1. Social influencers hold the key between you and your target market.

One of the most important job of marketers is to capture the right target audience. Influencer marketing agencies can make use of advanced software and algorithm to match brands’ image requirements to the ideal social influencers based on their online profiles, expertise, and interests. With such accurate matching, you can gain access to the large pool of social influencers’ followers, an entire consumer base that has a much greater chance of showing interest to your products.

2. Do not underestimate the power of word-of-mouth.

Influencer marketing is the digital world equivalent of word-of-mouth marketing today. A study conducted by Nielsen has shown that 92% of global consumers based their purchasing decisions on word-of-mouth recommendations. While 4 in 5 respondents rely on recommendations made by their closed ones, 2 out of 3 trust the suggestions made by strangers as well. In the highly-connected digital network of today, the power of social influencers is further magnified with its butterfly effect as 20% of online users will go on to share about the products recommended by the social influencers they follow.

3. Social influencers are realistic goals while celebrities are merely unattainable ideals.

Consumers nowadays are more individualistic and practical. They no longer blindly follow celebrities’ recommendations among a group of diehard fans and instead, seek to find relevance in consumption suggestions. Many of them find it easier to relate to social influencers who are ultimately, everyday people just like themselves and who have perhaps managed to become better with your products. Leveraging on this deeper connection with consumers, social influencers thus have greater ability to sway their purchasing opinions. In fact, the popularity of some social influencers today can even outshine the glamour of celebrities as younger audiences shift away from televisions to the social media to look for entertainment.

4. Social media holds the largest consumer base, and it is ever-increasing.

Facebook hits 1.49 billion monthly active users and Instagram has 400 million. No further explanation is needed here.

5. All fluff and no real results? Social media influencer marketing has proven to be highly profitable.

In terms of costs, social media influencer marketing is definitely cheaper than engaging in celebrity endorsements. As for revenue, a Tomoson research has proven that on average, social influencers can churn out a revenue of $6.50 for every $1 paid to them. 70% actually generate more than $2 while 13% make $20 or even more.

6. But the cost is rising, so start investing in influencer marketing NOW!

With the increasing demand for social media influencer marketing, prices are certainly going up. 59% of marketers are planning to increase their budgets for influencer marketing in 2016. To take full advantage of its relative low cost, now is the time to hope onto the influencer marketing bandwagon before it is too late! So why not start building your connection with influencers now and forge long term partnership with them?

7. Your competitors are already doing it.

With the ubiquitous nature of social media today, it is likely that your competitors are already engaging in some form of social media influence marketing. 84% of marketers are intending to conduct at least one social influencer campaign in 2016. Perhaps at this moment, an influencer is already promoting your competitor’s brand while spoiling yours at the same time. So get started to join the war of influencer marketing now! The battle field is only going to get more bloody.

Credits: Amber Teng