Influencer Marketing – All You Need To Know In 2021 Plus Helpful Tips To Grow Your Business Online

Introduction – Influencer Marketing – All You Need To Know In 2021 Plus Helpful Tips To Grow Your Business Online

It goes without saying that trust and confidence from your audience and prospects is a major decision-driving factor in converting prospects to leads and customers.

Without trust, no one will do business with you and that goes for online and offline.

So how can you build trust with a larger audience, generate sales for your eCommerce store, and get new clients and customers for your business all in the same marketing campaign?

The answer is Influencer marketing.

Influencer Marketing is a new way of marketing that has been on the rise in recent years.

It’s easy to see why influencer marketing is such an attractive prospect for marketers, influencers have audiences that are actively engaged and ready to buy your products or services.

What does influencer marketing have to do with your business?

The answer is a lot.

In the last few years, influencer marketing has been on the rise and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

This blog post will teach you about influencer marketing, how it can be used to grow your business, and what companies are doing influencers marketing right now!

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What Is Influencer Marketing?

Let us address the most important question at this stage, “What is influencer marketing?” Influencer Marketing, also known as influencer advertising or word-of-mouth advertising, is a type of marketing in which influential people promote products or services to their social media followers.

In influencer marketing, influencers are individuals who have a significant reach and impact on the market. They can be celebrities, bloggers, popular people on social media or even people from your own community!

The influencer posts content about your product to their audience and in return, they get compensated for the post.

This is an incredible way to advertise because influencers already have a built-in fan base that you don’t need to create yourself.

I’m sure that all of you have seen influencers on Instagram before.

They usually have large followings and are either an individual with a personal account or represent a company.

They will share posts about the product they are promoting and tag it so that those who follow them can find out more information on where to purchase it if they would like to buy it too.

This technique has been used for years by companies such as Coca-Cola, Disney, Nike, and Netflix but with the rise of social media, it has become a viable and profitable marketing option for small businesses and startups of all industries and agencies to start using to market their business and grow online.

How Can Influencer Marketing Grow Your Business?

Influencer Marketing is a great way to build trust and credibility with current and prospective customers because influencers are using their personal brand, which builds engagement.

When influencers talk about or promote your product, you’re on the right track towards building customer loyalty.

Most people believe what influencers say more than what other companies have to say so it’s important that they think positively of them in order for you to get an increase in sales.

Another big reason influencer marketing is such a successful form of advertising is that it has been shown time after time that if someone likes something posted by an influencer, then they also want to share the post themselves!

So when influencers mention your product, it’s more likely to get shared with others and reach a wider audience.

In influencer marketing, the influencers are compensated for their work which means that they’ll be happy if you’re successful too!

If you are reading this post or have been active on social media, consume any form of digital media, know a popular person, or simply just watch the television then chances are you’ve been influenced by an influencer before.

It works even in high school, or preschool for that matter, where the popular guy or girl does or has something that everyone loves and starts doing as well.

It can be as simple as wearing a jacket to school, wearing Vans or Ed Hardy shoes, or even using a Mac and iPhone instead of a PC and Android for the simple fact that you trust, admire, and connect more to the people who do or use these things.

That’s it!

That is Influencer Marketing at work!

From this, you can see and tell quite simply how Influencer Marketing has been at work for ages but now that its easier to get popular, build a following, have an authoritative voice, and talk to millions of people you have never met in person it is a lot easier to find an influencer to help you grow your business online.

All you need to do is find a person that resonates with your brand and image and hire them as an influencer.

They must be someone with an authoritative voice, trusted by an audience of at least 1,000 people on social media, and has the ability to communicate the value of your product or company to your prospects and customers.

Your Influencer will drive leads, sales, and customers to your business by leveraging their trust, influence, voice, market, and brand to generate high-quality leads and sales for your business.

This is the easiest and most direct way that Influencer Marketing can be used to grow your business.

At this stage you might be saying, “I get all that but what are the advantages of influencer marketing? I mean, why do I really need to get into Influencer Marketing?”

I’m glad you asked!

Let us learn about the advantages of using Influencer Marketing to grow your business online.

What Are The Advantages Of Using Influencer Marketing To Grow Your Business?

There are many benefits to influencer marketing.

In this section, we will look at some of the advantages of Influencer Marketing when used to grow your business.

No. 1 Get Warm Traffic

One of the biggest and most important benefits of Influencer Marketing is that it gives you instant access to warm traffic.

Warm traffic is the best traffic you can get because influencers are already engaging with your brand, they’re interested in what you have to offer and want to learn more about it.

The way this would work is that an influencer would tell their audience, let’s say they have an Instagram following of 10,000 active and engaged followers, about your brand, your company, and your products and services.

