How fashion brands can use social media influencers on Instagram to build brand awareness

 

A social media influencer is any user on a social media platform who has established credibility in a specific industry (Pixlee,2017). Instagram is the  most effective channel for fashion brands to target. Additionally, research states that fashion brands see their highest engagement on Instagram (L2,2014); (TrackMaven,2015). For this reason, social media influencers would be most effective on this platform.

Pros of using social media influencers

Long (2107) discusses five reasons on why brands should take advantage of this marketing opportunity:

1) Traditional ads are becoming ineffective.

2) It is the new trend- 59% of marketers increased budget on influencer marketing in 2016.

3) Its naive- 92% of consumer’s trust recommendations from individuals over brands.

4) High return on investment if successful – 11 times higher than a traditional digital campaign.

5)Your product reaches the most active audience- 74% of consumers use social media to make purchase decisions.

Click here to read more on the benefits of social media influencers

In addition, Barker (2017) points out the gaining of ‘consumer trust’ is another factor attracting brands towards this form of marketing.

Brands often struggle to build a relationship with customers due to high competition in the industry and rapid spread of negative press (Schmidt,2017). However, using a credible social media influencer removes the initial barrier between a brand and a customer but rather directs the customer straight towards the brand. This is because they have built life long relationships with their followers, thus gaining their trust. This trust is developed over a period of time and often gained by releasing honest content e.g. reviews and recommendations on products.

Examples of sponsored Instagram posts:

 

Examples of brands that have been successful  with social media influencer marketing (Talbot, 2015):

1) Birchbox, a beauty company teamed up with teamed up with lifestyle blogger Emily Schuman to curate their May box, the product was posted in five Instagram photos.

Likes received: over 18,000

Consumer reach: over 55,000

2) Madewell, clothing brand teamed up with five influencers to promote the anniversary of their signature tote in their #TOTEWELL campaign.

Consumer reach: over a million

Now you know the benefits of using influencer marketing, the next step is knowing how to choose the right influencer to promote your product out of the thousands that currently exist. And to help simplify the process, Hamann (2014) developed five tips to help brands find the right candidate:

1) Relevance- research the blogger, is the content aligned with the brand image?

2) Engagement- does the blogger engage with the followers? i.e. responds to enquires

3) Reach- Does the message grasp an adequate amount of followers?

4) Frequency- How frequent do they blog?

5) Authenticity- is the content compelling and engaging?

Click here to read more on how to select the right inlfuencer 

Nonetheless, not everything is smooth sailing when it comes to influencer marketing, other than the fact that there is no guarantee it will be successful. A good strategy takes 90 days to develop and implement (Fryrear, 2015). In addition, research now shows that 30% consumers find that posts with the sponsored hashtags inauthentic (#as, #spon or #paid)  (Bockholt, 2017). Thus making it crucial to pick an social media personality that does not regularly make sponsored posts. Correspondingly, an effective posting schedule would have to be research, designed and implemented to avoid influencers being unfollowed. This is because a survey found that 37%  of females unfollowed an influencer due to frequent posting of sponsored content(Bockholt, 2017).

However, many brands fail to reach their potential, Kowalke (2016) states five reasons why:

1) Getting a popular influencer not a successful one

2) The influencer doesn’t suit the brand

3) Not communicating with your influencer, thus failing to build a relationship

4) Having a restriction on creative content

5) Expecting fast results

To read on how to avoid these mistakes, click here

NB. Fashion brands must remember that the relationship between them and the influencer can make or break a successful marketing campaign. A relationship helps the influencer understand and care about the brand helping them to promote it effectively. Furthermore, the relationship is then often noticed by the consumer. For example, in a blog this is from the body language and emotions the influencer is portraying.

To conclude, it is clear the potential for influencer marketing to build brand awareness is phenomenal, and in the long run the benefits of brands investing in social media influencers on Instagram outweigh the negatives. Nonetheless, marketers’ must remember that a large following doesn’t always equate to a credible influencer, existing app allow for any user to purchase followers. Thus thorough research must be conducted on each potential influencer as it can save the brand embarrassments and a financial loss.

Reference:

Barker, S. (2017) ‘8 Of The Biggest Benefits of Social Influencer Marketing You Need to Know Now’ Shane Barker, 14th November,2017

Bockholt, S. (2017) ‘The Pros and Cons of Influencer Marketing’, TheCore, 3rd March 2017 [online] available at < https://www.dma-solutions.com/thecoreblog/the-pros-and-cons-of-influencer-marketing > 27th December 2017

Fryrear, A. (2015) ‘We Investigate the Pros and Cons of Influencer Marketing so You Don’t Have to’, Marketgizmo, 17th March 2015 [online] available at < http://www.marketergizmo.com/we-investigate-the-pros-and-cons-of-influencer-marketing-so-you-dont-have-to/ >24th December 2017

Hamann, H. (2014) ‘5 Tips for Finding the Right Social Influencers for Your Brand’, Covince&CovertBlog, 11th December 2014 [online] available at < http://www.convinceandconvert.com/digital-marketing/5-tips-for-finding-the-right-social-influencers-for-your-brand/ > accessed 21th December 2017

Kowalke, P. (2016) ‘5 Common Influencer Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid them’, Agile CRM, 1st September 2016 [online] available at <https://www.agilecrm.com/blog/5-common-influencer-marketing-mistakes-avoid/  >27th December 2017

Long, J. (2017) ‘5 Reasons Why You Need to Take Advantage of Influencer Marketing’, Entrepreneur, 16th January 2017 [online] available at < https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/287740 >accessed 20th December 2017

L2 (2014) cited in Cook, K. (2017) “15 Fashion Brands You Should Follow on Instagram for Marketing Inspiration” HubSpot, 22nd May 2017 [online] available at < https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/fashion-brands-on-instagram > assessed 27th December  2017

Pixlee (2017) [online] available at <https://www.pixlee.com/definitions/definition-social-media-influencer  > accessed 20th December 2017

Schmidt, S. (2017) ‘5 Top Apparel Industry Trends in 2017’, Market Research Blog, 26th June 2017 [online] available at < https://blog.marketresearch.com/5-top-apparel-industry-trends-in-2017> assessed 23th December 2017

Talbot, K. (2015) ‘5 Brands on Instagram That Succeed With Influencer Marketing’ [online] available at <https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-brands-on-instagram-that-succeed-with-influencer-marketing/> assessed 27th December  2017

Track Maven (2015) cited in White, R, L. (2016) “6 Reasons Why Fashion Marketing Rules Social Media” TrackMaven, 2nd February 2016 [online] available at < https://trackmaven.com/blog/6-reasons-why-fashion-marketing-rules-social-media/ > assessed 23th December 2017

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