Succeeding with Influencer Marketing

What used to be a novelty way to expand your brand and grow a loyal audience online is now expected to become a 6.5 billion dollar industry in 2019. I am talking, of course, about influencer marketing. 

In a way, influencers have been around since the early days of advertising. In the past, brands created personas to appeal to their audience’s emotions and trigger purchasing decisions. Unarguably, one of the most popular advertising personas is Santa Claus. Most people know what Santa Claus looks like: a jolly, old man with a long white beard in a red suit.

But Santa Claus didn’t always look like that. In fact, prior to the 1930s, Santa was typically depicted as a small, elf-like figure.

Only when Coca Cola began to place ads in magazines, did they create Santa as we know him today. From 1931 to 1934 Coca Cola advertisements showed a plump and jolly Santa Claus delivering toys, reading letters and of course, drinking coke. These ads became so popular that they shaped the way we know Santa today.

Now Santa may not be who comes to your mind when you think of an ‘influencer’ today, but the idea is the same. He’s a character or person that increases the likelihood of customers engaging with and purchasing from your brand.

Decades have passed since Coca Cola first advertised Santa Claus and we are now in a new era of influencer marketing. Everyday people like you and I have become thought-leaders online and we have a huge influence on people’s purchasing decisions. Influencer marketing has continued to grow as an industry over the last few years and it is not expected to slow down. But what makes influencer marketing so successful and why is it important to you?

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