Influencer marketing is the use of “influencers” to promote products to a specific target group. The aim of influencer marketing is to increase the sales and credibility of a brand (brand awareness).
What is an influencer?
Influencer marketing uses influencers as opinion leaders in social groups to increase the sale of a product. Influencers are people with a strong presence and wide reach on social media such as Instagram or Facebook. Their wide reach makes them ideal for advertising and marketing purposes, as this allows advertising to reach many people simultaneously, quickly and reliably. Followers also see influencers as role models in their specialist areas. Influencers often specialize in certain topics that are relevant to them and resonate with their followers, which gives them credibility. Popular topics include fashion, sport and travel.
Nevertheless, influencers reach almost every niche in today’s social media. Influencers enjoy a high reputation among their followers and often manage to generate virality for advertised products or brands through their enormous reach and trust. This is one of the main reasons why influencer marketing is invaluable for Amazon.
The advantages of influencer marketing
A key advantage of influencer marketing is that influencers have the power to reach a specific niche or target group. For example, for the Amazon category DIY, an influencer can be found who posts a lot about DIY and craftsmanship and therefore fits perfectly into this niche. Another advantage is selectivity: social media users can decide for themselves what content they consume. In contrast to television or print media, they decide for themselves which advertising reaches them. As a rule, influencers only work with products that correspond to their message and lifestyle in order to make their content as authentic as possible. This makes influencer marketing a focused and trustworthy strategy.
Strategies in influencer marketing
A simplified communication strategy in social media is known as referral marketing. Referral marketing uses the close relationship within groups to spread a message within the network. Amazon can use both buzz marketing and affiliate marketing. Buzz marketing creates a conversation between potential customers. For this purpose, the selected influencer receives a product and gives a detailed review. In many cases, the review even takes place before the market launch so that the community is already familiar with the product. Since the recommendations come from a trustworthy person, the followers believe in the product. This is what makes referral marketing so effective.
What does advocacy mean?
Advocacy is another popular strategy in influencer marketing. This involves simple online product recommendations made by influencers. These are considered particularly credible and authentic by the target group.
Affiliate marketing as a tool for influencer marketing
Affiliate marketing is a commission system in which merchants who sell on Amazon, for example, pay a commission to bloggers or influencers who post a link to their store. In contrast to fixed advertising, payment is based on success: the more people click on the link and buy the product, the more the influencer earns. Affiliate marketing is an integral part of influencer marketing, as the links are perceived as recommendations from influencers and therefore have a higher level of acceptance among users than traditional banner advertising. Affiliate links can often be found in influencer marketing campaigns, for example in influencers’ Instagram stories.
Why does influencer marketing work so well?
According to statistics published by Goldmedia in 2017, 29% of participants surveyed consider product recommendations from influencers to be particularly credible, while TV commercials and newspaper ads were perceived as less trustworthy. Only recommendations from friends and product reviews enjoyed a higher level of trust.
The decisive factor is the close bond between influencers and their followers. The influence of influencers is often not consciously perceived, either in a positive or negative sense. However, this trust can influence the attitude towards a brand or company and ultimately the purchase decision.
Why is influencer marketing relevant?
Influencer marketing is particularly relevant today as consumers often seek opinions from others given the variety of options available. It is therefore not uncommon for us to take our cue from the opinion leaders in our social groups. Influencer marketing is also ideal for reaching a well-defined target group without much effort. Another advantage is that this type of advertising is often not recognized as such, which makes the strategy particularly effective.
The challenge in influencer marketing is to identify the right influencers and get in touch with them. If an influencer promotes a product that does not match their own content, this can damage their reputation and cost them followers.
How do I find the right influencer?
In order to find the right influencer for your product, it is important to look closely at the content shared and ensure that it matches the product. One effective method is the “thematic search”, which involves searching specifically for blog articles, posts and active posts that match the product thematically. Hashtags or keywords can be used for this. Alternatively, there are paid platforms that make it possible to find suitable bloggers and influencers using keywords.
Influencer marketing on Amazon
Influencer marketing is also very useful on the Amazon marketplace. Especially when launching new products, the right influencers and their networks can boost sales. When a new ASIN is created on Amazon, there is no sales history yet and therefore no relevant Amazon keywords in the search results.
Although it is possible to drive traffic to a product through Amazon advertising (e.g. PPC campaigns), this can be expensive and ineffective at first. If an influencer specifically promotes the product on Instagram, Facebook or YouTube, this can activate the A9 algorithm and improve rankings. The right choice of influencers leads to their followers buying the product, which is ultimately the main goal.