The Rise of Influencer Marketing as a Tool for Subtle Communication
By Onyemaruche Kalu (Nigeria)
Associate Consultant, BlackHouse Media
With the consistent increase in digital penetration across various facets of human existence, it is not surprising that brands are turning to more diverse ways to reach potential and existing customers on digital channels. While social media allows the promotion of advertising content through sponsored ads, brands are looking for more creative and subtle ways to put out engaging messages. One innovative means of communicating brand value is influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing is an advertising strategy where brands partner with individuals, based on their strong social media following, to showcase the value proposition of a product or service. This partnership is paid and requires the influencer to act as a relatable face for the brand’s product or service with the aim of garnering consumer interest. Typically, influencers would highlight the value proposition of the service or product organically, as opposed to television advertisements and billboards, where brands dictate the scenario and reality in which the characters use the product or service.
According to Financial Quest, influencer marketing is the fastest-growing for businesses to acquire new customers. There are various reasons why influencer marketing now has a place in most Public Relations campaign budgets, one amongst which is the fact that customers trust information about brands that come from ‘people like them.’ Following a comprehensive survey administered to 33,000 people across different countries, Trust Barometer found that 61% of people would rather believe people that look and sound like them than a nameless character in an advertisement.
Another reason influencer marketing works is that it harnesses experts with platforms where they share their expertise with the public through engaging content. These content creators share their knowledge through product reviews and expert analysis posted across social media pages, YouTube channels, and podcast sessions. They’ve grown a community that takes their word as gospel, and brands leverage this trust by allowing these influencers to create content around the value their product or service provides.
Over the last few years, many African content creators have created voices for themselves in various fields like lifestyle, fashion, tech, and business. Actors and other celebrities have also used social media to make themselves more relatable to their audience, and they, too, now count as influencers. Research shows that sharing content through influencers increases conversations by up to 10x.
As of 2022, there are more than 300 million social media users, meaning that brands that want maximal reach should ensure that they fully utilise social media for advertising. Besides social media-sponsored ads and advertorial content on the verified brand’s social media page, influencer marketing is the next best thing, as research shows that social media recommendations have directly or sincerely encouraged at least 26% of purchases across 30 products.
As marketing strategists continue to include influencer marketing in their brand awareness campaigns, they must keep in mind that the requirement to be considered an influencer is vague, and this leads to the possibility of brands using unqualified people to push brand messages. It’s up to Brand Managers and Public Relations consultants to partner with authentic voices that have an in-depth understanding of the product or service at hand.