Marketing is one essential step for a venture or a brand to stem itself amongst the people. It is the wheel that drives the company or a brand towards its target groups. These target audiences will turn to potential customers that will purchase the products or services of the brand or the venture. With advancements peaking in frequently, the marketing domain has seen continuous shifts in the way it is activated. There are various marketing forms that dominate the brands and ventures. The trending marketing form is influencer marketing. It has prompted the rise in influencer marketing platforms. A brand, opts for one amongst the marketing form depending on various factors.
The marketing factors determine why a brand or a venture takes up a particular influencer marketing strategy. Currently, there are two broad distinctions for marketing types. Marketing can be distinguished as traditional marketing and digital marketing. The traditional marketing adapts to the television, broadcast and physical spaces for highlighting a brand or a venture. The digital marketing mode adopts the efficiency of technology to reach the customers through virtual platforms.
Digital marketing is essentially the marketing that takes place on a digital or virtual platform. There are various platforms and types emerging under the digital marketing band. One such prominent type of digital marketing is social media marketing. Social media marketing is the promotion of a product or service through social media platforms, such as Facebook. The continuous advancement in the social media marketing sector has led to various sub-marketing strategies in it. One of the trending social media marketing forms is influencer marketing. Influence marketing strategy follows the involvement of an entity that devotes itself to promotional activities.
In this article, there will be an explanation of what influencer marketing is. There will be an elucidation to why it is increasingly a marketing option. Further, there will be discussion on why this form of marketing trends. Lastly, the article will include 6 best influencer marketing platforms of 2023.
Table of Contents
What is Influencer Marketing?
In very rudimentary terms, influencer marketing is the advertising and promoting of a service or product through influencers. Influencers are the people who are solely devoted and tie up with the brand to promote it. These people do not belong to another fraternity. A common myth about influencers is believed that they are celebrities. However, influencers are not celebrities, instead, they are a means for the brand to get customers on board. The main task of an influencer is to strategize the potential influence for the product or the service. As they influence, it will initiate the customers to push themselves to access the same product or service.
It draws a bridge between traditional and new forms of marketing. It uses the traditional method of endorsing a person but achieves the marketing results through digital mode. The very endorsement of the “influencers”, increases the capacity of this marketing. This type of social media marketing strategies by using consumer psychology. When people will observe one amongst them purchasing and talking well about the product or service, it creates an influence. This influence is tangible and hence, it initiates people to buy the product or access the service. There are two main concepts that bound together ; influencer and marketing.
Unlike other social media marketing that have a single social media marketing platform, influencer marketing differs. It uses a double layer for marketing. The first layer or the base is the inclusiveness of the influencers. Influencers pave the way for the brand to stem their product or service to a broader and diverse customer base. The influencers are more reliable marketing entities, as they are one amongst and alike to the customers. The second layer is marketing. The marketing differs in terms of medium, strategy and method. It caters its strategy of maximizing brand image through the means of the influencers. The methods might include the virtual social media platforms and their features.
For this marketing to be authentic, it is essential to choose only actual influencers. For brands that take celebrities as influencers, it deviates from the principles. The endorsement of celebrities leads to the concept of brand integration. Further, it gives the privilege that anyone can be an influencer. An influencer can be anyone who knows the basics of marketing and devotes completely to promote the brand. You do not require an ideal face or shape to be an influencer. So, if you are an engineer, blogger or an artist, you can be an influencer too.
The results from this marketing can take up a handy amount of time period. Just an influencer endorsement cannot increase the channelization towards the brand. The aspects related to influencer marketing strategy has to be done regularly to keep the customer engagement with the brand. For instance, if a brand chooses the influencer to post videos about their product, there should be periodic content appearing relevant to it. This will keep the brand regular and thus promote the customers to know about it in depth.
To summarize, influencer marketing is a marketing strategy to gain a customer base through the influencers. The influencers are directly connected to the brand, know about its objectives and promote it to create a firm brand image. There are various factors for influencer marketing to trend. These reasons for it to trend are discussed in the next section.
