In the world of Online Marketing and Advertising professionals have started to talk about Influencer Marketing and generate the first campaigns. But what are its advantages?
Social Ad Campaigns, Adwords, SEO and other Display Campaigns remain as the most used means of advertising in the digital world. But the landscape changed when the Influencer Marketing finally landed as the “new player” in all areas of advertising: YouTube, Twitter celebrities and many “Instagramers” with thousands of followers and content creators being followed by thousands and thousands of users, provide a new way to reach the public (yes, through their voices).
Some of the reasons why this new form of Word of Mouth with digital celebrities is so successful are:
- Content created by influencers is always 100% suitable for their audience, and reaches their audience.
- Ad-Blocking is not possible because advertising is part of the contents of the Influencer.
- Influencers’ content comes to have a higher ROI (Return of Investment) than traditional Ads.
- If we generate a good campaign with influencers we ensure a positive perception of the brand. The authenticity of the influencer generates greater engagement.
The Influencers who support brands and their products
Do it (and must do it) in an authentic way. This causes the audience to be more likely to buy a product and engage with the brand linked with the influencer. Besides, the message develops more naturally. The public appreciates not to be interrupted when they consume content with advertisements that may not be relevant to them.
Do not fear the Ad-Blockers.
- The number of users that use ad blockers has increased by 40% last year in US (Not including the new functionality that facilitates IOS9 Safari for this block).
- This harms the display advertising but benefits the Influencer Marketing which formats and content are native and not lockable.
- Increase earned media, with even higher ROI.
- A well done Influencer Marketing provides the highest ROI than any other advertising.
According to a US study conducted this year, each campaign with influencers has generated a value of USD $6.85 of media earned for every $ 1 spent on paid media in the campaign. The ROI of “traditional” digital media is amongst 2x-4x depending the specific campaign.
Transparency and positive Branding
When building a campaign with content and an Influencer you don’t have to worry about the specter of “invisibility”. The public wants to see the content of this influencer.
Also, since influencers are specifically chosen by the brands, and messages are approved by them, there is no risk on the positioning and message content.
Finally, the problem of the purchases of paid advertising (inventory, printing, display) is not present in this type of action: you pay for content distributed on the network transparently.
It is interesting how these benefits can apply for LATAM market as well. In the first edition of Social Media Week we learned that Mexico is a major source of content:
- Youtubers are more valued than traditional TV celebrities.
- There is a great movement of Instagramers and many professional photographers who have between 80,000 and 150,000 followers.
- The blogs for The Millennials have become media themselves, competing with traditional media.
As noted, building a good campaign with Influencers seems to present no more than advantages. The change of mindset in marketers that would be ideal is to allocate budgets for Influencer Marketing and allocate the additional earnings for paid advertising.
