Influencer Marketing During the Pandemic: The Latest Hacks

The Coronavirus pandemic has pushed us to turn to social media for a sense of human connection. Social media is thus  becoming an essential part of people’s lives, and with this, influencers are becoming this generation’s millionaires, leading to a huge rise in influencer marketing.

The influencer marketing industry was disrupted by the pandemic; but rather than transformative shifts in the market, the changes are acceleration of trends from an earlier time. Although brands are already familiar with partnering with social media influencers, they must constantly advance their strategies accordingly.

 

Why Is Influencer Marketing Important?

A new marketing type–online influencers–emerged when people started to avoid traditional marketing and favored social channels and fresh forms of digital marketing. Influencers have been typically employed for their influence in building communities and engaging with consumers on a more personal level that brands can do on their own. The digital marketplace became crowded as brands strive to create interesting and appealing content to secure consumer’s attention.

Pre-existing consumer preference for online commerce was reinforced by the 2020 global lockdown, which also led to a wider adoption of influencer marketing. Influencers have become very powerful due to social commerce in particular. They can enhance the brand’s advertising performance and improve overall conversion rates as native content created by influencers tend to resonate better with consumers.

Influencer marketing is growing exponentially over the years as it is still a highly popular and effective form of marketing. The intensified use of influencers as a marketing activation has resulted in the constant change of strategies for influencer marketing.

Consumers prefer peer recommendations these days. The direction of the conversation is no longer from the brand to consumers as consumers talk to each other about brands. Subtle and authentic content from influencers can produce better results than excessive promotional posts.

 

Influencer Marketing Statistics

Influencer Marketing Hub conducted a survey in 2021 to learn about brands’ perspectives and gain insight into their thoughts on the industry. The results include some significant statistics associated with influencer marketing from other recent research.

Below are some noteworthy points that were highlighted:

 

• “Influencer Marketing Industry is set to grow to approximately $13.8 Billion in 2021
• More than 240 new influencer marketing-focused agencies and influencer platforms established in 2019
• The majority (59%) admit to having a standalone budget for content marketing, and 75% of them now intend to dedicate a budget to influencer marketing in 2021
• 90% of our survey respondents believe influencer marketing to be an effective form of marketing
• The majority of brands use the same influencers across different campaigns
• Brands still tend to give away free product samples (or give discounts on more expensive products) rather than paying cash to their influencers
• 67% of our respondents measure the ROI from their influencer campaigns
• The most common measure of influencer marketing success is conversions/sales
• 83% of firms take their influencer marketing spending from their marketing budget
• 67% of respondents use Instagram for influencer marketing, but there has been a colossal increase in TikTok influencer marketing
• Influencer fraud is still of concern to respondents, but less so than in the past
• Far fewer respondents have experienced influencer fraud that previously
• 67% of respondents prefer their influencer marketing to be campaign-based rather than always-on
• Finding influencers remains the most significant challenge for those who run campaigns in-house but is becoming less of a problem”

 

The adoption of new advertising strategies will make substantial market gains for brands as influencer marketing continues to demonstrate its effectiveness.

 

Ways Influencer Marketing Helps Your Brand

Working with influencers has numerous advantages, which can be tailored to your specific objectives. Here are a few factors that will convince you to start applying influencer marketing to your overall brand strategy.

 

1. Gain credibility and perspective

Brands marketing their own product or service is no longer viable since consumers believe that it is a mere attempt to make profit and is no longer trustworthy. Influencers positioned their own personal brand and built a high level of trust with their audiences, where working with them can help you attract the attention of their followers to your brand. Influencers help in developing credibility when they associate with your brand.

With the assistance of an influencer guide who can help navigate true branding opportunities, brands may swiftly unlock a new market or demographic. Additionally, it allows your brand to reach the influencer’s vast audience and earn their trust and loyalty over time.

 

2. Greater reach

There are influencers who have amassed millions of followers on social media. A collaboration with influencers who have a massive audience can help your brand organise highly effective campaigns and effortlessly reach millions of consumers. Maintaining positive relationships with influencers can aid in the expansion of your brand’s network, resulting in increased reach and awareness.

