Influence marketing has a great advantage: today there are few people who have never heard the term influencer . That individual 2.0 heir to the celebrities and who has become the object of desire of consumer brands. His influence among his target audiences has become yet another item within his marketing budget. However, we don’t always know how to identify these social influencers or, once detected, how to design an effective influencer marketing strategy.
This is where influencer marketing (or influencer marketing) comes in. Defined as a marketing strategy based on establishing links between brands with those who have a leading role on the Internet ( influencers ).
EVOLUTION OF MARKETING INFLUENCE ON MARKETING PLANS
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Although influencer marketing has been around for decades, 2015 was the key year that promoted this type of strategy as we know it today. To understand how influence marketing has been gaining strength over the years, here are the keys to its imminent evolution :
- In 2015 , influence marketing gained momentum, making a hole in the digital marketing departments of major companies (73%), who decided to allocate part of their budget to campaigns with influencers .
- In 2016 , there is still some reluctance on the part of marketing professionals to carry out this type of strategy. Although other studies corroborated the boom in this discipline, going so far as to ensure that 86% of brands had launched influential marketing campaigns during 2016, mainly focused on B2C (Business to Consumer) companies. On the other hand, this same year it served to corroborate that influence marketing produces a very positive return on investment (generating 11 times more investment than other digital marketing action). In this sense, various reports indicate that 94% of the influence marketing campaigns launched were considered effective.
- In 2017 , influencer marketing has become one of the best allies for the fashion and retail sector . In fact, 84% of these professionals say that influencers favor brand awareness and visibility.
‘TOP CHANNELS’ FOR INFLUENCE MARKETING
But which social channels are the most conducive to launching some type of campaign? Currently, there are three that monopolize (almost) all the resources: Facebook , Instagram and YouTube .
Social networks have become key elements when carrying out any digital marketing strategy. Therefore , we recommend you know in detail everything related to social networks , in addition to which of them are the most used . Ah! And don’t miss our IV Study on social networks , in which we statistically analyze the use of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by users in Spain.
- For 32% of influencers , Facebook is the main platform when it comes to managing influencer marketing campaigns .
- For their part, online marketing professionals highlight the benefits that Facebook brings to influence campaigns, focused on the possibility of viralizing brand content through videos and photos.
- In addition, Facebook allows segmenting posts by age, sex, and location, which is essential when accessing our target audiences
- Some tools to consider: events and live videos.
- With more than 800 million users , Instagram has become the social network with the highest growth rate, only behind Facebook (2.1 billion), YouTube (1 billion) and Whatsapp (1,250).
- 24% of influencers prefer the use of Instagram when it comes to growing their community.
- The famous “ stories ” of Instagram have become an ideal tool to launch quick messages, and thus be able to maintain constant communication with your followers. In addition, Instagram Stories allows you to add geotags and hashtags .
- In 2016, 700 million were invested in influence marketing campaigns with an Instagram destination . Throughout 2018, it is expected to reach 1.7 billion.
- A billion users access YouTube monthly, which has catapulted it as one of the favorite tools of influencers , who on this platform have their own name (YouTubers). Currently, more than 3,250 million hours of video are played on the platform, which further accentuates its role as a platform between audience and content creators.
- Many of the subscribers to YouTube channels are teenagers, who follow various influencers through the platform. 70% of these young people affirm that they trust the opinions of these influencers more than that of other public figures.
- YouTubers transmit a message or idea, based on a specific theme, such as humor, fashion or video games.
CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, it is clear that influence marketing has earned a place within the marketing budgets of SMEs and digital marketing, even more so if your business is oriented towards B2C (final consumer). As for platforms, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are consolidated as the favorites of the public and influencers to carry out this type of campaign, the benefits of which go beyond mere conversion. Of course, do not leave out other platforms such as Twitter to carry out your influence marketing.