Back in the day, most brands and businesses trying to reach their target audiences used channels such as tv advertising, newspapers, and offline advertising, but this is changing due to the era of technology that we are living in. It's no secret that advertising is shifting towards an online format, as social media influencers and content creators are on the rise. The question is, are content creators the new advertisers?
Ever since content creators appeared in the picture, content marketing has grown extremely fast in the past few years. According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 89% of brands worldwide are using content creators as a strategy for business growth and as a promotion tool. Content creators are not only helping big brands to grow and expand, but they are having a big impact on small businesses that are trying to enter a new market. The amount of content that is posted on the internet nowadays it’s insane and it can be hard for small businesses to face competition and reach their target audience. Truth is, the whole content creator and influencer movement scene is surrounded by stereotypes that need to be ignored, and look beyond those and understand that for the time being content creators are the new advertisers.
Content creators create brand awareness
To generate conversions and get new customers, brands need to create and grow brand awareness. The ability to recognize your brand or product under various conditions is crucial for your target audience. There are plenty of strategies and ways to create brand awareness, but none of them get close to the results obtained from the use of social media creators. Before reaching out to a creator it’s important to know what your target audience is and from there choose the right one. There are lots of creators out there with different audiences, but choosing the right one it’s mainly based on the fact that your market and their audience match. That way, your brand will be shown to the right public. Once a deal has been made with a creator, it is time to brainstorm how you want your product to be exposed to its audience. One of the most common strategies used between content creators and brands is giveaways. Doing a giveaway can be beneficial for your business if it’s done the right way. As mentioned before, giveaways are not the only way to create brand awareness, you could also launch a brand ambassador program or do social media takeovers, for example.
Content creators prove value
Like all marketing strategies, content creator marketing has advantages and disadvantages. One of the biggest concerns brands have when deciding to collaborate or not with influencers is the level of trust their followers have in them. In 2019, Adweek reported that almost half of the American population follows at least one content creator/influencer in social media. Based on the information extracted from the survey, it was confirmed that 49.3% of the respondents had made a purchase of a product or service based on a content creators’ recommendation. It is the creator’s responsibility to build trust within their audience. When a creator is trusted, any brand collaborating with that influencer will receive better results than the one collaborating with an untrustworthy creator.
That’s where we think content creators prove their value, and their authenticity makes them reliable as advertisers. They have the power to convince an audience that the product they are promoting is worth the purchase. They must share their experience and their opinion. Truth is, they can’t be forced to promote something they don’t believe in. When brands make influencers promote their products without giving them the chance to try it out first, they are giving their followers false information and most of the time the audience can perceive that. When this happens, followers can report the post or story where the influencer is promoting your product and file a complaint, risking that the influencers’ Instagram account can get banned.
Creating content for specific audiences is important
Most social media creators create content that engages with their audiences and they are followed because of it. As time passes, this content becomes more and more creative. Influencers and content creators can promote your brand in their own way if you let them use their talent and innovative content to do so. After all, they are the ones who know what their audiences like. When they generate content that their followers enjoy, they can increase engagement, and that's where your brand can benefit. Every successful creator knows what to do to make their content resonate with their audience, and recently paid content and subscriptions have become more popular additional revenue models for content creators.
Fangage gives creators the opportunity to start offering exclusive content and therewith collect fan data. This fan data can later be used, to reach 100% of the content creators' true fanbase when doing brand partnerships. Fangage empowers creators to build independent careers by giving them complete control of their brands, fanbase, and earnings. This surely helps content creators in their journey, if they want to become the trusted advertisers of the digital age.
