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The Impact of Influencer Marketing

Introduction

What is Influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a form of marketing that enables businesses to collaborate with individuals who
have a following for increased brand exposure. Companies may ask a person with a large following to
publish social media content that promotes their products or services. People often follow individuals they
trust on social media, so if they see someone they follow advertising your business, there's an inherent
trust factor you can lean on to boost your conversion rate.

Influencer marketing is a popular and powerful strategy used by brands to promote their products
or services through influential individuals on social media and other online platforms. These
influencers typically have a large and engaged following, which allows brands to reach a highly
targeted audience with their marketing messages. However, like any marketing approach, there
are both advantages and disadvantages to consider.
Influencer marketing in the digital era is a growing business (McMullan et al., 2022). Influencer
marketing represents a $13.8 billion industry that is only increasing in size (Leung et al., 2022; Santora,
2022).
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681322001094

The concept of the influencer marketing is similar,but instead of using tv or film stars, famous
sportspersons or musicians, they use celebrities from the world of social networks –social media
influencers (Sammis,Lincoln and Pomponi,2015).
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nada_Biddou/publication/
334401033_THE_IMPACT_OF_CSR_ON_CORPORATE_COMMUNICATION_A_STUDY_OF_CEN
TRAL_DANONE_MAROC/links/5e0c03cca6fdcc28374d3c16/THE-IMPACT-OF-CSR-ON-
CORPORATE-COMMUNICATION-A-STUDY-OF-CENTRAL-DANONE-MAROC.pdf#page=308

Influencer marketing involves marketing products and services on social platforms through influential
people on the platform, popularly known as Influencers. Influencers can be Nano, Micro, Macro, and
Mega depending on the number of their followers and average engagement on their pages. Since social
media is widely popular among individuals of all ages especially youngsters, a lot of these users grew on
to become influencers mainly because of their content and what they post. Influencers are, as a lot of
social media users have defined, your virtual friends who recommend you products and services through
well-curated content. Influencers also work in niches and genres like beauty, food, fashion, lifestyle and
create content on their forte genres and hence start building a following and soon achieve the influencer
status. Becoming an influencer is directly related to them becoming a trustworthy source for their
followers and an opinionated who has thousands of people agreeing with them. This is the key thing that
attracts companies to use influencers to market themselves online. They try to get along with an
influencer’s key audience through the influencer and with the help of some smartly made marketing
material, they try to drive sales and attention towards their brand.

Influencer Platforms: Social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and blogs serve
as primary channels for influencer collaborations, providing opportunities for authentic content
creation and audience engagement.

Companies, in social media marketing, communicate and interact with consumers thanks to marketing
and advertising activities in different social media platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and
Instagram. These platforms are used by different types of people. Facebook is known as the basic
platform for everyone and on the other hand, Youtube, Twitter and instagram are popular with a younger
generation (Duggan and Smith, 2013).
FULLTEXT01.pdf (diva-portal.org)
Literature Review

2.1.2 History of Influencer Marketing Dating back to Medieval Times, influencing is not a new
phenomenon by any means. Royalty had the right to rule and the only person outweighing their
influence was God or his representative, the Pope (Gatsby, 2019). Despite this, the word “influencer”
was only added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary earlier this year (Adweek, 2019). Back then the
earliest signs of influencers came from royalty promoting medicine. Their influence of course reached
further than just promotion. The colour purple has always been associated with royalty, with its roots
going back to the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre in modern day Lebanon. The dye being so expensive to
make, it could only be afforded by the wealthiest of people (Andrews, 2015). This is one of the earliest
cases of associating certain clothing with power and wealth. In ancient Rome, money was not the only
thing stopping citizens from wearing purple. Roman emperors forbid their citizens from wearing the
colour, disobedience resulting in a death penalty. Only in the 1850s did the first synthetic dyes give
purple to the people even though the Byzantine Empire fell in the 15th century. The influencer does not
always have to be a real person as was proven with the Marlboro Man. Before the 1950s Marlboro was
considered to be a woman’s brand of cigarettes. Then after reports of cigarettes resulting in lung cancer
came, prompting people to look at a safer alternative. Marlboro’s filtered cigarettes were seen as a
healthier option, but they still needed to change their image as a woman’s brand (STMU History Media,
2017).

