Influencer marketing is probably the most effective technique for maximizing reach and getting in front of your targeted audiences today (event, product, or anything). In fact, people who don’t consider buying your products normally just might do so when they see influencers endorsing them. Sound ludicrous? Well, that’s exactly what 53% of gen z respondents in a recent survey revealed.
Consumers today are greatly dependent on recommendations from influencers who are experts in their respective fields. Influencers are knowledgeable and know what their audience wants. So they’re powerful weapons in accelerating the growth of a brand.
According to research conducted by Twitter:
- 49% of consumers are influenced on their purchases by recommendations from influencers.
- 20% said a Tweet from an influencer motivated them to share product recommendations.
- Around 40% of users on Twitter said they’ve bought a product after seeing an influencer’s Tweet about it.
Why influencer marketing is integral to your marketing strategy
Realizing the power of influencers, most brands are embracing this marketing strategy to extend their reach and generate more relevant leads for their business. Still not convinced? Take a look at these interesting statistics that demonstrates the power and popularity of influencer marketing.
- About 70% of teenage audiences on YouTube are influenced more by popular YouTubers than by celebrities.
- 54% of women in a survey said that they’ve made purchases after seeing products recommended by influencers on social media.
- 71% of marketers feel that influencer marketing helps them create greater brand awareness.
- 67% of marketers believe that influencer marketing helps them reach more targeted audiences.
Whether you’re a startup or an established brand trying to achieve your goals, influencer marketing can work wonders for you. Let’s take a look at some of its biggest advantages.
- It helps brands connect with their target audiences organically.
- It helps maximize your reach to a wider group of audiences across different social media platforms.
- It increases your brand awareness in a shorter span of time and generates higher-quality leads.
- It enhances your content strategy because influencers use fresh and unique content to promote your campaigns. So you don’t need to worry about running out of content ideas.
Just look at how ASOS, a leading online fashion and beauty store, leverages Instagram for influencer marketing.
The campaign helped ASOS reach out to their target audiences effectively and benefit from greater brand awareness. They worked with a very diversified group of influencers, who each had their own different style and look. This way ASOS was able to position themselves as a brand which has something for everyone.
How to use influencer marketing to promote your events
An influencer is an expert in a specific niche who has developed a lot of credibility through their genuine reviews and engaging content. Rather than persuading their followers to buy a product, an influencer focuses on building a relationship with their audience.
Apart from all the benefits we discussed above, social media influencers can be great for promoting your events too. Why? For the following two reasons.
Consumers trust influencers
Consumers may not trust your advertisements blindly. However, if an influencer talks about your product positively, you’re likely to gain more loyal customers. So when you leverage them to promote your events, chances are higher that people will want to attend them.
You can attract untapped audiences
Influencers help to put your brand in front of new, untapped audiences. When they talk about your brand on social media, their followers will learn more about you. You can also encourage them to spread the word about your events too. Promoting your event before, during, and afterwards provides broader coverage.
Steps for event influencer marketing
If you’re wondering exactly how to leverage influencers to promote your events, here are some of the most effective strategies:
Step 1: offer financial incentives
If you’re looking to leverage influencers to promote your events, you need to think about what you can offer in exchange. While some brands offer monetary compensation, others offer freebies, free event invites, gifts, etc. However, make sure the influencer is content and happy with your choice of compensation.
Step 2: study your audience on social media
Monitor social media platforms to learn more about your audience’s preferences and which posts they’re engaging with. This will help you pick the right influencers to promote your event.
Step 3: make your event promotion visually appealing
It is the age of selfies. And you can use them to your advantage for your event promotion using influencer marketing. How? Make your event promotion visually appealing to your audiences. Encourage your influencers to share their selfies with branded hashtags. This will encourage their audiences to further share them amongst their own networks.
Step 4: promote your guests
Reveal your event guest list to all of your influencers. Ask them to spread the word about the event and to feel free to mention the names of guests too. Popular names can attract more eyeballs, and hence, a greater chance of success in your event promotion.
Step 5: share content even after the event
Ask your influencers to talk about your event on social media even after it has ended. They can post pictures and other content to spread greater brand awareness among their followers.
Don’t forget to thank them for their efforts. After all, they deserve some gratitude for all of the hard work they’ve put in to help your brand grow.
There are many examples of brands that have succeeded in using influencer marketing to promote their events. Depending on your goals, influencer marketing events can differ drastically. As we can see from these two case studies.
Event influencer marketing case studies
Brand case study 1: Chanel
Here’s how popular lifestyle brand Chanel generated awareness of a new product using influencer marketing on Instagram:
The New Chanel No 5 L’Eau
Chanel invited several influencers including Jessica Mercedes Kirschner to their production facilities and flower fields in Grasse, France. The idea was to let these influencers have an inside look at how Chanel manufactures their classic perfumes.
All of the influencers shared images from their tour in their posts to showcase their experiences. And of course, to promote the newly launched Chanel No 5 L’Eau perfume. They also used the branded hashtags #newchanel5 and #chanelgrasse to create awareness for the product.
Top blogger and influencer, Julie Sariñana, was also one of the influencers who was part of this campaign. Her post generated over 40K likes on Instagram.
The campaign yielded staggering results. The brand created hashtag #newchanel5 resulted in over 1,600 different posts, both from influencers as well as other users. These posts, in turn, garnered close to a million likes, all within the first month of the campaign.
Working with traditional celebrities as well as influencers with a high reach, Chanel exposed over 9 million people to their brand and to their new product. They demonstrated just how well influencers can be integrated with product launch events.
Brand case study 2: SAP
Influencer marketing events don’t always have to be product launches or restricted to the B2C domain. Just take a look at SAP and how they used Facebook Live.
The Sapphire Conference
A pioneer in the software industry, SAP hosts an annual event called the Sapphire Conference. It brings together a multitude of industry experts and users to for the purpose of sharing knowledge and networking. The event typically sees a footfall of 20,000 attendees with SAP able to reach another 100,000 online viewers.
For the 2016 event, the company chose to run a rather innovative B2B campaign. They hosted several live chats with major influencers attending the event. They streamed these to their vast online audience through Facebook’s Live video feature.
Not only did it allow the online viewers to get a feel for the event but also have their questions answered directly.
Now, SAP caters to a very wide range of industries and niches. To get the most out of their campaign, they worked with 11 influencers from different backgrounds. This way they were able to cater to the needs of almost everyone.
In exchange for taking part in these chats, the influencers were given the opportunity to meet SAP executives. They got to interact with them, test out SAP products and features, and provide their feedback to the executives.
While the videos were predominantly shared on Facebook, SAP repurposed the videos, later, to be shared on their blog. The influencer marketing event was a win-win for everyone – the company, the influencers, and most of all the attendees and viewers.
SAP’s campaign serves as a good example of how influencer marketing events can be promotional and educational at the same time.
Learn more about leveraging influencers in event marketing by watching a portion of our webinar with Vera Bradley’s Sabrina Medert:
Final thoughts
Influencer marketing is generating massive returns for many brands and marketers. No matter how big or small your business might be, if you are clear about your goals, you can benefit from influencer marketing. And now you know how to use influencer marketing to successfully promote your events.
Learn more about influencer marketing: Influencer Marketing 101
