The Myths and Truths about Influencer Marketing

By Ashley Cook, Senior Account Manager @ Foodie Tribe

You’re in a corner booth at your neighborhood’s most “Instagrammable'' coffee shop and everyone around you is taking photos of their food and beverages. Today, this is quite a familiar scene for most of us. What you might notice is that some photographers or restaurant go-ers will proudly raise their phones or cameras, without a care as to who is watching. Others, however, might shamefully hide behind their meal, pretending to read a text, when we all know what they’re really doing: taking a photo. What we see here is the contrast of pride and embarrassment behind this trend of ‘camera eats (or drinks) first.’ Not that influencer marketing can be summoned down to snapping a photo, nor is it just seen in the food and beverage industry, but this illustrates the two very different communities that either embrace or shame this new world of influencer marketing. 

Whether you hate it or love it, influencers are here to stay, and they stand strongly alongside a variety of products, companies, and technologies that support them. From strategists to account managers and beyond, there’s a slew of innovative minds behind this movement that continue to become more knowledgeable by the day. These experts allow us to hone in on the myths and truths behind influencer marketing with the help of their well-researched data.  

So let’s take a look at some questions we need to ask ourselves when observing this data. First and foremost, can influencer marketing continue to be lucrative for businesses? Could it be a sustainable career for you? If so, how can we break the stigma and change the minds of those who think otherwise? Those are just a few of the topics to be explored through a conversation surrounding the myths and truths of influencer marketing. 

Myth #1: An influencer is not a lasting career. 

The truth - Contrary to popular belief, a successful influencer can make up to $20,000 per post according to Influencer Marketing Hub. However, these rates vary depending on what platform(s) the influencer is posting on, the number of followers, the engagement rate, and the content quality. Overall, not only is being an influencer a sustainable career, but it’s a trusted one.

Myth #2: Influencer marketing is a fleeting trend.

The truth - There is plenty of data to prove that influencer marketing is here to stay. To summarize that data in one staggering fact, we checked out some of our most trusted resources. The Drum says, “The influencer marketing business was worth $9.7bn in 2020 and is expected to grow to $15bn by 2022, with almost half of marketers saying they’re spending more than 20% of their budget on influencer content.” As we can see, the investments that companies are making in influencer marketing are steadily increasing, with no end in sight. 

Myth #3: Influencers do not improve brand awareness or sales.

The truth -  Gen Z and Millenials, specifically, have come to deeply trust influencers and look to them when making the majority of their purchasing decisions. Their brand loyalty is not only qualitative, but quantitative as well. Morning Consult’s research stated, “88% of Gen Z and Millennials learn about products they’re interested in buying on social media.” Fifty percent said, “Social media is where they most often learn about new products to buy.” All in all, people build trust in influencers and recognize them as advocates, which ultimately helps build confidence in purchases, builds brand awareness, and moves the needle on brand sales. This research tells us that not only are influencers thought-leaders, but they monetize their following, giving clients a pretty impressive return on investment. As Entrepreneur stated, “There’s a reason a company like Estée Lauder spends 75% of its $1 billion-plus marketing budget on online influencers. It works.” 

Of course, there are many more influencer marketing myths to be broken, but the three mentioned here stand out the most, as they provide an impressive bird’s eye view into one of the most ‘on-the-rise’ marketing strategies. What we really want to do here is emphasize that with the right tools, influencer marketing has the potential to be just as profitable, if not more, than any other form of marketing.

This is not to say that becoming an influencer is easy, nor can “just anyone” walk into the scene and automatically be successful. As an influencer, building your audience with real authenticity takes dedication, vulnerability, and consistency. As a business, you will need a community of trusted partners and influencers, solidified goals, an open-mind, and an agency like Foodie Tribe to help you along the way! Reach out to us if you want to begin the influencer marketing journey with us.