They would be able to give their audience an introduction to your products and services, your company, and how they feel about you. This will ‘warm up’ their audience to your company, product, and service even before they come to your website.

When they come to your website they would’ve already been pre-framed to trust your business and do business with you. This will boost the conversion rate of your website visitors because they will be doing business with someone they trust.

No. 2. Increased Trust From Prospects And Leads

Did you know that people tend to trust word-of-mouth feedback and reviews from people they know and influencers more than they do from traditional advertising methods?

In fact, 49% of consumers in this report say they rely on influencer reviews when making a purchasing decision.

This means that influencer marketing is a great way for businesses to make their first impressions online.

No. 3 You Can Get Customers And Clients Fast

It’s also an excellent strategy if you need customers fast or just don’t have the time or money to do traditional advertising campaigns which take months before seeing results.

No. 4 Build Trust With Customers

Another benefit of influencer marketing is that it builds trust with customers by giving them access to people who use your product and talk positively about it on social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

This goes without saying but Influencer Marketing will increase customer loyalty when influencers post positive reviews of your company’s

No. 5 Helps You To Target A Specific Market, Audience, Demographic

Another reason is that you can easily target a specific market with influencers that appeal to them. This is effective if you’re trying to expand your business into a new market, new location, or just target a specific demographic.

Another reason to consider is that influencers have an already established audience so it’s much easier for your company or product to reach more people than if they were just advertising their products themselves.

There are many influencers in a variety of industries so there is no shortage when it comes to influencer marketing.

No. 6 It Helps Your Produce Better Content And Marketing Campaigns

Another advantage is that influencers produce better content than traditional advertising methods do because they have the necessary skills, experience, and tools for creating an engaging videos or written content.

This is mainly because they know their audience very well and already have a personal relationship with them.

This makes advertising a product or service to them a lot easier and more accepted than if a company tried to reach out to them cold as most companies do with Outbound Marketing.

This means businesses could save money on production costs by hiring influencers who can create high-quality media which attracts their customers more effectively.

This also saves them time from having to do all the extra work themselves because influencers already know how best to market your company’s products and services online through various social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

No. 7 Helps To Increase Revenues

Influencer Marketing isn’t just about getting people excited about your product or service but it is also an effective marketing strategy for increasing revenue. Influencers can directly influence your sales and get you new customers with just a single campaign.

No. 8 each New Audiences

One advantage of influencers is their ability to reach new audiences who may have never heard about what you’re trying to sell before because they’ve been following that specific influencer on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc. This means that influencers can help target customers in the right way by appealing to them through visual content instead of just relying on ads that sometimes don’t get engagement from consumers.

No. 9 It Can Be A Cheap Form Of Advertising

Another benefit of using influencers as part of their advertising campaigns is that it can be relatively inexpensive (and expensive – we will discuss this in the disadvantages) compared to other forms of traditional advertising.

Some of these forms of traditional advertising include commercials and billboards since all an advertiser needs to do is to find influencers who are in the same industry and have a sizeable following.

This can make influencer marketing more accessible for smaller businesses or startups which may not be able to afford other types of advertising that would cost them thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars.

No. 10 Raise Interest In New Products

You must also keep in mind that influencers create hype around new products being released which helps generate sales quickly!

This is especially effective when you will launch a new product or service and need to drum up interest so that you hit the ground running on launch day.

No. 11 Help With Development Of New Products And Services

Speaking of launching a new product or service is there anything worse than creating a product that nobody wants?

A product that rots on the shelves and nobody even needed?

Isn’t it hard enough to come up with ideas of what to create?

Well, the good news is that Influencers can help you with product and service development too.

Influencers have a deeper and more personal relationship with their audience than most companies can build with years of dedicated marketing and brand development.

The advantage of this is that influencers tend to know your customers better than you do and will be more likely to accurately tell you what problems your ideal customers truly have and how to solve them.

In fact, they can even tell you the best products and services that you should develop and how they will help your ideal customers. That is because your ideal customer is oftentimes their audience.

Now you have a way to develop and launch a new product or service successfully.

No. 12 Help You Get Product Feedback

One last influencer marketing benefit is that it can be beneficial for getting feedback on your product or service.

For example, influencers may have an audience that you don’t know much about and they might give you a new perspective of what is the best way to market their products.

This would require doing research in advance by asking influencers questions before hiring them so that they understand more about what type of content is most effective for promoting your company’s services.

It also saves time because influencers already have experience with this type of work!

In conclusion, Influencer Marketing has many benefits when used correctly. These include: having people recommend your brand through word-of-mouth advertising, boosting conversion rates from website visitors who trust reviews from influencers you hire.

