Influencer marketing could be the solution to targeting the marketing-wary youth

Gone are the Mad Men days where traditional marketing ruled the world. While we still see billboards, TV adverts, and radio jingles, less and less are we seeing the younger generation resonate with these advertising tactics. In fact, even the more recent marketing techniques, such as Adwords, are beginning to lose traction amongst millennials and younger generations.

Growing up in a world of instant information and gratification, having the best one-liner for your business isn’t going to put you ahead of your competitors anymore. There is too much access to real customer reviews, to product and price comparisons, and to the plethora of other marketing your competition is blasting out into the world at rapid rates.

So, if the younger generation aren’t being drawn in by traditional marketing, what use is there even trying? Maybe it’s time to give up? If you can’t sell to the youth through the radio or newspaper, then there’s no future for your business. You might as well just shut up shop now.

I’m kidding.

The beauty of business is diversifying. Finding a challenge, and then overcoming it. Finding new ways to improve old tactics. Staying ahead of the game, as it were.

While traditional marketing and Adwords worked there for a good length of time, there is always going to be a newer, better way to do things, and for many brands, that’s where influencer marketing comes in.

With the use of Adblocker on the rise, as well as a rejection of broadcast television and radio, younger generations are becoming less and less likely to see your advertising, and when they do, it stands out to them, and can often appear insincere. So what do you do? You go to where they are looking. Where they’re spending their free time. Where they’re sharing their favourite products and brands.

Yes, you know where I’m going with this. Social media. Duh.

But here I’m not just talking about posting on your brands pages on social media. I’m talking about engaging with those influencing icons on social media that your desired clients already follow. Who they trust, and who they even aspire to be often.

And what’s even better about this? Often times this is relatively free. Of course, if you’re going after the Kylie Jenner’s, or perhaps an influencer who often has many brands competing for space, you may have to pay them to post. But if you play your cards right, or rather, pick your players right, you can often get influencers to post about your product or service for free – if you provide that product or service to them first.

So why does this work so well? Firstly, it’s great because you can effectively target audiences, and pretty much predict how many people will see your “advert”. Sales are no guarantee, but often they never are with any marketing technique. What you can guarantee is impressions, interest, and a very, very trusted endorsement of your product or service.

But more than this, these influencer posts work so well because they don’t come across as adverts at all. If it’s worded right, and the influencer is perceived by their audience as trustworthy enough, these posts can come across as reviews, or testimonials instead, which I’m sure you know is infinitely more valuable to your business than advertising.

While marketing and the world in general continues to change, it’s more than likely we’ll see even more engagement with influencer marketing, but even so, there will also likely be a newer, better way to implement marketing in the future. Any thoughts on what it might be?

If you’re interested in how we can get influencer marketing working for you, check out our social media services page, or contact us directly. If influencer marketing is going to work for you, you’ll need a strong website presence already – we recommend hiring a blog writer or a copywriter first – maybe like us?