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12 Ways Content Influencers Help Your Business Grow
Influencers can play a crucial role in your marketing success.
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Social media influencers can be valuable marketing tools that boost brand visibility, discoverability, SEO and more. Their attention and feedback can also improve your brand’s authority and strengthen its reputation. However, thoughtfully using the right influencers is crucial to avoid reputational damage and contract headaches.
We’ll explore 12 ways influencer marketing can help your brand and share influencer caveats to watch out for to protect your organization.
How influencers help your brand grow
Influencer marketing is an on-the-rise digital marketing trend with an estimated worth of $24 billion in 2024, according to Oberlo. Its growth can be attributed to the instant popularity of short videos on popular social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and TikTok.
Here are 12 ways getting an influencer to market your product or service can help your brand grow.
1. Influencers promote your brand without being promotional.
Generally, influencers talk about themselves in their content, including their surroundings, activities and ideas. When they promote a brand, they don’t sell it directly. Their content strategically places your brand in the conversation so consumers notice and learn about it without feeling like they’re being given a sales pitch.
Consumers are bombarded daily with hundreds of pieces of promotional content, which can leave them tired, confused and often indifferent about ads. Eventually, they start to ignore ads.
In contrast, influencer marketing focuses on relationships the influencer has built with their followers. Their content entertains consumers or solves their problems. The best influencers promote a brand’s products or services in the context of their content, making your offerings relevant.
2. Influencers create relevant hashtags to improve discoverability.
When you search for a hashtag on social media, the search results display the most popular content using that hashtag first.
Influencers use content to engage audiences on social media. There’s a good chance the content they create for you will easily be discovered when someone searches for a relevant hashtag. This improves your chances of reaching a larger audience.
Platforms like Hashtagify can help you identify popular hashtags your influencers can use for their content so they can participate in trending conversations.
3. Influencers can improve your SEO.
Influencers can be an essential element of your SEO strategy. Their content can provide multiple mentions in online spaces that include a link back to your business website. These quality backlinks can improve your search engine rankings. Backlinks help your website perform better in organic search and bring you more organic visitors.
As search engines update their algorithms, the actual social content created by influencers, not just online mentions, can also help move your business up in search results. “Search engines have now started to value social content more as a meritable source for consumer information, especially with the recent advent of AI-based search results,” said William Gasner, co-founder and chief marketing officer (CMO) of Stack Influence. “Influencer collaborations are a must for optimizing a brand’s SEO.”
4. Influencers can expand your social media reach.
Social media’s widespread usage and popularity means influencers can be the perfect channel for customer communication — they can act as both mediators and spokespeople. Influencers can help you reach the massive percentages of United States consumers who use social media.
Consider the following social media stats about American adults from Pew Research Center:
- 85 percent use YouTube
- 70 percent use Facebook
- 50 percent use Instagram
- 33 percent use TikTok
- 32 percent use LinkedIn
- 21 percent use X
Influencers cultivate communities, often on multiple platforms and a well-executed collaboration can help your business access untapped resources. “Influencers often have large, engaged followings across social platforms, so when an influencer posts about a brand, that brand gains exposure to a broader audience it may not have reached otherwise,” said Kellyn Curtis, senior vice president at Peppercomm.
Plus, influencer content gets shared, liked and discussed. Sometimes, it even becomes news, extending your reach even further. This content can help drive real-time growth for your brand.
5. Influencers can provide valuable feedback.
When an influencer provides positive customer feedback, product reviews and other types of user-generated content, people listen. Their input can encourage thousands of their followers to try your product. Influencers can also alert you to areas that need improvement since they are paying close attention to your brand. So, listen to what they have to say, the positive and the negative.
Ask them to share feedback from their followers too. Influencers develop two-way relationships with their audience and are an excellent source of firsthand knowledge of how your campaign is fairing online. “Our followers aren’t shy about letting us know what they think, whether it’s what they love about a brand or what could be better,” said Marlie Love, a content creator and co-founder of Traveling While Black. “In that way, influencers offer a direct line to your target audience.”
Even if you collaborate with an influencer who isn’t available to give constant updates, you can get real-time feedback from the comment sections of branded posts. Pay attention to what is said and respond accordingly. “How followers respond to and comment on a post can give brands an unfiltered look at how the post and topic at hand was perceived, good or bad,” said Curtis.
6. Influencers boost your brand authority.
Influencers can help you become a thought leader in your industry because they’re often experts in various niches. This is one of the reasons they’ve amassed sizable followings “Influencers are often seen as trusted figures within their niche, so when they recommend a brand, it carries more weight than a traditional ad,” said Curtis.
Seek an influencer who’s an expert in your domain. That way, when this expert creates content involving your brand, they essentially vouch for you and build brand authority for your business.
7. Influencers help your business earn consumer trust and loyalty.
Influencers prioritize developing long-term relationships with their followers, which means they produce honest, authentic content that keeps people engaged. Your brand can benefit from these existing relationships. “They have earned the trust and loyalty of their followers,” said Alfred Goldberg, president of Absolute Marketing Solutions. “An influencer showing your product or speaking about your brand can pass some of their brand esteem to you.”