However, we know that there are some serious risks with Influencer Marketing and that serious damage can be done to your, your brand, and your company if it’s not done well.

In the next section, we will take a look at the risks and disadvantages of using influencer marketing to grow your business online.

What Are The Disadvantages Of Using Influencer Marketing To Grow Your Business?

In terms of disadvantages, there is no such thing as a perfect strategy so we must talk about both sides because it’s important to understand how influencer marketing can negatively affect your company even though it has many positives too.

No. 1 It Can Become Expensive

One of the disadvantages of influencer marketing is that it can be expensive.

This is one reason why influencers tend to charge more for their services than companies do when they advertise products or services on traditional mediums like TV.

However, influencers should have a bigger audience and conversion rate both online and offline which makes up for the higher cost.

For example, Cristiano Ronaldo can charge up to $1.6 Million per Instagram post! While that is extremely expensive we will be open and honest and say that to date he is the most expensive Influencer.

But is it worth it?

Well, yes!

Take a look a the video below and try to figure out how much Coca-Cola would’ve made had they have Cristiano Ronaldo advertise one of their water brands like Dasani or Smart Water.

No. 2 There Can Be Limited Reach

Another disadvantage of influencer marketing is its limited reach.

Depending on what your company has in mind as far as demographics go, you may find that influencers cannot cater to them because there aren’t enough people within those specific demographic boundaries who follow certain influencers (or any at all).

For example, if your target demographic is people aged 18-25 with income levels between $50K-$150K, influencers might not be able to target those people because they don’t have enough followers who fit into that demographic.

So what can you do?

You could hire more influencers and hope for the best or focus your marketing efforts on a different type of influencer with an audience that is better suited for your needs.

No. 3 Beware Of Influencer Fraud

It’s also important not to forget about influencer fraud which has negatively impacted many businesses in recent years.

Another disadvantage that comes with influencer marketing is the worry about fraud.

Many influencers on social media are not real people or they’re fake accounts trying to make money off other people’s hard work without giving back anything in return which can be damaging for both you and your company but also for influencers themselves because it says something about their character if they decide to do this kind of thing.

A fake influencer campaign would be one in which influencers are not famous or influencers are hired to make it seem like they’re famous.

For example, the influencer might be someone who has a lot of followers and is being paid by the company for the influencer’s endorsement of their product.

No. 4 Influencer Might Refuse To Work With You

Some influencers will refuse to work with certain brands just due to a fear of being perceived as doing fraudulent things so there may be an opportunity cost when looking at how many influencers are available online willing to represent your brand outside of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Some influencers will also refuse to work with certain brands because of moral beliefs, political opinions, or other reasons and this is another disadvantage for companies that are trying to find influencers willing to represent their brand online.

It’s difficult enough finding influencers who want to be a part of your business but then there is always the possibility they may not align well politically/morally even though it doesn’t matter what you’re selling as long as someone buys it right?

That means if you have an influencer marketing campaign set up with one influencer who refuses to do anything related to guns (even if it has nothing at all about gun violence) then you must start over and find influencers who don’t have these types of moral objections.

No. 5 It Takes Time To Master

The influencer marketing world is constantly changing and growing which means that it’s important for companies to keep up with the latest influencer marketing trends so they don’t have any disadvantages when using influencers in their campaigns.

This downside is that it takes time and patience to find good influencers who will work well with your business and fit into what you’re trying to do advertisement-wise.

It also costs money in order for these individuals or agencies to post on behalf of your company which may be difficult financially depending on what stage your business is at.

No. 6 Influencers Are At Risk

For influencers, the downside to influencer marketing is that they may have a lack of control over how their image and reputation are perceived by people online which can be damaging depending on who you’re working with as an influencer for a company or brand.

This means it’s important for influencers to do research on companies before they agree to work together so that they know if this type of publicity will damage them in any way and whether or not it’s worth doing the gig.

It also means influencers need to protect themselves against fraud because there are many cases where fake accounts run rampant throughout Instagram trying to make money off other people’s hard work without giving back anything of value.

No. 7 Your Brand Is At Risk

Another possible disadvantage and risk of Influencer Marketing is that you will be hiring people (influencers) to represent your company and brand on social media in a positive way.

This is a two-edged sword. Let me explain.

If the influencer representing the company has a good image then it reflects well on your company and your company can even grow from this and experience a boom in sales and new customers.

However, if the influencer representing your company gets caught in some scandal or bad publicity stunt it can also negatively affect your company because people may, and they tend to quite often, connect your company to your brand ambassadors.

That means that your influencer’s negative image can also be extended to your company and so you must be prepared for this risk and possible ways to handle it.

There are many influencer marketing advantages and disadvantages to take into account when deciding whether influencer marketing is a good or bad idea for your company.

