Influencer marketing, an essential cog in attracting millennials, is a boon for gaining visibility, brand awareness and sales development, at an affordable cost. One of the most accessible strategies for brands with limited budgets, influence is interesting as there is less of a risk.
Instantaneity is a viral source on social networks and profitability can be immediate. Calling on “micro-influencers”, with a few thousand to several tens of thousands of subscribers, could then make it possible to increase the rate of consumer engagement by 60%.
Influencer Marketing is Cost Effective
An opportunity that goes hand in hand with the proliferation of influencers, when “50% of Internet traffic is concentrated on social networks and the demand quadruples each year for the purposes of notoriety, consideration and traffic.
But if influence is not a magic recipe, its ROI is very interesting: 1 dollar invested generates on average 7 dollars of income” according to experts. A thesis supported by the watch brand Daniel Wellington, which with a budget of 50 million Euros dedicated to influencers has exceeded 4.5 million subscribers on Instagram and achieves more than 250 million Euros in sales per year.
No television spots or advertising campaigns but a massive presence on social networks with the specificity that 90% of the photos are posted by fans of the brand.
Building a community with high potential
But beware, specialists warn, embarking on the path of influencer marketing would often require the establishment, beforehand, of a solid community on social networks or at least of a refined social strategy.
Cosmetics 27, specializing in facials, had to review the basics. This brand 100% made in France now understands this market independently. They hired an agency which provided recommendations in terms of content, products, post strategy and images.
This effectively got them going with social media. They recruited a person dedicated to social networks in order to promote the brand on a daily basis. In one year, Cosmetics 27 has grown from 1,500 to 3,000 followers on Instagram.
Double objective of Visibility and Customer Acquisition
Driven by a new, more modern positioning, Champagne Jacquart has used influence as a way to increase their visibility. They wanted to target a young population by influencers on the digital channel. Their objective was to develop brand content and notoriety.
In test-and-learn mode, the champagne brand suffered a few setbacks at the start of its influencer strategy, before rising to a crescendo. At the very beginning they worked with unpaid influencers, but realized pretty quickly that this business of marketing influence is professionalized and needed to budget. Since the start of 2019, they started remunerating these influencers, which contributed to more commitment and authenticity on their part.
Their influencer strategy relied on 8 influencers across France, England and Japan began bearing fruit. They made great progress on social networks, going from 500 to 2,700 subscribers on Instagram, with the threshold of 8,500 subscribers achieved on Facebook as of April 20, 2019.
After arriving on TV in 2018, Quitoque, which offers balanced recipes every week to prepare at home with local, organic and seasonal products through a subscription system, turned to influence marketing.
The company believed that by working on influence as a common thread, they could make it a real lever for teaching and customer acquisition. This has worked well for them and they are now tracking sales from influencer marketing using promotional codes.