Does influencer marketing generate sales directly?

Not necessarily. An influencer campaign is essentially a nudge given to the customer, so it may or may not convert directly. Its ROI can still be good when the nudge gives the right amount of push, especially for brand awareness.

Why can influence marketing deliver better ROI?

Because it nudges the customer at each step of the purchase decision rather than only at the awareness stage. When information is disseminated properly and constantly, in the right context at every step, that investment can translate directly into sales.

Difference between Influence Marketing and Influencer Marketing

Q: What is the main difference between influence marketing and influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing focuses on individuals pushing products to consumers and mainly drives brand awareness, the first step of a purchase decision. Influence marketing covers the customer's whole journey, placing the right content at every stage from awareness and comparison through price, reliability, and the final purchase.

What is the difference between influence marketing and influencer marketing? In one line: influencer marketing leverages trusted individuals who push your product to their audience, and it mostly drives the first step of a purchase, brand awareness. Influence marketing is broader: it shapes the customer's entire journey with the right content at every stage, from awareness and product comparison through price, reliability, and the final purchase decision. The two names sound alike, but they work very differently, and knowing which one you need changes where your marketing budget should go.

Where does influence marketing come from?

Man is a social animal. He always keeps visiting and greeting new people, and with every meeting he absorbs not only the other person but also that person's culture, school of thought, and behaviours. We are drawn to materialistic things too. With every visit to your colleague's place, you find something interesting about it or in it. You may like his furniture, but you never got a chance to ask where he bought it, even though you want one for yourself. You long for a celebrity's outfit that catches your eye. You go through one Google search result after another trying to find it. You even post a picture on your social media, hoping that someone might help you find the perfect product.

Brands used to read this as just one more dissatisfied customer. It is also a lost sale. Converting these moments into sales can be huge, and it is an enormous marketing opportunity: you turn a customer's disappointment into revenue and push your company's marketing beyond plain advertising. This is called influence marketing.

What exactly is influence marketing?

Influence marketing should not be confused with influencer marketing, which focuses on individuals pushing products to consumers. Instead, it is about the whole journey the company makes with the customer: from brand awareness, through comparing product qualities, prices, and reliability, all the way to the purchase decision. It creates a whole context, in the form of content, to reach out to the right customer at the right time.

A purchase decision includes several steps: becoming aware, selecting between products, looking for the perfect price, weighing after-sales services, and then finally purchasing. Setting up a proper context at each of these steps, making information float with a trickle-down effect, and making sure there is no dissatisfaction anywhere along the way is what influence marketing means in practice.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing, as mentioned earlier, focuses on individuals pushing products to consumers. It works through methods like affiliate partnerships with discount codes, competitions or contests, sample products, and similar tactics, often with a third-party outreach specialist who coordinates this kind of marketing. Influencer marketing refers to the act of leveraging trustworthy, sometimes extremely popular, figures of authority in order to drive consumer action. Hosting an influencer event is a great opportunity to spread brand awareness among your key target audience, and it also serves as an efficient way to gain social media attention and coverage. It has done a lot of goodwill for brands all over the world, and if you are looking to start your own campaign, you have definitely landed on the right page.

In practical terms, influencer marketing means hiring professionals from various niches, including students, entrepreneurs, celebrities, and even subject-matter experts, to promote and push your product. It generally influences the first step of a purchase decision, which is brand awareness. These influencers have defined niches and targeted audiences, and they push your brand's products by creating engaging content.

Which one delivers better ROI?

An influencer marketing strategy may or may not generate sales directly, because it is essentially a nudge given to the customer. The ROI for an influencer marketing strategy can be good if it gives the right amount of push. An influence marketing strategy, on the other hand, can directly push sales, because there is a nudge at each step of the purchase decision. The investment made in an influence marketing strategy can result in good ROI when there is proper and constant dissemination of information, in the right context, at every step.

How can Online Reputation Manage help?

Agencies nowadays are constantly involved in providing brands with influencer marketing services. Online Reputation Manage helps brands discover, manage, and work with high-end influencers to make sure your brand reaches millions of passionate and socially engaged audiences. We also help brands find the right niches, figure out authentic, genuine influencers, discover trends in content, and calculate ROI for each targeted audience.