The advent of influencers and digital marketing has led to a transformation in the type of marketing strategies employed by brands today. While there was once a time when marketing was dominated by traditional print, billboards, and TV ads, Instagram and other major influencer-populated platforms have presented new opportunities for brands looking to promote themselves. Which approach is best, and what are the benefits of influencer marketing over traditional forms of marketing? In this article, we’ll be outlining everything you need to know to help you make the decision for yourself.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a subset of marketing that revolves around collaborating with influential individuals, commonly referred to as influencers, to promote a brand, product, or service. Influencers typically have a large following and exert some degree of influence over a specific target audience, and are typically active on social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, as well as other channels such as blogs or podcasts. Influencer marketing’s primary approach relies on the trust and credibility that social media influencers have built with their followers.
Influencer marketing campaigns come in various forms depending on the marketing campaign’s overall goals, aims, and niche that brands fall into. The primary campaign types include:
Sponsored posts: Brands can pay influencers to create and share content that promotes their lineup of offerings or new launches. This can take many forms, such as social media posts, blog posts, videos, and more.
Giveaways and contests: Brands can also partner up with influencers to run limited giveaways that encourage their followers to engage with the brand for the chance to win one of the brand’s products, a voucher, etc.
Affiliate partnerships: In this example, influencers are provided with a unique link or discount code related to the brand’s store page to share with their followers. When followers make a purchase using that link or code, the influencer receives a commission or some other compensation.
Brand ambassadors: This is a more long-term commitment to work with an influencer who acts as a constant representation of the brand; these ambassadors are usually creators who are already invested in said brand, so as to be authentic, and would continually work with them on campaigns and activations.
Event sponsorship: Relevant influencers can be chosen to appear at or host events that are relevant to their target audience, thereby bringing attention to the brand in question.
Content whitelisting: Influencer whitelisting, or creator licensing, is the process of
influencers permitting businesses to use their social media accounts for promotion. In this way, brands can run ads directly on an influencer’s account using the creator’s handle instead of their own, and tailor ads to different audiences.
What is traditional marketing?
Traditional marketing refers to the use of conventional advertising methods to promote a brand, product, or service. This type of marketing is often characterized by a one-way communication model, where the message is broadcast to the audience without any avenues for interaction or explicit opportunities for feedback. It is also typically more expensive than digital marketing, as it often requires the production and distribution of physical materials or the creation of large-scale televised adverts and the like.
Traditional marketing comes in a range of formats and can differ based on the industry, budget, and purpose of the marketing itself. This can include:
Print media: This includes advertisements in newspapers, magazines, brochures, flyers, and direct mail campaigns.
Broadcast media: One of the more well-known advertising channels is that through television and radio commercials. Historically, businesses would purchase airtime in the form of TV commercials or radio station ads to reach a wider audience.
Outdoor advertising: Billboards, posters, banners, and signage placed in strategic locations such as highways, bus stops, or city centers were also popular forms of traditional marketing.
Telemarketing: This involves making phone calls to potential customers to promote products or services, gather information, or conduct market research.
Events and trade shows: Some brands participate in industry-specific events, trade shows, conferences, and exhibitions to showcase their products or services to a targeted audience.
Public relations (PR): Traditional PR involves managing a company's image and reputation through activities such as press releases, media interviews, sponsorships, and community involvement.
Direct sales: Certain brands utilized the route of face-to-face interactions, where sales representatives would meet potential customers in person to make sales pitches or presentations.
When did influencer marketing start becoming more relevant for brands?
Influencer marketing has been evolving and gaining relevance over the past decade, particularly since the onset of the 2010s with the rise of Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and other influencer-focused social media platforms. The popularity of these platforms provided regular individuals with a creative outlet and thus the ability to create and share content, attracting substantial followings of those interested in their niches. These digital creators subsequently began to gain recognition and influence over their audiences, catching the attention of brands seeking new marketing opportunities.
As a result, internet-focused individuals rapidly began turning to digital channels and social media for content consumption, thanks to the ease of access and the heightened relevance of the content they engaged with. This varies from industry to industry, but fields such as lifestyle, gaming, beauty, fashion, and fitness saw a large uptick in brands turning to influencer marketing as a viable avenue for promotion.
Since then, influencer marketing has only continued to grow in relevance as brands look for new ways to market themselves and their products.
What are the cost differences between influencer marketing and traditional marketing?
The cost differences between influencer marketing and traditional marketing can vary significantly depending on various factors.
Influencer marketing costs:
Influencer fees: Social media influencers typically charge fees for their services, which can vary based on factors such as their reach, engagement, industry, and level of influence. Influencers with larger followings or higher engagement rates command higher compensation than micro or nano influencers.
Product or service exchange: In some cases, influencers may accept free products or services in exchange for promoting a brand. This can be a more cost-effective option compared to monetary compensation but still involves providing the influencer with the value of the product or service being promoted.
Campaign expenses: Aside from influencer fees, there may be additional costs associated with influencer marketing campaigns. This can include costs related to content creation, content marketing software, professional photography, video production, shipping of products, and any other expenses specific to the campaign.
Traditional marketing costs:
Media placement fees: Marketing channels such as television, radio, and print media often involve costs associated with media placement. These costs can vary based on factors such as the time slot, duration, publication, or media outlet chosen.
Production costs: Traditional marketing often requires creating and producing advertisements or promotional materials. Costs associated with production, such as hiring creative agencies, graphic designers, copywriters, and actors, need to be considered.
