PR thrives on word-of-mouth. In this day and age of social media dominance, the importance of influencer marketing for PR strategy should never be undermined.
Don’t take it from us. Marketers agree on it too.
Here is an indicator of this overall positive sentiment. Ninety percent of marketers believe that influencer marketing is effective.
Image Source – Influencer Marketing Hub
Going by influencer marketing predictions, we can easily anticipate the prominent role influencer marketing is going to play in the digital marketing landscape. These are clear signs that influencer marketing for your PR strategy is imperative.
Are you still in two minds when it comes to influencer marketing for your PR strategy? We’ve valid points to convince you that it is.
Let’s take a look at them.
Why should you consider influencer marketing for an effective PR strategy
The rise of influencer marketing is redefining our approach towards PR in 2022. Influencers have tremendous power on social media and when you collaborate with them, they can be highly effective brand ambassadors for you.
Here is why you should consider influencer marketing for your PR strategy.
1. IM offers an authoritative voice for positive branding
Public relations professionals strive to tell a positive brand story to promote brands. In such a situation, influencer marketing can be an effective technique in achieving this goal.
Social media influencers are experts in their genre. They’ve worked hard to build trustworthy and respectful relationships with their followers. This leads to high engagement rates and reach on their posts.
In fact, a recent research by Matter says that 61 percent of consumers are more likely to trust the recommendations from family, friends, and influencers when compared to advertisements.
The reason?
It’s because a brand advertisement would be equivalent to tooting your own horn. However, influencers and family are seen as more familiar and trustworthy figures.
It is this trust that you can leverage for your brand when you invest in influencer marketing for your PR strategy. When influencers testify about your brand to their audience, it acts as social proof.
2. IM gives access to a larger audience
Influencers on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and other social media platforms command the attention of tens of thousands and even millions of users as they engage with them every day. Right social media management can help you to stay on top with the latest trends and techniques that will bring your business into modern day society!
These users have a genuine interest in the niche that the influencers are operating in.
When such influencers send out a message about your brand, it reaches this magnitude of followers. It is guaranteed to be seen and well accepted by a large target audience. This, in turn, can improve your brand awareness and recall.
Tech brand Logitech, for instance, partnered with Instagram influencer Sawyer Hartman and got him to talk about the unique features of their tablet. This sponsored review got well over 8k views.
Image Source – Instagram
As a PR professional, isn’t that what you wish for?
Influencer marketing for PR can act as a formidable tool for building brand awareness. Your brand is presented in front of a larger, untapped audience who are already interested in products or brands like yours. This can take the performance of your PR strategy to the next level.
3. IM offers better engagement
Let’s face it—hard-handed, power-words-infused promotions don’t work well with audiences anymore. People prefer to know about a brand or product through blogs and social media rather than ads.
So it all comes down to portraying your brand in an authentic manner and that’s where influencer marketing scores big.
When influencer marketing is incorporated into your PR strategy, the influencers can become powerful advocates for your brand.
They can craft fresh and attention-worthy content around your product to engage with your target audience.
From memes for social media to GIFs, videos, and images, influencers have mastered the art of creating content that commands the attention of their followers.
As users respond well to influencer-generated content, the quality and rate of engagement are much higher compared to traditional means of marketing.
If you want to be successful at marketing, getting people engaged with your brand on social media is one of the best ways. Social media engagement tools help build trust and provide an opportunity for customer reviews which can directly impact sales revenue.
4. IM sends better quality traffic your way
Influencer marketing does not stop at building brand awareness or garnering credibility for your business.
It’s a great way to generate top-quality traffic or leads who not only would like to know more about your brand but may also go ahead and make a purchase.
It’s no wonder then that 72 percent of the marketers agree that the quality of customers from influencer marketing is better than any other channel. Pair influencer marketing up with tools for lead generation and you’ve got quite the combination to grow your sales too.
Why is it so?
Because influencer marketing is a highly targeted marketing method where you can reach audiences who are interested in products or services like yours. Such prospects have higher chances of converting into customers.
As a PR professional, there’s a great opportunity in influencer marketing to take your strategy a step further and generate sales for your business.
5. IM provides better ROI
The end goal of influencer marketing is, no doubt, to grow sales. For this, marketers commonly rely on metrics like conversions and sales to measure the ROI of an influencer marketing campaign.
Interestingly, 60 percent of marketers say that they’re happy with the results they are reaping as they agree that ROI from influencer marketing is better than that of traditional advertising.
PR strategies focus on generating maximum visibility for the brand with limited investment. When you choose influencer marketing for your PR strategy, you’re aiming at achieving multiple goals, from awareness to sales.
And that’s why it’s important to know if the influencer marketing bet is paying off.
But how do you measure the results of influencer marketing?
To start, influencers have creator accounts. These give access to a lot of analytics related to their posts.
For engagement, it’d be by means of likes, shares, comments, and retweets. You’d have to track other metrics for other goals.
These help you gauge the extent of success your business was able to achieve through influencer marketing. PR and Influencer marketing is a strategic alliance for your business.
Going a level higher, link clicks, website visits, and purchases also help you measure the success of your influencer campaign.
Are you ready to invest in influencer marketing for your PR strategy in 2022?
PR and influencer marketing can work hand-in-hand to help you establish a solid brand presence on leading social media platforms. Combination of both practices works as a best marketing tool for your business.
From marketing on Instagram to Facebook, Tiktok, and YouTube, influencers can boost your PR efforts in multiple ways.
As a PR professional, you should take into consideration the multiple benefits of influencer marketing and start incorporating it into your PR strategy in 2022.
