Why Brands Must Focus On Getting Leads Not Reach From Influencer Marketing?

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“A solid end-to-end strategy for lead generation is to apply influencer features at every stage of the customer journey — from awareness right through to purchase. This way, leads aren't only merely generated but nurtured in a fashion that potential customers expect after initial exposure to such experts.”- Sam Hurley
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Influencer Marketing is currently ruling the marketing world like never before. From the core of the marketing industry to the furthest corners, every aspect of the marketing industry has been affected by Influencer Marketing. There was a time when social media marketing success was measured based on the number of followers and fans. However, today’s marketers will agree that influencers play an imperative role in deciding the success of brands and businesses.  A study shows that 93% of marketers use influencer marketing as a part of their marketing mix, which shows the potential that this marketing medium has. 

Why has Influencer Marketing become a major essential for many brands today? There are several reasons, and the most important of them is that influencers have a significant effect on the reputation and also the bottom line sales of a brand. Influencers are considered to be the thought leaders and also the industry experts, and hence people trust them more than ever. Brands that want to follow a smart marketing strategy will invest considerable resources and time in collaborating with influencers and building a strong and consistent brand-influencer relationship.

why influencer marketing

Why Is Influencer Marketing Essential For Brands

  1. A lot of consumers do not always believe in what a brand has to say. They trust word-of-mouth recommendations, and influencers have a prominent role to play in this.
  2. Campaigns and promotions that are done on online spaces through influencers have a greater chance of succeeding than the ones which don’t.
  3. A study by Forrester says that influencers are responsible for 80% of impressions for posts by brands on various social channels.
  4. Influencers can help potential customers to take action by effectively promoting a brand’s site, products, and services through campaigns and recommendations.
  5. Influencers also help to build a brand’s reputation and credibility among potential customers. In other words, they are an excellent choice for Online Reputation Management.

Two major benefits of Influencer Marketing are that it generates leads for brands and also amplifies the reach. However, what is the meaning of lead generation and reach? Read on to learn more.

What is meant by lead generation? To state in simple words, lead generation is a process that involves capturing and stimulating the interest in a potential customer, ultimately leading him to buy the product or the service. Generating significant leads means generating interest in the minds of the potential customer concerning products, services, or a particular business offer. 

 With lead generation, the ultimate goal is to cultivate the interest in a potential customer and lead him onto the path of buying. In other words, lead generation involves reaching out to the target audience and converting them into buyers or at least potential buyers who will be interested in what a particular brand provides. Lead generation takes place in the following steps:

Lead Generation And Reach Through Influencer Marketing

bfsi influencer marketing

Discovering The Brand ​

A visitor learns about a certain business or a brand and the product or services it offers via marketing campaigns, social media platforms, websites, or blogs.

Clicking on the CTA

A CTA can be a button, message, or an image that compels the visitor to take an action.

Arriving At The Landing Page

After clicking on the CTA, the visitor reaches a landing page that consists of more useful information about the products or services that the brand is offering. This might ultimately convince him to buy the product or the service. Hence, a study says that 85% of B2B marketers say that generating leads is one of the most important content marketing goals.

why influencer marketing

Leads Vs Reach- Which Is More Important?​​

The marketing game has changed rapidly during recent times. Why? Because people no longer buy products or services like they used to before. They are not affected by flashy advertising, aggressive sales pitches, and TV commercials. Quality content is today’s formula to engage people. And the best way to develop quality content and use it to engage the audience is influencer marketing. Considering that influencer marketing amplifies both leads and reach, which one of these is a more important element for brands to focus on?

Brands have to focus more on building consistent relationships with customers. The generation of leads is the key to a successful business. The focus should be on being found and developing a relationship- which is what lead generation accomplishes. Research says that 67% of brands use lead generation metrics to determine the effectiveness and success of a brand’s content. What other reasons make leads more important than reach while implementing influencer marketing?

Why Brands Should Focus More On Leads Than Reach

why influencer marketing

Leads Mean Customers. Customers Mean Profits.

