Influencer Marketing: the BOOM of the decade

We like to think we’re free beings, but did you know that between 30 and 60% of our behavior and personality is influenced by the things and people around us?
It’s true! Often, your behaviors are not really your own, but those of the people you spend the most time with and the environments you frequent.
Never before has the phrase
“Tell me who you’re with and I’ll tell you who you are.” Johann Goethe
made so much sense, has it?

So… If even our personality isn’t 100% our own, what other areas of our lives are influenced by external factors?
As frightening as this may be, the reality is that there is nothing in our lives that isn’t being influenced by something. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing for your business. Do you know why? If everything in our lives is influenced, it means that even our consumption habits are!
These days, we trust the people we deal with personally as much as those we follow daily on social media.
So today we want to talk to you about one of the biggest BOOMs of the decade, one of the best marketing strategies of recent times: Influencer Marketing.

Find out how Influencer Marketing can be your best sales tool!

But first, what is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer Marketing is a digital marketing strategy that involves collaboration between a brand and a digital influencer (digital content producer). The main objective of this partnership is to establish a link between the brand and the content producer’s target audience, which can have a very positive impact on the brand’s digital marketing strategy, since influencers have the ability to impact a brand’s image on their followers.
Why do the influencers we follow on our social networks have so much power over us?

Influencers are people who use online platforms such as social networks, blogs, Youtube, Tiktok, among other platforms, to build up a large following and influence the opinions and behavior of that group of people. They usually create content around their interests, tastes and lifestyles, with the aim of attracting followers who identify with them.

We are so influenced by these content producers because we identify with and trust them.

But if we don’t even know them, where does all this trust come from?
Since Influencers are “ordinary” people, just like consumers, it is possible to create the perfect link between the brand and a specific audience, which respects and trusts them.
This trust is due to a number of reasons:
– Authenticity: Influencers often share their personal experiences and honest opinions about products and services, which strengthens the emotional connection with followers, as it makes them think that influencers are authentic and genuine.
– Specialization: As a general rule, influencers focus on very specific niches, such as fashion, beauty, cooking, fitness, among others. In this way, they have a high level of knowledge about the subjects in which their followers are most interested, which usually makes them a reliable source of information.
– Persuasion: As they usually have a large number of followers, they often have some influence, which will have an impact when they recommend or show that they use/like a certain product and/or brand.

For these reasons, brands find in influencers a great partnership opportunity that will help boost their image and confidence.

However, it’s important to bear in mind that not all influencers are reliable or have the same level of influence. It’s crucial that before choosing the influencer you want to use to promote your brand or product, you do some research and evaluate their profile and any other partnerships they may have. After all, nothing discredits an influencer more than contradictory information or information that has nothing to do with their content.

How can I apply Influencer Marketing to my business?

1. Define your objectives
Start by defining what your team’s main objective is?
To promote a brand? Sell a product?
With the objective well defined, determine:
– How can an influencer help you?
– What niche do you want to target?
– Is that niche usually reached by influencers?
– What budget do you want to spend?

2. Know your audience very well!
If you haven’t already defined your target audience, know that this is a key part of your digital marketing strategy. So define it well. Study their consumption habits and the type of digital content they consume.
Once you have your target audience well defined, delve into their behavior. It’s important to know your audience in order to know how to reach them and how to establish a good relationship with your brand, using the right influencers.

3. Plan your actions together with the influencers
With your target audience well defined and the right influencers on your side, the next step is to plan your actions together with them. When the influencer agrees to work with your brand, formalize the agreement and define the action plan, where expectations and details of the contract are aligned, such as airing time and exclusivity requirements.

4. When choosing your influencers, don’t just look at the number of followers
It’s very easy to fall into the temptation of looking for an influencer purely by the number of followers. However, lots of followers doesn’t always mean lots of sales. Sometimes it’s better to choose an influencer with a lower number of followers, but with a greater degree of influence on their audience.

When choosing your influencer, look for someone real. Someone with whom your target audience will easily identify. What’s more, an influencer with a high number of followers will represent a higher investment. So when choosing, look at more than just the number of followers.

5. Let the influencer do what they do best
Sometimes it’s normal to want to control everything in our brand. We make the mistake of thinking that only we know what’s best for it. However, this is not always the case. Influencers know their followers better than we do. That’s why they know better than anyone how to communicate and position your brand. So respect their creative freedom and let them do what they do best.

Finally, we just want to give you one last warning. The world of social media is an extremely changeable terrain. Remember what Instagram was 5 years ago, or Facebook 10 years ago. As this is a constantly changing market, try to be aware of these changes so that you can adapt.
In the business world, better than having a great idea is having an up-to-date marketing strategy, and at Ontag Global Marketing Solutions we can help with that.

Written by Inês Oliveira, digital marketer.