When you think of the benefits of influencer marketing, you probably think of things like increased brand awareness or more sales. And while these are definitely things influencer marketing can help you achieve, working in the creator economy can provide you with much more value.
Like, did you know that creators are great for aiding in consumer research? Or that they can help you boost your SEO efforts? Check out 13 of the little-known benefits:
- Influencers can help you avoid ad blockers.
- Influencer content provides value to your audience.
- Creators can aid your content strategy.
- You can access new opportunities, like creator licensing.
- They can help you target audiences without cookies.
- Creator partnerships can grow your social following.
- Creators can provide the “halo effect.”
- They can help you reach niche audiences.
- You can boost your SEO rankings.
- Influencer marketing can give you access to research opportunities.
- Creators can help you appeal to Gen Z.
- You can brainstorm with experts.
- Influencer marketing is accessible to businesses of all sizes.
Join us as we dig through these perks of partnering with creators.
13 Benefits of Influencer Marketing
1. An influencer marketing strategy helps you avoid ad blockers.
A 2021 study revealed that 47% of participants aged 25-34 use a desktop ad blocker, and 34% use a mobile ad blocker.
As privacy concerns mount, more people will begin using ad blockers to protect their data. These blockers typically only impact display ads, not social media ads.
But while your social ads are safe, the sentiment around ad blockers still stands: People really don’t want to see ads. Most people ignore in-feed ads or click YouTube’s “Skip Ads” button as soon as possible.
Instead, they’re tuning into their favorite creators, and they’re far more likely to watch an influencer promote a product authentically than watch a more obvious ad.
2. It provides value to your audience.
Creator content can provide a ton of value to your audience when done correctly.
In fact, Espin, an e-bike startup, partners with creators to develop evergreen videos to teach viewers about their bikes. From reviews that share the products’ benefits to videos that show how to assemble each bike, shoppers will find a ton of useful information from Espin’s creators.
There are many different ways in which creators can provide value to your potential consumers. Food brands can partner with chefs to develop recipes, makeup brands can work with artists to film video tutorials, apparel brands can collaborate with creators to show how to style a piece of clothing, and so much more. The opportunities are endless.
3. Creators can aid your content strategy.
Continually creating fresh and engaging content is not an easy task. Whether you’ve run out of exciting ideas or don’t have the budget for large-scale production efforts, creators are the answer.
Working with creators is often more budget-friendly than contracting designers, videographers, and writers to develop new pieces of content.
And creators are experts in making content that excites and engages their followers.
Reach out to creators whose content really resonates with your brand, and propose a partnership. Since influencers put a lot of effort into creating aesthetically pleasing, quality content, it can benefit you immensely.
Just be sure to negotiate for content usage rights so you can repurpose the fruits of their labor.
4. It opens up a wide range of new opportunities.
Say you’re working with a few creators who are producing amazing content and whose audiences line up with your target demographics. Now, if only you could use this data to fuel your own ads.
Well, with creator licensing, you can. Essentially, creators grant you access to advertise through their social media accounts. You can use their audience data to find more people to reach, and the ads look like they’re coming from a creator, not a brand, which can make them seem more credible.
And while brands see a lot of benefit from creator licensing, influencers do too. Their account gets exposure to new audiences, which can help their follower count grow. And if they’re partnering with the brand on a commission basis, more people seeing their branded content can mean increased earnings.
5. Creators can help you reach the right audience as cookies go away.
As third-party cookies go away, marketers lose access to powerful tracking data, making reaching target audiences through advertising much more difficult.
However, when you work with creators, you can check out their followers to know exactly who you’ll be reaching. Creators have access to some demographic data from the social media platforms they post on, and they may be willing to share it if you reach out.
Or, you can use GRIN’s Audience Insight Reports to access the demographic makeup of a creator’s followers quickly and easily.
See Also: Living the Cookieless Life as a Marketer
6. Influencer marketing can help you boost your brand accounts.
Growing your brand’s social media following can be extremely beneficial. After all, the more followers you have, the more people will see your products and content.
Creators are an essential part of any follower campaign. When consumers see how much value your product adds to their favorite creator’s life, they’ll want it too. And as they go to research your product a little more, they’ll likely navigate to your social profiles and click the “Follow” button. Just be sure that your creators tag your official account in their posts.
Or, if you want a more forward approach, you can partner with creators to offer giveaways, and the only way to win is by following both accounts.
7. It can provide the “halo effect.”
The halo effect is the tendency for one positive attribute of a person, company, brand, or product to positively influence opinions or feelings in other areas. Essentially, this just means that if you like one thing about something, you’ll like other things about it, whether they’re related to the original or not.
