Let’s take a quick stroll down the memory lane, shall we? When you were young, do you remember watching those pencil advertisements on television which claimed to give you good handwriting and extra marks? For a brief period of time in your school life, you believed it, didn’t you? You watched that advertisement and thought to yourself that I am going to be that kid that gets 105 out of 100 and those extra 5 marks will be for good handwriting. So you bought them and never really stopped using them. You were not alone and neither were your fellow young friends. Because even the parents believed it too. So don’t feel that you were gullible. Because such is the power of advertising.   

This is an example from a consumer’s perspective. From a business perspective what we understand is that right advertisements demonstrate the best features of a product and create the need for it. And even today, nothing has changed but it has definitely upgraded. 

Say almost a decade back, it was the traditional commercials and advertisements and now it’s the impact of influencer marketing that drives consumer behavior. And as it has been going so far, we are sure that the future of influencer marketing is bright.

 We might not spend so much time on television screens in this digital age but we are still surrounded by advertisements all the time. And you can’t even skip some of them(if you know what we are talking about). 

The medium of advertising might have changed, the source might have changed but the impact has remained. And in fact, with the introduction of influencer marketing and influencer marketing platforms, it’s larger than ever. The only difference now is that the advertisements we see are now driven by people we know, people we connect with. Influencer marketing has become the hero of social media marketing and most businesses have already adapted it very well. And now it’s your turn. 

Because of influencer marketing, the consumers not only buy the products but stay loyal to the brand. How did that happen now? Here’s how!

1. People trust people

Who are these influencers? They are just people. They are literally one amongst the commoners. The influencers might be far away from their audience but they are digitally attached closer than you can think. The audience relies on them for information, entertainment, hopes, gags, references, discounts and many more. The audience connects with the influencers because they share mutual interests or they simply like them for who they are. And that’s exactly why you need to work with influencers to boost your business. 

You can work with all kinds of influencers– micro, macro, and mega. Do not get intimidated by the fact that the more the followers of an influencer, the more they charge for promoting your business. Running an influencer marketing campaign on a budget is completely possible for all kinds of businesses. 

All you need to know is that your audience is currently gawking at their screens watching their favourite influencers. Now is the time to enter the lives of your target audience through these influencers and their platforms. 

2. Consumers have the power

Twitter is the living proof of how much impactful are likes, shares, and comments. But now, it’s not only limited to twitter as all the social media platforms that have also become advertising platforms for brands and shopping platforms for individuals give you that power. When a user comments beneath any post of an influencer, be it in favor or against, hundreds of people are going to read it and form an opinion on it. In a weird sense, this gives consumers a lot of power but if it is used wisely it can be proven beneficial for all. 

When these influencers are exposing themselves to thousands and lakhs and millions of people when they endorse products of your business, by default you too are exposed to a large audience and are giving them a chance to form an opinion about you. If you are able to create a good impression, then well and good. You can expect lots of clicks, likes, shares, and new followers. But if they have a bad experience with you, know that a lot of people are going to hear about it. 

In cases like these, such bad experiences mentioned on social media are bound to get your business in the wrong spot. Hence, it is necessary that you try to enhance your customer’s experience in every way possible. Right from when they interact with you online to placing an order to resolving an issue, at every stage, it matters that you give them a good experience. 

3. Transparency plays a big role

It’s always better when all cards are out in the open when it comes to influencer marketing. As we mentioned, the world of influencer marketing was born out of the excitement and passion of people wanting to share a part of their lives with others.  That aged well and now has become an important part of this vertical. When we say transparency, we talk about how influencers like to share their travel stories, their childhood anecdotes, their playlists, their art interests, their book suggestions and so much more. It forms a link between them and the consumers.

When you work with influencers to promote your products, it is important that you sync with the relation that your influencers have with their audience. Choosing an influencer that aligns your business’s persona will help you stay true to your brand’s values, ethics, and towards the commitment you make to your customers. To find the right influencers you can use WORD Marketplace which is an influencer marketing platform. If you are wondering how to use an influencer marketing platform or if it is too complicated to understand, then do not worry about it. With WORD Marketplace, all you have to do is sign up, which is free of cost and post your campaign brief. 

4. Sense of belonging

‘Online community’ is a real thing and believe it or not but consciously or subconsciously, your business too is a part of a community. This community is built of people who have mutual interests, who just randomly comment on each other’s pictures, tell each other how great they are doing in life, and benign things like that. Social media gives a platform to all to come further,  do what they are best at, and have other people join them. Similarly with the influencers. As we mentioned people trust people and that happens because these digital leaders who hold the power to influence people don’t do it just for the collaborations with brands.

They have a lot of other things to talk about, their effort to build a safe space for individuals to come forward, talk about themselves, giving them the opportunity to be vulnerable is what shapes this community that moving ahead becomes their target audience too. So when you partner with these influencers, your brand too possesses the power to create a sense of belonging amongst the audience that you are targeting. 

There are a lot of things that drive the impact of influencer marketing. Before the brands connect with the consumers through the influencers, it’s years and years of hard work, compassion, and thoughtfulness that goes into it. If you wonder why influencer marketing has become such a hit, it is because of the collective efforts of businesses to give the best to their consumers and the sensibility of influencers to stay true to their values and their audience. 

The influencers can only bring the consumers to your brand but ultimately it’s the quality of your product or your service that will help you retain those consumers and create a sense of brand loyalty in them.