Today, the majority of buyers research online before they buy any product. They refer to product reviews and recommendations, as they want to gather credible information about the product from users or reliable advocates to gauge how good it will be for them. In the process, if they come across the recommendation or comments of some person they feel reliable enough to speak on the product, they do not hesitate to accept their views and buy the product.  The opinion expressed by the person whom buyers find dependable has influenced the buying decision.

The above process of buying illustrates how important the person recommending the product alias the influencer is to buyers.  Since marketers are always on the lookout for ways to appease customers and want to find the best way to reach them, they take help from influencers. Marketers use influencers to talk about their products favorably so that buyers are impressed to buy the product. Both marketers and customers love influencers, though for different reasons and the views of influencers weigh heavily on consumers. This is the prime reason why influencer marketing is gaining popularity today.

New breed of influencers

Influencers were there earlier too, as celebrities and other notable personalities endorsed brands and were central to product advertisements. However, in the digital era, celebrities are not the only ones to play the role of influencers. For marketers, any person who demonstrates authority and knowledge about products or industry and has a good number of followers can become real influencers. This is the result of the evolution of the social media that has brought to the fore, a new breed of influencers breaking away from the traditional dependence on celebrities only to promote products for marketing.  Added to this is the constantly changing consumer preference that has compelled marketers to become more innovative in devising means of reaching out to customers.  

Reasons for change in marketing approach

The change in the marketing tact is the result of the decline of the traditional media and the consumers’ growing dislike for too much advertisement that seems to force the products on buyers.  So deep is the dislike for intrusive advertisements on the internet that consumers are using ad blockers rampantly. The audience tastes have also changed drastically and become much more sophisticated. There is much increased awareness among buyers today who are never happy with anything less than the best. All these have compelled marketers to devise aggressive marketing strategies that can beat competition while keeping buyers in good humor without stressing on the advertisement. The result is that influencers have become key to effective marketing today as the professionals at the SEO Company http://visionsmash.com will tell you.

Emergence of new age influencers

Whether you are selling online or offline, you cannot think of doing without influencer marketing that has turned out to be the most powerful digital marketing tool today.  The surge in the use of social media is largely responsible for giving birth to new age influencers. They enjoy considerable clout among consumers and marketers are always trying to connect with them to reach out to buyers.

As more and more bloggers emerge on the scene, they are eager to monetize the online entity.  Marketers too want to make use of bloggers to drive brand awareness. The desire to benefit mutually has resulted in marketers relying on bloggers who can turn influencers and help their marketing needs. Thus, we see the emergence of the new age influencers. The joint venture of marketers and bloggers has now become so important that almost 85% marketers across the world include at least one campaign of influencer marketing in their marketing plans.

The modus operandi

The social media channels are livewire in spreading the good word all around, and this works in favor of marketers. The influencer acts as the intermediary between the buyer and marketer and undertakes the task of expressing his views about the product among his or her followers. Since the influencer is considered a wise man and is completely trustworthy to the followers, the latter values the views of the influencer to take a decision about purchasing the product. Usually, the buyer follows in the footsteps of the influencer.

Making the concept work

Although the be might sound easy, its successful implementation depends on how well marketers understand the target audience. Marketers must identify such influencer whose followers constitute buyers that marketers’ target. To make it happen, marketers must conduct elaborate research about the target audience to identify their tastes and behave correctly. There must be a clear understanding about which social media platform attracts them most, whom they follow, why they follow that person, what kinds of posts they like and what tweets they would like to re-tweet.  Doing the exercise correctly makes it easy to identify the influencer that will work well for the SEO Company. The bottom line is to select selecting the influencer who is the right person on the right social media platform for the right audience.

Why it works

Influencer marketing is rather a sure fire way of marketing products to specific people who will buy the product. No other marketing techniques can promise assured reach and returns like influencer marketing can. Its powers are immense, and its effectiveness keeps growing as more and more people turn to the social media. The power of influencer marketing in engaging uninterruptedly with the target audience is simply unique. The audience is compelled to stay attached to the influencer unlike advertisements on radio and television that they can quit whenever they wish. This happens either because the Author does not know that they are the target of marketers or even if they are aware, they do not mind because it matches with their preferences.

According to trends, the growth of influencer marketing will gain more momentum in days to come. Brands are now eager to be closely associated with people who have considerable influence on the audience that promises of better returns. Marketers now value influencer marketing much more than other measures taken to gain more exposure that provide only partial returns.  

About the author: Tom Jackson has moved over from SEO to influencer marketing during his ten-year career in digital marketing.  He had been briefly associated with http://visionsmash.com, an SEO Company before making a new career move.  A voracious reader, crime thrillers attract him very much.