One of the proven tools in the fight for customer loyalty is the support of influencers. People who are listened to by the mass audience will help to create a positive image of your brand, attract new customers, expand sales markets and more. In the article we tell you how influencers are defined, what they are useful for you and how to choose the right person for cooperation.

Who are the influencers and why are they trusted?

Influencer is an authoritative person who has a permanent mass audience and has created a positive image within it. The audience, in turn, listens to the leader, for example, pays attention to his advertising integrations, buys recommended products or fixes for themselves certain thoughts, decisions, ideas.

Influencers are important to businesses as prospective disseminator of advertising. Influencer tells about your product to a wide audience, which increases the number of potential customers and generally increases brand awareness and loyalty of potential customers to the brand. The key is for the lead’s evaluation to be positive.

Since the leader is perceived by his audience as an expert in some field, the goods and services advertised by him also acquire a kind of quality mark in the eyes of potential customers. People begin to trust your company, even if they learned about it only five minutes ago. And the trust of the mass consumer is one of the main tools of successful sales.

Influencer advertising may not be direct, but native, which improves the visibility of your brand and contributes to a gentler formation of a positive image. For example, an influencer openly uses your product – appears with it at events, publishes content on social networks or mentions it in interviews. Readers and listeners, in turn, will unnoticeably remember the brand name in a positive way and are very likely to buy goods or services from your company in the future.

We can conclude that the influencer is an important figure for the successful development of business. Conditionally it can be called a key element of marketing, which helps to make the company recognizable and popular, to form a good opinion about it and expand the target audience.

Why do people listen to influencers?

There is such a concept in psychology – “social proof”. Looking at the actions and choices of others, we may subconsciously conclude, “This is probably the right decision.” Social proof is strengthened if the same script is embodied by several people, or by one person, but one who has mass recognition, for example an influencer. The audience values the opinion of the influencer because they consider him/her to be knowledgeable in the relevant field.

Another psychological aspect is the natural need to belong to a social group. We subconsciously seek to surround ourselves with people with whom we share common views and interests. Since the Influencer we choose is usually in this category and represents a kind of leader of the group we want to belong to, we automatically trust his words and actions.

The personal qualities of the Influencer him/herself are also an important part of audience management. Usually, leaders are people who understand the psychology and social needs of others, who know how to create and maintain the necessary image, who know how to prove the truthfulness of their point of view. Influencer is perceived as a competent and close to us expert, and his ability to “press” certain levers to cause an emotional reaction, plays into the hands of the advertiser.

Why businesses should work with influencers

Partnering with Influencers provides entrepreneurs with the following benefits:

  • Increased credibility. The influencers are often perceived by audiences as the unquestioned truth in the last instance. If an Influencer recommends your product, their followers automatically have confidence in the brand.
  • Increased recognition. The best way to expand your audience is to spread the word about your brand through Influencers who have thousands of followers on social media or speak in front of large groups as coaches, trainers, and educators.
  • Emotional Impact. When a leader talks about a product or service in a positive way, the audience subconsciously begins to associate the company with something that evokes good emotions.
  • Recommendations and testimonials. Often, businesses orders at influencers direct and transparent advertising where the performer leaves good reviews about the product or service. Personal recommendations are one of the main tools of marketing because they are perceived as honest and justified.
  • Expanding the target audience. Companies usually reach out to influencers in the same field they are involved in, from cosmetology to selling auto products. Influencer’s target audience in this case is the same as that of the business, so advertising hits exactly the “bull’s-eye”.

Finding and choosing the right influencer for your business

The strength of an influencer`s impact depends on several factors:

  • Authority. In today’s oversaturated markets, the audience is becoming more and more selective. Therefore, the leaders are usually those who really have knowledge and experience in their niche, such as specialized education or a solid work case.
  • Attractiveness. Subconsciously, people tend to trust and better perceive those who have a pleasant appearance. If a person seems attractive, we subconsciously find it easier to agree with his/her opinion.
  • Audience similarity. A leader’s expertise is better perceived by those who agree with him/her in his/her views. The audience unconsciously “validates” the influencer’s opinion through the lens of their own experience.

Based on the above, to select the best influencer as the face of your brand you should:

  1. Study the target audience. It is necessary to determine who exactly is your potential consumer, then choose an Influencer with the same TA. This is a guarantee that the advertising will be productive.
  2. Assess the credibility of the influencer. It is worth choosing a real expert in his field, not a theorist, but a practitioner, whose opinion is safely trusted even the most demanding and picky listeners.
  3. Consider the interrelationship of interests. It is necessary to make sure that the opinion and values that translate the influencer to his TA, coincide with those that promote your company.
  4. Evaluate the expert’s influence on the audience. Compare potential advertisers in terms of social media reach and followers, likes and reposts, quality of content published and interaction with subscribers.
  5. Negotiate all possible nuances of cooperation. Have a conversation with those who are on your short list of suitable influencers, or a trial run of advertising. Compare the terms of cooperation, communication style, the potential for long-term relationships, the effectiveness of the first trial.

A competent choice of the right influencer is a guarantee that your financial investment in marketing cooperation will bring the expected results.

Strategies for engaging with influencers

Most often, cooperation with influencers follows one of three schemes:

  1. Advertising campaigns. A basic solution for any business format, which can have several incarnations. Minimum – recommendation of a specific product or service through a post/story in social networks. Maximum – long-term cooperation in a range of marketing products, such as TV commercials.
  2. Sponsorship. A model of interaction in which a company at its own expense provides the influencer with its product, pays for its participation in events, or otherwise invests funds for its own benefit. The Influencer, in turn, shares feedback about the product/service.
  3. Partnership. A collaboration between a company and an influencer that allows each party to expand its audience, increase recognition and credibility. Partnership consists in joint release of products, mass events and similar schemes of interaction.

The final format of interaction depends on the budget, the conditions and requirements of each party, and the expected result. The main thing is to observe the norms of ethics, for example, to refuse aggressive marketing and cooperation with unreliable influencers, so as not to lose the trust of the consumer.

Influencers have a significant impact on their audience and often interact with businesses to help promote certain products or increase brand awareness in general. Cooperation with influencers is a proven and effective marketing tool that brings excellent results: from increasing sales to attracting new consumers. The main thing is to choose the right advertiser according to your company’s strategy, values and target audience.