Although influencer marketing has been around for a very long time, it has become an extremely popular marketing tactic in recent years, particularly with small to medium businesses. Influencer marketing exploded in 2004 and 15 years later is really gaining popularity.
In fact, surveys show marketers now pick it as the “fastest-growing online customer-acquisition method” over organic search, email, paid search, and more. Marketers are searching for new ways to involve influencers on a variety of campaigns. The influencer marketing industry is booming. Projections show that marketers will spend $2.38 billion on influencer marketing on Instagram in 2019. That’s more than a $700 million increase from 2018!
Data shows that influencer marketing is providing marketers with a strong return on investment. The data shows that influencer marketing generates $6.50 for every dollar a company invests. Approximately 70% of companies earn $2 or more for every dollar, and 13% of companies earn $20 or more. That’s an impressive return.
Mid-range influencers with 50,000 – 500,000 followers charge from $400 to $2,500 for a post. Influencers with a following in the millions can charge between $30,000 and $187,500 per post. Research shows that influencers with 20,000 followers or less are far more effective and create a much higher ROI than the so called big guns.
For example, the Fyre Festival where despite huge follower influencers including Kendall Jenner, Emily Ratajkowski, Whitney Fransway, and many others it didn’t live up to expectations. As a result, 94% of marketers stated they were “not likely” to seek out big-name influencers for future projects.
I set out to explore the power and cost effectiveness of Influencer marketing and I spoke with Julio Cerne, the CEO of the unique grass roots influencer company Xrossworld. Xrossworld came about when he was launching an online marketplace combined with a Fitness App. He knew the Fitness industry was a competitive field so he sought methods he could use to take his product to market effectively and inexpensively. He consulted with a “growth hacker” who specialized in optimizing Facebook advertising but after several meetings he realized that “growth hacking” was just data science and a substantial marketing budget.
The “growth hacking” method didn’t make sense with his limited budget. He needed to find an affordable solution that would spread the word about his services to as many people as possible who lived around the area where his service was available.
Then a light bulb moment came about for Julio Cerne. Instagram Influencers!!! So he started to research how he could leverage Instagram Influencers to market his service. After a significant amount of research Julio quickly found out that his options were limited, expensive and with no guarantee these agencies or platforms would reached people who lived near the area he needed to market his service.
So he decided to find the Influencers himself and 30 days and over 150 hours of his time later, he hired 10 Influencers. When he went to market to start on-boarding Fitness studios to join his marketplace, he found these businesses were more interested in how he found the influencers and how much he paid for them.
At this point the brilliant young entrepreneur realized it was a “no brainer” for he and his team to pivot our focus towards creating a platform to help small to medium businesses eliminate the pain points of Influencer marketing.
Today, Xrossworld is the only highly localized Influencer marketing platform, that is extremely affordable and fully automated, making it very simple for clients to come on board. With over 250,000 vetted and qualified experienced local Influencers in 6 states of America and across all major Industries, Xrossworld’s growth is rapid.
UK business guru Chris Ducker says “One of the most undeniable traits of a real entrepreneur is the ability to be flexible . This is ‘formally’ known as the ‘Entrepreneurial Pivot’. Julio Cerne is that real entrepreneur.
I invented a new tactic where I co-create content with ill celebrities?It’s called influenza marketing. It’s really going viral