In this article we share the Best Ways to Build a Brand Through Influencer Marketing.
Over the last couple of years, you might have noticed many influencers promoting Daniel Wellington’s branded watches.
The campaign is still going on now, as the brand continues to involve even the smallest and least popular influencers in helping it market its product:
Daniel Wellington’s strategy is one of the most popular examples of influencer marketing success. In 2018 alone, the company managed to receive over 20,000 mentions by 7,200 influencers on Instagram, while brands like Nike and Sephora got less than 10% of that amount.
Right now, under the hashtag #DanielWellington, you can find over 2 million posts featuring this brand:
The example of Daniel Wellington has become an inspiration for other companies to use influencer marketing to help build a brand that’s known and respected by everybody.
So, today, we’re going to show you how you can leverage influencer marketing to boost brand awareness and recognition. We are also going to take a look at several companies that successfully incorporated partnerships with influencers in their marketing strategies.
Table of Contents
Why Consumers and Brands Trust Influencer Marketing?
If you take a look at the statistics, you’ll notice that an overwhelming majority of consumers trust the recommendations from their favorite influencers.
These recommendations also often make an impact on their purchase decisions.
According to the report by the Digital Marketing Institute:
- 70% of teenagers trust influencers more than traditional celebrities.
- 86% of women browse social media posts, including the ones from influencers, for purchasing advice
- 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations
Such an immense impact of influencer marketing on purchase decisions is one of the main reasons why brands invest in this marketing strategy. Digital Marketing Institute also reports that:
- brands name influencer marketing the fastest-growing online customer acquisition method
- influencer marketing campaigns can help brands earn over $6 per every dollar spent
There are several reasons why this marketing strategy has so much influence on both brands and consumers:
- Word-of-mouth. In this case, influencer marketing has the same effect as sharing recommendations with family and friends. Influencers have a very close relationship with their followers, and because of that, there is a very big chance their recommendations will be credible.
- Personal experience. Before promoting a product, influencers usually give it a try first to make sure this product is worth the attention of their followers.
- Authentic advertising. Influencer marketing is not about in-your-face promotions or pushy ads. This is the reason why brands love to collaborate with influencers for advertising – it helps them promote their product seamlessly and streamline organic traffic.
As you can see, influencer marketing is worth your attention and investment. So, now, let’s take a look at a few ways you can leverage it to build a successful brand.
1. Collaborate with an Influencer to Build Up Authority in Your Niche
Indeed, influencer marketing can help you go beyond your target audience and get the attention of the general public. However, your first task in building a strong brand is to gain authority in your niche and get the recognition of a smaller group of people.
You can partner with an influencer to build your presence in a certain niche. The beauty of influencer marketing is that there is barely any niche, for which you can’t find an influencer.
For instance, if you have a small tutoring business helping people learn Italian, you can partner with an influencer from Italy who also creates some educational content. Together, you can shoot a video or make a simple Instagram Story or post, where they can introduce your business to their followers.
However, if you’re a larger brand looking for more exposure in your niche, you can partner with an influencer to achieve that effect as well. For instance, Lagavulin Distillery partnered with Nick Offerman, an American actor, to shoot a video where he drinks their whiskey for 45 minutes while sitting at a fireplace:
A person, who doesn’t know the context of this, wouldn’t know how to react to a person sitting by the fireplace, drinking whiskey, and not saying a single word. However, fans of the TV show Parks and Recreation would understand that the actor is impersonating his character from the show, Ron Swanson, who’s a dedicated fan of Lagavulin whiskey.
This is a perfect example of how you can target a specific audience and get its recognition with influencer marketing. It doesn’t always have to be a celebrity, but you should be someone with an audience that can find your product relevant.
2. Launch Your Branded Hashtag with a Help of an Influencer
Another way influencer marketing can help you build your brand is by helping you promote your branded hashtag.
We’ve seen this strategy in action when we discussed Daniel Wellington’s experience with influencer marketing. The hashtag #DanielWellington now has over two million posts, and the number keeps growing.
The thing with branded hashtags is that they don’t deliver any results for a long time. Such hashtags gain popularity very slowly, and you need something to give their performance a push.
Influencer marketing can be this stimulus. Hello Fresh has been using influencer marketing for this purpose for a while to promote their branded hashtag.
Currently, you can find over 700,000 posts by influencers and their followers recreating Hello Fresh’s recipes and posting photos of them on Instagram.
If you want to try influencer marketing to boost your branded hashtag as Hello Fresh did, you need to find a couple of influencers within your niche and ask them to create content that promotes your hashtag.
Also, you can partner with an influencer to launch a contest by asking their followers to provide user-generated content under your branded hashtag in exchange for a price.
3. Ask Influencers to Spread the Word
If you’re new to a certain social media platform and want to get ahead of your competitors as soon as possible, influencer marketing can help you with that.
Right now, many brands are getting familiar with TikTok and its marketing potential. One of the ways they grow their presence and build a brand strategy on this platform is through influencer marketing.
Vessi, an e-commerce shop that sells shoes and sneakers, is one of such brands. They partner with popular TikTok influencers, who create content for their page and also spread the word about this brand on their accounts.
In the image below, you can see Vessi partnering with Katie Dwyer, a TikTok influencer with almost 500,000 followers:
How do you choose a TikTok influencer who will give your brand a boost on this platform?
The rule is the same – look for an influencer within your niche or the one that has the audience who will find your product relevant. Vessi partnered with Katie Dwyer because her content is predominantly about dancing and being active. Her TikToks are also in line with the current dancing trend on this platform.
So, find an influencer who has experience within your niche, but also try to create a strategy that would make your brand relevant to the current trends. This way, you’ll be able to get more attention for your brand and build brand awareness.
Over to You
No matter what your goal for an influencer marketing campaign is, you should keep in mind that the success of such a collaboration depends a lot on how well you form your relationship with an influencer.
Popular influencers often speak out on being disrespected by brands who treat them like a cheap workforce. However, such partnerships deserve as much respect as if you would collaborate with a celebrity.
Influencers are quick to spread the word about being treated badly by brands. If you want influencer marketing to work and benefit you, and don’t want the bad publicity that could harm your brand, do it right from the start.
Join The Logo Community
We hope you have enjoyed this article about How to Make Your Brand Stand Out from the Digital Crowd.
If you would like more personal tips, advice, insights, and access to our community threads and other goodies, join me in our community.
You can comment directly on posts, access our community threads, have a discussion and ask questions with our founder Andrew.
we highly recommend learning brand strategy online with the Brand Master Academy. It’s an awesome course that is highly enjoyable, and jam-packed full of knowledge.
Author Bio
Ryan is a passionate writer who likes sharing his thoughts and experience with the readers. He currently works as a content strategist. He likes everything related to traveling and new countries.