No. 8 Influencers Need To Align With Your Brand

One disadvantage you should know about before deciding whether or not influencers will work well with your branding is what happens when an influencer goes public on their social media page?

As I mentioned earlier, bad publicity stunts from influencers can also reflect poorly on your company which in turn can hurt the influencer.

If an influencer has a mishap on their social media that represents them as being racist, inhumane, or prejudiced, among other negative qualities then this can be reflected in your company’s image as well.

How To Grow Your Business Online With Influencer Marketing?

There are many ways to use Influencer marketing to grow your business online.

At the end of the blog post, we will link to an effective strategy that your business can use to find influencers to represent your business and grow it using Instagram.

You can find that article at the end of the post or just by clicking the link here when it is posted on our blog:

Influencer marketing is a tactic that allows you to hire influencers or people with large social media followings who are popular in the influencer space.

Typically this means they have at least 5000 followers on Instagram for example.

These influencers will promote your company’s product/service and then use their own personal following to push it further and get more customers coming through the door as a result of these promotions.

For businesses, influencers offer an opportunity for brand awareness because when someone sees one of your posts from an influencer talking about what they just bought, there is a chance that person may be interested in buying something too!

It also offers companies opportunities for customer acquisition, as influencers can use their following to cross-promote other products or services that the company may offer.

But in order for influencer marketing to work best, you need an influencer who is of good moral standing and someone with a lot of followers on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

If you are interested in using an Influencer to market and grow your business we recommend you read this entire article before proceeding.

Now that you’ve read the entire blog post we recommend you ensure that a few criteria are met when you hire an influencer.

These criteria are:

1. Ensure they currently have a good public image. This involves checking public records and doing background checks on your prospects. Investigate them properly!
   
2. Ensure they are a good fit for your brand align with your company’s goals and visions.
   
3. Ensure that your Influencer’s followers are active and engaged when they post
   
4. Ensure they are active and engaged with their audience.
   
5. Ensure they don’t have generic comments and likes from accounts that are shady and seem fake or inhuman
   
6. Ensure that they have authentic replies and interactions on their comments
   
7. Sign a contract! Find a contract online or use a service like LegalZoom to write an effective contract
   
8. Ask for screenshots of their Instagram Analytics page for post reach, engagement, and trends. This information can be helpful in identifying the audience they reach most frequently
   
9. Listen to them! The chances are high that the influencer knows best how to communicate with their audience, when best to post, what to post, and how to communicate with them. Listen to them and trust them to help you succeed.

Now that you know a few dos and don’ts let us look at how you should use Influencer Marketing to grow your business:

1. You should use your influencer to build brand recognition
   
2. You should use your influencer to raise product awareness
   
3. It would be helpful to use your influencer to get new leads and clients for your service business
   
4. You should use your influencer to drive sales for your eCommerce business
   
5. You should also try to use your influencer to grow your email list as much as possible
   
6. You should use their influence for product research and learn what problems your ideal customer is faced with
   
7. It is a good idea to use your influence to grow your business in the long term. that means that you stick with them for a minimum of three months before you decide if they are a good fit for your business or not
   
8. Your influencer should be a part of your business in terms of helping you grow. you should always interact with them and learn more about them.
   
   This will help you and your marketing campaigns, as well as your Product-Market Fit to be more natural and accepted by your audience
   
9. You should consult with your influencer to learn the latest trends in your target audience and your ideal customers so that they can help to shape your brand on your marketing campaigns even the ones that your influencer is not involved with  
   
10. Influencer marketing should not be the sole marketing strategy that you use in your business. Instead, we recommend that you use other strategies such as social media marketing, search engine marketing, inbound marketing, content marketing, and most importantly use email marketing.
    

Conclusion – Influencer Marketing – All You Need To Know In 2021 Plus Helpful Tips To Grow Your Business Online

We hope that this guide has taught you the basics of influencer marketing and how to use it in your business.

We wanted our readers to understand what influencer marketing is, why influencers are important for their businesses, and how to work with influencers so that they can help grow a company’s profits.

If you would like to grow your business online, get new customers, more leads, sales, and clients then we recommend you set up a free consultation with our team.

Our team is able to help you on your journey to online success.

You can set up a free consultation here.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave a comment in the comment section below. We’d be happy to answer your questions or concerns.

Thank you for reading our blog post about influencer marketing!

We hope that our readers have been able to learn more about influencers and what they can do for their business. We want them to be well aware of the many possibilities in order to help grow a company’s profits online.

You should always consult with your influencer before you start working together so that they know exactly what is expected from them when it comes time for the campaign and growth process.

Thank you again for reading this guide all the way!

Now go out there and get those leads using Influencer Marketing!