When an influencer endorses you strategically, consumers associate the influencer’s trustworthiness with your brand. If all goes well, their devotion to the influencer may also translate into customer loyalty to your brand.
8. Influencers boost your chances of going viral.
Viral videos and other content aren’t everyday occurrences. However, influencer-generated content has a good chance of going viral, flooding your website with visitors and increasing your customer base. “There is no secret formula to increase a brand’s chances of going viral,” said Curtis. “However, influencers are skilled at creating content that maximizes engagement, which helps trigger the platform’s algorithm and boosts the chances of appearing on more people’s feeds.”
Influencers are aware that going viral isn’t just about increasing views. It requires creating something that excites people and makes them want to participate. “It’s not just about that single post,” explained Love. “It’s about tapping into the influencer’s ability to create a ripple effect. A well-crafted video or trend-inspired campaign can quickly snowball when their audience starts sharing, remixing or engaging with the content.”
9. Influencers help maintain your brand’s reputation.
Influencer-generated content can help you deal with negative publicity surrounding your brand. The process can be lengthy, but with constant strategic efforts, an influencer can change a negative perception to a positive one while strengthening your company’s reputation — or they can at least help bring it back to neutral.
“They could create content that directly addresses the issue head-on, acknowledging the controversy while also noting how the brand is addressing it,” said Curtis. “Influencers can also shift focus away from a negative event by creating fresh content around a different topic and positive aspects of the brand to help rebuild its reputation.”
10. Influencer marketing makes you a content-rich brand.
As feeds are a constant flow of images and videos, a high output of content featuring your company is necessary to stand out. Influencers can help make sure you always have enough quality content ready to go. The more consistent you are about posting excellent content, the more consumers will remember your brand and associate it with quality.
“Building up a ‘war chest’ of content is a necessity for brands in 2025, especially user-generated content, as advertisement platforms need a wide range of content to test, social profiles need consistent post updates to stay relevant and websites need to demonstrate lots of real consumer experiences,” said Gasner.
11. Influencers help communicate your values.
Consumers increasingly want to spend their money supporting brands that share their values. While there are many great ways a company can show what it stands for, one of the most convincing is by partnering with an influencer who embodies those principles and can vouch for the company.
“Brands should prioritize influencers whose values align with their mission,” said Love. “Working with diverse influencers who reflect the communities you want to reach is essential — not just for representation, but also to create genuine connections that drive loyalty.”
12. Influencers are a cost-effective way to drive sales.
Influencers don’t just get the word out about your brand. The content they post can also be leveraged to send consumers directly to your business and incentivize a purchase. “Influencers can include calls-to-action in their content like discount codes or affiliate links which can drive direct sales or web traffic,” said Curtis.
Especially when partnering with niche influencers, businesses can save money by putting out content that is laser-focused on the specific target most likely to make a purchase and for much less than the costs of traditional mass advertising. “Nano/microinfluencer promotions, which get shown mainly to a follower base of friends, family, close acquaintances and passionate followers, are highly trusted which leads to higher sales conversions,” said Gasner. “The most effective form of marketing has always been ‘word of mouth’ and influencer collaborations are word of mouth marketing at scale.”
Types of influencers
The value of influencer-generated content depends on the influencer’s style and the type of content they produce.
Malcolm Gladwell identified three types of influencers in his book “The Tipping Point”:
- Mavens: Mavens are typically industry experts and knowledgeable influencers. They write and share informed content, which is what attracts people. Consider health and fitness experts, teachers and so on.
- Salesmen: Salespeople are influencers with immense persuasive power. Anyone can be a salesman, but specialty marketing and digital marketing industry influencers fit into this category.
- Connectors: Connectors have exceptional networks and reach. They are masters of word-of-mouth marketing. For example, celebrities are connectors.
Depending on your brand’s personality and specific campaign goals, you must decide which types of influencers and content you need. You may even need a combination of influencer characteristics.
Types of influencers on social media
While Gladwell’s three types can be applied to influencers in any sphere, it’s also useful to break down the kinds of influencers on social media by their follower count. Gasner explained that there are four general categories that businesses should be aware of:
- Nanoinfluencers (less than 10,000 followers)
- Microinfluencers (10,000 to 100,000 followers)
- Macroinfluencers (100,000 to one million followers)
- Megainfluencers (over one million followers)
Which type of social media influencer should you work with
Determining the type of influencer to collaborate with depends on your goals for the marketing campaign. “Microinfluencers are great for niche markets and offer high engagement, while macroinfluencers or celebrities work well for broad brand awareness,” said Kristen Taggert, vice president of integrated marketing communications at Brunner. “The choice depends on the campaign goals, whether it’s boosting sales, building trust or increasing visibility.”Small businesses should keep in mind that bigger isn’t always better when it comes to influencers. “The best approach is to choose influencers who share your brand’s values and target demographic,” said Tracie Crites, CMO at Heavy Equipment Appraisal. “An influencer with fewer followers but a solid, dedicated group will get more genuine outcomes compared to someone with a large but disengaged following.”
