Influencer marketing was valued at a record $16.4 billion in 2022 (yes, that’s a billion with a ‘b’). With 72% of millennials and Gen Z following influencers, influencer marketing will only hit more impressive numbers in 2023 and beyond. With these numbers in the perspective, it is no surprise that more and more marketers and brands will be motivated to invest in this space in the coming days.
This blog will dive into what influencer marketing is, how Instagram can play a big role in this space, whether should you buy Instagram followers to maximize the returns, and more.
Let’s get started.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a type of marketing in which businesses pay an influencer to promote their products or services to their audience.
An influencer is someone that has a considerable number of followers who can be influenced by the influencer.
In the past, brands would reach out to celebrities and get their endorsement over traditional communication mediums like television, magazine adverts, etc.
Things have changed a lot with the evolution of social media, and social content creators with a lot fewer fans can be more valuable to brands than these mega-famous idols.
The reason is that these creators with a small audience are deeply connected with their fans and hence can generate amazing engagement.
Why choose influencer marketing?
With so many modes of modern digital marketing, one would wonder why to go with influencer marketing to promote their business.
To answer this question, we will roll out some of the impressive statistics of influencer marketing;
- The influencer market is expected to hit $84.89 billion in the next 5 years,
- Influencer marketing campaigns grew in numbers throughout 2022,
- 90% of people believe Influencer marketing is effective in driving business, results,
- Businesses claim to have made %5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing (that’s a 400% ROI),
- 84% of businesses vow to invest in influencer marketing in 2023.
These stats clearly show where influencer marketing is heading and how it can be a great driver of growth for brands and businesses in the coming years.
Is Instagram influencer marketing worth it?
You might be wondering, Is it worth it to spend your marketing budget on Instagram influencer marketing?
While Facebook and YouTube are ahead with the number of monthly active users, they don’t compare to Instagram when it comes to influencer marketing campaigns.
The reason is that audience on Instagram is very active and they enthusiastically engage with the content in big numbers – something you don’t often see on other social apps.
A recent survey showed that 65% of the top-performing Instagram posts feature products. This says a lot about how Insta users respond to sponsored content, and why it is the favorite social platform for marketers and brands to run influencer marketing campaigns.
Why Instagram followers are important?
There are two types of accounts on Instagram that make money; content creators and businesses.
Influencer marketing connects the two and helps them gain mutual benefits. Content creators start by choosing a niche and then continuously create content to attract a niche audience who is interested in their content.
Over time, they will gain a considerable size of audience and brands contact them for shoutouts, branded campaigns, and sponsored posts.
As new creators, many aspiring influencers buy Instagram followers to grow their audience and clout fast.
Businesses and brands use this marketing strategy as well to save a ton of time and resources in building and monetizing an Insta audience.
So this is pretty clear that whether you are a brand or a content creator, you can not influence users unless you have a decent following on your account.
Tips to grow Instagram followers
Pick your niche
Deciding on your niche and target audience is the first step toward successful Instagram marketing.
Start with a micro or nano niche instead of wasting your efforts on targeting a broad category.
Let’s say, you are in the pet niche. It is a much wiser strategy to pick dogs, and then going one step further, creating content around poodles or golden retrievers is even better.
Build credible profile
Your profile includes a profile picture, username, and bio. It’s your first impression of the profile visitors, so it should look professional and credible.
You can start by modeling profile pictures of other popular accounts in your niche using Instagram profile viewer tools. Try to use niche keywords in your username as well as in your bio.
Your bio should tell users about your business and how they can benefit from you.
Create hashtag strategy
Content on Instagram is discovered using hashtags. They tell the algorithms what is your content about, and who the ideal group of people might be interested in.
Just like niche selection, you should start with very specific and small hashtags (with views under 100,000). This will help you gain views from this very specific audience and grow your account organically.
Use compelling captions
People love stories they can relate to. Captions of your Instagram posts and Reels provide you the window to connect your viewers with the human side of your brand.
There are many ways to engage them; ask questions, share your experiences with a recent event, or challenge them to try a new recipe. Ideas are endless and depending on your niche and brand, you can be as creative as you want.
Make creative content
Content is king. Spend time thinking of creative and unique ideas to engage your audience.
To help you gain fast traction on the app, you may choose to buy Instagram likes as well. This helps your content gain more reach and impressions and attract more people to your account.
Final words
Instagram is the fourth most popular social platform worldwide and presents great opportunities for content creators and businesses to grow their brands.
We have covered organic strategies to grow on the app. You can also use paid strategies like buy Instagram auto views, likes, and followers to grow faster.
Whichever techniques and strategies you go with, the key is to focus on providing original, valuable, and insightful content to engage and entertain your audience.
Writer’s Bio
Azeem Ahmad is an avid digital marketer, guest blogger, and content writer with extensive experience writing about social media marketing, search engine optimization, inorganic marketing strategies, and lead generation. Besides writing, he enjoys playing table tennis, reading blogs, and surfing the internet.
