Is content marketing signaling the end of influencers ?
Author : ROMAN3D,
MARKETING
The advent of new information and communication technologies has given a whole new meaning to many aspects of everyday life. Even the field of commerce has taken the lead. Nowadays, more and more businesses are much more focused on the digital side. Moreover, we are talking about electronic commerce or simply e-commerce.
Unlike the traditional method which simply consists of displaying products and services to make sales, here, it is much more complicated. It requires the intervention of at least one person who will help you boost your sales. This person is, of course, an influencer. However, many tend to believe that they can do without the services of these influencers thanks to content marketing.
In other words, through this article, we will talk to you more specifically about the concepts of influencer and network marketing. We will tell you a bit more about the complementary relationships that exist between them and why one cannot really make the other disappear.
What Is an influencer ?
Influencers are courted by brands and companies to improve their communication. They are also sought after for promotional purposes. Influencers mainly work on social networks, influencing many followers through their Instagram, TikTok account or their YouTube channel (hence their name).
They are multimedia content creators. Indeed, influencers are often highlighted to promote products. They describe, write, and share their daily lives with their community on different platforms: blog articles, Instagram posts, YouTube videos, Stories, videos or Snapchat photos. They serve as an intermediary between companies and their potential customers.
To learn more about the influencer profession, we invite you to read our article that discusses it, which can be found here :
https://roman3d.com/en/social-media/what-are-influencers/
What is content marketing ?
Firstly, content marketing is a marketing discipline that involves the creation and distribution of multimedia content by a brand to develop its business. This informative, useful or entertaining content can take multiple forms. Thus, this can range from news, videos, e-books (“white papers”), infographics, case studies, practical guides, Q systems, photos, forums, corporate blogs, etc.
Content marketing combines the logic of brand communication with traditional media offerings.
The most commonly used content marketing in the B2B sector addresses potential customers from a commercial perspective. W hile branded content considers content as an emanation of the brand and addresses other target groups.
Content marketing is particularly developing on the web, where it distinguishes itself from traditional advertising, which consists of displaying advertising messages in the form of banners on web pages. Companies then write real narrative scenarios on their social media pages, where they can engage in a genuine conversation with their community of fans or customers.
Making Content Marketing a Perfect Weapon to Improve Your Natural SEO
For websites, content marketing is the foundation of an SEO strategy. In fact, content marketing is used to rank a person’s website for different search queries related to your main activity.
A content strategy involves two types of keywords :
- Positioning on generic keywords with high search volume;
- A content strategy on low search volume keywords, also known as “long tail”.
This is a concept that consists of positioning oneself on a set of relevant keywords, with low search volume and low competition. The long tail allows websites to rank for more specific search queries. Thus, overall, there are more qualified users coming to the site, with a higher conversion rate.
Content marketing can also be used to improve SEO of a site through internal links. This is an internal linking strategy, meaning links between content. Generally, it’s interesting to create a link between hot content pages (blog articles) and cold content pages (strategic content on category pages and subcategories of an e-commerce site, for example) of your site to push the latter towards more competitive search terms.
Achieving good customer conversion optimization through content marketing
Before making a purchase, internet users consult and inform themselves about their future purchases to obtain opinions, or even additional information. Internet users also read content to confirm their purchase intention, deepen their knowledge about a product/service, etc. This trend is therefore a boon for companies. They must then position their site in informational or commercial queries to intervene in the purchase decision of the internet user.
Developing a netlinking strategy with content marketing
When a website has a good optimized content base that ranks correctly for multiple searches, it’s time to think about netlinking. Thus, netlinking allows a site to improve its popularity in Google’s eyes. But also to increase trust in this site, and therefore to gain in positioning. It is built by link exchange between different websites. The higher the popularity of a site, the more this site will transfer its “SEO nectar” to the site it is linked to. Netlinking must be done as naturally as possible to benefit from this SEO strategy.
