Influencing, that is, encouraging somebody to do something, is one of the many new professions that have arisen as a consequence of the internet’s popularity. However, while it undoubtedly takes skill and confidence to pull off, is it appropriate to consider influencing an art form, or is it just a modern marketing technique that anybody can turn their hand to? Perhaps most importantly of all, do influencers actually increase sales?
While heavy-handed influencers do receive a lot of criticism online, investing in this kind of service has a record of increasing customer engagement and conversion. Put another way, influencers attract shoppers with money to spend. According to marketing agency Convince & Convert, every $1 spent on hiring an influencer creates a return of $6.50. Only 18% of partnerships fail to produce results.
Marketing Techniques
The video game industry serves as a good example of how influencers fit into the customer journey. How many times have you seen a YouTuber introduce their videos with a segment about RAID: Shadow Legends or World of Warships? The objective of these adverts is to piggyback on a YouTuber’s popularity with video gamers to make a related product seem more attractive to viewers.
Think with Google notes that the Clash of Clans campaign Lost and Crowned was the fourth most-watched gaming advert of 2020. Remarkably, this number is made up of people who chose to see it by not skipping the advert. It was the only game in the top ten. Many of these views will have come from the channels of gaming influencers, people like KSI, PewDiePie, and Minecraft player Mumbo Jumbo.
Online casinos use a similar approach to marketing. PartyCasino, for instance, is listed as an affiliate of the Twitch streamer CasinoDaddy. This program runs in tandem with more conventional marketing techniques such as the minimum deposit promotion that’s listed on the BonusFinder website. Online casinos make use of all sorts of different advertising tricks to stand out in a crowded market.
Charisma and Luck
So, we’ve established that influencing isn’t as glamorous as Instagram veterans make it out to be. Sometimes, it’s little more than a passing word in favour of a particular brand. But, to answer the question in the introduction – is it an art form? Leadership coach Lee Chalmers, cited by the Financial Times, is firmly on the side of influencing as something more than cold science. She refers to something called active listening.
In brief, active listening is knowing how and when to market to a particular demographic and using that knowledge to get more people on board. Perhaps more importantly, Chalmers notes that there’s no exact formula or one-size-fits-all model. This is arguably the one characteristic that separates art from science. If it’s not repeatable, all the time, more ephemeral concepts such as charisma and luck start to play a bigger role.
Influencing is a difficult thing to master but its effectiveness at acquiring and retaining customers is not in doubt.
