Promoting a business online has become more popular than ever before. In fact, companies are spending much more on their online marketing strategies now than they do on offline promotional strategies. The problem is, not every business are able to experience a lot of growth with their online marketing campaigns because they fail to target the right channels, or they simply spend too much on the wrong elements. Fortunately, choosing the right marketing channels and strategies can help a business grow and reach a higher level at an affordable price – the key is to spend time doing adequate research before initiating any type of marketing strategy.
If you have been following the latest trends in internet marketing, then you most definitely have heard the term “influencer marketing” mentioned at least once – you might even be utilizing this strategy already as part of your marketing plan. Influencer marketing is becoming more popular every year and many businesses see a lot of growth in customers and sales by utilizing influencer marketing.
Influencer Marketing Versus Traditional Online Advertising
More businesses than ever before are using influencer marketing to grow their business and this strategy is quickly becoming more popular than the traditional way of online advertising – and for a good reason. Hubspot reports that Adblock Plus, a web browser extension that blocks ads on websites, has more than 500 million users. They also report that 64% of internet users think ads are intrusive and annoying, while another 54% reports ads cause a disruption with what they are doing and 36% report it uses too much bandwidth. With ad blockers rising in popularity, the traditional way of advertising online through banners and ad networks are not as effective anymore. Beta News reports that marketers may lose as much as $27 billion by the year 2020 because of the rising popularity of ad blockers. Using influencer marketing, however, or using an agency that specializes in this kind of online promotional strategies, like Proven SEO, can give you better results and prevent your business from losing money.
Rules To Follow With Influencer Marketing
If you are planning to utilize influencer marketing to boost your brand recognition, then you should know that there are some rules you should follow when you implement this marketing strategy. Many business and website owners fail to consider these rules when they start to utilize influencer marketing and this can result in lost money rather than additional profits. Let’s explore the different rules that should be considered with such a marketing plan.
Be Original
Adweek reports that as much as 75% of internet marketers are already using influencer marketing to expand their brand and to become more successful online. Many of these marketers have been able to utilize the technique successfully. Unfortunately, some people tend to copy the strategies used by others in their own campaigns. To ensure your campaigns are successful, you should come up with original content and ideas to use in your influencer marketing plan – this can greatly enhance the trustworthiness of your campaign and may also increase the click-through rate.
Know How To Recognize An Influencer
A social media user with 100,000 followers is not necessarily an influencer. There are many ways to build up a social media following and some only do it for the money. When you search for influencers, you need to do some research on every potential influencer you find before you start contacting them. The Content Marketing Institution recommends looking at the potential influencer’s engagement and the quality of the content they post before you reach out to them.
Relevancy Matters
While searching for influencers, you should consider the industry they are targeting, the niche their following is interested in and how relevant their publications are to your own business. Even when a potential influencer is in the same industry as you are, it does not necessarily mean they are completely relevant to you. Social Media Explorer explains that relevancy adds value to content and positions your brand as a more trustworthy source of information.
Don’t Neglect Your Own Online Presence
A lot of marketers focus so much on their influencer marketing strategy that they tend to forget they should still maintain their own presence. If an influencer is able to drive traffic to your blog or social media profiles, you will not be able to utilize these new visitors if your online presence is standing still – you need to stay active, regularly update your social walls and continue publishing new blog posts to show the new visitors that you are active and will offer them value if they decide to become a fan.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing is now an active part of more than 50% of all marketing plans. It has become an essential form of marketing due to the increased number of users installing ad blockers. Utilizing this strategy should thus be a priority in your next marketing plan, but not adhering to some basic rules can cost you a lot of money. Following the rules we’ve shared in this post will help you achieve better results while limited the amount of money you spend.
