5 Benefits of Influencer Marketing
As social media empowers consumers to engage directly with the brands they love – and hate – audience expectations around how brands communicate and react to have flipped traditional marketing plans on their heads.
At D/A, we specialise in Arabic-speaking audience intelligence. Our technology is built to understand Arabic creators true value, followers and the ‘influence’ the conversations they are having about catgeories, trends and the brands within them are having. Get in touch today to find out how D/A uses Arabic-powered technology to get give you better-focused marketing, to a more captivated audience with influencers.
“Influencers” or, as we prefer to think of them, influential content creators and makers, have always understood the importance of putting the audience first, crafting growth strategies around content that responds immediately to audience needs and desires and engaging directly via likes and comments. The most skilled have spent years curating collaborations with specific brands, products and services that cater to their communities, opening up possibilities for peer-to-peer economic scaling and ROI.
Simply put, when it comes to audience-first marketing, influencers are ahead of the curve. So why aren’t digital marketers taking notes?
Below, five lessons we think brands can learn from our favorite online personalities to build audience-first marketing strategies.
To unlock content, simply submit your details and you will get access to the latest marketing, consumer intelligence and industry reports via our D/A connections community.
What is Influencer Marketing?
At D/A, we like to think of Instagram influencers, TikTok celebrities and viral Tweeters as ‘creators’ first and foremost. For one thing, we appreciate the thought and effort behind great content that connects with an audience. For another, we know better than most that growing an audience requires staying ahead of the curve, knowing your community so well that you can anticipate what will engage and resonate with its members before they’ve realized it themselves. True “influencer” status doesn’t come from the size of the audience, but the extent to which the audience places trust in the creator when it comes to making decisions.
You can build an effective influencer marketing campaign around an account with 3,000 followers that generates fantastic revenues and another centered around a 250K-plus account that falls flat. Why? Because, while they may appreciate the entertainment or aesthetic value of the content, the bigger audience doesn’t trust the person behind the account, while those 3,000 followers are happy to take the creator’s recommendations.
Effective influencer marketing, then, involves joining the conversation between a creator and the audience as organically as possible. Influencer marketing, at its best, is a symbiotic relationship, where everyone benefits. Brands build trust and engage directly with the audience via a trusted intermediary with relevant expertise; creators raise their personal brand profile and get to share their knowledge of or passion for your brand and its values; audiences learn about brands they might otherwise never have encountered.
How Influencer Marketing Helps Brands
Of course, influencer marketing offers brands more than just another tool to generate leads or scout prospects. It’s an opportunity to begin pivoting towards an audience-first marketing strategy using the influencer as a guide and a stepping stone.
Below, five ways influencer marketing benefits brands implementing audience-first marketing.
Build Brand Trust – Fast
Real creators have spent months or years creating a relationship of trust with their communities, faking their own reputations and credibility on their recommendations. Receiving a positive endorsement or review from an engaged creator is among the most powerful forms of social proof around – if the community buys in.
Before leaping to a sponsored post, which can erode faith in both a creator and the brand, engaging with content in the form of likes, shares and comments can work to insert the brand into the audience or community for a deeper, more personal connection with members.
Speak Directly to Your Audience
When you partner with creators, your brand gets a red carpet debut in front of an audience already interested in your specific niche. They already like you, now you get the chance to show them why they should love you. It’s an in-bound marketer’s dream: a virtual auditorium packed with warm leads and a celebrity M.C.
Develop Meaningful Partnerships
Treating creators and their communities like a long term investment can pay huge dividends over time. As creators grow their audiences and branch out from platforms like Instagram and TikTok to launch their own product lines or businesses, your brand comes along for the ride.
In 2010, Huda Katan was living in Dubai, freelancing as a makeup artist and running the Huda Beauty Blog. By 2013, thanks in part to her loyal following, she launched her first line of eyelash extensions and sold all 7,000 units in a week. Through savvy partnerships with other beauty influencers, Kattan continued to grow her audience – and drive sales. Forbes now estimates her personal net worth at $210 million.
Raise Your Brand Profile Across Platforms
The majority of creators maintain an active presence across multiple platforms – the better to showcase specific types of content and connect with a broader audience. A mom influencer might spend most of her time creating reels and posts for Instagram sharing ideas for fun family activities in and around Dubai, while also directing her community to a regularly updated vlog for more in-depth thoughts around family values, motherhood and parenting that need more time and space than a 90-second video.
Partnering with a multi-platform creator gives your brand an opportunity to connect with audiences in a format or on a platform to which you might otherwise not have access. In the case of the parenting influencer, an organic children’s clothing brand benefits from a YouTube appearance via a sponsored vlog on sustainability without incurring the expense of a standalone marketing video or risking awkward, ill-fitting content.
Diversify Your Content
Sharing influencer-created content can help shake up your brand’s regular rotation and keep things fresh and engaging for your audience. Whether you’re working through a dry spell or hoping to fill some gaps in each other’s content strategies, takeovers, AMAs or even reposted stories and reels can bring some fresh energy to your social schedule.
Get better-focused marketing. To a more captive audience.
Bring your customer data and insights to life with D/A Influence. From campaigns to influencer outreach, we’ll help your brand, products or services land well in the GCC. Find out more
