What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is considered one of the most important new movement in online marketing. The term originated primarily in connection with the Instagram platform. The word describes quite well what this type of marketing is about. What exactly it is and how you can use it for your own marketing is discussed in more detail in the following article.

With multipliers for your own company success

Influencer marketing refers to advertising using so-called multipliers. Multipliers are bloggers, YouTubers, or Instagrammer with a large reach and high number of subscribers. They enjoy the reputation and trust of their readers and followers and are considered opinion leaders. When they advertise a product, people often buy it.

It is therefore attractive for many companies to provide influencers with a product or to have them promote their brand.

• A certain amount of trust in the brand is directly established through the way via the influencer.
• In addition, advertising is often more subtle than through an advertising poster on the street or an advertisement in the newspaper.
• It can be packaged as a product test and therefore often gives positive feedback.

How does influencer marketing work in practice?

Bloggers write an article about a product and take a few appealing photos. A video is being made for YouTube, in which the product will be integrated. Instagrammer report about the product in their Instagram story or post a photo of it. In the text below the picture, they refer to the product and name the brand.

Many influencers even provide their subscribers with a discount code with which they can get the advertised product at a lower price. This increases the incentive to buy the product. Products available on the Internet are particularly popular for advertising on blogs or Instagram. Whether clothing, furnishings, or sporting goods – there is no need to go to the store. Thanks to modern online payment methods, the transaction is processed quickly. Online banking, instant transfer or other methods are common practice. However, many are still undecided whether they want to disclose their bank details on the Internet. If that is the case, PayPal is always on the safe side. The renowned company does not pass on the sensitive data to third parties and offers the highest level of buyer protection.

Influencer marketing is easy to measure

For the company or the brand, the number of redeemed discount codes can then be an indication of how great the influence of a multiplier actually is. This has the following advantages:

• This makes the direct effect of the advertising contribution measurable.
• The costs for the advertising measure and the income from these can be directly compared
• The number of likes and comments for a video or picture also shows how well a post was received.

Overall, the reach of influencer campaigns is often significantly higher than that of classic print ads. While very few newspapers have print runs of more than 100,000 copies, this value can be achieved by an influencer alone. If you use ten influencers for a campaign, the reach is 1 million potentially reachable people.

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Agencies can help find influencers

There are now numerous agencies that specialize in influencer marketing. They mediate between companies on the one hand and influencers on the other. They have registered numerous opinion leaders in a database, which they can contact when a company inquires. Influencers usually receive a sum of money for their performance – this is negotiated individually and can vary greatly from person to person.

A career as an influencer as an income model

More and more influencers make a living by regularly posting sponsored contributions. Whether blog post, Instagram picture, or YouTube video: Companies are increasingly relying on this form of advertising these days.

While marketing budgets used to be distributed to print, TV, or radio campaigns, more and more money is being spent on influencers today.

Influencer marketing also has clear disadvantages:

• If wrong multipliers are used, the use of an influencer can also be harmful. It is therefore important to consider their entire external image when choosing influencers. This is a task for social media managers
• Ranges are not always organic. On Instagram, followers can easily be bought for little money. If a company doesn’t take a close look here, it may have spent its advertising budget for nothing.
• Influencer marketing can be very expensive. If multipliers with a very high reach are booked for a blog post, a photo, or a video about a product, the sums can be five to six digits depending on the level of awareness.
• Advertising must be clearly identified as advertising. More and more influencers have been warned recently because they have not complied with their labeling requirements.

Users of platforms such as YouTube or Instagram can no longer avoid confronting influencer marketing. It is therefore important to know about the topic and to be able to identify advertising as such.

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