Tripp's Blog

Influencer marketing has been adopted by brands as a powerful way to reach out to customers and generate buzz. I follow several fitness, sports performance, and outdoor influencers who all have partnerships with brands like Nike, Gymshark, and Red Bull. Looking at what they post, one can definitely understand why this kind of marketing is so effective. In this model,, for the first time, influencer marketing rarely feels like advertising. Rather than a traditional ad, the product is incorporated naturally into the influencer’s daily life. A fitness creator may wear brand apparel in a workout video, while an outdoor athlete could feature sponsored gear on a mountain trip. The emphasis is on lifestyle, not a straight sales pitch. This subtle infusion makes the message more powerful because it’s more genuine and so persuasive. Influencers use several strategies in almost every case but not all the time, and several key tactics to manage this impactfulness. First of all, though, they embed products directly into authentic experiences rather than listing their functions. Storytelling is a big part of the equation, sharing how a product helped them improve their performance, or how a product fits into their routine. Second, most of them have discount codes or affiliate links, rewarding followers with sales by offering a discount code or affiliate links that give followers a reason to buy, while giving a performance rating to the brand. Third, they give their followers active feedback opportunities for engagement through commentary, Q&As, and reposting user-generated content. It creates a community aspect behind both the influencer and the brand. Influencers are highly influential in providing a link to consumers from the businesses. Instead of brands speaking directly to audiences, and sometimes even as intermediaries, influencers provide a human connection to the message. Modern consumers have become more suspicious of traditional advertising; they tend to put faith in individuals they follow. Influencer credibility and perceived authenticity heavily influence consumer perceptions of brands (De Veirman, Cauberghe, & Hudders, 2017). If followers see an influencer as trustworthy, that trust often spills over to the brand to be endorsed. In marketing terms, influencer partnerships reinforce the relationship between the company and consumer. This is consistent with relationship marketing and relationship marketing’s emphasis on long-term relationships with customers rather than one-time business transactions. Influencers establish extended exposure and repeated interaction with brands through repeated touchpoints with brands they know, in a manner that tends to feel personalized and sustained. But transparency is important. To maintain credibility and comply with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines, sponsored partnerships have to be transparently disclosed. Ironically, effectiveness is not diminished solely because of transparency! To the most part, consumers are aware that influencers monetize their content; if the partnership feels authentic and in sync with the influencer’s brand and ethos, the most important factor. Trust, relatability, and lifestyle integration are why influencer marketing works. It’s better than cutting off consumers with advertisements and forcing on them content that audiences already prefer to consume. But in reality, influencer marketing will probably be one of the main ways a business targets audiences in a meaningful way, especially as digital platforms get bigger.