Does Influencer Marketing Actually Increase Brand Awareness?

Does it work? The short answer will be, yes, it does. And the long one is where it becomes really exciting.

Influencer marketing is far from being just another hype nowadays, and there can hardly be any business that wants to be visible and trusted by its audience without relying on the help of influencer marketing strategies. However, there is some doubt about how well the strategy works among the brands that have already tried it out for themselves and found out that they did not like it.

The reality is that influencer marketing actually works; only that you need to do it properly and have some clear understanding of what brand awareness really entails.

Brand Awareness Is All About

To better discuss this issue of achieving brand awareness through the use of influencer marketing techniques, it is essential that we first come up with a common definition of what brand awareness entails.

Brand awareness does not only mean that consumers are aware of your brand. More than just recognizing your brand as one of those out there, brand awareness entails being associated with it whenever they consider purchasing products from your line. It is all about recognition of not only your products, but also your logo, your voice, and your brand name. It is all about being on top of your competitive space.

More: How brand choose influencers

For a brand to achieve brand awareness, it needs repeated exposure. Just one strong ad campaign may not be enough to achieve it.

Why Influencer Content Is Different from Traditional Content

Traditional advertising breaks in. Influencer content blends in.

With traditional ads, viewers instantly recognize that a brand is trying to sell something to them. They automatically raise their guard against it. With influencer content, viewers do not know that they will see a product until it shows up in the middle of the content that they like.

There are also numerous scientific studies supporting this information. For instance, according to the statistics provided by the Nielsen Institute in 2023, consumers trust personal recommendations 92% more than other sources. The figures are rather impressive, but they lie at the bottom of influencer marketing.

However, it does not imply that people lack awareness. It cannot be further from the truth. Currently, they know how to differentiate an advertisement from ordinary content. The issue is that an influencer marketing strategy will always seem more reliable and authentic than anything related to direct interaction with a brand. When one learns that an influencer really consumes the product he talks about, another level of reliability will be achieved.

The Reach Factor: Statistics You Cannot Ignore

The main advantage of influencer marketing in increasing brand awareness is evident at first glance.

For instance, by simply making posts on Instagram alone and gaining followers that range from 200,000, the total number of impressions will be between 10,000 and 30,000. The impressions for the average viral TikTok video will be much higher than the number of followers of the creator. By using multiple influencers for the marketing process, it will result in reaching more people through the campaign compared to ordinary advertising at a relatively lower cost.

Regarding businesses looking to introduce their product or enter a new market, such a characteristic is essential in ensuring that the time taken by businesses to access the market will be reduced.

Thankfully, as per DataReportal, the population of social media users in Malaysia would be around 29 million by 2024. The usage of social media channels like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube has increased gradually over the years.

The Importance of Micro-Influencers in Brand Awareness Campaigns

There are some misconceptions regarding brand awareness campaigns since people tend to believe that only celebrities or influencers can help make those campaigns successful. There are several cases when micro-influencers were successful in making brand awareness campaigns.

Why are micro-influencers a good choice for brand awareness campaigns?

• – Audience for niche marketing is pre-qualified. For instance, a fan of a Malaysian chef would obviously love food. Hence, using micro-influencers allows a company to make sure that its audience is already targeted.
• – Higher engagement rates – while the average engagement rates for micro-influencers range from 3-6%, those for celebrities or megainfluencers lie between 1-2%.
• – Personalized recommendations – since micro-influencers usually have closer relationships with their followers, their recommendations are more personalized and are likely to sound like a friend’s advice rather than advertising.
• – Cost-effective – it would definitely benefit a brand to use ten or fifteen micro-influencers instead of a single megainfluencer.

It’s something that the Kollysphere agency knows all too well – pairing brands with the correct level of influencer depending on the objective of the campaign, and not just by their follower metrics.

Influencer Marketing and Building Brand Recognition

An influencer marketing strategy provides consumers with one opportunity to be exposed to a product. A continuous marketing strategy enables the brand to create awareness because brand awareness is nothing but awareness creation.

What happens when consumers get to see a brand being discussed or used by multiple influencers whom they follow? The brand becomes familiar to them. They start trusting the brand. They feel like they have no other choice but to select the brand when making a purchasing decision.

The phenomenon under consideration here is often referred to as the mere exposure effect, which implies that repeated exposure to a stimulus increases the liking of the stimulus. Continuous influencer marketing makes it possible for marketers to attain this effortlessly.

The brands that take influencer marketing seriously as part of their brand building efforts always outperform those that are inconsistent in their approach.

Metrics for Measuring Brand Awareness via Influencer Marketing

The problem that has been faced with the measurement of brand awareness through influencer marketing activities was that it is hard to measure as it is not as easy to get insights as performance metrics were. However, things have changed a lot since then and we can get much better insight regarding our campaigns’ influence and effectiveness.

Here are some metrics that will help you get an idea about your campaign’s influence on brand awareness:

• – Number of impressions/reach (people who viewed your campaign)
• – Brand voice (comparison between your brand’s share of voice versus others)
• – Brand search volumes (spikes in branded Google searches)
• – Mentions of your brand on social media (brand mentions tracking/hashtags tracking)
• – Sentiment of your audience about your brand
• – Increase in followers on brand profiles

Influence marketing can be quantitatively gauged when the exercise is done in a competent way.

Current State of Influencer Marketing in Malaysia

Many changes have occurred in the course of Malaysian influencer marketing ever since its inception. Today, the limited number of bloggers and YouTubers has been replaced with a modernized form of influencer marketing, incorporating platforms, languages, and styles of content creation.

Companies operating in Malaysia would find a variety of languages available in influencers, such as Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, and even English. The multiple languages would turn out to be advantageous for the brands that intend to increase their awareness within particular populations.

According to the data from Influencer Marketing Hub in 2023, the total market size of the global influencer marketing industry was estimated at $21.1 billion. Southeast Asia is recognized as one of the most dynamically growing markets in this industry owing to the wide distribution of smartphones and a social approach to internet usage.

Kollysphere events, being a part of brands experiencing this challenge, understands the need for more customization of strategies, considering the local context, the nuances of culture, and the behaviors of the platforms in Malaysia.

When Influencer Marketing Doesn’t Produce Awareness Results

One can also mention cases when influencer marketing doesn’t work, but the reason is clear and preventable.

The most common reasons why campaigns fall short when it comes to brand awareness are the following:

• – Selection of an influencer according to their follower numbers without considering audience fit
• – Execution of one-time campaign without any future strategy and consistency
• – Over-scripting briefs that make the content artificial and lose their value
• – Wrong choice of platform for posting content
• – Improper metrics tracking

Brands that have successful experience with influencer marketing regard this practice as a strategy, not a quick solution to a problem.

Verdict on Influencer Marketing and Brand Awareness

Indeed, influencer marketing increases brand awareness. Moreover, it does that remarkably, considerably, and much better than any other strategy used for promoting a brand.

However, as it is the case with any marketing approach, the outcome depends directly on the quality of the strategy used. People who take time to think about how to create an effective goal, make suitable deals with influencers, share a clear message consistently, and monitor its performance will succeed in increasing awareness.

To stand out in the crowd, one has to do more than simply try influencer marketing – one has to implement it professionally. This is when working with a company like Kollysphere might prove vital.