How Do Brands Survive in the Ever Competitive World of Influencer Marketing?

Did you know that the average internet user is active on social media for 135 minutes everyday? That’s more than two hours every day of the year. Now, multiply that by the 2.62 billion social media users around the globe.

That’s more than five billion hours of social media usage every single day.

It shouldn’t be difficult to understand why brands are continually trying to be on top of their social media marketing.

The possibilities are endless. Whether you want to increase brand awareness, visibility, or sales, social media can help you with all of them and more.

And of course, influencer marketing is one of the most effective forms of social media marketing that has emerged.

Not only does it help you reach an incredible number of people, but also win their trust through social proof. Studies have found that recommendations from influencers have increased purchase intent by 5.2X.

Now the big question is, as a brand, how do you stay on top of your influencer marketing game? How do you make sure your brand survives in this immensely competitive world? In this post, that’s exactly what we are going to cover. So let’s get started.

1. Find the right influencer

On social media, engagement has a much greater value than reach. Millions of people can see your brand, but how will it help you if they aren’t buying? You need to create engagement.

Partnering with an influencer in your niche who has a decent-sized, engaged following can help you here.

FIJI is a brand of bottled water that collaborated with influencer Danielle Bernstein for a marketing campaign. They created 8-minute workout videos showcasing how FIJI can help you stay hydrated while keeping you fit and looking good.

Here’s an example of one of their Instagram posts from the campaign.

With endorsements, it’s all about making the perfect choice. By choosing a relevant influencer, you can ensure that your brand reaches the right audiences.

2. Create and promote experiences

If you want to stay ahead of your competition, don’t just focus on selling your products. Instead, focus on selling the experience of using your products or services. Tell your potential customers about the experience they can expect, the perks of your product, and the feel of using it.

American Express is one of the world’s biggest advertisers. However, to survive in the competition, you don’t need a big advertising budget. You need smart advertising.

To promote their Amex Platinum cards, American Express partnered with luxury travel and lifestyle influencers. These influencers promoted the exclusive Amex Platinum card by showcasing their experience and lifestyle. This helped Amex position the card in the minds and hearts of their target audiences.

3. Get your audiences involved

Social awareness campaigns like #MeToo ad #BlackLivesMatter went viral because they’re causes that are real and close to people’s hearts.

Aligning with a social cause can be a great way to give your influencer marketing that extra boost. If that isn’t viable, get your audiences to participate in your influencer marketing campaigns.

You can have your influencers ask their followers to posts photos or videos showcasing your products and share them with a branded hashtag. This is a great strategy that’ll help you reach a wider audience.

In 2016, Calvin Klein created their #MyCalvins campaign which took the internet by storm. They asked celebrities like Kendall Jenner, Justin Bieber, and Kendrick Lamar to post photos of themselves wearing their apparel with the hashtag #MyCalvins. They were also supposed to include “I _____ in #MyCalvins” in their caption and fill in the blank.

This trend caught on with the general audience and the followers of these influencers too. Almost everyone started sharing their photos wearing CK apparel with the caption and hashtag. The campaign managed to get over 179,000 photos on Instagram.

In fact, these unpaid user-generated posts created more of a stir and awareness than the paid posts. The campaign generated over 4.5 million engagements on social media.

4. Promote your brand with giveaways

Another way to stay in the game is by having your influencers host or promote contests and giveaways. People always get excited about freebies. So if you can keep the participation criteria simple – such as liking a photo or following your account – you can generate a lot of engagement.

But does this help you increase sales? It definitely can. Once someone tries a free product and likes it, they’re bound to come back for more. Especially when an influencer they follow recommends it, they’ll be eager to sign up.

5. Keep tabs on your competition

At the end of the day, it is very important to know what your competition is doing. You don’t want your competitors to do better than you. But you most definitely don’t want to end up not doing enough.

So keep a close watch on what your competitors are doing. You could even take a page from their playbook and check out which influencers they’re collaborating with and what strategies they’re using.

Final thoughts

At the end of the day, it is all about being a smart marketer. You need to market your product with the right influencers to stay ahead of the game. Be it micro or mega influencers, at the end of the day, social media is an influencers game. So leverage the above-mentioned strategies to take your business to new heights with influencer marketing.

Can you think of any other ways to stay ahead in the ever competitive world of influencers? Let us know in the comments below.