Yet again, YouTube ranks number 2 as the most visited search engine after its parent company Google, and the trend is expected to continue in 2023.
With over 500 videos posted every minute on YouTube, YouTube is a great platform for Influencer marketing.
With the recent developments in algorithms, technology, and internet connectivity, most people are on YouTube sharing experiences and the audience reach has reached its peak, especially for businesses.
While the popularity of sharing videos on social media channels like Facebook, and Instagram is also topping the charts, YouTube still reigns supreme when it comes to engaging your target audience through video marketing strategies.
One of the core strategies to pique the interest of your audience is indulging in Influencer marketing.
One of the highly searched keywords on Google is Influencer marketing.
Many are still unclear about the term or its meaning, so this is a comprehensive guide about Influencer Marketing and how brands can use this flourishing strategy to take their businesses forward through YouTube videos.
Table of Contents
Who are Influencers?
Many people think that influencers are celebrities and well-known people in social media circles. But that’s not it – influencers could be people that are still unknown in the offline world but have millions of followers online. Let us define who influencers are:
- An influencer is a person who has the power to influence or even de-influence the decision-making and purchasing decisions of the audience.
- An influencer has a great relationship with his/her audience and maintains a position, better knowledge, and great respect in his/her YouTube or Social media presence.
- An influencer could be a follower of a specific niche in which he or she is actively engaged.
- Influencers have made a position for themselves in the online marketing world and have built an interest and enthusiasm with their followers and audience.
Let us take the example of YouTube gaming influencers like PewDiePie or Mr. Beast, who have an unbelievable following of millions.
If you look at the Fashion world, influencers like Tess Christine or Vanessa Ziletti are ruling the online world. In the business world, Tim Ferris and Noah Kagan are ruling the charts.
So these are people who are considered Internet celebrities, and they have a massive following along with a solid influence on their audience.
When they promote a product, their target audience may not be interested in the brand, but their reviews generate trust, enthusiasm, and zeal in the audience to try the product at least once.
What is Influencer Marketing?
In influencer marketing, brands partner with online influencers to promote their products or services and increase brand awareness. Unlike celebrities, influencers can be anywhere or anyone.
If your YouTube videos go viral and catch the attention of millions, you automatically become an influencer.
What makes influencers so influential is their colossal following on YouTube and social media and how they earned a reputation for being experts in their field.
They are the point of contact that provides answers to people’s questions and they create the most interesting social posts on their specialized topic.
They create content, edit it using the best online YouTube video editor, and share the funniest videos or most informative content that the audience wants to learn about. This way the influencer’s audience gets to know about your products and can buy your products. This can also help you increase your brand awareness as well.
The Popularity of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is expected to reach $16.4 billion by 2022.
Influencer marketing is an affordable YouTube marketing strategy as compared to other strategies as the ROI generated in comparison to the cost of influencer marketing is massive.
Companies achieve an ROI of $5.2 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing. In the last five years alone, 1360 platforms and agencies specializing in influencer marketing have entered the market.
How Should Brands Initiate Influencer Marketing?
When establishing an Influencer marketing strategy on YouTube, follow these steps:
Step 1 – When you indulge in Influencer marketing strategies you need to plan, develop strategies, plans, and budgets, and spend time researching which influencer to collaborate with.
Step 2 – Identify and implement the correct approach to find and tie up with influencers who are related to your niche and whose target audience resonates with your brand.
Step 3 – You can also register with the platform or work with professionals.
Step 4 – Don’t make it a business collaboration, as influencers are as normal as you are, except that they have become a hit on YouTube and have an abundant following.
Step 5 – Integrate into PR schedules product release schedules, and plan executive travel and arrange meetings
Step 6 – Collaborate and Market – The final step is when you just have to tell the influencer what your goals are and what you expect from their audiences – the rest is their job. It is an investment that you can make consistently and grow your brand in the best way.
Top Influencer Marketing Campaigns
The growth of your website or brand depends on the kind of Influence Marketing Campaign you opt for. Here are some of the best ones:
Introduction Campaigns
These are campaigns that are initiated when you want to introduce a new product or service or even a new brand.
If you have expanded your business or introduced a line of product range, or even had a new set of management, these campaigns work to spread the word.
Influencers create visually engaging videos using the right tools, hardware, and an effective online YouTube video editor that showcase your products in the best possible way.
Competition-based Campaigns
Influencers can host competitions, contests, quizzes, or polls related to your brand.
This strategy intrigues the audience and they want more of it, which could lead them to your brand website. This strategy offers rewards that are relevant to your channel’s niche.
Hashtag Campaigns
These campaigns are more about optimizing your brand content. The objective is to help users find videos related to a particular product you deal in or your business website.
Maintenance Campaigns
In such influencer marketing campaigns, the YouTube videos created by the influencers don’t focus on the “novelty” of the product but on how your brand or product range can resolve the pain areas of the audience.
Influencers can circulate instructional YouTube videos related to the product like tutorials, explainers, or how-to videos that focus on benefits, not features of your product range.
Branding Campaigns
These are complicated ones, and influencers need to be very careful while designing or planning such videos.
If the audience understands such videos as an advertising or commercial gimmick, they will instantly switch off. Such videos can be risky!
Conclusion
Influencer marketing is on the rise, and big brands are using the power of influencers on YouTube and social media channels.
You will even find big movie makers or celebrities collaborating with influencers on YouTube to promote their creativity.
So why should your business lag behind? You must use influencer marketing for continued popularity, which can be very beneficial in the long run.