That is where the Marlboro Man came into play. Going in the opposite direction with their advertising
than in the years prior, Philip Morris started to portray the Marlboro Man as a masculine, rugged
character that was perceived as cool; this drew in crowds of younger male consumers and ultimately
“he” was credited as driving cigarette sales from $5 million to $20 million (Gatsby, 2019). A great
example of an influencer becoming a big part of a brand is Michael Jordan. In 1984 Nike signed Jordan
and when the Air Jordan 1’s hit the shelves in March of 1985, everyone wanted to “Be Like Mike”. By
year’s end, the Air Jordan franchise had amassed more than $100 million in revenues (ESPN, 2013). With
this signing, Nike understood the value a player can have on sales, especially when that someone is as
special as Jordan. One of the most successful influencer campaigns came with Old Spice and the Old
Spice Man. Their “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign created a ton of buzz as it was
featured during Super Bowl weekend in 2010. Aired a few days before and the day after the match,
Isaiah Mustafa’s humorous portrayal of a masculine man drove traffic on Old Spice’s website up by 300
percent and doubled their sales (GRIN, 2019).

In today’s world there are too many examples of influencer marketing to choose from. Brands seed
product to influencers that fit their audience and their posts on social media drive more customers to
the brand. Influencers are gaining more and more popularity, verging on that of a traditional celebrity.
They might start their own brands in hopes that their popularity and fan base will give them returning
customers. In a world of oversaturation, it is important to know who to work with, what influencer will
connect you to the correct target audience.

In recent years, the value of influencers has been seen rising. As with the campaign pictured above,
people that were previously never connected to highly esteemed fashion houses now appear in
worldwide campaigns. With the rise of popularity with hip hop in popular culture, it has opened doors
for new influencers to be used such as A$AP Rocky, Kanye West or Travis Scott.
Advantages of Influencer Marketing

c. Engagement and Interactivity: Influencers can initiate two-way communication with their
audience, encouraging meaningful engagement between consumers and brands.

Pros of Influencer Marketing:

a. Enhanced Reach and Targeting: Influencers have established dedicated and engaged
followers, allowing brands to access niche markets with laser-like precision.

Expanding Reach and Targeting: Collaborating with influencers allows brands to tap into
specific target audiences, leveraging the influencers' existing follower base that aligns with the
brand's target market.

Enables a wide relevant audience reach for better engagement and

conversions.

1. It Helps You Reach a Relevant Audience

Influencer marketing allows you to connect with a specific target audience that
aligns with your brand or product. By collaborating with influencers with a
dedicated following in your niche, you can reach a relevant audience more
likely to be interested in your offerings.

Here’s an example:
Choice Hotels, an international hotel chain, exemplifies this through their
successful collaboration with lifestyle influencers and bloggers to promote
their new brands, Cambria and Comfort Inn.

They invited popular travel and lifestyle influencer, Chelsea Foy, to stay at one
of their properties. She created compelling videos, captivating photographs,
and insightful blog posts documenting her experience.

The campaign yielded exceptional results, reaching an impressive audience of

over 40 million potential customers.

Builds trust and credibility through influencer collaborations.

b. Authenticity and Trust: Influencers are perceived as genuine individuals, fostering a sense of trust
among their followers, leading to higher credibility for endorsed products or services.

2. Build Trust and Credibility

Influencer marketing relies on trust that is created through an established, ongoing relationship between
the customer and the influencer.

By contrast, direct sales tactics may seek to convince customers to act on emotional impulses, such as the
fear of missing out, or the desire to acquire more resources for their money.

Influencers may still create similar emotional connections and utilize direct sales language, but they often
favor the kind of presentation that promotes long-term, sustainable, influential marketing power. They
want their followers to come to them first for advice and recommendations within their niche: it’s their
business model.

And trust is paramount!

When you work with the right influencers, this trust transfers to your business. The customer trusts your
influencer and it’s clear that they trust you, creating an instant relationship.

It’s like meeting the friend of a friend: you’ve got a head start, and that’s a great thing when a customer
lands on your product page.

2. It Helps You Build Trust and Credibility

Influencers often have a strong bond of trust with their followers.
When an influencer recommends or endorses your product or service, it
carries significant weight and credibility. Their audience sees these
endorsements as trustworthy, creating a positive impact on their perception of
your brand.

