By Josh Kohlbach, CEO and founder of Rymera Web Co, the makers of Wholesale Suite, the No. 1 WooCommerce wholesale solution.
Influencer marketing has been around for decades, though we might not have called it that until recently. It’s a powerful way to get leads, make sales and increase brand awareness, even for business-to-business (B2B) companies. Industry surveys say that 80% of marketers use influencer marketing today, and spending is estimated to reach $8 billion this year.
If you’re part of the 20% of marketers not using influencer marketing, I believe you’re missing out. Here are five reasons to invest in influencer marketing today.
1. It Has An Extremely High ROI
TapInfluence, an influencer marketing software company, found that the return on investment (ROI) doubles after three months with no extra investment in the influencer campaign. A single piece of influencer content showed a four times ROI after four months and an eye-popping 11 times sales lift over 12 months.
Usually, it’s expensive to create and publish new content, but an influencer marketing campaign is inexpensive in comparison, mainly because the influencers typically pay all the creative costs of content production.
Finally, you’ll get a high ROI on your influencer content because the influencer knows what kind of content works best for their audience. You eliminate the discussion around what type of content needs to be created for the campaign or the marketing channel. The influencer has already done the market research in their earlier posts, and your brand can enjoy the prework without having to pay for it.
2. It Reduces Overall Marketing Costs
Influencer marketing is a cost-saver for marketers because it provides you with a new library from which you can repurpose content for future use. You’ll have access to all the influencer-created content from your campaign, and you can turn it into several other marketing assets reasonably easily.
This is especially valuable for B2B marketers because they’re creating content for an average of four different audiences and need as much content in their pipelines as possible. By repurposing influencer-generated content, they’ll save time, effort and money.
3. Influencer-Generated Content Lasts Longer
Content marketing is a long-term strategy, as is B2B influencer marketing. (Consumer influencer marketing often operates under a shorter timeline and can have a significant impact during that time.) B2B marketing takes longer to take effect because B2B purchase decisions are more nuanced and comprehensive.
Influencer-generated content can have a significant long-tail effect on B2B campaigns because it continues to be picked up by organic search engine optimization (SEO) searches.
4. It Boosts Audience Engagement
Influencers have highly engaged audiences that are used to connecting and engaging with the content the influencers publish. Partnering with influencers will give you access to that audience and desire to engage with products and brands. More specifically, influencers give brands access to some people, both business-to-consumer (B2C) and B2B, who normally block ads and do not see your content.
One reason that influencers have such devoted and engaged audiences is that they’re perceived as authentic and trustworthy. As we’ve transitioned into a more informed and transparent age of influencer marketing, audiences are more willing to trust the brand someone mentions as long as it’s appropriately disclosed. People are then more likely to share the branded content with their social circles, increasing the engagement even more.
5. It Offers Deeper Storytelling Opportunities
People listen to influencers in part because they’re usually very good at telling stories. Many have naturally developed this skill and use it to great effect online. As humans, we love stories and are innately drawn to storytellers. If your brand wants to create a deeper relationship with its audience, it makes sense to partner with an influencer.
An influencer can help show their audience how your product helped solve a problem they faced. And because their audience is likely made up of similar people to them, the audience relates to the same problem and solution, in both B2C and B2B markets. B2B prospects are people, too, and they often relate to the story just as deeply because they have the same wants and needs as B2C consumers. They may just have to consult with others to put your brand on their shortlist.
I believe influencers are the best content marketers because they have no vested interest in your brand. They’re creating customer-focused content that meets and solves the needs of their audience, which is precisely what content marketing should do. They’ll do it in a more authentic and trusted way, which is important because 85% of people think user-generated content is more influential than branded content. Consider adding influencer marketing to your marketing strategy today.
