$15 billion.

That’s how much brands are projected to spend on influencer marketing by 2022. (Business Insider) It’s sort of a big deal. So, what’s all the fuss about?

Influencers are so enticing to brands because they’re so engaged with their audiences. When an influencer recommends a product, their audience takes it seriously.

Why? Think of influencers sort of like your target audience’s best friends. People go to influencers because they relate to them. Because there’s an inherent trust. If you follow an influencer, it’s usually because you value their opinions, their tastes, and interests. Most importantly for marketers – influencers appeal to highly targeted subject matters.

There are influencers for just about every subject you can imagine. They’re on every platform and they have audiences of every size. For influencers, no niche is too small. And for marketers, the right influencer can be like a gold mine.

Here’s three data-backed reasons influencer marketing could be exactly what you need to grow your business.

Influencer Marketing Pays Off

The most important thing you need to know about influencer marketing is that it works. Otherwise, brands wouldn’t be spending billions on it, would they?

According to a survey from The Influencer Marketing Hub, businesses that use influencer marketing make an average of $5.20 on every dollar spent. For those of you without your calculators handy, that’s an ROI of 420%. Not too shabby!

If that wasn’t enough to convince you, according to Mediakix, nearly nine out of every ten marketers say that the ROI from influencer marketing is comparable or better when compared to their other marketing channels.

Small Business Can Get In On The Action

If you run a small business and you’re just here because you’re curious, wait just a second before you click away. It’s 2020. Influencer marketing isn’t reserved for larger sized businesses at all. In fact, it’s being used by a whopping 90% of marketers. (SocialPubli)

A survey of 50 content creators, conducted by Crowdtap, found that when it comes to deciding which brands they want to partner with, staying relevant to their audiences remains the most important factor. Whatever size your business is, it’s all about finding the right influencer with the right audience.

Here’s the thing about influencers. There’s more than one kind. You’ve got mega-influencers, macro-influencers, micro-influencers, and nano-influencers. If that sounds complicated, it’s really not. It’s just how they’re categorized by audience size. But it demonstrates that there’s influencers for any sized business, whether you’re at the local level or global.

You can read about the different influencer categories here, courtesy of CMSWire.

Advertising Without Feeling Like Advertising

One of the major pitfalls of advertising? Tons of people actively go out of their way to avoid ads in the first place. According to GlobalWebIndex, 47% of consumers are going out of their way to block ads. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. I love a good ad as much as the next guy, but wouldn’t it be great if there was an easier way?

Well, that’s where influencer marketing comes in. The point of influencer marketing is the organic integration of sponsored brands into content. At the end of the day, influencers are content creators. And when your brand is part of their content, it’s being exposed to an audience in a natural, much more organic way.

Marketing With CoGoBuzz

Want to make all of your marketing efforts easier, influencer or otherwise? Get started with CoGoBuzz, our state-of-the-art digital marketing service.

With our service, you’ll engage customers on the devices they use most, both in-store and out. Learn more about your customers thanks to the automatically-developed customer profiles we create for every login to your in-store HotSpot. On top of that, you’ll take advantage of a fully digital SMS-based loyalty program that simplifies engagement to a simple text message, allowing you to engage and communicate with your customers wherever they go.

Click here to learn more about CoGoBuzz!

Have you invested in influencer marketing? Sound off in the comments!