What is influencer marketing?

There are a few definitions of influencer marketing floating around, including the (quite wordy) Wikipedia entry, but here is our own best attempt at a concise definition of what Influencer Marketing means in 2017.

History of influencer marketing:

Some articles propose that ‘influencer marketing’ has been around for centuries, but this is clearly nonsense as we know it would be impossible without social media. It was social media that made it possible for individuals to wield the sort of influence that was previously the reserve of traditional media.

The real birth of influencer marketing could therefore be dated to ‘2005/6’ and the creation of Facebook and Twitter. The earliest references to the term begin to crop up online around this time relating to the influence of bloggers.

Looking at Google trends — as a searched term — it only began its dramatic upward curve into commercial consciousness 2 years ago.

So … only two years old and it’s a very hot subject indeed, begging the question, why?

“Influencer marketing is the practice of brands working with individuals (influencers) to promote their products, via blogs and social media.” 

A simple answer to this question is that Influencer Marketing is emerging as a highly effective channel for online sales. A Jan 2017 survey revealed that amongst 271 marketing managers, Influencer marketing was voted top as the fastest-growing customer-acquisition method, No surprise then that 67% were increasing their influencer budgets. over the next 12 months.

Which sectors are using influencers most?

One way of understanding this is to look at the average number of #followers per influencer across 4 leading platforms.

What are the benefits of working with an influencer marketing agency?

According to software vendor Traackr there are 4 value-adds of working with agencies on campaigns:

1. Avoiding common influencer program pitfalls with agency expertise
2. Getting access to cutting-edge marketing innovations
3. Implementing always on engagement by leveraging agency resources
4. Expanding and scaling influencer programmes to new markets and geographies.