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Reasons for Influencer Marketing to Trend
Influencer marketing has been on rise as a viable marketing strategy. The reasons for it to be trending are:
Credible Voice
The main aspect for influencer marketing to be used is its development of credibility. In this influencer marketing strategy, it is the people who are advertising the products or services. There is only minimal endorsement of technology to do the promotions. The influencers have followers who look up to them in terms of choices of the product. Hence, when the influencers promote a certain item, it creates a credible sense for their followers. As a result, the followers will also proceed in purchasing the same product that their influencer promotes. It gives the customers an assurness about the product or the service through their favorite influencers.
Creates a Tangible Brand Image
Marketing with influencers creates a tangibility for the brand to be accessible in the market. The influencers and the particular brand work in complete sync with set objectives. These objectives reflect on the brand and what it has launched. It is further, tangible and realistic in nature. The influencers take these objectives and talk about them while promoting the product or the service. By doing so, they create a brand image that is accessible and customer-centric in nature. It initiates the customers to believe that the brand is actually providing a solution through the product or service that it has launched.
Suitable to the Digitally Equipped Customers
Marketing with influencers has been in rise due to its digital equipment. The customers, currently, are well familiarized with digital marketing. Further, the entire concept of marketing and purchasing has taken a complete virtual shift. Today, right from watching the product online to purchasing and paying, everything can be done digitally. The influencer marketing strategy only adds a positive fuel for the brand to be visible to a larger customer base. It takes ahead the promotion of the products to a virtual mode, a mode that transcends beyond a certain geography. For instance, if Gucci decides to launch its new collection of bags through influencers as marketing entities, it attains a global audience. The influencer that the brand works with is known to people belonging to different places. Thus, the product reaches a diverse audience in no time.
Diversification for the Brands
Influencer marketing is the perfect wheel for any brand to reach a completely heterogeneous group of customers. If we witness the traditional mode of marketing, the process was only sufficed to one or two locations. There used to be more efforts engaged with increased capital to promote in various regions. But with technological advancement, it has become to reach customers that are not specific to one region. Influencer marketing assists in reaching customers, not pertaining to one specific region. So, for instance, if KFC wants to promote through influencer marketing strategy, it will reach an audience beyond the United States. Through the influencers promoting it, the customers from different regions will gain an interest in KFC.
Increased Traffic for the Brand
The social media space is an exploration but also cluttered with immense marketing practices. To generate unique content for a brand on social media might seem a tough job. However, it becomes relatively easy with influencer marketing. The inclusion of influencers by a brand, diverts a strong channel towards it. The influencers also strive in creating a content that is personalized, which adds to the unique factor. Consequently, it adds to the brand’s ability in presenting unique content related to its product or service. This leads the customers to choose the brand, primarily due to their influencers who use it.
These are the reasons for influencer marketing to be a trending social media marketing method. The rise in influencer marketing has led to various platforms to execute it. There are various influencer marketing platforms that help influencers and brands to connect. These best 6 influencer marketing platforms of 2023 are explained in the next section.
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6 Best Influencer Marketing Platforms of 2023
Influencer marketing platforms allow you to promote a product or service for diverse brands. Each influencer marketing platform brings in tools to reach the mass. The top 6 influencer marketing platforms of 2023 are:
Grin
Grin is the ideal platform for the brands to get the best and potential influencers to induce influencer marketing. It is the ideal software that helps the brands to search the influencer that is suitable to promote its products or services. It is easy to download and is also the best platform for top brands to use. In this software, you can use the filters to get influencers that are relevant to the brand. Currently, Grin provides a database of influencers from YouTube, Instagram and Tik Tok. Grin is also ideal to integrate the influencers with various e-commerce businesses such as Flipkart, Amazon and others.
