The idea is not new: using prominent faces to promote one's own brand or products is a common marketing strategy. Until now, companies have used journalists or well-known celebrities as their advocates. With the new, free and very simple ways to share content and opinions offered by social media platforms, blogs and YouTube channels, a new generation of influencers has emerged.
Today, every eleventh DACH citizen is considered to be an opinion leader who reaches a large number of readers, spectators or listeners with his postings. The transformation of a few well-established opinion leaders, such as newspapers, specialist magazines or expert broadcasts on TV to many, niche-occupying multipliers, requires a new approach in corporate communication. Because it has become so easy to publish online, content marketing is coming more and more under pressure. Brands able to win over multipliers for their cause and manage to integrate them into on-going marketing activities can significantly raise awareness for their products.
Who are Influencers?
Influencers can be found on all relevant online platforms. These include video platforms, primarily YouTube, blogs and social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Relatively new is Snapchat, which attracts largely young demographics and has already been used by big brands such as Sixt, Jägermeister or H&M.
The modern opinion leaders in the digital context are:
• Journalists
• YouTubers
• Bloggers
• Social media opinion leaders
How can Influencers support marketing?
Product reviews
There are different approaches and objectives for working with multipliers. Product reviews are one of them. If influencers are willing to test products and share their experiences with their followers, the company has already achieved a lot in terms of recognition. This type of endorsement creates a high degree of trust in the quality of the product, which is presented visually with its features and characteristics.
Presenting brands
Another approach is sponsorship. By supporting the blogger or YouTuber financially, the company is given the opportunity to expand its brand. The influencer is thus committed to a brand and presents a new application or experience with one of the products in (almost) every post. Examples include fitness equipment, food or cosmetic products, home appliances and many more.
Influencer stories
Yet another way of using influencers is when brands set up a campaign in which the experiences of their influencer are told as a story. The blogger or YouTuber will therefore not only talk or write about the product in their own channel. The influencer becomes the protagonist of a story shared on the brand's owned media. Campaigns of this kind have so far been made by producers of film and photo equipment or car brands, who each had several influencers complete a challenge and documented their experiences with the product cinematically.
Conclusion
The range of activities is huge and offers more possibilities than ever before to produce creative viral video, photo or audio content. When companies integrate influencers into their marketing strategy, existing content marketing can be enriched by new, very credible content that achieve a lot of reach.
Read more about Social Media Marketing.
