The Role of Influencer Marketing in Online Branding

With the world becoming more digitized, online branding has become an evergreen pillar in each business's growth strategy. Although branding online might seem perfect, reaching the right audience and building a robust brand presence in the vast internet space can be challenging. 

That is when influencer marketing comes into play. Influencer marketing in online branding can transform the way you, as a brand, connect with your audience. 

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As the saying goes, "A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is - it is what consumers tell each other it is." So, to make your customers your brand voice, we will walk you through how you can harness the power of influencer marketing and how it may impact your brand's growth.

Overview of Online Branding

In today's internet world, 64.6% of people spend most of their time online. So, having an online brand presence has become essential for businesses of all sizes to build a community of potential prospects. 

So, before going into influencer marketing, let's understand what online branding is. 

Creating and promoting a unique identity for your brand on social platforms is online branding, including framing an engaging brand image, voice, and personality that resonate with your target audience. 

Additionally, online branding involves using all your digital resources, like websites, social media, emails, content, and more, to give customers a better and more consistent brand experience.

Any successful brand builds trust, loyalty, and understanding with prospects, making them more likely to choose your brand over competitors through online branding. You can make an ever-lasting impact when you do it right, and the same business collapses when you get it wrong. 

Building Brand Awareness through Influencer Marketing

As one of the marketing means, influencer marketing helps you build brand awareness in today's vast digital landscape.

You can use the power of influencer marketing to tap into your targeted audience by collaborating with influencers with a significant and engaged following on social media.

In 2021, Gymshark launched a campaign, "66 Days: Change Your Life," to encourage people to focus on their healthy lifestyle by working out for 66 consecutive days. 

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Most of the influencers' tasks included sharing their daily workouts on their social handles, which highly resonated with their followers and created a positive brand association for Gymshark. It is one of the most successful influencer marketing campaigns, known for its massive impact on people.

Likewise, studies have shown that 51% of digital marketers believe influencer marketing is effective when building brand awareness and acquiring new customers. One of the best things is that influencers can turn their followers into your business advocates. 

When an influencer shares their experiences or recommends the products or services of your brand, people believe it to be authentic and try out your offerings. However, you must identify influencers whose values align with your brand and who can effectively communicate your brand's essence to their audience.

Influencer Marketing Strategy for Brand Growth

Influencer marketing strategies for brand growth go beyond building a successful relationship with an influencer. To utilize the full potential of your influencer marketing campaigns, you must build a promising strategy. 

Here are a few steps on how you can do it. 

1. Define your Objectives

First things first. Starting a marketing plan with unclear objectives or without goals can lead to nowhere except losing a chunk of your funds. Whether it is scaling your revenue or building a community, you must have clear goals to guide you through the process. 

2. Find the Right Influencer 

You should select the ideal influencer to help you achieve your campaign goals once you have identified your target audience and marketing goals. It is not always about their followers' base that matters, but also their engagement rate and creativity. Out of all, micro-influencers tend to work out well due to their focus on niche-specific content. However, selecting an influencer depends on your objectives. 

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3. Encourage Authenticity

Authenticity is the key to success. Involve your influencers in every aspect of your campaign and encourage them to develop creative ideas. Discuss the pros and cons of each idea that comes to mind and finalize one that both of you think might work. When executing, let the influencer go easy on their ways of executing because it feels genuine and resonates with their audience. 

4. Distribute Your Marketing Efforts

Diversifying your marketing campaigns with several influencers on other social channels, such as Instagram or TikTok, can help you understand your audience better. For instance, beauty campaigns perform well on Instagram, while educational content does well on LinkedIn. If you cannot precisely predict where your audience is, experiment with multiple platforms until you find the best. 

5. Measure and Analyze

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To check if everything went as per strategy, you must track your KPIs and monitor your campaign regularly, as it helps to readjust your strategy and try new things to improve results in the following launch. Metrics like reach, engagement, and conversions are essential to refining future strategies. 

Knowing what to do is good, but knowing what not to do is way better. So, here's an example of a business that followed the wrong influencer marketing strategy. 

In 2021, Amazon faced a scandal regarding fake product reviews on its platform after finding that some of its sellers provided free products or payments to influencers in exchange for positive reviews. 

So, the customers on the platform accused the influencers involved and the products they were promoting. It has led to increased scrutiny of influencer marketing practices on Amazon.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing is said to be a game-changer in the world of online branding. Utilizing the power of influencer marketing enables you to form a more personal connection with your target audience and succeed in winning their trust and loyalty, which you need to grow.

You can see significant growth in your online presence by carefully crafting an influencer marketing strategy that aligns with your brand's objectives and values. So, understand the power of influencer marketing and watch as your brand grows online.

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