Creator.co
An ideal hub for micro-influencers and small businesses, Creator.co is ideal for all the brands that are looking for inducing influencer marketing strategy in a minimal budget. The platform has a database of 500 million influencers. This influencer marketing platform provide brands to filter and choose the influencer who matches best to its objectives. The platform is also ideal for creating quality content for using it for the means of influencer marketing. It also has “Deep Insights” which reveal the brand with how well its influencers marketing is achieving.
LIKEtoKNOW (LTK)
Started in 2011, LIKEtoKNOW is one of the major content curators and platform to find best influencers. It is the largest curating influencer marketing platform, with network for the brands to find various influencers to boost their marketing. The forte for this platform are in fashion, lifestyle and fitness. Apart from scouting influencers, this platform also provides you with various relevant features. These include data analysis, campaign designing and the sales, through the influencer marketing.
Upfluence
Upfluence is a self-operating platform which is suitable for small and budding brands. The brands can connect with influencers who are available to do the promotion at a meager budget. The platform has a 500 million database of influencers from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. The database will help the businesses to find influencers that are close to their objectives. There is also provision for an influencer management system. This system provides various tools for the brands to improve the influencer relationship. This adds to the active promotion of the brand.
Traackr
One of the first influencer marketing platforms, Traackr is ideal to find various influencers aligning to your brand objectives. The platform is well known for its influencer management relationship. The platform is also ideal for the brands to track how their relation is going one with the influencer. To do this, there is a specific tool called a social listening tool. Through this, the brands can track the content that the influencers are curating. Currently, the platform helps in recruiting influencers from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and Tumblr. The brands can choose their influencers based on their strength on particular platforms. For instance, if a brand has strength on Instagram, it can find Instagram influencers on the corresponding social media platform.
AspireIQ
AspireIQ is an ideal influencer marketing platform for brands who are aiming for promotion through YouTube and Instagram. This platform has a humongous database of 150,000 influencers. It also provides opportunities for the creators to become influencers by meeting various criteria. You, as an influencer can look at the brand proposals on the platform. From the proposals, you can choose the brand that you want to promote as an influencer. This influencer marketing platform is also ideal for the brands to maintain influencer management and analyze the growth.
These are the top 6 influencer marketing platforms of 2023. These platforms enable the brands to choose the ideal influencer or influencers that can curate its image in the market.
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Conclusion
The above article elucidates on what is influencer marketing meaning. In very rudimentary terms, it is the advertising and promoting of a service or product through influencers. Influencer marketing provides the channel to reach a wider, diverse and loyal customers through the influencers. Influencers are the people who are solely devoted and tie up with the brand to promote it. These people do not belong to another fraternity.
The article also elaborates on why influencer marketing is trending. The reasons for influencer marketing to trend are:
- Credible Voice
- Creates a Tangible Brand Image
- Suitable to the Digitally Equipped Customers
- Diversification for the Brands
- Increased Traffic for the Brand
Lastly, the article has the best 6 influencer marketing platforms of 2023. These are:
- Grin
- Create.co
- LIKEtoKNOW
- Upfluence
- Traackr
- AspireIQ
Commonly Asked FAQs
- What is influencer marketing?
In very rudimentary terms, influencer marketing is the advertising and promoting of a service or product through influencers. Influencers are the people who are solely devoted and tie up with the brand to promote it. These people do not belong to another fraternity. A brand has to extensively search for influencers, find their alignment to brand objectivity, and plan on the marketing budget. Influencer marketing is a trending form of marketing, as it initiates the brand to reach customers through a reliable source.
- What are the benefits of influencer marketing?
The benefits of influencer marketing are:
- Increases credibility of the brand
- Adds on the brand image
- Creates a diverse customer base
- Builds the traffic towards the brand
- What are the top influencer marketing platforms?
The top influencer marketing platforms are:
- Grin
- Create.co
- AspireIQ
- Traackr
- Upfluence
- Does influencer marketing include celebrities?
No, influencer marketing does not include celebrities. It has influencers, who are solely based on promoting and working with brands.