The primary benefit of leads is that they boost the revenue or profits by increasing the sales of the products or the services. Statistics note 55% of marketers spend more than half of the budget on lead generation! Because they are likely to make more sales, turning their potential customers into full-fledged customers. The profit margins of the business will increase. Marketing Reach, on the other hand, cannot guarantee sales profits. A study says that nurtured leads produce a 20% increase in sales opportunities. Hence, while employing influencer marketing, brands have to understand that generating sales is more important than reaching more people. Hence, leads are an exceptional way to organically build relationships and amplify profits.

why influencer marketing

Leads Help Grow Your Following

What does that mean? Leads will help to amplify the reach, but reach cannot assure the vice versa. Influencer Marketing involves a lot of content creation and also enables conversations on social media platforms. Influencers share valuable content with the target audience- and it can be a small group of people as well. This drives the target audience to buy your product or services, spread the word, and start more conversations on social channels. A study notes that 66% of marketers see benefits in social media following through leads. Reach cannot accomplish the same.

Leads Improve The Quality Of The Audience

With leads, you will know what type of audience is engaging with you and hence you can create a quality customer base. The number of people you are reaching does not ensure the quality of the audience. Lead generation helps you to have audiences who specifically engage with the content your brand creates and will relate to your products and services on a personal level. More reach does not guarantee that.

Leads Help In Expanding The Market​

Leads will help you to learn more about your potential customers. How? When you began your brand operations, your target audience was relatively a few. But, with leads, you can understand where you are getting engagement from and whether you can expand the sector of the audience you are targeting. In other words, leads help you to learn about your prospects. Reach will help you to bring in more people. However, it will not help you to analyze where else you can find your potential customers. Leads help you in expanding your market.

instagram influencer marketing benefits

Leads Help Gather More Customer Reviews

Leads will also help you to get feedback and reviews from customers who have tried your products or services. Social proof is an important element in convincing potential customers. Hence, feedback from a past client can help you improve, or you can use it for future marketing strategies. A reach is just a number, and it doesn’t tell you how people feel about your products.

influencer marketing metrics
why influencer marketing

Effective Strategies For Generating More Leads

Since brands should focus more on leads than on reach while executing influencer marketing, here are some effective strategies that can help:

  • Personalizing all marketing campaigns and making them relatable to the audience can produce more leads. 
  • Identify the source of leads by tracking website performance and using analytical tools.
  • Create innovative and engaging content. Give your campaigns a good narrative or stories.
  • Employing automation tools to speed up the process of lead generation and sales. 
  • Executing interactive content to engage the audiences.
  • Create video content because it’s the current and proven trend to engage audiences. 70% of B2B marketers say that videos are more effective in converting users to leads.

Here is how Confluencr designed campaigns and implemented these effective strategies to generate leads for several brands:

Confluencr collaborated with Paytm money– a SEBI registered investment advisor in India. The brand is very popular, so the purpose of the campaign was to generate more leads. Confluencr, being a YouTube Influencer Marketing Agency designed resourceful videos explaining the importance of wealth creation and the benefits of digital investments. We engaged creators on YouTube and also kept Twitter as a second platform. We also collaborated with Pratik Gandhi, the OTT star, to take a master class on digital trading and investing. What were the results? With 18 influencers, the campaign reached 2,993K+ people, got 321+ likes, and 26,946 comments

Confluencr designed a campaign for Master- India’s first 3-in-1 English skills program, educating 1st to 12th-grade students in linguistics. The purpose of the campaign was to highlight the significance of the skills and make more people sign up for the online courses. Since this was a relatively new platform, leads were very vital. Hence, we engaged 5 micro and nano influencers from parenting, education, and children niches on YouTube having more than a million subscribers. We had them engage in trial classes, create engaging content extracurricular spaces, and employed convincing narratives. With just 5 influencers, the campaign received 6,548,203 views, 16,650 comments, and 327,983 likes. A significant number of children enrolled in the online programme.

conclusion

Lead generation is a continually evolving strategy. Brands should realize that having a quality audience base is more important than quantity. While it is true that reach is essential for brands, leads are more essential. It is vital for brands to stay updated about the changing trends of their customer base. Leads will help you to know that and hence will ensure that you are getting the best results possible. If yours is a small business, lead generation will help you to improve your bottom line. Most importantly, to boost your ROI, you have to generate new leads. This way, you will ensure you get revenue from your current customers, and also experience a continuous stream of new ones.

Confluencr is an award-winning, eminent influencer marketing agency serving a diverse range of brands and businesses. With a striking 15000+ influencer network, we have designed and implemented 500+ brand campaigns for 200+ leading brands across India. We help entrepreneurs by creating and promoting content-driven campaigns- those that amplify brand awareness. Get in touch with us at [email protected] to learn more.

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