencer marketing, you’ll get more exposure day after day.

Influencers can help your brand grow and spread your brand’s story to a broader audience, yet specialized niche. The influencer marketing trend is growing, and this is not surprising; In fact, according to emarketer market specialist who used influencer marketing strategy in 2015 said 81 % of influencer engagement was effective.

Influencer Marketing, and Brand Awareness.

The question is, how can you use influencer marketing to increase brand awareness?
or how can you save money, stop paying for ads, and still get lots of customers.
Here is how.

In some cases, the brand-influencer relationship starts organically, e.g. a beauty blogger likes to try new products and review them online. That way s/he is sharing what are the advantages and disadvantages of a product, thus, “influencing” her followers to use a product.

Although organic shares are pretty good, you should not count on them as a long term strategy. Instead, you must focus on building relationship with influencers, and partner with them to promote your product or service. However, managing a successful influencer campaign is not so straight forward as simply asking a relevant influencer to give your product or service a positive review; like any other marketing strategies, you need to have a slid plan, and clear metrics.

What should you do before using influencer marketing?

According to the influencer marketing guide, the global demand (especially in the US) has increased by at least 300%.

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I’ve listed below, five essential tips to help you increase brand awareness through influencer marketing strategy.

1. You need to know your audience and choose the appropriate influencer accordingly. Like anything else in a marketing campaign, it will be defined by your target market.
   • Who are you trying to reach?
   • What is your niche?
   • Do you have a clear picture about your customer’s persona?
   • Who do your target market follow on social media?
   • What characters are they interested in?
   • What’s your brand message, and how do you want your customers to perceive your value?
   • What makes them up at night?

There are a lot of influencers to choose from, so take your time to evaluate who will have the most impact on your audience and who is a right fit for your brand. It is recommended to set your priorities, so you know exactly who you are looking for. Knowing your objectives, and goals plays a great role in finding the right influencer for your brand.

2. You need to plan for brand awareness too. It is not just about offering your product or services to an influencer and hoping they will like it. First impression counts, to make sure to position your brand through any of these technique:
   • If you represent innovation, focus on design, and simplicity. People love innovative designs and products that make their life easier.
   • If your brand help people save money, time, or enables them to increase productivity, focus on value proposition and encourage conversation about the values that customers get out of it.
   • Whatever you do, tell a great story that resonate wit your customers
   • Remember, It’s never about you; It’s always about customers.

The most successful influencer marketing campaigns are based on inspiring brand stories, mixed with an important component of the influencers creativity and individuality.

3. Your goals need to be as clear as possible. Whether it is to increase your brand’s awareness, gain more followers on social media or get people to buy your products, this needs to be one of the starting points of your influencer marketing campaign.
   Share your goals with your influencer and ask for feedback. This way, not only both of you will be on the same page, you’ll also get to know the strategies that your influencer would like to use to promote your brand.
4. But it doesn’t stop at that. You have chosen the right person to launch your influencer campaign; you have set the goals and strategies as clear as possible. Now, you need to decide how the content is going to be distributed?

• Will your content be only published on influencer’s website?
• Or you stand a chance to see it shared on all social media platforms?
• Or they take it to the next level and mention you in different authoritative websites?

The distribution of your influencer marketing campaign needs to be optimized so you can make the most of it and succeed at increasing your brand’s awareness.

5. And last but not least, you need to measure your campaign’s success using the appropriate methods so you can:
   • Identify how the campaign has affected the consumers’ decision patterns
   • How many new customers have you acquired?
   • How much did you increase your conversion rate?
   • How many new leads have you captured?
   • How may new followers did you get?
   • How much potential customers talk about you?
   • How ‘s your position in comparison to your competitors
   • etc.

You may approach influencer marketing yourself, you can get help from influencer marketing experts; Whichever way you choose to follow, always remember that influencer marketing is the opposite side of paid marketing, and you must be consistent when implementing it.

Article Written by Ehsan Jahandarpour of Business 2 Community