If you are wondering what the whole fuss of influencer marketing is and what’s in it for your brand or for you as a content marketer, then you are in the right place. That’s because this article will enlighten you about the deal with influencer marketing and how to leverage it for your brand. It will also further give you insight into the relationship between influencer marketing and content marketing.

You would have thought influencer marketing is a form of marketing that exists on its own. No, it does not. It is an extension of what we know as digital marketing, but it’s under content marketing strategy.

As a content marketer tasked with creating a strategy, influencer marketing should be included in your strategy because it amplifies your marketing effort.

It can be slightly compared to running ads but this time around it has to do with an individual or group of people who have over time built a community and can influence the purchasing decisions of their audience.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is a form of marketing that involves getting endorsement and product placement with an online or offline influencer to generate awareness which should, in turn, get converted to sales.

This brings us to the definition of Influencer.

An influencer is any individual who has established a reputation for knowledge and experience on a topic and is able to influence the lifestyle of people around him or her.

Everybody can be an influencer, but not everybody is an influencer.

An influencer has basically put in the work it requires to build a community, online or offline, and any brand reaching out to them wants to get their products up in the face of the community in a form that appeals to the audience and does not water the product offerings.

Brands leverage influencer marketing for a wide range of reasons, the top of which is increased awareness about the solution the brand is profferring to the audience, and of course, there is also the part where this increased awareness is converted into sales for the brand

According to HubSpot, 38% of marketers say generating sales was their top goal for influencer marketing in 2022, which is helps us to see that influencer marketing is a medium through which sales can be generated if done correctly.

To efficiently maximize influencer marketing, there are a number of things you have to be on the lookout for like your product offering, your preferred influencer and others which I would be sharing with you later in this article.

How Influencer Marketing helps your brand

Here are a few ways Influencer Marketing can benefit your brand:

1. It increases awareness for your brand or your product offerings across digital platforms. For example, you have 100 users on your Instgram page or 100 customers you’re servicing, and there is an infleuncer with 1,000 followers. Collaborating with that influencer means you will get your brand in the face of 1,000 more. Let’s assume that the 100 followers are part of the 1000 followers of that influencer, you have 900 more people who are aware of your existence.

2. It facilitates lead generation. Regardless of the goal you wanted to achieve with your influencer marketing strategy, it’d definitely bring you leads.

Lead

“A lead is any person who indicates interest in a company’s product or service in some way, shape, or form”. Source: HubSpot

Relationship Between Influencer Marketing and Content Marketing

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating, developing, and distributing valuable, educating, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience for the brand which translates to sales and profit.

Content itself involves written, audio, videos, infographics and more.

How to Leverage Influencer Marketing for your Business

1. Create a marketing campaign that aligns with your brand, and communicates your product or services to your audience, budget and duration
2. Research on influencers in your niche that has your target audience, and is an efficient storyteller (check for previous deals with other brands) with a personality that resonates with your brand. You can not be a modest dress brand, and you are selecting someone who is not a fan of healthy food.
3. Reach out to your preferred influencer, communicate your expectations, negotiate and come to an agreement
4. Develop a plan for converting the leads to sales on your products
5. There you have increased revenue and increased awareness of your product or services

I hope you found this post helpful. You can leave a comment below and share this with others.