Influencers providing transparent views of products and services establish

trust and credibility among their audience, resulting in brand loyalty and more
conversions.

Let’s look at an example.

As a popular beauty influencer, Tess Holmes has a large and engaged

follower base on Instagram.

When she endorsed Pure Tan's Tanning Foam, it provided social proof to her
audience. Seeing someone they admire and trust use and recommend the
product creates a sense of confidence and trust in the brand.

By showcasing the application process, results, and sharing her personal

thoughts, she gave her followers an honest and transparent idea of the
product. This authenticity resonated with her audience and helped build trust
in the product.

Expands brand reach by leveraging influencer's follower base and

amplification power.

3. It Broadens Your Brand's Reach

Influencer marketing allows you to extend your brand's reach beyond your
existing customer base. By leveraging the influencer's reach and popularity,
you can tap into new audiences who may not be familiar with your brand but
can likewise benefit from it.

This exposure to a broader audience increases brand awareness, website

traffic, and social media followers. For example, partnering with a travel
influencer can help a hotel or travel agency reach a global audience and
attract new customers from different regions.
Being cost-effective, particularly for niche markets, compared to traditional
marketing.

4. It is Comparatively Less Expensive

Compared to traditional advertising channels, influencer marketing can be a
cost-effective strategy, especially for small and medium-sized businesses.

The cost of running an influencer campaign can be anywhere between $100

to a few thousand dollars. In fact, you can also run influencer campaigns in
lieu of providing freebies to influencers.

According to a report, nano-influencers charge $100 for a promotional IG post

and $43 for a promotional IG Story.

Even on a shoestring budget, you can run an influencer campaign.

While collaborations with macro-influencers can be more expensive, there are

opportunities to work with micro-influencers or niche-specific influencers who
may offer lower rates.

These collaborations can still yield impactful results within a limited budget.

The cost-effectiveness of influencer marketing allows you to allocate your

resources strategically and achieve a higher return on investment (ROI).

Before you move forward, I would suggest you do a quick calculation of the
cost involved in your planned influencer campaign.
To get a better idea of your influencer marketing budget, you should
consider the following factors:

 Influencer's Reach and Engagement: Influencers with a larger

and more engaged following often command higher fees due to their
ability to reach a broader audience and generate more meaningful
interactions.
 Influencer's Reputation and Expertise: Influencers who have
established themselves as industry experts or have a strong reputation
within their niche often have higher demand. Their expertise and
perceived value can influence their pricing.
 Content Format and Complexity: The type of content required for the
campaign plays a role in cost estimation. Different formats, such as
social media posts, blog articles, or videos, have varying levels of
complexity, production requirements, and time investment that can
impact pricing.
 Campaign Scope and Duration: The overall scope of the influencer
marketing campaign, including the number of posts or content
deliverables, the frequency of collaboration, and the campaign duration,
can affect the cost. Larger campaigns or longer-term partnerships often
entail higher fees.
 Usage Rights and Exclusivity: The rights granted to the brand in
terms of content usage, exclusivity, and licensing arrangements can
also influence pricing. Exclusive usage rights or restrictions on
influencer collaborations with competitors may incur additional costs.
 Influencer's Pricing Structure: Influencers may have different pricing
structures, such as flat fees for specific deliverables, cost per
engagement (CPE) based on audience interaction metrics, cost per
click (CPC), or cost per thousand followers (CPM/CPM). To understand
any influencer’s pricing structure, you can ask for their media kit or rate
card.
 Additional Services and Deliverables: If the campaign requires
additional services beyond content creation, such as editing, product
styling, event appearances, or travel expenses, these factors can
impact the overall cost.
 Influencer's Negotiation and Availability: Influencer fees can also be
influenced by their negotiation style, flexibility, and availability. Some
influencers may be open to adjusting their pricing based on specific
budget constraints or unique collaboration opportunities.
To learn more about the cost of running an influencer campaign, please check
my post on, “Influencer Marketing Cost.”

Shortens the sales cycle by leveraging influencer recommendations.

5. The Cycle of Sales Gets Reduced

Influencer marketing has the potential to expedite the buying cycle for your
products or services.

