Influencer marketing is a form of collaboration. A business collaborates with an influential person to promote a product, service, or campaign. Celebrity endorsements were the original form of influencer marketing. But in today’s digital world, social content creators with niche audiences can often offer more value to brands. They have dedicated and engaged groups of followers on social media. They are known simply as ‘Social Media Influencers’. Influencer marketing is one of the fastest-growing advertising channels.

Social media influencers and bloggers have proven to be great for marketing of brands. A study by Forbes Reveals, in 2019 alone, around 72% of brands had influencer marketing built into their marketing budget, and some projections show that influencer investments will reach $10 billion by 2020.

Last year, a study found 38% increase in influencer activity in 2018. And according to a study by Klear,  there was a 48% increase in global Instagram influencer activity in 2019. This means that the industry is steadily increasing, with 10% more growth year-on-year.

Successful influencer marketing programs require brands to allocate a budget. Social media influencers charge a fee for partnering with a brand on a sponsored post. Both parties negotiate the cost of a partnership based on many factors, especially:

• Social reach of the influencer (i.e. how many followers across given social media channels)

• Type of sponsored content (e.g. Instagram in-feed post, Instagram Stories post, YouTube video, Twitter Tweet, Twitch activation, blog post, Facebook post)

• Length of sponsored integration (for example, a one-off Instagram Stories post will cost less than a series of Instagram videos spanning several months)

Because no matter what you’re selling, recent statistics note that more and more consumers are discovering and researching new products via social. And it’s no secret why social media is growing as a product discovery channel.  However, the importance of putting together a timeline and calendar for your launches really can’t be overstated.

As these partnerships grew, one of the most daunting issues while adopting these strategies has been a reliable and consistent way to measure their return on investment (ROI). Bloggers and influencers are influential when it comes to driving sales. Nearly a quarter of daily Facebook users have made a purchase based on a blogger or influencer recommendation. So have 29% of daily Twitter users. Because celebrities have been featured in advertising for decades, this difference highlights the turn that brands might be taking towards lesser-known influencers and bloggers who may be more relatable than a celebrity.

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