The Importance of Influencer Marketing

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These days, it’s not enough to have a hot digital marketing campaign.

For all of the amazing new technologies that have popped up to help marketers reach their customers, there are also new technologies that have been invented to hide ads from viewers. Not only that, but marketers have to reckon with the fact that many customers aren’t especially trusting when it comes to brand advertising.

Don’t worry – there is hot new marketing trend that actually addresses both of these points: influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing taps into the power of writers and vloggers who are already well-known by your audience and uses their influence to spread the word about your business. This infographic from The Word Pro lays out some pretty compelling statistics about the power of influencer marketing – why it works, who is using it, and how it is growing. Let’s check it out!

A few stats:

  • 92% of people trust personal recommendations over brands – even if they don’t know the individual making the recommendation
  • 81% of people are influenced by their friends’ social media posts
  • 71% of customers report having an improved perception of a brand when they read positive reviews on social media

With the rise of ad-blocking software, it’s become harder to reach customers through online advertising – 47% of people who shop online use ad blockers. What does this mean for your brand? It means that the best way to reach these customers is through content posted by people that they trust: 81% of customers make purchasing decisions based on information that their friends share and 77% of people refer to online reviews. 50% of customers made a purchase based on a general recommendation that they found on social media, regardless of who posted it (friend or non-friend.) In contrast, only 38% cite low pricing as influencing their decision and only 35% rely on smartphone comparison shopping.

Smart marketers are paying attention:

  • 81% of marketers consider influencer marketing to be effective
  • 78% of brands have boosted their content output over the past two years
  • 59% plan to increase their budget for influencer marketing next year
  • 51% believe that they capture better customers through influencer marketing

Facebook is a particularly powerful tool for marketers – in 2015, the platform influenced 52% of online and offline purchasers, a big jump up from 36% in 2014.

So how do you reach out to these influencers? First, figure out who you want to reach (key bloggers, vloggers, or social media personalities well-known by your target market.) Then, invite them to experience your product or service – for example, you could send them a special promotional package. Of course, there is always the possibility that they will share negative feedback, but that can give you the opportunity to display your amazing customer service and put things right!

How are you leveraging influencers in your B2B lead generation and marketing campaigns? Let me know in the comments!

Interesting Infographics: The Importance of Influencer Marketing

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Louis Foong
Louis Foong is the founder and CEO of The ALEA Group Inc., one of North America's most innovative B2B demand generation specialists. With more than three decades of experience in the field, Louis is a thought leader on trends, best practices and issues concerning marketing and lead generation. Louis' astute sense of marketing and sales along with a clear vision of the evolving lead generation landscape has proved beneficial to numerous organizations, both small and large.

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