How much does it cost to work with social media influencers
While how much an influencer makes for a collaboration varies depending on factors like the social media platform, the influencer’s popularity and the type of content produced, you should expect to pay around $10 for every 1,000 followers. “As a small business’s marketing budget is usually tight it’s better to work with (multiple) smaller creators to diversify risk as opposed to ‘putting all your eggs in one basket’ collaborating with macro/megainfluencers,” said Gasner.
He also points out that many nanoinfluencers and microinfluencers are usually willing to promote brands in exchange for free products or services. “I believe product compensation to be the most effective type of collaboration since someone is promoting a product because they truly believe in it and are a consumer themselves as opposed to just collaborating for money which is usually less authentic,” explained Gasner.
The risks of relying on influencers
While influencers can be effective marketing tools, inherent risks exist. Consider the five following caveats about using influencers.
1. An influencer’s bad reputation can rub off on your brand.
Researching influencers is crucial. If they’ve had campaigns go south through poor or harmful content or client ghosting, keep searching for your perfect match.
Working with an influencer who doesn’t match your brand’s mission, promotes anyone and everyone or lets details fall through the cracks will not provide the digital marketing return on investment you need. Their actions can even damage your brand’s reputation, creating an unnecessary public relations crisis.
“Imagine you create a campaign with an influencer and, a year later, they get into a controversy or face legal problems,” said Vadym Nekhai, co-founder and chief growth officer at Kitcast. “Your brand is already associated with that influencer, so you inevitably have to deal with the damage.”
2. An influencer’s fake persona can backfire.
Not every company will benefit from working with an influencer. Sponsored brand content can quickly go from “everyone needs to buy this” to an unrelatable influencer lifestyle post.
Your influencer’s audience may not connect with your product for the following reasons:
- The influencer doesn’t use your product.
- The product is unrealistic for the audience.
- The influencer doesn’t disclose that they received the product for free or are getting paid for their opinion.
- The influencer’s posts about the product seem unnatural or staged.
3. Influencer contract issues can cause headaches.
One of the biggest risks a company can take when working with an influencer is not setting out clear objectives for the collaboration in a written and signed contract. “Some businesses aren’t experienced with working with influencers and a mistake they often make is to not agree in advance on what the influencer will deliver,” said Goldberg. “While most influencers will not guarantee metrics like views or engagement, you should be in agreement on how many posts, types of posts, schedule of posts, platforms, etc.”
If you work with an influencer who doesn’t want to sign your contract, don’t move forward. Professional influencers will welcome contracts and even non-disclosure agreements (NDA), if applicable.
However, the influencer may have questions about the contract or ask to edit a portion of the fine print because of their business standards. Do your best to compromise with the influencer if it makes sense for your business. The better your influencer relationship, the more comfortable they’ll be promoting your brand.
4. An influencer’s follower count may be misleading.
Determining the actual reach and effectiveness of an influencer takes a lot more than just looking at their follower count. There are some influencers who, despite a large audience, have low engagement or mostly appeal to users outside of your target demographic.
“It’s important to know how engaged their audience is,” said Beth Romer, founder and CEO of marketing agency L&L Collective. “You could find an influencer who has an ideal target audience for your brand but has low views, is hiding their likes or has low story views. All of this would result in low ROIs on your campaign.”
5. The wrong influencer can cost your business.
Finding the right influencer is also vital from a financial viewpoint. If you pay creators out of the gate for content and make less than the promotional fee, influencer marketing is costing your business too much.
Consider finding influencers who will work on a commission-based payment system or in exchange for free products or services, especially if you’re just starting a business. You’ll get a feel for how much your audience connects with the influencer, how customers think about influencers in general and how to proceed in your next influencer campaign.
Setting expectations with a clear, well-thought-out strategy is essential to make sure your business doesn’t waste money. “So often businesses think working with influencers will yield amazing results and while that can be true, it’s like all other marketing initiatives — there needs to be a strategy, a purpose and a goal in place or it can fall flat,” said Romer
Successful influencer relationships require effort and time
Working with influencers can boost awareness of your company, increase sales and help create a brand reputation that earns repeat business from loyal customers. However, businesses would be wrong to think an influencer collaboration is as simple as sending over some free products.
Hiring influencers requires as much planning and effort as any other part of your marketing strategy. Understand that researching reliable influencers who follow your mission and use your products can take time. Plus, you’ll need to create contracts, work closely with the influencer on content and gain traction from the influencer’s network to profit from the campaign.
However, If you’re up for the challenge of designing an influencer strategy and putting in the time and effort to build authentic, productive relationships, your brand will be sure to benefit.
Tom Anziano and Shane Barker contributed to this article.
