Essay Sample on Influencer Marketing: A Modern Approach to Business Marketing

Influencer marketing has been adopted by many business firms as a vital and modern approach to marketing products. Influencer marketing, therefore, is a technique that employs social influencers and social media that relies on blogs, bookmarks, Wikis, Vlogs podcasts, microblogs, social networks, communities, and message boards to attain a corporation's marketing and business requirements (Karanikolova, 2019). Digital influencers are people who play a key role in controlling the purchasing decision-making of customers. Influencers have become the active initiators of the message and commodities introduced to the public setting. Due to the authority, position, relationship, knowledge the influencers have they automatically affect purchase decisions of other customers (Karanikolova, 2019). The influential power and wider marketing network make them brand ambassadors as well as involved in brand communication plans. To achieve maximum profit in business, a proper and adequate advertisement should be made. Therefore many businesses have turned to influencer marketing so as to stand out in the world of digital consumers who rely on social platforms for commercial information.

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Due to the high influencer credibility on social media, engaging them in PR strategy makes them the best and effective brand ambassadors. Influencers act as the opinion leaders whose ideas, knowledge, and status is appreciated by and relatable to the society (Maden,2018). The influencers can be a macro or a micro-influencer. Macro influencers possess large active social fans most of which they have unknown relationship ranging between 100,000 and one million followers (Karanikolova, 2019). Macro-influencers are perfectly applicable when the brand is targeting a specific type of consumer and a broader audience. A micro-Influencer, on the other hand, is a person within a client's social graph who directly influences the behavior of the customer due to the personal relationship between them. He/ She have a following ranging from 1,000 to 100,000 fans (Karanikolova, 2019). Micro-influencers have stronger relationship with their audience therefore; they are able to win people's trust. Due to the perfect relations the brands automatically expect a major conversion rate for the payment they make (Karanikolova, 2019).

Digital influencers include athletes, industry leaders, celebrities, footballers' artists, actors and people who specialize in certain niches and who have their own community in social media and capacity to create sponsored as well as professional content for the followers. Influencers create blog posts, videos or pictures with the brand or company's' information that is suitable for marketing on their social media platforms such as; Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The influencers should be able to create compelling content, engage and interact with the audience, be highly visible on social media platforms and have adequate knowledge on a particular subject or niche (Boinott, 2017). Influencers also act as brand ambassadors by engaging clients in product creation and trials. Influencers, therefore, are important in running any kind of business. The reasons why influencer marketing has been recently adopted is that most traditional marketing methods like TV and prints are not perfect advertising platforms as before.

The state is due to the fewer time people spend on such media. People have diverted their attention and time to social media, therefore, influencer marketing remains the most trusted marketing method. Influencer marketing is perceived as reliable, friendly, likable, and genuine since it allows people to follow the Influencers and get inspired willingly. Influencers are experts in fields such as; fashion, food, beauty, and cosmetics. Therefore they are credible (Boinott, 2017). Another reason why influencers are included in PR strategy is that they are more popular than mainstream celebrities. Social media has created a broader platform for publicity to the young generations. The state has made influencers to elevate their popularity more than TV personalities and mainstream celebrities (Boinott, 2017). A greater number of consumers are likely to purchase commodities endorsed by an influencer and not a mainstream celebrity. Another reason that gives influencers a chance to engage in PR strategy is that clients are tired of paid advertisements that do not provide accurate information yet the need for consumers is communication.

Influencers are able to connect with the consumer base, making them trustworthy. In order to maintain their reputation, influencers promote the commodities that have been tested and approved to satisfy the consumer. Additionally, influencer marketing is cost-effective when used as a marketing tool (Singh, 2018). Digital marketers have championed for influencer marketing as one of the most dependable and efficient ways of acquiring customers. Influencers are known to earn respect because they provide information that meets the audience interests. Using the method is, therefore, more effective than advertisement since the target audience is reached out. Additionally, advertisements and other commercial communications are often locked out on internet and social media. The method is cost-effective since it has led to budget growth due to the ability to convince marketers resulting in greater returns.

