As the world continues to advance at a superfast pace, connecting people from different walks of life, the importance of digital marketing with emphasis on influencer marketing cannot be underestimated. Prior to the advancement of the internet, brands and businesses were only able to reach out and connect with other business and clients within their locale. Thanks to the internet, the world has become a global market connecting, for instance, a businessman in Asia to a potential client in America. And if your business or brand wants to solidify its claim to a niche today, it is undeniable that you need Influencer Marketing.
With 7 Billion people in the world, Instagram as a social media platform has over 800 million active users, which is a number that continues to increase by the day seeing as more and more people are becoming more active on social media. This presents a cesspool of marketing opportunities for businesses willing to benefit from the massive Instagram market.
The services that your business offers are most likely desperately craved by clients that are not within your locale and a bulk of your potential clients and customers are on Instagram. So is it enough to just create a business account on Instagram and build out your audience?
While Instagram is a potentially profitable platform for your business, it also has its dynamics. And if you are looking to build out an audience first before selling to them, you would most likely spend thousands of dollars before you make a sale.
One of the most prudent ways would be to use Instagram influencers.
Instagram influencers are essentially people or brands who have built a large following on the social media platform. They could be real life stars or just normal people who have, over time, built a large audience with their social media activities. The most important factor needed is that they have managed to attract and maintain a large following on Instagram. There are also platforms such as Socialtradia which provides an access to the different niche of Instagram accounts for your business.
Real Life Celebrities: Celebrities usually have a huge fan base offline. These fans more often than not become followers on social media platforms too. Most of the people with massive followers on Instagram are celebrities. This makes them perfect influencers. Although having celebrities review and advertise your products would launch your brand awareness into the limelight; it would probably bore a large hole in your wallet in exchange. In fact, it may be so expensive that your business would most likely not generate enough revenue to replenish its coffers.
Instagram Celebrities: Instagram celebrities are people who have built a large followership for themselves with their online activity. They most often have a niche which could be comedy skits, lifestyle tips, modelling, hair brands, makeup or food networks.
On the other hand, an influencer could just be an Instagram page that has generated a following with an anonymous owner. These pages would simply just place adverts on their platform and their followers are made aware of what you offer.
The primary purpose of influencers is to create awareness for your brand by exposing your product or services to their followers. This awareness by extension leads to revenue generation. An Instagram influencer knows their followers and how best to get their attention. They could show off your products by making reviews, going live with the products, putting up pictures of the product on their accounts, or putting up pictures/videos of them using the products.
On the other hand, you could also feature these influencers on your account or your brand's account for a while. This would still be effective because their fans and followers would most likely follow them to your account and consequently start paying your brand attention.
In some cases, your business or brand could sign affiliate deals with Instagram influencers, such that they post a link on their page where people can buy your products directly, and then you pay them a commission for every purchase made with the said link.
Instagram like many social media platforms has a ready market waiting for you to exploit.
If you are looking to give your business a facelift or you are thinking about growing your business via influencer marketing, then you should really consider leveraging on influencer marketing on Instagram.
Author, Freelance writer