Build Brand Credibility With Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a great strategy for building brand credibility, whether you are entering the market with a new brand and product, or are an established brand seeking positive PR and brand testimonials. Here, we explore what brand credibility is, how

you can use influencer marketing to build credibility and the benefits that come with it.

What is brand credibility and why is it important?

Unsurprisingly, brand credibility is extremely important for a number reasons, including industry reputation and sales turnover. Brand credibility comes down to two things… whether you are trusted by your customers and consumers as a whole, and your authority and expertise in the industry. When you have established trust and authority, you have credibility, which ultimately encourages consumers to make a purchase. Brand credibility is critical for customer acquisition and retention, because without it, consumers simply won't make a purchase, which ultimately impacts sales, reputation and business growth.

What are the benefits of building brand credibility with influencer marketing?

To build brand credibility through influencer marketing, leverage influencers to spread positive sentiment about your brand to an engaged audience. Influencer marketing is word-of-mouth marketing at scale, where recommendations, testimonials, brand commentary and reviews can spread like wildfire to a targeted audience across social and other digital platforms. Use that to your advantage and employ one of these influencer strategies to build brand credibility with influencer marketing.

Establish partnerships

When working with influencers you aren’t just creating a partnership that is only going to last a week or a month, or one that will end as soon as the campaign is completed. Once you have formed a good relationship with an influencer, keep it for life! Just like any relationship, nourish the connection and keep in contact, whether it is via a friendly email or a new opportunity to work together. Establish a network of influencers and partners and leverage their influence to build your own brand credibility over time. One way to do this is by regramming and sharing influencer content featuring your brand, and doing anything that adds value to their work. It's also important to establish influencer partnerships because it shows your audience that someone they potentially look up to, loves your brand, which is the ultimate testimonial. Consumers trust influencers, and if influencers trust you, so to will consumers.

Encourage customer testimonials

When you leverage influencers to share information about your brand, it encourages customers to do the same and share their testimonials on social media. Whether it is with an instagram image of the product in use, or a Facebook review, consumers copy influencers, and if they are talking about a brand on social, it's "cool" for consumers to do the same. A genuine testimonial or review from a customer is the holy grail, so use influencers open the conversation in the digital space.

User-generated content

On the same note, influencer posts encourage consumers to create user-generated content, which is critical for credibility. When deciding to purchase from a brad you have never heard of, what would give you more peace of mind? The brand telling you their trustworthy, or a regular customer who posted a photo of her new outfit (for example) proclaiming how easy the check-out process was for said company? In most cases, the later would give you more peace of mind that your money is safe, your order will arrive, and you'll love the product. If new consumers are seeing both influencers and other consumers creating UGC for your brand, it speaks highly to your brand and it’s ability to consistently give its market exactly what it’s looking for, which helps to build credibility in the digital space. To drive user-generated content with influencer marketing, try these 6 campaign strategies.

Employ a brand ambassador

In the same way that celebrity models, actors and musicians are used as brand ambassadors, like model-of-the-moment Gigi Hadid for Rebook, for example, influencers can be engaged as brand ambassadors. If immediate credibility is what you are after, then a public ambassador could be the answer for your brand. Work with a well-known influencer in your niche and engage them to be your brand ambassador so you can align your brand with their personal brand for instant credibility and recognition. This will also help with brand awareness and conversions if you leverage their influence on their own digital platforms.

Reach beyond your own network

The primary role of an influencer marketing strategy is to reach an audience beyond your own network in order to tap into a new potential audience. By connecting with the right influencers you can connect with their community, and increase awareness and spread credibility to a new audience. When you have a lot of connections that go beyond your own network, it speaks to your brands credibility – if other professionals in the industry are willing to connect and work with you on some level then consumers take that as you having an ability to stay true to what your brand stands for and are worth working and buying with.

Now that you know some strategies for building credibility and the benefit of doing it with influencer marketing, you're ready to get started!