When an influencer promotes your product with a review, they represent a

scope of the buyer's journey that their audience no longer has to go through.
Their product experience is enough to make their trusting audience make a
swift decision to purchase, leading to quicker conversions and increased
revenue. From a traditional marketing point of view, a shorter sales cycle
means less use of resources and more money at the bottom line.

For example, a fashion influencer showcasing a new clothing line can drive
immediate sales as their followers are more likely to purchase based on the
influencer's style advice.

If you want to see how brands have skyrocketed their sales with influencer
marketing, you should check out these influencer marketing case studies.

Saves time by outsourcing content creation and distribution to influencers.

6. You Can Save Time

Influencer marketing can save you time and effort in creating and distributing
content. Collaborating with influencers allows you to leverage the influencer's
creativity and content creation skills.

The influencer takes the lead in producing engaging content, tailored to their
audience, while the brand benefits from the exposure.

This time-saving aspect of influencer marketing enables marketers to focus on

other aspects of their marketing strategy, such as analytics, strategy
development, and campaign optimization.

What are the Cons of Influencer Marketing?

While it offers numerous benefits, influencer marketing also comes with
potential drawbacks and pitfalls that can harm your reputation and financial
standing. Here are the cons of influencer marketing that you should be careful
of:

Wrong influencer collaborations can negatively impact brand alignment and

audience targeting.

1. Working with the Wrong Influencers Can Do

More Harm than Good
Collaborating with influencers who don't align with your brand values or target
audience can negatively impact you. Their actions, controversies, or
mismatched content can damage your brand's reputation and credibility.

Working with influencers who have fake followers can severely harm your
brand. Fake followers not only fail to engage with your content or convert into
customers, but they also dilute the authenticity of your brand message.

When your audience discovers the deceit, it can lead to distrust, negative
sentiment, and damage to your brand's image. It is crucial to thoroughly vet
influencers and ensure their followers are genuine to maintain brand integrity.
To learn how to find the right influencers, check out my post on, “The
Complete Guide on How to to Find the Right Influencers.”

Mistakes in campaigns, like low-quality content or controversial behavior, can

damage brand reputation.

2. Influencer Marketing Mistakes Can Cost Your

Reputation
Missteps in influencer marketing can have costly consequences.

From inappropriate content or endorsements to contractual disputes, any

mishandling can lead to brand image tarnishment and potential legal issues.
It's essential to establish clear guidelines, contracts, and communication to
mitigate risks.

Here is an example of such an influencer marketing fail:

The Ethereum Max campaign featuring Kim Kardashian, Paul Pierce, and
Floyd Mayweather serves as an example of a campaign that led to a
damaged brand reputation and financial losses.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Kardashian for

failing to disclose a payment she received for promoting a crypto asset on her
Instagram feed.

As a result, Kardashian agreed to pay $1.26 million to settle the charges and
has been barred from promoting crypto securities for three years.

Because of the incident, Ethereum Max also reportedly lost over 70% of its
market value. This case highlights the regulatory and financial risks
associated with influencer marketing when proper disclosures are not made.
Measuring precise impact and ROI is challenging due to lack of standardized
metrics and attribution.

3. It is Difficult to Measure Results

Measuring the true effectiveness and return on investment (ROI) of influencer
marketing can be challenging.

Unlike traditional marketing channels with robust analytics, influencer

marketing metrics are often subjective and varied. Determining the impact on
brand awareness, engagement, and sales requires careful tracking,
customized metrics, and analysis.

Most brands prefer tracking sales from their influencer marketing campaigns
to mitigate this challenge. This was the finding from 2022’s Influencer
Marketing Benchmark report.

Inherent risks exist as influencers may face scandals and controversy, or

because of changing trends affecting brand association.

4. High-Risk Involved
Influencer marketing carries inherent risks due to factors beyond your control.
Influencers may have their own personal brand crises, which can impact your
brand's association with them. Additionally, changes in social media
algorithms or policy updates can affect reach and visibility. Monitoring and
adapting to these risks is important while diversifying marketing strategies.
To predict the success rate of your influencer marketing campaign, I would
suggest you use advanced AI-powered tools. You can learn more about them
in this post on “AI Influencer Marketing.”

