Is Influencer Marketing Better Than Traditional Marketing?

“People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories, and magic.”

We all get influenced by someone at some point in our lives and try to imitate their thinking or work or style. Like celebrities, we see them wearing a certain type of clothes, and suddenly it becomes a trend and people start following that trend.

Influencing is a part of our daily life. Whether we influence someone or we get influenced by someone. Intentionally or unintentionally.

Talking this essence from our everyday life, when it is used to sell a particular product or service to a specific set of audience is what basically influencer marketing.

What is an Influencer?

A person who knows a specific subject and who cater that knowledge to their audience. An influencer is an online personality followed by people who believe in their guidance & actions and get influenced.

Anyone can be an influencer. Your size of the audience doesn't matter. What matters is your connection with them. Having 1000 followers who believe in you and take action on your call is better than having 10,000 followers who will just see your post or blog and walk ahead without any consideration.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Suppose you have created a product and launched it in the market and its market-fit. But nobody knows about it and even if few people know, they are not sure of using it. So, how will it make its position in the market? Here comes the influencer marketing in the picture.

You will have to approach a public figure in your niche who already has that connection and support of the audience. He/she will endorse your product on their platform and recommend it to their audience. Because they already have a trustworthy connection with the person, they will be willing to listen and try the product.

Is Influencer Marketing Better Than Traditional Marketing?

The concept of the traditional market has been always present in the market and even now so. It will never be absolute but only get upgraded over time.

Influencer marketing can also be suggested as the upgraded version of traditional marketing or we can say it is a balanced amalgamation.

In traditional marketing, the advertising focuses on TV, radio, and print media. Billboards and newspaper printing are also included in this. It is set for that section of society that is not much aware of the internet world or just doesn't use it that often.

According to a report by DataReportal in 2021, around half the population of the world uses the internet, which is 4.66 billion is 59.5 percent. Although this number is increasing every year, there are still 40.5% of the world’s population who are not part of this online community.

But that does not mean that they are not aware of the products and services around them. Traditional marketing techniques focus on that part of the audience.

Whereas, influencing marketing takes place mostly on online platforms in the form of blogs, social media posts, videos, pictures, etc. Depending on the need of the customer, the platforms are chosen for the marketing.

Now, if we talk about the costing aspect of both the marketing styles, which one do you think is more affordable as well as effective?

In traditional marketing, it totally depends on the business as to how much and how long they are willing to pay. As long as the campaign runs, it will cost them.

On the other side, when an influencer posts something for promotion, it is not taken down by them and the content is original and according to their aesthetics. The business will have the benefit for the long run in that sense.

Talking about effectiveness, traditional marketing is losing its way as businesses are coming up with absurd ideas and over-the-top themes as to a length is has now a new name for it which is ad blindness.

People have started ignoring these ads as they are losing their authenticity and are getting far and far from reality.

People want to see realness and want to feel related to the product. For which, influencers are doing great jobs in doing so. A customer relates to these influencers which makes it believable enough for them to purchase the product or service.

But these are all just speculation as there is no statistical data present to track down the profitability originated from influencer marketing. Although the audience reaching the product will be organic, it can not be justified in numbers.

Conclusion

The debate of “Who is better than who” is endless and each category has its place of its own in society. We will never be able to choose one and eliminate the other. It is only a matter of time and place before they find their perfect fit in the market.