More than one time we have seen influencer on Instagram promoting a product, whether it is a fashion item, a beauty product or a vitamin supplement. That is Influencer Marketing, a part of social media marketing: Using a figure with a platform and a certain amount of audience and followers whom they have a certain influence over to promote a product. This blog will point out the advantage of influencer marketing as well as some risks associating with it so you can decide for yourself if this is a suitable marketing tactic for your business.

The good

There must be a good reason why influencer marketing is thriving in recent years. According to Business Insider Intelligence, the market is predicted to be double in size to $15 million in 2022. In 2020, 65% of marketing practitioners are reported to be increasing their spending on influencer marketing and almost 90% of them consider it to perform comparably or even better than other marketing channels.

So, what are some pros of using influencer marketing?

  1. Relatability: A content creator knows their audience. That is how they build their relationship with their followers, by relating to the audience and speak their language. An influencer is a bridge that helps brands convey their message to the audience in their language.
  2. Expertise: Influencers are deemed to have more credibility and are trusted for their expertise by their audience. Influencers marketing is also a great tool for the precise targeting of a niche market.

The bad

However there are two sides to every coin, so what is the downside of influencer marketing?

  • Scandal: It is a fact that a brand can only select an influencer after carefully evaluate them to see if they are congruent but a brand can not always monitor what an influencer does going forward. Depends on the level of association between the influencer and the brand, an influencer’s scandal could bring the brand down with it.

One of the recent case studies is James Charles scandal and the beauty brand Morphe. The first time James Charles was accused to be a ‘predator’ and a ‘danger to society’, Morphe had to immediately cut all ties with him. James Charles, at the time, was one of the biggest beauty Youtuber with over 16 million subscribers. He had one of the biggest collaboration with Morphe and sold out within 5 minutes giving him a very heavy association with the brand. James started to rapidly lose subscribers and people started to destroy the palette after the accusations.

  • High risk, high return?: While most brands reported seeing a positive impact using influencer marketing, but how exactly positive is a tricky question. It is hard enough to track and measure the effectiveness of marketing as is, so if the company has no clear strategy and KPI set, throwing more money into influencer marketing would be meaningless if you do not know for sure how much you get in return. While the effectiveness is still up for debate, 80% of the marketer is convinced that it is effective. You can check some of the key KPIs here at MediaKix report on Influencer Marketing Effectiveness.

Whether you believe in influencer marketing or not, it is undeniable that this is the trend that worked for a lot of brands and companies. Along with the advantages such as relatability, credibility, trust, expertise and precise targeting, companies should also consider the risks with this tactic. It is extremely important to do thorough research to find the best-matched influencers as well as having a strong strategy with clear KPIs to track the ROI of the campaign. There are many cases of successful campaigns using influencer marketing as key tactic so it is recommended, provided that it suits the company’s overall marketing strategy and objectives.

So what is your take on influencer marketing? Do you think it will suit your business and what are some instances that you think it won’t?