Influencers also create mass word-of-mouth, thus saving the time used to reach out to the appropriate audience. Influencers have a platform with many followers hence spreading the information is easier and faster. Word travels quickly and effectively on platforms such as twitter, Instagram snapchat. Therefore, public relations depend on such to announce awards, launch of products and make company updates (Boinott, 2017). Influencers also are able to convey specific high-quality information to the right customers. The influencers have great experience of delivering and educating their audience about the brand or products. Quality content promotes marketing and results in higher profits. Influencers promote exposure and increment in the brand value by introducing the brand to a large number of people who in turn convey the information to other thousands of followers. the effective campaign that influencers engage in increasing the value of the brand. The greater network of communication created leads to a higher number of customers for the brand or product now and in future (Singh, 2018).

Influencer marketing is trackable; that is why companies are engaging influencers in the PR strategy. In the past, measuring the effect of ancient PR campaign was a challenge. However, with the capability of influencer marketing it is easier to measure the achievement of the campaign accurately. The influencers use metrics such as social likes and comments, click-through rates, revenue, brand mentions, and referral traffic among others (Smith, 2017). The social media influencers have eliminated the barriers between members of the public and a brand, decreases the time wasted by a company when trying to respond or react to relevant stories, and obscures marketing and public relations link. Marketing influencers play a key role in business promotions because the relationship between the final influence and intention to buy a product depends on the fact that people rely on available information to make decisions.

The influencers also give brands a voice. Through a large number of followers, brands are able to promote aids and safeguard reputations. Therefore, selecting the potential influencers for a particular brand is an essential part of the influencer marketing campaign. After brand's style and the target audience are recognized suitable influencers for the collaboration should be found (Smith, 2017). The considered criteria for the appropriate influencer are honesty and excitement about the commodities they would promote. Moreover, the overall influencers style should suit the product. every company should decide on the number of influencers needed for the campaign. Therefore, the company should decide whether to use influencers with a smaller number of followers, macro-influencers or both. To be on the best side it is advisable to use both micro a macro-influencer (Biaudet, 2017). The advantage of using the influencers with a smaller number of followers is that it is more powerful than the Influencers with a bigger number of followers due to the close engagement with their audience is usually more engaged than the macro-Influencers. Some of the influencers, however, may turn down the collaboration. Therefore, companies are encouraged to have an extra number (Biaudet, 2017).

Digital PR has applied the use of various influencers to promote their brands. For instance, take sprints 2017, used Steven Spence, Jake Paul, Lela Pons, and Gerard Adams as the public figures in advertising and representing the brand in specific and unique styles (Smith, 2017). Using multiple digital influencers, enabled Sprint to reach out to a larger audience thus their brand content was conveyed on different social platforms under one campaign. The success of the influencers made the brand to become a major competitor in the service provider market. Revolve was another type of influencer campaign which used the #revolve festival campaign to reach out to the specific and new west coast market .the brad ambassadors used were @sincerely Jules and @wererat posted photos of themselves putting on clothes when they were at Coachella (Biaudet, 2017) .Those who attended the glamourized music festival used the hashtag to share the style, news at the event as well as the music. The influencers thus caused an increase in brand followers and awareness (Smith, 2017).

The social platforms the social influencers use include Facebook which is mostly accessed by a large number of people. Facebook is a popular platform that attracts a greater audience hence it cannot be ignored as a marketing arena. Facebook enables social influencers to engage the audience via high-quality content using posts, videos, images, links, and infographics. In order to make a successful Facebook marketing platform, one needs a conversational brand. As long as a conversational platform has been created, a strong base of audience is developed. The audience will automatically follow the influencers' page to receive updates about the brand whenever posts are made.PR Practitioners also explore other vital features that enable them to engage the audience (Karanikolova, 2019). The features include Mentions that are open to the main public personnel ,Facebook's search function that ensures public posts are accessed easily, Facebook's shopping tab that makes it possible to partner with marketers and leverage it for better sales, instant articles that offers valuable and reliable content to consumers, and Facebook events that helps influencers to manage the various events to be organized.

Other features that can be applicable to PR professionals include, music stories, Facebook's professional services, and Facebook's donate button. Twitter is another social platform that can be used by influencers. Twitter provides a good platform to make announcements to the public concerning certain businesses or customers (Karanikolova, 2019). The information put forward includes; launch of a new commodity, award winnings, upcoming events, introduction of a new brand into the market or making the audience aware of any crisis or emergency. Influencers also use the platform to connect with new persons, following them as they follow you (Biaudet, 2017). Instagram is another social channel where people spend a lot of time following influencers to get inspiration and ideas. Instagram has the largest number of users due to its e...