Influencer Marketing - Advantages and Disadvantages

Influencer Marketing has turned out to be a notable technique that many brands
influence to contact their clients and draw in them. An ever increasing number of brands
are deciding to make use of influencers to promote their products and services.
Indeed, 71% of advertisers feel that influencers who are involved with promoting a
product, will drive in quality traffic and leads. In this article, we'll talk about
the advantages and disadvantages of Influencer Marketing.

What are the advantages of Influencer Marketing?

1) It Helps You Reach a Relevant Audience

Working together with the right influencers for your image can assist you with coming
to significant audiences. You need to undertake manual effort to pick the right
influencers who are applicable to your specialty and industry. You can move
towards influencers who support brands like yours. This makes it simpler for you to
recognise these influencers who have a group of people that you are attempting to
target.

2) It Helps You Build Trust and Credibility

Trust sets aside effort to create and individuals trust the influencers they follow. Along
these lines, assuming an influencer speaks decidedly about a brand, their followers are
bound to trust them. Therefore, probably the greatest tactic that influencers
possess and can be used by brands for promoting is that it assists you with building
individuals' confidence in your image and improving your brand’s credibility. However, to
assemble validity and trust, it's pivotal to collaborate with real influencers who are
experts in their particular specialties or niches.
3) It Broadens Your Brand's Reach

You can arrive at thousands, even huge numbers of the devotees of forces to be
reckoned with, whom you were unable to have reached on your own. Regardless of
the online media stage you pick, influencers can assist you with adding new likely
clients and customers to your existing database.

4) Focus on a Particular Crowd

In the event that you cooperate with an influencer in a similar specialty as you, you can
contact a more applicable crowd. In light of the fact that the influencer’s followers are
now keen on what the person needs to share. By working with an influencer your
message reaches individuals who are probably going to be keen on your brand’s
products and services without you lifting a hand to discover them.

5) Quality User-Generated Content

A decent influencer marketing advertising campaign will comprehend your image

objectives and the message you need the influencers to convey and they will give an
inventive twist and reach out to their followers with your brand’s message. In addition to
that, these influencers will produce a lot of great quality, client produced content that is
set to boost your mission. This user-generated content can be added to your content
repository and repurposed for future promoting efforts. Besides that, influencers are
effective in producing extra UGC from their designated crowds. Content made by
influencers is usually proficient and solid.

What are the disadvantages of Influencer Marketing?

1) Working with the Wrong Influencers Can Do More Harm than Good

It requires some investment and exertion for brands to track down the right force to be
reckoned with for their missions. In the event that you don't work together with the right
influencers, it can do extraordinary harm to the standing of your image.

2) Wrong Influencer Marketing Mistakes Can Cost Your Brand

Influencer Marketing is as yet a somewhat new methodology, so advertisers will

undoubtedly make mistakes.There is no handbook to a fruitful force to be reckoned with
showcasing technique, so more often than not, brands gain from their hits and misses.

3) Consumes a Great Deal of Time

An influencer marketing campaign requires effort that fills its needs and requires some
investment and work to set up. You need to do your examination and find an influencer
that suits your image, get ready agreements of your collaboration, support the
substance your influencer arranged, and measure the results of your campaigns.
Assuming you need to see the advantages of an influencer marketing campaign, you
need to go through this means and that requires some investment.

4) High Risk Involved

In most cases, influencer marketing campaigns won't ensure the ideal outcomes. On
the off chance that an influencer does not have the capacity to make amazing
substance, they may neglect to reverberate with your objective customers. In such
cases, the time and cash you put will be to no end.

5) Influencer Fatigue

As much as it’s visible to the naked eye, like Facebook and Instagram become soaked
with additional paid sponsorships from promotions and influencers, shoppers will make
some harder memories realizing who to trust. Truth be told, under 5% of individuals
accepted the data posted by influencers via online media. Regardless of whether
organizations collaborate with influencers that genuinely fit as accomplices, patterns
appear to show that forces to be reckoned with have less impact over buyers than they
once had.

Have you chosen your influencer yet?

Now that we have told you the pros and cons of influencer marketing and influencer
marketing services, it’s time for you to take the call. Speak to our branding experts
today at Taskmo, and make the most of your next influencer campaign.

https://taskmo.com/blog/influencer-marketing-advantages-disadvantages