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Influencer marketing is here to remain . According to eagle matrixhardly surprising considering that it typically delivers an ROI 11 times greater than other, more conventional, marketing methods. What company wouldn’t want to require advantage of these numbers?
Some sorts of influencer marketing have been around for a long time. But today we've the technology that makes becoming an influencer a lot easier. It also means gaining recognition can happen at lightning speed.
Here are a number of today’s trends in influencer marketing to keep your eye on.
1. BRAND AMBASSADORS
In the past, you'll have quite easily had a one-off campaign with a specific influencer to get a quick boost. Going forward, however, it’s best to figure with one or two influencers on a long-term basis. Considering that 47% of buyers will only make a sale decision if they’ve seen three to five pieces of content, it is sensible .
By turning the influencer into a brand ambassador, you’re taking the primary steps to create a long-term relationship with their followers. It could even be the key to making your campaigns more authentic.
2. AUTHENTIC CAMPAIGNS
Most consumers realize that influencers want to earn money doing what they love. So, they typically expect some advertising. That said, they’re also on the lookout for fake endorsements. they need to know that the influencer truly believes in the product. Essentially, followers want to understand that the influencer would use the product, whether or not they're being paid to do so.
Creating more authentic campaigns may be a top priority. to form your campaigns seem more sincere, it’s important to urge your influencer’s input from day one. this is often an area where you’ve got to hand over some control. The influencer needs their voice to shine through in your campaigns rather than being handed a strict script to follow.
The results could be a little less polished than a professional ad campaign, but, during this instance, it’s visiting work for you.
3. FAKE FOLLOWERS
Marketers are cottoning onto the benefits of influencer marketing. As a result, influencers can shovel in some serious money. This, in itself, has boosted the “influencer as a business” model also . There are plenty of would-be influencers out there and a lot of people peddling courses on how to become one.
The problem with this is that there’s a real drive to take shortcuts. Most influencers are paid consistent with how many followers they have. The downside is that it’s possible to blur the lines here. In one study, researchers found that 24% of influencers had manipulated their numbers at one stage or another.
An influencer might, for instance , join a web community designed to boost page stats. These usually work on a reciprocal basis. The community gets together to market each other’s pages and to increase engagement. So, I’ll like your page, if you’ll like mine. i'd also engage with posts on your page on the same basis.
Another issue is that the outright buying of engagement. you'll find a follower platform that uses bots to increase engagement. These bots are often quite intelligent – they will like a page, then share or engage with posts over a period of time. This mimics how real users might react to posts. The influencer can pay for the number of shares and posts.
It’s something that was, up so far , difficult to detect without digging into each follower’s account. It’s becoming easier, though, as social media platforms are cracking down on fake profiles.
There also are companies tackling this issue head-on using AI. Companies like Social Chain are offering their services to audit influencers. this is often a good thing for the industry because it’ll make it possible to get verified reports on followers.
Good influencers are going to be happy to have their statistics verified. Those using fake followers will soon get sniffed out. While it'll still be possible to trick the system, it'll continue to get harder and harder to do so.
4. IMPROVEMENT IN MEASUREMENT TOOLS
At present, it’s not that easy to live the organic results of a campaign. you'll see how many likes and clicks there are. But how are you able to measure the organic exposure you’re actually getting?
Last year, Facebook made a step within the right direction.
By allowing marketers to use first-party cookies, Facebook has made it that much easier for marketers to trace their progress. Users do have to opt-in to allow marketers to use this type of cookie. If they are doing , though, you’ll get an entire lot of statistics to draw from.
5. THE IMPORTANCE OF ROI
Part of the problem with influencer marketing is that it’s difficult to quantify the ROI of each campaign. But things are changing. Social media platforms are now ready to calculate the ROI of each campaign if they have API access.
Reporting measures will improve as we go along. this may allow companies to calculate exactly how much financial value they’re getting for their campaigns. This, in turn, allows companies to be simpler when it comes to tailoring their campaigns. If they see that the campaign isn't delivering the required results, they will tweak their content and strategy.
FINAL NOTES
Influencer marketing may be a firm favorite amongst marketers today. It’s effective because it’s seen as a recommendation from a true person who has gained the trust of their audience. this is often not some far-removed celeb that lives a glitzy life.
These are real people such as you and me. they need attained some sort of celebrity status, but they’ve also built an honest relationship with their followers.
Taking advantage of that relationship could lead on to a profitable alliance between your company and the influencer. As long as you’re willing to place in the effort upfront to find a good match, you ought to see some promising results. But, make certain to keep an eye out for more influencer marketing trends to know what to avoid, and the way to best optimize your strategy.