Influencer Marketing - What Is It & Why Is It Trending

Influencer Marketing - What Is It & Why Is It Trending

February 14, 2018

A trend we began seeing taking stride in 2007 has exploded, the influencer. With the rise of social media so have internet stars, from fashion and lifestyle blogs to Youtube and Vine talent, many influencers have reached followings in the hundreds of thousands to millions and landed contracts with major companies like Chanel and BMW. Some could even argue that influencers are the new celebrity and with good reason. The age of the influencer has major selling power and with the popularity of Instagram, it doesn’t look like they will be going away anytime soon.

Still confused on what an influencer is? Just look up bloggers Aimee Song of Song of Style, Chiara Ferragani of The Blonde Salad, Bryan Grey-Yambao of BryanBoy. Not all influencers are in the fashion realm, you can find many bloggers and vloggers in beauty, fitness, food, tech, comedy and the list goes on. These influencers are essentially their own walking talking brand and master content creators with a very loyal following of people around the world. Anyone that has an Instagram has been exposed to an influencer.

Could collaborating with an influencer be good for your business? Chances are the answer is 99.9% yes. Influencer marketing can be compared to the grassroots technique; it’s more subtle and organic than traditional marketing. The benefits: increased brand awareness/ following, unique shareable content, and of course sales! These influencers, just like celebrities have major selling power. Land your energy drink in the hands of Tammy Hembrow, fitness blogger and 7.5 million Instagram followers and 916K Youtube followers or your beauty products on Ellarie, 1.3 million Instagram followers and 415k Youtube followers and watch your product sell out in minutes.

Wondering how to work with an influencer? The great thing about choosing to work with an influencer is unlike traditional print marketing, it can be fairly cost effective for companies big and small. Many bloggers handle their own collabs, which means you can sometimes negotiate placement depending on the size of their following. If you have zero marketing budget, there are plenty of smaller influencers that are willing to do for trade placement at little to no cost. Get creative-- offer them something custom or a choice of certain product for ‘x’ amount of placement on their social networks or run a contest with them. You receive increased brand awareness and unique content and they get free product, it’s a win-win. Many influencers have very strong opinions on what they promote since their lifestyle is essentially their brand, so to save yourself time be sure you are only reaching out to the ones that are on brand for you as well. If you have a larger marketing budget, placement on a top influencer could be life changing for your brand awareness albeit more expensive, but most likely worth it.