Organic Influencers are one of the most valuable tools in marketing when cementing influence continues to be the core motive of all marketing methods. Marketers employ strategies to identify influence, accumulate it, and use it to reach their goals. Unsurprisingly, it is the “influence” factor that gave birth to the influencer marketing industry. However, the growth of social media platforms and over-saturation of celebrities and famous people in the past decade points to the obsolescence of traditional ways of influencer marketing, and its eventual decline.
Casey Ferrell, Vice President and Head of U.S. Monitor, owned by Kantar, a research and data consulting firm, said in an interview “We are at peak influencer, and itʼs beginning to run its course”
Itʼs not hard at all to see why this is occurring.
The Lack of Trust
The influencer marketing industry is quickly becoming saturated and over- proliferated with a great number of high-profile scandals costing brands immense reputational losses. There are widely reported cases of influencers paying for fake followers (bots) and exaggerating their engagement rates. Statistics have shown that fake followers will set back brands up to $1.3 billion in influencer campaigns in 2020.
These sorts of downsides have resulted in a tremendous loss of consumer trust and confidence. Numbers point out that only 4% of consumers now trust what celebrities and mega influencers with millions of followers have to say. The lack of consumer confidence is a cause for concern because trust begets credibility, which itself begets influence. These factors go hand-in-hand and the diminishing trust “traditional” influencers face does not bode well at all.
Organic Influencers Equals Authentic Influence
Despite traditional influencers delivering impressions and initial eyeballs, these arenʼt enough to create a lasting impact, even on the awareness level. Statistics have discovered that consumers are 9.8x more likely to purchase a product or service after seeing a friendʼs recommendation on social media. This is drastically different from a lack of trust commanded by traditional influencers.
Traditional influencers cannot deliver in terms of engagement.
Studies have discovered that: the greater the number of followers, the lower the average engagement rates. On the other hand, posts from micro-influencers or nano- influencers generate greater engagement purely due to their authentic quality. Their authenticity greatly shapes their credibility in activating their followersʼ buying decisions. With this said, the industry is undergoing a remarkable shift towards organic influencers, and not just micro influencers or nano influencers.
Organic influencers are those who actually buy your products (or your competitorsʼ), already use your service, and create authentic content about your brand. They are genuine brand ambassadors whose number of followers may range from 10,000 or even 50. These numbers and sizes of their followings donʼt really matter compared to what they bring to the table: enthusiasm, authenticity, trust, and long-lasting influence.
Working with organic influencers instead of traditional ones will reinvigorate your brand. The types of rich content theyʼll create will forge a deep connection with their audience, bringing you a network of loyal consumers eager to know more about what you offer. You will permanently avoid having to grapple with consumer mistrust towards your brand, nor risk having to work with influencers with fake followers who bring fake engagement.
Authentic Content Begets Quality Content
Influencer marketing has become the go-to medium of communication because brands need high-quality content thatʼs subtle, fits with their brand image while maintaining authenticity and individuality. Social media influencers are the best options for this.
Paying influencers to post content without studying whether they best match the brand message and aesthetics results in inauthentic content that appears promotional. Conversely, organic influencers flawlessly align with the brand image, in terms of their behavior, lifestyle, and unique quality. This ensures that authenticity is never lost.
A great brand strategy is to engage organic influencers by creating a 1e1 connection with them and guiding them on the sort of content youʼd like them to share about your brand. By cultivating a win-win relationship with them, youʼll have enthusiastic influencers consistently endorsing you as their favorite brand. The resulting content will be mind-blowing in terms of quality, quantity, and authenticity, and your brand can leverage this opportunity and scale up on all your marketing channels as needed – not just social platforms. It seriously doesnʼt get better than this.
Amplify Influence On All Marketing Channels
A lesser-known but important fact of influencer marketing is that your brand doesnʼt own the rights to your influencer content.
Unless a contract was signed between both parties during the negotiation stage, brands typically donʼt have the right to the content they hired influencers to create. Meaning that they are not permitted to use and cross- share these materials outside the platforms the influencer originally posted. If a brand wants to use the influencerʼs content in an offline or any other capacity that does not involve programming or reposting it on their social channels, they need to obtain a license or purchase the content copyright from the influencer. This is typically given at an additional cost.
However, this is not a feasible long-term marketing strategy because brands are pushed to consistently create newer, compelling content in each channel. Contrary to mass audiences, medium and niche audiences require newer visuals.
In order to effectively reuse and scale content successfully, brands should partner with organic influencers whoʼll continuously produce and share compelling, authentic content.
By gaining their permission to reuse their authentic content, you can definitely amplify the initial eyeball rate, reach, and engagement by distributing it throughout your marketing channels, whether it is online or offline. By doing this right, your brand will be able to connect with consumers at every point of the buyerʼs journey – ultimately activating conversion.
Harness Success with Organic Influencers in 2020
Influencer marketing has been prioritizing the wrong influencers for far too long. Currently, Millennials and Gen Z represent the largest consumer segment. These two groups value authenticity more than any other group and choose to trust brands and buy from those who have this quality. Their trust in traditional influencers is next to zero.
Brands that perfect an authentic and organic influencer marketing strategy in 2020 will gain a loyal network of consumers and will witness long-lasting, impactful ROI.
Interested in knowing what Influencer House offers for your campaign? Visit Influencerhouse.co.th or click here to talk to our Influencer Marketing Experts today!