Influencer marketing is quickly becoming the best way to build and grow your brand online. In fact, Forbes reports that influencer marketing is growing faster than digital ads and providing much greater benefits for companies around the world. But what is an influencer and how is influencer marketing really able to benefit your mortgage business?
Key Takeaways
- Influencer marketing is a social media marketing strategy that uses endorsements from influencers to promote a product or service.
- The benefits of influencer marketing in the mortgage industry include improving brand awareness, building trust and credibility, building authority, effectively reaching the target audience and beyond, reducing advertising budget, providing fresh and unique content, generating leads, and driving conversion.
- Partnering with the right influencer or becoming a mortgage industry influencer yourself can provide a substantial boost to your business.
- Influencer marketing is quickly becoming the best way to build and grow your brand online and is growing faster than digital ads.
What is an influencer?
An influencer is a person that has the ability to influence potential consumers by promoting and recommending a specific product or service through their social media channel. They typically have a large following with a specific target audience that follows them for their knowledge and expertise on a specific topic. Top influencers are often celebrities. According to Visual Capitalist, the top 5 social media influencers online based on their number of followers include Cristiano Ronaldo, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, and Taylor Swift.
While those influencers are unlikely to benefit the mortgage industry, sharing your expert knowledge of the industry through social media platforms may quickly gain you followers and offer an influencer status. In fact, LinkedIn reports that 2022 is bringing the rise of the mortgage influencer.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing strategy that uses endorsements from influencers. This marketing concept takes advantage of the large following or consumers that influencers have, allowing them to reach a greater audience. When you partner with an influencer, you typically pay a flat rate for them to create a promotional post or product endorsement. As you build a relationship, it may be beneficial for them and for you to become a brand ambassador or an influencer that regularly promotes or endorses your services.
Benefits of using influencer marketing
The biggest benefit of influencer marketing is the influencer already has an established audience that follows them, giving your brand access to those followers. But that is only the beginning. Influencer marketing offers a wide range of benefits that can provide a substantial boost to your business when you partner with the right influencer or become a mortgage-industry influencer yourself.
Improve brand awareness
Influencer marketing allows you to expand your reach. As an influencer shares your business product or services, their social users will begin to learn more about who you are and what you have to offer. The key to successful influencer marketing partnerships is that the influencer’s audience fits your target market and that you offer a benefit to the influencer’s current social media presence.
Builds trust and credibility
The key to an influencer’s success is that they build trust with their followers. When an influencer shares your information, their followers respect their recommendations and are more likely to trust the product or services you offer. When an influencer shares your brand, it creates a sense of instant credibility and trust that may otherwise be difficult to achieve.
Builds authority
If you can garner the attention of a mortgage industry authority influencer, it shows the influencer’s followers that your business aligns with industry leaders and that you too are an industry authority. In a time when building online trust is critical, influencer marketing can truly make a difference.
Effectively reach the target audience and beyond
Influencers depend on building a large following and when they mention your brand, this large following knows about it. Finding the right influencer within your industry or with an audience that fits your target market is essential. When partnered with the right influencer, you can reach your target market on a much greater level and boost your sales potential.
Builds winning partnership
Regularly working with an influencer and building a partnership can greatly benefit both you and the influencer. Eventually, the influencer may be interested in becoming a long-term brand advocate, or someone who will regularly promote your services to their followers.
Reduce your advertising budget
Traditional advertising, such as ads through social media, can be expensive. In many cases, you pay every time someone clicks on an ad, and you are not guaranteed a conversion. With influencer marketing, you typically pay an influencer a flat rate for each post or mention they provide. This post reaches a large audience with no additional cost to you and, given the fact that these followers are seeing a promotion by someone they respect, the chances of conversion are often higher.
Provides fresh and unique content
While you may create blogs and videos through your own social media platforms, finding fresh and new content can often be time-consuming. Partnering with industry-specific influencers and sharing their content allows you to both appeal to your followers as well as put your brand in front of the influencer’s followers.
Generates leads
The more your brand is talked about, the higher your lead generation prospects become. Social media and influencers provide a simple way for consumers to express interest in the services you offer. These platforms are quickly becoming one of the best ways to help generate web traffic and boost lead generation.
Drives conversion
When an influencer recommends a product or service, they have the ability to lead their followers towards these services. In fact, as many as 50% of online consumers depend on recommendations from influencers and as many as 40% of online consumers end up using new companies or products that they see promoted by social media influencers.Use influencer marketing to your advantage
Taking advantage of social media and influencer marketing in today’s competitive online world can make a big difference to your brand awareness and provide a significant boost to your overall lead generation and sales. At Good Vibe Squad, we understand how important it is to make your brand stand out and generate qualified leads on a regular basis in order to achieve success and our Unfair Advantage™ can help you do just that. To learn more, schedule a strategy call today us today.
