Influencer marketing is part of social media marketing and it’s expected to become a £10 billion industry by 2022 as it gives brands the chance to raise their bottom lines and attract global audiences. However, despite its accessibility, many businesses are wary of employing influencer marketing.

• Increase brand awareness

An immediate benefit of influencer marketing is an improvement in brand awareness. In a digital age, your target audience likely uses social media. Therefore, you can use influencers to create engaging and valuable content that enhances your brand’s social media presence. In addition, consumers have begun using influencers to discover new and relevant brands, so carefully consider and vet your influencers to ensure their audience is your audience. 

• Build trust and authority 

Influencers have worked hard to establish strong relationships with their audiences that have resulted in trust and credibility. Social media users respect influencers’ opinions and recommendations because they are considered experts within their niches and industry. By working with influencers, brands can tap into this established relationship, making them appear an industry leader by association. 

• Reach your target audience

 Influencers already have established audiences on social media, many of which will include members of your brand’s target audience. Using influencers allows you to reach your target audience directly—there’s no need to spend extra budget to find and test where your market is most active. 

• Reach a wider market

While using influencers will give you direct access to your target audience, you can also bond with other market segments. For example, many Gen Z and Millennial consumers have similar interests and are profitable demographics to focus on. By targeting one, you can inadvertently target the other, further boosting sales and revenue. 

• Remain trendy

Influencers have been the driving force behind countless movements and trends by exposing their audiences to new ideas, products and brands. Aligning your business with a trendsetting influence shows audiences that your company is an industry leader. In addition, influencers can create trends that centre around your product or services, which will push up sales. 

• Build relationships 

Engaging with an influencer is the start of a potentially strong and long-term relationship. You can expand your connections through engaging with an influencer—to other influencers and new audiences. In addition, working with influencers in long-term partnerships solidifies your position as an authority and trustworthy figure to audiences. 

• Drive conversions 

Influencers are called so because they influence. They have the power to direct their followers towards specific products and services. Consumers happily follow and trust these influencers’ recommendations—more than 50% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations. 

• Generate leads

Using influencer marketing can create new leads by inspiring and influencing new customers to purchase your products. In addition, they present new opportunities to interact with people you may not have had access to previously. 

• Increase value

Influencers know their audience and understand how to provide content people want to see. This means using influencers can result in relevant content about your brand that offers genuine value to your target audience. You can reuse this content and post it onto your brand’s own social media profiles. 

•  Curate content

Consistently coming up with new content can be time-consuming. To avoid running out of ideas, you should collect all content influencers make relating to your brand—organic and sponsored. In addition, you could also come up with a collaborative project that is high-quality and aesthetically pleasing to your audience.