8 Benefits of Influencer Marketing for D2C Brands

Gives You Access to Your Millennial & Gen Z Consumers

This is big. Influencers place your content in front of their followers (primarily millennials and Gen Z) who are already interested in your niche. You don't need to set aside a separate budget to test and find your audience – the influencer has already done that for you. Basically, influencer marketing gives you access to millennials and Gen Z, who are driving the economy today – this can bring your brand immense value.

Enhances Brand Awareness and Expands Your Reach

One of the immediate benefits of using influencer marketing is brand awareness. Your target audience on social media will know your brand, the brand story, and its offerings. Additionally, most influencers in social networks have thousands of viewers. When you partner with influencers in your niche, you get an excellent opportunity to reach out to thousands and millions of potential consumers.

Promotes Emotional Brand Messaging

Consider these two types of brand marketing communications:

• Hard-selling, sponsored content focused on the product features.
• A person talking about their brand experience and why they connect with the brand values.

Which one resonates with you – 1 or 2? Undoubtedly, the second one – right?

When D2C brands humanize their campaigns – real people, relatable content, and real emotions - they can strike the right chord with their audience. People connect better with faces and emotions. Influencers can give life and emotions to your products, helping consumers visualize your product in a better light, thus impacting their purchasing decision.

Enhances ROI and Bottom Line

Most businesses get impressive ROI from influencer marketing. A study from Burst Media says, on average, for every $1 spent in influencer marketing, businesses generate $6.85 in revenue. That is significant for D2C brands – in fact, that is great for any brand. According to a study carried out in 2019, nearly 50% of marketers say that ROI from influencer marketing is higher than other marketing platforms', and approximately 41% state ROI is equivalent to other channels.

Also, influencer marketing focused on branding and engagement activities generally generates eight times more ROI than other campaigns.

These statistics prove that profits generated through influencer marketing surpass its costs to deliver a very high ROI and eventually a higher bottom line.

Builds Credibility & Trust with Persuasive Product Reviews

Influencers have built a relationship of trust and respect with their followers. So, if an influencer recommends or suggests a product or brand, the followers are quick to trust them. A marketing campaign doesn't feel like paid advertising when you get an influencer to do it. This increases your brand credibility and trust.

Today's customers expect an authentic brand experience and trustworthiness. A Trustpilot report indicates that almost 9 out of 10 consumers worldwide read online reviews before making a buying decision. Many people rely on YouTube and Instagram to go through product reviews in detail before making a high-value purchase.

You can leverage this customer behavior by collaborating with an influencer to do a product review. A product or service review done by an influencer can have a greater influence on your audience than most traditional marketing techniques.

Drives Purchase Decisions and Boosts Sales

Influencers drive their followers' purchase decision-making process at all levels. According to statistics published by Digital Marketing Institute, 49% of survey respondents stated that they make purchase decisions based on influencers' recommendations.

If one of your marketing objectives is to increase sales – whose isn't – influencer marketing can help you accomplish that objective. Even small brands who have just started have witnessed that they were able to drive their sales up dramatically, when an influencer has pushed their product.

Helps You Acquire Customers Faster than Other Online Marketing Methods

Marketers have rated influencer marketing as the fastest-growing marketing channel for acquiring customers online. Organic search and email, although effective, are too mature to match up to the yearly growth potential that influencer marketing delivers. Display advertising and affiliate marketing are no longer strong games as they used to be.

Overcomes Advertising Blindness

Regular promotions like video ads, banners, or pop-up advertisements are becoming old-school. Audiences have become immune to them as there's content overload as it is on the internet and mainly on social media. Influencers have what it takes to grab their audiences' attention, and people are not blind to them. Audiences are more receptive to influencers, paying more attention to them, thus helping brands meet marketing objectives better than any other channel.