What is influencer marketing?

In the age of social media, influencer marketing is becoming a real cornerstone for brands. This article delves into this rapidly growing strategy, analyzing its advantages, disadvantages, influencer selection criteria, as well as key performance indicators.

Whether you're a marketing expert or simply curious about the latest trends, let's dive into the world of influencer marketing together to discover how it can revitalize your strategy.

Article Summary: What is influencer marketing?

1. What is influencer marketing?
2. Key statistics of influencer marketing
3. The benefits of influencer marketing campaigns
4. Criteria for choosing influencers
5. Tracking influencer marketing campaigns
6. Drawbacks of influencer marketing
7. The future of influencer marketing
8. Influencer campaign: an example

Influencer marketing is a powerful strategy that has evolved significantly in recent years.

The Concept:

Influencer marketing is based on collaboration between brands and influencers (also known as content creators) to promote products or services. Influencers use their credibility and audience to recommend these products or services to their subscribers.

The Content:

Influencer campaigns can take various forms, such as social media posts, YouTube videos, blog articles, or even audio formats through podcasts.

The Market:

The influencer marketing sector has been rapidly growing over the past five years. Many brands heavily invest in this field to reach their target audience authentically and precisely.

To better understand the impact of influencer marketing, let's revisit some statistics revealed in the 2023 Reech study on influencer marketing.

• Time Spent on Social Media: users spend an average of 1 hour and 42 minutes per day on social media. This trend is quite generational, with 18-24-year-olds spending 2 hours and 36 minutes per day, while those over 65 spend only 1 hour and 7 minutes (which is still a significant amount of time).

• Social Media Usage: Facebook is the most powerful social network, with a reach of 75% of respondents. However, Snapchat and TikTok dominate among young people (18-24 years), with 81% and 78% usage, respectively. Instagram is the undisputed leader among 18-34-year-olds, while Twitter and Twitch are more popular among the young than the elderly.

• Knowledge of Influencers: 66% of social media users are familiar with content creators. However, this knowledge varies greatly by age, from 84% among 18-34-year-olds to 48% among those over 65.

• Impact of Influencer campaigns: over 90% of people who have seen a collaboration between an influencer and a brand have already discovered that brand, and 73% have made a purchase as a result of an influencer campaign.

• Diversity in Consumption: purchases related to influencer campaigns are mainly concentrated in product categories like cosmetics and fashion, which correspond to the topics most followed by influencers.

• Responsibility and Ethics: about two-thirds of social media users want influencers to be more responsible and ethical. This demand is consistent whether looking at men or women and peaks among 35-64-year-olds.

• Trust in Influencers: only 24% of people who follow influencers consider them reliable sources when buying a product. Thus, word-of-mouth from friends and family remains the most reliable source for consumers.

• Preferred Partnerships: collaborating with influencers can simplify content creation. Brands don't need to produce content themselves.

>>>If you want to know 4 tips for working well with a partner on Facebook and Instagram, click here.

Influence marketing offers numerous advantages for brands that incorporate it into their marketing and advertising strategy. Here are its main benefits:

Credibility and authenticity

Influencers often have a loyal audience that trusts them. When they recommend a product or service, it's perceived as a recommendation from a friend rather than as advertising. This enhances the brand's credibility.

Targeted audience

Brands can choose influencers whose audience matches their target clientele. This way, the brand can directly reach consumers who are most likely to be interested in the product or service.

Creation of quality content

Influencers are often talented content creators. Their ability to produce engaging and authentic content is a major asset for marketing campaigns. This allows you to convey your brand's values through the chosen influencer.

Increased visibility

Influencers' posts reach a considerable audience. This helps increase your brand's traffic and visibility and brings in new customers.

Time and energy savings

Collaborating with influencers can simplify content creation. Brands don't need to produce content themselves.

Measurability and tracking

Influence marketing campaigns offer clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that allow for precise measurement of the success of these campaigns. This makes tracking performance and adjusting strategies during the campaign much easier.

