Influencer marketing has taken off at an incredible rate over the last few years, and it’s expected to become a 5 – 10 billion dollar industry in the next few years.

Brands and businesses who already use influencers as part of their marketing plans are seeing big returns on their investments, tapping in to the powerful hold that influencers have over their fans and followers.If you’re not already using influencer marketing then it’s definitely something to consider investing in.

But, first things first. 

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is simply working with influencers to promote your brand to their audience.

So instead of creating and sharing content on your brand’s social media pages and then paying to get that content seen by more people, you pay influencers to create authentic content for their own pages. This way you’re getting your name out to a new, already engaged audience.

The real beauty of influencer marketing is that this new audience already knows, likes, and trusts the influencer, so when they recommend your brand they’ll trust that opinion.

There’s so much more to influencer marketing than that though, and so many reasons to give it a try with your brand, so let’s get into it.

What are the benefits of influencer marketing?

If you’re going to spend any part of your marketing budget on influencer marketing then you want to know that it’ll be worth it, and that you’ll get a good return on that spend.

And with the number of brands and businesses using influencer marketing increasing each year, it’s definitely something that’s worth jumping on board with.

From increasing brand awareness to boosting sales, let’s break down all the benefits.

8 INCREDIBLE BENEFITS OF INFLUENCER MARKETING

Influencer marketing is cost effective

Reports show that influencer marketing has a really high ROI, in fact a report from HubSpot found that it has the second highest return on investment of any marketing trend.

One of the reasons that it works so well is that influencers already know their audience. They know the type of content they like to see and what works well in terms of engagement. 

So you don’t have to waste time and money finding an audience and testing content to see what works best. The influencers you work with have already done that for you.

The cost of working with influencers is also generally lower than running ad campaigns on social media, with micro influencers often happy to collaborate in exchange for products.

Influencer marketing boosts brand awareness 

A lot of the time when you’re marketing your brand you’re not actually looking to directly increase sales, it’s more about boosting brand awareness and increasing your reach to new audiences (and potential customers). 

Influencer marketing is an amazing way to do both these things.

Working with a micro influencer with a following of 50,000 people who are in your target demographic will put your brand in front of all those people who might not have heard of your brand before. And it’s worth keeping in mind that micro influencers generally have a much better engagement rate on their content than influencers with millions of followers. 

Influencers really do influence buying decisions.

This kind of marketing is so powerful because influencers really do influence their followers when it comes to buying decisions.

In fact, the Digital Marketing Institute has said that 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations when it comes to making purchases. And further research has found that Gen Z in particular are more likely to buy something if an influencer recommends it.

Influencer marketing increases trust and credibility

Not only does working with an influencer put your brand in front of their audience, it also lets you piggy back on the trust that they’ve already built up with their followers.

People are more likely to trust recommendations from people they know and respect than they are from brands themselves. Interestingly, it’s been reported that Gen Z say that recommendations from influencers are even more impactful to them than those of friends and family, let alone what brands try and tell them to buy!

It’s one thing to see a post from a brand about their product which they, obviously, will tell you is amazing, and another to see something from an influencer talking about how much they love the product and how well it works for them.

When you collaborate with influencers who are already liked and trusted by people in your target demographic then you can shift some of that ready-made trust over to your own brand.

Influencer marketing can boost traffic and engagement for your brand

When an influencer talks about your product and creates content about your brand then chances are high that a good percentage of their followers who see that content will go on to click through to your brand’s page or website.

If you can then capture them with great content that they want to engage with or, even better, an opt-in that they’ll hand over their email address for then you’re onto a real winner. 

Influencer marketing saves you time

There are so many time saving benefits to using influencers as part of your marketing strategy. Firstly, you don’t have to spend months on end building an audience, you can just tap into the following that the influencer has already built up.

Secondly, once you’ve worked with a few influencers you’ll start to build relationships with them so next time you have a campaign you want to run you already know who to reach out to. 

And if you work with an agency like Gymfluencers you’ll save even more time as we’ll help you find the perfect influencers to collaborate with and do all the hard work of organising the finer details for you.

Influencer marketing gives value to your potential customers

Influencers know how to create content that actually provides their followers with useful information or that educates them in some way. So they’re well placed to promote your product in a way that’s authentic and helpful to their audience, rather than just salesy.

And a fringe benefit of this is that you can share this content on your brand’s pages as part of your own content strategy to keep things fresh and interesting for your current followers.

Influencer marketing should be part of your overall marketing strategy

Whether you’re a small start up or a well-established brand you should absolutely include influencer marketing in your overall strategy going in to 2023.

It’s a brilliantly cost-effective way to get your brand in front of new, engaged audiences and skip the time-consuming stage of getting them to trust you, thanks to the trust the influencer has already built up with them.

Here at Gymfluencers Agency we’d love to help you get started with influencer marketing and will make the whole process as efficient, effective, and affordable as possible. 

We can take care of everything from finding the perfect influencers for your brand to creating content specifications and reporting back on the results, while you sit back and relax.