Influencer marketing also helps brands overcome many of the challenges that other forms of marketing come across in modern times. Traditional advertisements are disliked and unwelcomed, leading to widespread use of ad blockers, while influencer marketing can reach consumers in a non-intrusive manner.

 

3. Higher SEO ranking

People will most likely want more information after coming across something they are not familiar with. Having well-known and trusted influencers to mention your brand on their page will result in high-quality backlinks to your website. Because Google favours high-quality links, your Google search ranking will improve, and there will be a significant increase in visitors to your website.

 

4. Highly targeted traffic

The digital world is overflowing with content which makes it difficult for your brand to reach the targeted audience. Influencers who have already built a niche following that aligns with your brand can help to reach the right audience through the clutter of content. The chances of conversions will be much higher than with a generic audience as your message will reach the intended audience through the influencer.

Although celebrities might seem like a good option considering their colossal amount of followers, key leaders in your industry niche can actually bring a sense of connection with the intended audience. A boost in brand credibility with more genuine value and content can be achieved by these influencers while they are also easier to reach.

 

New Platforms and Features

In 2020, most major social media sites rolled out new algorithms, features, and buttons, with more to come the following year. Furthermore, as people spend more time online, new social media platforms emerge, catching the public’s attention, such as TikTok, Xiaohongshu, etc. The influencer industry has evolved as new features and new social media platforms have risen.

 

TikTok

This social media platform debuted in 2018 and skyrocketed in popularity when the Coronavirus pandemic broke out in 2020. Because of the app’s viral nature, becoming an influencer is simple, which opens up new possibilities for marketers.

TikTok is a popular social media site among Gen Z, a generation that is notorious for shunning traditional advertising. TikTok’s replicating influence has profoundly impacted user-generated content (UGC), as people are now duplicating and sharing what they observe. With extensive editing tools and filters to explore, TikTok allows users to be as creative as they want.

If you’d like more details about the rising app, you can check out what we wrote here through this link.

 

Instagram Reels

The fundamental premise of Instagram Reels is similar to TikTok. The short-form video format, if it hasn’t already achieved so with the app’s other features, can effectively keep engaged for hours. With the addition of this tool, influencers have new options to be creative, which marketers may take advantage of.

Influencers with a high number of followers can take advantage of the additional feature to increase its audience base. Additionally, Instagram Reels can currently provide marketers with comprehensive analytics to assess ROI in ways that other platforms can’t.

If you’re interested to know more, we wrote an Instagram Reel guide, which you can find at this link.

 

Xiaohongshu

Xiaohongshu is a hybrid platform that combines content sharing with fashion and luxury purchasing. The app has been extremely popular among young Chinese urban women who have difficulty obtaining a reliable source of purchasing information. Furthermore, creating real and trustworthy content allows users to swiftly get a large number of followers, leading to the rise of key opinion leaders (KOL) and key opinion consumers (KOC) in the app.

The app is based on recommendations from KOLs and KOCs, which marketers can use to their advantage. Aside from that, the platform has been experimenting with a number of business-friendly features over the past few years.

There’s a lot more to learn about Xiaohongshu, and you may do so by clicking on this link to our article.

 

E-commerce

Since the global lockdown began due to the Coronavirus epidemic, e-commerce has become a necessity in people’s daily lives. People started seeking influencers for product suggestions and following brands for exciting updates.

In 2020, social platforms made significant progress toward incorporating e-commerce and in-app shopping functionalities, with many planning to launch their new services in 2021. Instagram, for example, has developed a seamless shopping experience for consumers by allowing businesses and creators to tag products directly on posts and integrating a shopping button to the homepage.

Conclusion

Ultimately, each influencer collaboration has its own package of advantages, and the best fit will be determined by your marketing goals, target audience, and budget constraints. Using influencers can help you achieve your marketing goals in a more robust and impactful way as you embark on marketing during the pandemic, whether you want to boost revenue, boost conversions, or expand your reach. It is, however, only effective when done correctly, just like any other type of marketing.

Look out for our post on 2021 influencer marketing trends, which may help you with your pandemic marketing efforts.