If you’re looking for ways and tips to develop your SEO strategy creatively, we recommend you take a look here:
https://roman3d.com/en/website/being-creative-while-boosting-your-seo/
What is the role of influencers in content marketing ?
Therefore, influencers play an important role in a company’s or brand’s marketing policy, through their presence or their status in the media. They influence consumer behavior through their power of recommendation and persuasion. This transfer takes place by conveying an effect of authenticity and trust to which internet users are receptive.
According to an Ipsos study from June 2017, 69% of respondents consulted social networks at least once a day on average for two hours. Nine out of ten social media subscribers discovered a product or brand after seeing an influencer’s post; 79% of them visited a point of sale and 75% purchased the product or brand.
The influencer is an ambassador
The influencer or e-influencer, since we’re talking about the Internet, only has the power of their followers. The more followers they have, the greater their influence. Their missions are to interact, communicate and share with a community that comes together. They are generally experts in a specific field. Companies must therefore carefully select the influencer they entrust with the task of disseminating content in correlation with their strategy, to ensure effective collaboration.
This cohesion is crucial, as the influencer takes on the role of ambassador, brand advocate, sharing messages with their community to promote the brand and improve its visibility. The influencer’s action, a true opinion leader, is now an essential tool for communication and social marketing.
What is the impact of influencers ?
For example, whether it’s fashion, beauty, decoration or games, each influencer conveys their passion and shares their daily life with their community. Through their various publications, they ensure that a message is transmitted. Often, the message aims to share their daily life, their discoveries and/or their advice. But sometimes, the influencer works in partnership with brands, and in this case, the post aims to skillfully promote the brand in question.
Thus, by creating content that aligns with their values and is increasingly elaborate, the influencer acquires a community that resembles them and relates to them. This is how the influencer “influences“.
Moreover, according to several studies on the influencer market, 80% of consumers have already purchased a product or service thanks to an influencer. This is an impressive figure that shows the impact of influencers on our consumer society, but especially on brand business.
What is the importance of the influencer in your marketing strategy?
So, influencers clearly play an important role in communication, centered around your brand and your products. And, the first advantage of using influencers is the development of your brand awareness.
Because the influencer shares your message with their community, which is generally very developed and active. As a result, your message has a very significant reach, to a targeted audience. And it’s the ideal way to increase your brand awareness.
Next, influencers allow you to interact with your community. For example, the influencer’s community follows them closely and is often very active. In other words, every time the influencer posts, their community quickly reacts to give feedback on the products or your brand. Sometimes, when there are too many questions, influencers respond in the form of live videos, for example.
New Way of Communicating
Consequently, this allows you to quickly obtain real-time reactions from your customers. Nevertheless, this interaction also allows you to adjust the editorial line decided with the influencer (if you find it inappropriate), as well as to obtain valuable information about your product line to guide it in the right direction.
Finally, thanks to influencers, you can develop a new way of communicating. Yes, because influencers are less invasive when it comes to communication. When they share your brand’s products, it’s because they think they can be useful to their community. And their fans know it. Therefore, when an influencer highlights your brand, their community doesn’t feel flooded with intrusive advertising.
Moreover, you need to follow their personal accounts to get their approval on products. When internet users see and receive news and updates, they are undeniably interested in these influencers.
This form of communication manifests itself on different channels. For example, Facebook pages, Instagram, Twitter, but also on influencers’ YouTube channels. You will therefore develop a less intrusive relationship with your customers thanks to this form of communication.
To conclude
So, content marketing and influencers cannot be dissociated. Thus, they are complementary and without the influence of influencers, content marketing would not have such a great reach. Even if nowadays, there are many methods to convey a visual message on the internet, the reach will never be the same without the intervention of an influencer. On the other hand, influencers will never be second-rate ambassadors, to the benefit of content marketing. Consequently, the influencer is at the heart of targeted advertising on the internet, while content marketing is nevertheless a skillful and complementary tool to help in your visibility policy, for a better “rendering” of your products and services.
