Influencer marketing - blessing or curse?

What needs to be considered in influencer marketing?
Online Marketing
Social Media
22
Apr 2021

Influencers haven't really been around for very long compared to traditional professions such as teacher or police officer - yet they are now on everyone's lips and are attracting a lot of attention. Some love them, others hate them. There doesn't seem to be a healthy middle ground. Or is there?

What is behind the profession?

There are more and more influencers on Instagram, and the number continues to grow. You don't need any training to be an influencer and there is no set number of followers you have to reach to be able to call yourself an influencer. However, it is also a fact that the market is becoming saturated. The niches are getting smaller and smaller and today it is nowhere near as easy as it was a few years ago to reach a large and, above all, affluent audience with your content. Thanks to the numerous reality TV formats, many new influencers are becoming known every year, some more and some less successful.

What can influencers advertise?

In short: for everything! When choosing the right influencer for your own brand, however, two key questions should be considered.

Do the influencer's followers belong to the brand's target group? And is it authentic if the follower promotes my product?

A 20-year-old influencer who mainly reports on fashion and beauty on her channel would be rather unsuitable as the advertising face of an insurance company, for example. A travel blogger who likes to spend a lot of time in the great outdoors, on the other hand, would be a good advertising face for a brand that sells tents or other camping equipment.

Do you need it now or not?

Social media is increasingly shaping our everyday lives and the younger generations in particular can no longer imagine life without Instagram & Co. According to an analysis by the Federal Statistical Office, 89% of 16-24-year-olds used social networks for private communication last year. (Source: destatis)

If you look at the official figures, it is only logical that Instagram now also functions as an advertising platform. Influencers have become part of this strategy and help to promote content and products.

At the end of 2020, Instagram shared figures on global usage:

  • More than one billion active accounts worldwide
  • Over 500 million use Instagram Stories every day
  • More than 90% of users follow a business on Instagram
  • There are 180 million active business accounts on Instagram

Influencers as role models?

Many people follow numerous influencers and see them as role models. And this is also a serious problem, as some influencers are not really aware of this role model function - whether knowingly or unknowingly. One of the first and still most successful influencers is Bianca Claßen, better known as Bibi. Almost 8 million people follow the young woman on Instagram and her channel is also very popular on YouTube. As most of her followers are underage, she has often been criticized because the products advertised on her channel are far beyond the budget of her target group. (Source: praxistipps.focus.de)

Surveys on the internet reveal a balancing act in influencer marketing. Young target groups in particular state that they have bought a product in the last 12 months that was presented to them by influencers. At the same time, influencers generally do not have a good reputation and many users are of the opinion that influencers do not question the benefits of the products they promote and advertise too much. (Source: horizont.net)

Sense fluencers - the solution

Influencers can also reach many people with important topics such as sustainability or politics, as so-called meaningful influencers prove. Their channels don't advertise make-up products or sportswear, but instead focus on topics such as the climate crisis, racism or equality.

Example Louisa Dallert: The meaningful influencer is now followed by over 450,000 people on Instagram. She is socially engaged and if there is any advertising on her channel, it is for a Fairphone that lasts longer thanks to replaceable modules.

Conclusion

In summary, it can be said that there are definitely people who are picked up by influencer marketing and encouraged to buy products. The key is clever placement, as overly offensive and clumsy advertising tends to put people off. As there are numerous sites on the net that publicize extremely bad influencer advertising, we want to highlight a positive example.

For International Women's Day 2018, the perfume chain Douglas created a "Kiss collection" together with three well-known beauty influencers. Almost 50% of orders in the online store came via a link from the influencers and even store visits increased by 10% during the cooperation period. A complete success for Douglas, but of course also because the selection of suitable influencers was well thought out.

Autor:in

Katharina

Online Marketing | Funntastic