Is your brand considering influencer marketing as part of its overall marketing mix for 2021? Whether you’re thinking about scaling your influencer programs or you haven’t quite taken the plunge yet, now is an ideal time to activate influencers for your brand.
There are a few key reasons why:
Time Spent Online is Spiking
When the pandemic first hit and many cities and municipalities implemented various quarantine restrictions and stay-at-home orders, time spent online and on social media soared, far surpassing previous 2020 estimates. Americans alone are spending an average of a little more than 2 hours a day on social media. The super-addicting short-form video app TikTok exploded in popularity at the height of the pandemic. With a second wave of COVID-19 starting to affect almost every area of the country, time spent on social media will likely increase even further as we head into the winter months.
People Trust Other People
Despite the controversy of a few high-profile macro influencers and the resulting snark from traditional media, influencers are highly trusted by their audiences. Influencers and digital creators have been on the rise as both a full-time profession, and a trusted source of inspiration, motivation and entertainment. In fact, 68% of people who come to Instagram do so to interact with creators. Those you follow online, while you may not know them personally, are considered peers. The 2020 Edelman trust barometer found that trust in institutions is decreasing, while trust in peers is increasing.
Simply put, content people trust is created by other people. And what consumers (people) say online is more powerful than what your brand says to consumers. This is what we call social proof.
Engagement Rates with Influencers are Increasing
People are spending more time online, and they are also engaged at a higher rate, even on sponsored posts — engagement rates on sponsored posts activated through the Mavrck platform in 2020 have risen nearly 70% since March, as seen in the graph below.
Influencer Marketing is Maturing, and Increasingly Proven
Influencer marketing, if a human being, has graduated high school and is now off to college. It’s maturing as a marketing discipline, with increasing sophistication in ROI and measurement methods such as sales lift studies and other performance tracking and modeling. Many industries, like beauty, fashion and food, have seen it work so well, that much of their marketing is devoted solely to some sort of influencer marketing or social proof. For example, Estee Lauder spends 75% of its marketing budget on influencers. Additionally, A worldwide survey of CMOs found that 30.5% are increasing their focus on influencers as part of the advertising media mix.
Want to hear more? We can help you sell in influencer marketing to your executive team or help you design your program to maximize ROI and value. Set up a time to chat here.
