Once upon a time, businesses spent lots on advertising. It was considered a tool to success for the rich, renowned, established brands. Whereas an unattainable fruit for small businesses. Cut to now, it’s 2021, the period of awakening that came with a massive wave of the internet, social media, digital marketing, and of course, influencer marketing. 

Traditional advertising was used massively up until 20 years ago. But the money and time invested in it have gradually been falling. Traditional advertising is known as a form of marketing that lets businesses reach out to the consumer wherever and wherever they aim to. It could be through various platforms like billboards, magazine ads, newspaper ads, radio ads, and direct mailings. An upgraded version of this is influencer marketing. Even today, the aim for businesses is to reach their customers wherever they are. And today, the medium used massively to do so is social media. 

It was easy for big businesses to invest in billboards and newspaper ads. But it costs a fortune to do so, even today. Hence, most small businesses could not really advertise their product to their masses because it was unaffordable. Since they could not promote their brand massively there was a lack in the growth of their profits. Influencer marketing breaks this vicious circle. 

The prejudice towards influencer marketing for the longest time was that it is only meant for the millennial and Gen-Z generations. Most brands thought that their audience is not on social media and hence, influencer marketing is not fit for them. Since then, the series of various stigmas and myths began. The truth is along with the digital evolution, your audience too has evolved. The benefits of influencer marketing for businesses go beyond than speculated initially. 

But why such negativity around influencer marketing?

Out of the many reasons why brands have a hard time accepting influencer marketing the topmost is that they don’t know what is influencer marketing. And that gave rise to some other reasons which created the negative notions and myths about influencer marketing. 

1. It took time for people to adopt

For traditional marketers and even for the new ones, it was difficult to understand this new category of marketing tool. While it was very similar to traditional marketing because it involved the same set of goals and directions, only the platforms had changed, people had a hard time adapting to it. If you remember anything from the Doordarshan age, we saw ads on TV which either starred professionals or famous individuals. Back then, it had an impact. Because firstly, they made the ads look very charismatic and it involved people from Bollywood. 

But now, it’s not just the stars or actors who are influential, but a lot of expert individuals, otherwise known as influencers on the internet hold the same power. This was a major shift in advertising and it happened very fast for most. The ones who speculated that the future of influencer marketing would be bright hopped on the new marketing trend and are acing it today. 

2. Most brands did not have a social media presence

Most of us have had a first-hand experience of making our parents understand what social media is and how to use it. Most businesses like our parents struggled to use social media, so finding how to use influencer marketing for businesses was out of scope in the beginning. It’s now that a lot of aspiring small businesses from the young generation are already familiar with the whole ground of social media and have a laid-out format for them. But earlier, the businesses who experienced the transition struggled a bit. 

3. They didn’t know how to use influencer marketing

As mentioned above, most businesses back then did not know how to use influencer marketing. They didn’t know what influencers are, what are the different types of influencers and how to approach them. Now, it might all seem like a piece of cake. But initially, during the trial and error phase, it was not. And somehow even if the businesses could find out how to use influencer marketing, they would not know how to find the right influencer for their campaign. 

These were the struggles of the frontmen of influencer marketing. The reasons were pretty valid. These and many reasons gave rise to some of the top myths about influencer marketing which even prevail today for some. 

1. Influencer marketing is not a profitable marketing tool

Data produced by Influencer Marketing Hub states that, as of 2020 for every $1 that a brand spends on influencer marketing, they are receiving a return of approximately $6. 

Another data by survey states that businesses who invest in influencer marketing can even gain impressive returns of up to $18  for every dollar spent on their campaign. Sponsored blog posts are estimated to gain 11 times more profit than banner ads. 

These and many surveys have proven time and again that influencer marketing can help businesses gain larger and larger profits over time. Even if you just open your Instagram and check for some local businesses, you will see significant growth in their business since they started content marketing as well as influencer marketing. Influencer marketing for small proven businesses has been really beneficial and it continues to get better. 

2. It is only meant for big, established businesses

After reading the previous point, you must have already understood the benefits of influencer marketing for businesses, especially for small businesses. Hence, that busts our second myth that influencer marketing is only for big brands. The reason why this myth has been persistently successful to discourage small businesses is that they believe that just as traditional marketing, influencer marketing is only suitable for big businesses because it requires a lot of money. They never thought that it is possible to achieve more from influencer marketing with less budget.

But that’s old news. People are now familiar with the fact that influencer marketing is not as expensive as they think it is. And on top of that, there are so many tips to create a successful influencer marketing campaign for small businesses that do not require them to invest a lot of money. 

3. Influencers charge a lot of money

Something related to our previous myth, people think influencer marketing is expensive because influencers charge a lot of money. And on top of that, most businesses still struggle to find influencers for their brand marketing campaign. There are different types of influencers to choose from. And for a small budget, micro-influencers are the best. 

To find an influencer on a budget, you need an influencer marketing platform that eases your process of building a successful influencer marketing campaign. In that case,  WORD Marketplace is what you need. It is a platform that gives you the freedom and the right resources to design your influencer marketing campaign. You just need to post a campaign brief on the platform and as the right influencers approach you, just pick the ones that you find the best for your campaign. You can discuss the quotations and negotiate on your own terms with zero third-party interference. 

4. Influencers should have a huge number of followers

Once you know how to create a killer campaign idea, you will need an influencer to put it forward. For that you even have an influencer marketing platform that lets you handpick influencers of your choice. But now it’s again your responsibility to carefully assess the right metrics to know how efficient an influencer is. 

The number of followers an influencer has is not the only metrics to look at when you are looking for influencers. The impact of influencer marketing on consumers is remarkable when it comes from the right influencers. And to select the right influencers, the metrics that you should look at are engagement rate, old projects, creativity, activity, communication skills, and anything else that makes your brand look convincing. 

5. You can only use limited social media platforms for influencer marketing

The advantage of influencer marketing is that it is multidimensional and there are many ways to approach it. You do not have to limit yourself to just one platform. Your campaign can focus on different social media platforms at one point. You can choose to have different influencers from different platforms to collaborate with. To know which social media is best for influencer marketing, you have to assess your goals. And rest will just fall in place. 

6. Using influencer marketing once is enough for your business

Influencer marketing is a long-term commitment and not a one-hit-wonder. Once you start with it, you cannot stop. For two reasons, one being the fact that you might lose everything that you have gained through one campaign, and two is the fact that you would not want to stop with it. The results of influencer marketing are pretty visible since the day your campaign goes live. To keep growing you have to keep using influencer marketing. 

Marketing a decade ago was different and marketing a decade later is going to be different. But what we know for sure is that influencer marketing is definitely the future of marketing.