The rise of influencer marketing has certainly shaken the marketing world. In the history of retail and marketing has anyone seen a massive shift in power from professionals to consumers. Virtually anyone can become an influencer with a massive reach and brands are taking notice. Below are some reasons why it is an effective SEO tool.
1. Improving link profile
Backlinks still hold value when it comes to leveraging your position in search results. But ever since Google changed its algorithm to eliminate useless listings from its search results, backlinks had to change. It is for this reason that guest posting has been such a huge hit in recent years as brands and marketers continue to create content to be published on influencer and brand sites. When the content you're creating is geared towards referral traffic, providing value to audiences, and improving reach, you are also generating organic links that will improve your backlink profile.
2. Building Relationship
The internet is filled with horror stories of entitled influencers reaching out to local businesses for collaboration in exchange for free merchandise. Despite the backlash that these entitled influencers get, it's not uncommon for brands to give out free products and services in exchange for exposure. But there is a catch; both the brand and influencer have clearly defined the collaboration.
It pays for brand owners to research an influencer they want to team up with and make sure their messaging ties neatly with that of the brand. They should also establish the duration of their working relationship as well as what kind of content they should be publishing.
3. Increasing Site Traffic
Guest posting is also another way to generate traffic. Building connections and strengthening relationships with influencers will encourage them to share your content on their social channels where your target audience will come across it. The growth in traffic over time will have a positive impact on your site's ranking.
4. Quality Content
A strong working relationship with influencers takes time to develop, but it can rake in incredible value once it's firmly established. Although it might be difficult for top influencers to create content for your brand, you can always tap the help of a mid-level influencer, one with a growing audience.
Once you have quality content published in your site or blog, you should take the time to promote it, both to your audience as well as the influencer's audience. This can help boost site traffic as well as generating inbound links.
5. Visibility Through Video
It's no surprise that those sites that leverage video content get more traffic seeing as YouTube falls under Google's dominion. Videos that are high-quality, relevant, and well-trafficked get special treatment within search.
Any expert social media advertising agency will point to this as more than enough reason to work with an influencer to create more than just blog posts. It's important to diversify your content in order to reach different segments of your target audience. Consider a video interview with a popular influencer, interview segments included in the slides, or an audio clip from a podcast.
6. Increase Reach and Engagement
A big challenge many brand owners and marketers often face is finding a way to be heard over all the noise from other competitors. Because engagement and traffic are prioritized when it comes to ranking, brands are spending a lot of time and effort into increasing their reach and audience engagement. One way to do that would be through the help of influencers.
A lot of social media users have high regard for influencers that they follow. In fact, they trust influencers as much as they trust friends. Partnering with influencers means adding credibility to the content that you share and the message that your brand espouses.
7. Driving Purchasing Decisions
The most obvious reason that brands tie-up with an influencer is because of their ability to drive sales up. In the age of social media, consumers often look to influencers when they want advice on which products or services they wish to avail. The younger generation often turns to social media to learn about products and listen to reviews and recommendations by influencers.
This is because these influencers are believed to be a consumer just like everyone else and, therefore, their opinions about a product are honest and unbiased. Their audience puts a lot of weight on their input when deciding on which product to spend their money on.
AUTHOR BIO:
Leanne Brooks is a passionate blogger and frequent traveler who loves to write about digital marketing, SEO, social media marketing, and more. She is currently working with arcanemarketing.com, the leading Social Media Advertising Agency serving in and around Idaho.