So when a creator has loyal fans and talks about a product or service they love, the positive view their followers have of the creator will transfer to whatever they’re talking about.
If you’re in a highly competitive industry or have a product that people may be a little wary about buying online, creators and the halo effect can increase confidence in your products and inspire purchases.
8. Influencer marketing can help you reach niche audiences.
Have a product that’s perfect for people living in tiny homes? Partnering with creators who post their tiny home adventures, like @pacificothebus, can help you reach the right audience.
Influencers with large followings tend to have more general content, while those with more niche content are likely to have smaller (but closely knit) communities.
When evaluating creators, check out their followers, their content, and what people are commenting on their posts to get a better idea of who they’re reaching.
9. It can boost your SEO rankings.
If you want more organic traffic from search engines (but in reality, who isn’t?), influencer marketing can boost your SEO efforts.
Earning links to your website from other high-quality sites can tell search engines that your content is good, which can lead to higher rankings. So if you partner with bloggers and have them link to your site in posts about you, your site could potentially earn top spots on search results pages.
Additionally, creator partnerships build awareness. As people hear about your brand, they might Google you. And when they do, this increased organic traffic will signal to search engines that people want to see your content, which can boost your rankings.
10. It gives you access to research opportunities.
Creators are a wealth of information, and they can provide fresh ideas from an external point of view.
Dimitri O., the co-founder of Loop Earplugs, joined us for an episode of the GRIN Gets Real podcast, during which he shared how he pivoted his entire marketing strategy with insight from creators.
@ericaleann_ Tinnitus really stinks, please protect your ears!! Bonus: you can use my code LOOPXERICA for 15% off! @LoopEarplugs #loopearplugs #looppartner #concert #earplugs #festival #metalhead #viral ♬ ADTR Youre the the the THE GRINCH – Mira
Initially, Loop was advertising their earplugs as the perfect hearing protection for concerts and live events, but as the pandemic stopped all in-person gatherings, people no longer had the need. But after a mom influencer posted about how Loop helped her function in a house full of rambunctious kids, they saw a new marketing opportunity.
You can also leverage creators for more granular info. Brands looking to update their advertising copy to be more relevant to their target audience can partner with creators and see what language they and their audience use when talking about the product or service.
11. Influencers can help your ads appeal to younger generations.
Gen Z has a lot of buying power (about $150 billion), and they use social media platforms as research tools when they want to learn more about a product.
If there isn’t a wealth of info on your products on these social sites, Gen Z shoppers may be swayed by a competitor who does have the content. And while these images, videos, and posts can take a lot of resources to produce, you can outsource them to creators, typically at a lower cost than developing them in-house.
Try to have your creators cover a variety of information, including reviews, tutorials, and use cases.
@elizmmakeup favorite lip lately ???? @maccosmetics Lip Pencil “Cork” @doseofcolors Velvet Mousse “Truffle” (i love how comfortable this formula is on the lips!) #maccosmetics #maclipliner #doseofcolors #lipcombo #lipcolour #everydaymakeup #beginnermakeup #quickmakeup #easymakeup #liptutorial #lipliner #mattelips #mattelip #mattelipsticks #maquillajelabios #easymakeuplook #makeupproducts #makeupfavorites #makeuptrends #makeuptrend #naturallipstick #simplemakeuplook ♬ Boy’s a liar Pt. 2 – PinkPantheress & Ice Spice
12. You can brainstorm with experts.
Creators are so influential because they are experts in what their followers like, so why not tap into that knowledge?
Many creators are open to collaborating, and just think about the amazing content that can come from a brand expert and a communication expert working together.
While this works best with creators with whom you have a long-term partnership, you can also broach this idea with new creators. Just be sure to include details about the collaboration in your outreach messages so they can determine if they’d be a good fit.
13. It’s accessible to businesses of all sizes.
One of the best qualities of influencer marketing is that it is suitable for any business regardless of size or industry. As long as someone is influential in your vertical, you can always leverage them for your marketing.
Plus, if you’re a small business with a small marketing budget, nano and micro influencers partnerships aren’t too pricey.
However, it does take some amount of planning to identify the influencers who are most suited to your needs.
Key takeaway: Influencer partnerships have extensive benefits, and brands should take advantage.
Ready to build your social following, boost your SEO, and experience the halo effect? Then it’s time to begin researching the creators for your brand. Use GRIN’s suite of free tools to get started.
Learn more about influencer marketing: Influencer Marketing 101