There are many advantages to incorporating influence marketing into your advertising strategies. This approach offers the opportunity to expand brand reach, increase visibility, notoriety, and even improve user engagement with the brand.

To succeed in an influence marketing campaign, it is essential to fully understand your goals, your target audience, and the influencers you will choose. This is, of course, a determining factor in the success of your influence campaign.

Let's list some criteria to consider in this choice:

• Affinity with the brand: it's important that the influencer is in line with the brand's values and mission. Their content should positively reflect the brand and ideally embody its values.

• Audience: it is essential to ensure that the influencer's audience matches your brand's target clientele in terms of demographics, interests, behaviors, and age.

• Engagement: the quality of the audience is as important as the quantity. Influencers with a high engagement rate (comments, likes, shares) are often more effective and should be preferred to bring qualified traffic.

• Credibility: influencers must be credible in their field. They should have built a strong enough reputation to inspire trust.

Tracking influence marketing campaigns is essential to measure the impact of your advertising campaign. To do this, there are several indicators to keep in mind. The more you analyze your results during the campaign, the more you can optimize your results.

Here are some KPIs to watch for:

• Engagement rate: measure the number of likes, comments, shares, and clicks on the links included in the influencer's posts.
• Reach: calculate how many people have seen the influencer's posts; often, this data is referred to as "coverage."
• Brand awareness: measure the brand's awareness before and after the campaign to see if it has increased, especially through the number of new subscribers.
• Conversions: monitor how many sales or actions (like filling out a form) can be directly attributed to the campaign.
• ROI (Return on Investment): compare the campaign costs to the recorded earnings, taking into account the generated sales.

To measure all these statistics you have access to a number of tools, such as the analytics integrated into each social network, Google Analytics, Hootsuite, Semrush and many others.

However, influencer marketing is not without disadvantages. Let's outline some of the challenges that brands may face:

• High costs: Some big social media stars may demand high fees for their services, making them sometimes inaccessible to small and medium-sized businesses.

• Loss of control: By collaborating with influencers, brands relinquish some control over the brand's message and image because it is the influencers who produce the advertising content.

• Market saturation: The influencer marketing market is becoming increasingly saturated, making it challenging for a brand to stand out.

• Legal challenges: Regulations regarding advertising on social networks can vary from one country to another, which can lead to legal challenges. Moreover, it is essential to note that the year 2023 has seen significant changes in France aiming to regulate commercial influence and counter abuses by influencers on social media platforms.

• Authenticity tracking: Some influencers may buy followers or likes, making it challenging to verify the authenticity of their audience.

>>> If you want to know 5 tips about advertising on social networks, click here.

Influencer marketing is an evolving industry. Given the latest figures mentioned earlier, consumers want more responsible and transparent partnerships, forcing influencer marketing players to evolve and adapt to consumer desires.

Influencer campaigns are not just a passing trend but a legitimate marketing strategy that can have a significant impact on your brand's awareness, consumer purchasing behavior, and even how your audience perceives your brand.

It's crucial for brands to understand how to ethically and transparently integrate influencer marketing into their overall strategy to achieve optimal results.

Influencer marketing is a powerful tool for brands, offering increased visibility, precise targeting, and enhanced credibility. However, it's essential to carefully select influencers, closely monitor campaigns, and keep potential drawbacks in mind to make the most of it.

In 2021, Adidas chose Léna Situations as the face of its #StepIntoYou campaign. The collaboration featured bold visuals displayed at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. 

Throughout the year, Léna continued to promote Adidas by sharing her selection of products on the brand's website. This integration of the influencer into the purchasing process led to greater interaction between followers and the brand, and a higher conversion rate.

The partnership then continued with Léna climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in an Adidas outfit, an authentic adventure shared in a YouTube video lasting more than 40 minutes and generating more than 3 million views.

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Une publication partagée par Lena Situations (@lenamahfouf)

If you're ready to launch your influencer marketing campaign, contact us or request a quote now and discover our selection of influencers.