If you’re currently using an influencer marketing strategy, then you’re probably asking yourself an important question: Is it driving better sales?
While most digital marketing takes the approach of calculating the ROI first and then implementing the strategy, influencer marketing frequently skips over that initial data-driven ROI calculation and struggles to determine ROI after the fact too. So why are you using influencer marketing if you can’t really budget for its effectiveness, and you struggle to prove its impact on sales? You use it because it creates awareness for your brand. It reaches new audiences through aspirational figures. And it can be an effective way to avoid getting “skipped” like too many inauthentic traditional ads.
But can we keep spending bigger and bigger chunks of our marketing budgets on a tactic that doesn’t tie directly to sales and ROI? Influencer marketing is expected to be a $5+ billion dollar industry by 2020. At that price, brands will need to be able to more effectively track the ROI of the spend.
The answer might be tied to expanding the way you think about influencer marketing. There are influential people out there who do directly impact sales, and chances are you know several personally: Your child’s ski instructor who recommended the best helmet for you and your family. Your nutritionist sister who recommended the best supplements for your health needs. The REI associate who knows everything you need to make your next outdoor adventure great.
While these people aren’t typical “influencers,” they are the people consumers seek out and trust for advice on what to buy. They influence sales a lot: They have the passion, experience, and knowledge consumers trust. They’ve proven what they know, and because they aren’t being paid to endorse a product, consumers feel confident in the recommendations they provide.
The way you’re doing influencer marketing now serves you well in providing awareness, but an authentic recommendation from a knowledgeable, experienced expert solves a real problem for consumers. It helps them buy more confidently resulting in higher conversion, bigger basket sizes, and fewer returns.
Experts do a lot to help consumers decide what to buy. These authentic conversations happen in a retail environment, at the place of an activity (such as the gym or mountain), or even casually with friends and family over dinner. And these authentic conversations lead to sales, as 92% of consumers are more likely to follow recommendations from people they know.
How is determining sales figures for an expert different than for a social influencer? Social influencers can provide affiliation, click-through data, and awareness metrics like reach, but in today’s world of bots, follower pods and fake engagement, it’s hard to tell what you’re paying for. When analyzing spend on experts, you can track how many times the expert engages with your content, how well they perform when tested on what they’ve learned, how many products they’ve purchased themselves. And you can extrapolate how often they provide recommendations directly to consumers. These are tangible metrics that can help you strengthen the ROI behind your strategy.
Typical influencer marketing strategies can grow your brand and product awareness; when coupled with using authentic experts who influence consumers, influencer marketing won’t just grow your sales. It will lead to more loyal, long-term customers.