Distribution and printing: For print media campaigns, there can be costs related to printing materials like brochures, flyers, posters, and direct mail campaigns. Distribution costs, such as postage or delivery fees, may also come into play.
Event costs: Methods such as hosting events, trade shows, or sponsorships involve a range of expenses such as venue rentals, booth setup, promotional materials, and staff.
It's important to note that the costs of both influencer marketing and traditional marketing can vary widely based on the specific campaign goals, target audience, industry, and scope of the campaign. Influencer marketing may be more cost-effective in terms of reaching a targeted audience, while traditional marketing can have higher upfront costs but potentially reach a broader audience.
Why has influencer marketing become more popular?
Influencer marketing has gained popularity and become a significant part of marketing strategies for several reasons.
Influencers build trust, authenticity, and transparency
Influencers have built trust and credibility with their audience by consistently providing valuable content and engaging with their followers. When influencers recommend or endorse a product or service, their audience perceives it as a genuine recommendation from a trusted source. This authenticity can have a stronger impact than traditional advertisements, which are often viewed as biased or overly promotional.
Closely targeted reach
Influencers have the ability to reach specific niche audiences that align with a brand's target market. Thanks to their ability in building up a community of followers who share similar interests and demographics, businesses are now able to target their message more effectively. This targeted reach helps ensure that marketing efforts are reaching the right audience, increasing the chances of engagement and conversion. Traditional marketing, on the other hand, tends to send messaging out more broadly, with limited targeting available (such as advertising during specific TV show segments or radio stations to try and somewhat tailor their ad targeting).
Better suited for targeting Millennials and Gen Z
Thanks to Gen Z and Millennials’ proportionally greater presence on major social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, influencer marketing is a highly effective method for promoting your brand, products, or other offerings to this particular group. Not only do these users make up a large percentage of the total user base on these platforms, but their time spent scrolling through them is also markedly higher than older generations, meaning they have a higher chance of seeing and engaging with influential content or promoted ads that are pushed on the platform. This is particularly relevant for brands whose consumer base is comprised of these younger generations, as well as brands who are looking to expand their reach to appeal to Millennial and Gen Z audiences in order to hopefully turn them into new customers.
Authentic product placement
Influencer marketing allows for more natural and integrated product placements. Instead of traditional advertisements that interrupt the consumer's experience, influencers can seamlessly incorporate products or services into their content in an organic and relatable way, creating a sense of authenticity and making adverts less explicitly disruptive to consumers.
Mitigating ad-blocking and avoidance
Traditional marketing methods such as television commercials and print ads are often interrupted or avoided through ad-blocking technologies or changing consumer behaviors, such as on-demand streaming making cable television, and thus televised ads, less viable. Music streaming has similarly disrupted radio and therefore radio advertising. Influencer marketing provides a way to deliver branded messages within the influencer's content, making it less likely to be skipped or blocked by the audience.
How influencer marketing helps brands
Adaptable to any budget
Influencer marketing ranges from extremely cheap to extremely expensive, and everywhere in between, meaning it is highly adaptable to various business models and marketing budgets. Where traditional marketing has a certain price basis for brands to be able to tap into it and get the word out there, small companies can work with micro and nano influencers on a small scale to get their brand off the ground and scale it as they grow, making it a far more viable option for many smaller businesses with social media presence or access.
Measurable results
Digital platforms provide robust analytics and data that enable businesses to measure the impact of influencer marketing campaigns. They can track engagement, reach, impressions, and conversions, allowing for a more accurate evaluation of return on investment (ROI) and campaign effectiveness.
Which type of marketing is better?
The effectiveness of marketing strategies, when evaluating influencers vs traditional marketing, depends on various factors such as the target audience, industry, campaign objectives, and budget. Both influencer marketing and traditional marketing have their palace in the modern marketing landscape, though influencer marketing is arguably the most adaptable and easiest to adopt for a range of businesses based on the aforementioned points.
Many brands in the luxury space, for example, such as Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Celine, etc have adopted a mixed approach, whereby they still maintain a relatively high presence in traditional billboard and commercial advertising but are working with younger, trending creators on Instagram to expand their reach and appeal. Car companies fall into a similar category, adopting both approaches into their strategies.
If, for example, you are a small business that caters to a local community or has a generally older audience, traditional marketing may work better for you. Local restaurants and companies may benefit from street advertising and flyers being delivered to homes where their primary consumers reside, rather than trying to work on an online platform that doesn’t cater to their audience whatsoever.
The question of which is better for influencer marketing vs traditional marketing will be a personal one to answer, but for newer brands targeting younger audiences, those with online shop presences, and smaller budgets, may particularly find influencer marketing to be the most rewarding and viable option for their marketing strategies.
Conclusion
While influencer marketing and traditional marketing currently live in somewhat harmony in the modern marketing landscape, we can’t ignore the rapid changes that are occurring within the marketing industry at large. Many brands are turning to influencer marketing strategy to reap the benefits of a tailored marketing approach that can be less costly on budgets and reach core audiences such as Millennials and Gen Z more easily, but traditional marketing has maintained its presence in certain industries that are more all-encompassing and don’t need to adopt this niche, targeted approach. It’s clear though that marketing teams and agencies shouldn’t ignore influencer marketing’s potential, and can even include it side-by-side with traditional marketing approaches to reap the benefits.
