5 Benefits of Influence Marketing

By Nyerr Parham

Influence marketing is a different type of marketing strategy. Instead of focusing on reaching out to your target audience directly, which can be sort of a cold start, it concentrates on reaching out to the individuals who have influence over your target audience. Though influence marketing has been around for years and years, brands are only recently coming to recognize its power and many benefits. If you’re thinking of including influence marketing in your own mix, here are some reasons to add it to your plans today.

Brand Evangelists
A brand can sing its own praises as loudly as possible and barely seem to cut through the din created by so many other brands doing the same thing. Some of this self-promoting is sure to grab attention, but many brands gain faster access to potential customers when influencers do the evangelizing for them. Why? Essentially, influencers already have an audience of people who trust them. They aren’t seen as merely interested in making money from their audiences. As such, their audience pays close attention to what they have to say, and when they evangelize about a brand, their audience picks up on their passion and interest and takes an interest as well. The audience decides that if the influencer has taken the time to show interest, the brand MUST be worth a second look. 

Cost Savings
Influence marketing often provides significant marketing-cost savings, which can prove of importance for small businesses in particular. With limited marketing funds to spend, small businesses have to be very careful about how they invest their time and money. Influence marketing allows them to reach out to more people while spending less money and investing less time than they would with other marketing strategies.

Extended Reach
Influence marketing allows you to extend your reach dramatically. Instead of trying to directly reach a large number of individuals who just might have an interest in your products and services, an effort that is time-consuming, difficult, and costly, you can reach out to a smaller number of people, referred to as influencers. The influencers then reach out and share information about your brand with their own large audiences, allowing you to experience a large splash after throwing a smaller stone of effort.

Complementary Marketing Effort
Often, various types of marketing strategies are discussed as separate methods of achieving company goals. Influence marketing can be used by itself as an effective marketing strategy. However, it also serves well as a complement to other marketing efforts as part of an overall plan. In fact, influence marketing can be effective for amplifying your other efforts at marketing your brand’s products and services.

Increased Credibility
Earning credibility with a large audience can take a good deal of time and effort. In fact, it can seem an overwhelming challenge for smaller businesses with limited budgets. However, as with expanding a brand’s reach, influence marketing makes it easier to build credibility. When brands use influence marketing strategies, they don’t have to worry about proving their credibility to a large audience. Instead, they focus on demonstrating credibility to a small number of influencers, and these influencers take on the work of helping the brand gain credibility with the influencers’ (often large and loyal) audiences.

Often, this building of credibility is accomplished because of the status and reputation of the influencer. When an influencer is known for thought leadership in an industry and takes the time to work with, discuss, and share information about a brand, the brand benefits from the increased credibility that naturally goes with being recommended by an influencer who is highly respected in a related industry.

Influence marketing involves attracting the positive attention of influencers who already have a target market’s attention and trust. Your target market members (the influencees) get wind of your brand’s message by doing what they already do: rely on and trust the influencers. As an influencer talks and writes about your brand, he or she helps you build awareness, enhance your reputation, and move influencees through the buying cycle. Your influencer may even help you attract the attention of other influencers in your market.

So what are you waiting for? Get started with your influence marketing program today! Be sure to visit our Resources page for helpful eBooks to get you on your way.

Image credit: Alosh Bennett