A big part of marketing is always about reaching and connecting with customers in new and innovative ways.

Influencer marketing has now become one of those well-known strategies that brands can use to meet and engage with their customers. With the advent of social media, more brands have chosen to incorporate influencers as part of their strategy, with 71% of marketers feeling that influencer marketing being the most effective way to drive quality traffic and leads.

However, some experts argue that it is on a decline. Just like any strategy, there are always two sides to it and before shelling out money to invest in influencer marketing, it is important to know both sides.

Pros

Getting your brand out there is one thing, and it’s another to get customers to trust a brand. It takes time to develop and one handy thing with influencers is that those who follow them trust what they have to say. If an influencer talks positively about the brand, their followers are more likely to believe them. This can help boost and enhance your brand’s credibility.

Another pro is that you can reach a wider audience you may not have reached on your own. In 2016, a survey was made that showed that 45% of women will buy a product that is recommended by an influencer. Followers of the influencer trust and value their opinions and can influence their buying decisions.

Should you target micro-influencers, then a high budget isn’t needed. Collaborations with micro-influencers are more economical compared to getting those from celebrity influencers. Getting new influencers works too as they sometimes agree to work for free products or services. Micro-influencers can prove to be cheaper than to spend on a sponsored Instagram post. If your business is a newly launched brand or something in a specific niche, then micro-influencers can come in handy.

Cons

While it may cut the work to be done getting the right influencer, it often takes a lot of time and effort to find the right influencer for your campaigns. A survey shows that 61% of marketers find it hard to identify the right influencers for their campaigns. A huge part of this is evaluating if an influencer has genuine followers. Working with the wrong influencers can cause great damage to the reputation of the brand, which can be harder to damage if your reputation becomes tarnished.

Because influencer marketing has only become a thing in recent years, there’s no true “tried and tested” method when it comes down to it. Most brands just learn from their hits and misses. There are a lot of common mistakes influencers have made which can negatively affect the brand such as: not disclosing a sponsored post, posting content that doesn’t resonate with their target audience, ignoring endorsement guidelines, and inflating followings and engagements using bots.

While it may cost you less, it is often more difficult to measure results. Part of marketing is always being able to analyze performance and see if it can deliver the desired results. If it does not, then you should stop working with them. Unlike ad posts which come with its analytics, measuring results for influencer marketing isn’t as clear cut.

Lastly, there is always a high risk involved in influencer marketing. Despite a lot of companies increasing their influencer marketing budget in 2019, this doesn’t often translate into the desired results. Should the influencer fail to deliver on what was promised with their content and fail to connect with the target customers, then the time and money spent will be for naught.

Insights

While influencer marketing has been a hot topic lately as a part of the many methods you can market your brand digitally, marketing your brand is still better as it is the more reliable method.

The risk isn’t as high, and you can be assured of the measurable results. In a way, every peso you spend can be translated to a result. There are still numerous ways to reach out to your customers through digital marketing depending on your goal or what strategy you want to use.

If the idea of marketing the brand yourself is scary, as you’d prefer the thought of someone else doing the marketing for you, maybe finding the right partner agency is the way to go. Agencies have experiences with many brands and industries and can best help your brand in connecting with customers. Let a Google Partner agency like iManila help you get your brand where you want it to go. Drop us a message to learn more at https://imanila.ph/lets-talk/. #iManila #DigitalAgency