Did you know that 92% of consumers have made a purchase after reading about a product on their favourite blog? A further 62% are likely to make a purchase if someone they follow on Social Media recommends a product.

Influencer marketing is here, and it’s more prominent than ever as 65% of brands spent more on influencer marketing in 2016 than they did in 2017.

As the concept of Influencer Marketing is still relatively new, I wanted to write this piece of content to give you a better understanding around exactly what it is, and how you can use Influencer Marketing to boost your business growth online.

 What Is Influencer Marketing?

The idea is to have people who are influential online spread the message about your business for you. This type of marketing can be in the form of blogger reviews, Social Media posts, endorsements and various other forms of content.

We have seen how influential this can be, especially on YouTube. Influencers on YouTube are often sent new product releases and in exchange, they talk about it to their audience. In some cases, influencers use “sponsored” content which means that they are being paid to talk about a product/service.

81% of marketers who have executed influencer marketing campaigns agree that it is an effective form of communication.

Why Should You Use Influencer Marketing?

When you decide to use influencers to spread the word about your product/service, it can be extremely effective, and here’s three reasons why.

1. Trust

This type of marketing relies heavily on trust, and trust that has been earned by someone else over a long period of time, and one which call attention to your business, and actually sells products/services.

2. Reach A Larger Audience

The reason why most businesses will turn to Influencer Marketing is to reach their target audience in a more direct, and broad way (especially if the business doesn’t have the same kind of reach). Having specific influencers with your niche audience means that you are targeting the right people, rather than relying on them seeing your message online.

3. Cost Effective

It may cost you to send some of your products out to influencers for them to review, this will be a small cost compared to the amount of sales you could make when using various other marketing efforts. You may find that paying for sponsored content will cost you more than you think, the influencer will guarantee that your product/service will be seen by a large number of your target audience and will give you a great return on investment.

Here are my top three tips when it comes to working with influencers online;

1. Have A Story To Tell

Influencers are more than just popular. They captivate their audience, and persuade them into buying a product/service and to make going down this route more worthwhile, you need to have an engaging story to tell.

2. Set Expectations

If you are going to spend money with an influencer, set the expectations around what you want to achieve from the get go. Keep everything friendly, but explain that it is important that your expectations are matched. Ask for their media kit so that you can see in more depth their audience demographics.

3. Start Small

Reaching out to influencers with millions of followers may be costly, so consider reaching out first to those in your industry who have a slightly smaller audience to make sure that going down this route will be worth your time and money.

I would love to hear from you on whether you have focused on Influencer Marketing, and if it was a successful investment for you.

Article Written by Warren Knight of Business 2 Community