You’ve heard people talk about “cutting the cord”, but as a marketer, you’d better understand the implications of that, or you could be wasting your money. Cutting the cord simply means moving away from paid television services like cable or satellite and instead opting for non-pay media like streaming platforms and social media.

But here’s the important part — the “cord cutters” are no longer the outliers. In fact, this is the first year that non-pay users have actually bypassed pay TV users. And this trend is only expected to increase.  

This is also true when we focus solely on TV consumption where streaming platforms are bringing in more viewers than all other forms of TV. Many of us use these services on our smart TVs, such as Netflix and Amazing Prime Video. This is a big deal — especially if you’re trying to reach consumers.

The trend goes beyond TV.

Social media has certainly changed the way people consume information. Scrolling through your Facebook or Twitter page is a daily (and sometimes hourly or more) occurrence. But a more interesting trend has come out of social media that is having a significant effect on consumer decision-making — the influencer.

You’ve probably heard the term and maybe you feel like these influencers are much more important to the younger generations. That might have been true in years past, but not any more. In fact, 80% of consumers complete a purchase after seeing an influencer recommend that product on social media.¹ And 70% of consumers say they follow more than 10 influencers.²

Think about it; when you see a company touting their own products, you always have a little bit of skepticism. But when a friend or someone you know promotes a product, you pay a lot more attention — and see that product in a much more favorable light. That’s exactly what influencers do.

Two kinds of influencers.

The first thing to know is that there are two types of influencers — the macro-influencer and the micro-influencer. And both are extremely popular. Let’s take a deeper look into each one.

The macro-influencer is generally someone famous (celebrity or social media personality) that has a very high follower count, so they reach a higher audience. They are generally used to gain broad awareness, but they tend to have little direct engagement and can be very expensive.

Micro-influencers, on the other hand, are more “everyday people” who create unique or specific content (usually around a particular passion) and tend to be more relatable, genuine, and trustworthy — which can be very persuasive.

The rise of the micro-influencer.

The micro-influencer can no longer be considered “fringe marketing” as it continues to earn more of marketing budgets. In fact, in the last five years, influencer marketing has increased from a $1.7 billion industry to $13.8 billion. And experts predict that marketers will collectively spend more than $4.5 billion on influencers by 2023.³

Marketers also find that influencer-generated content receives an average 8x more engagement than branded content.⁴ And that influencer whitelisting — where a creator gives a brand they trust advertising permissions on their social media account — outperforms traditional social media ads by 20—50%.⁵

New habits require new marketing strategies.

So, now that we know where consumers are these days, how do we reach them? In the past, it was fairly easy to make a media buy with “regular” TV based on demographics and geographics. Now, these streaming platforms are all separate and spread out. Plus, how do you account for geographics? Even more tricky, how do you find and partner with the right influencer? Doing all this on your own could be a full-time job — and very expensive.

Partnering up may be your answer.

If you’re a smaller institution, you may not feel you have access to some of these offerings — or at least not within your budget. But you can still get in the game. There are companies out there that use bulk buying power to gain more access at better prices — creating a major discount for you.

For instance, Media Boost is a service offered by Kasasa that allows you to build awareness and elevate your brand. Kasasa purchases in large quantities through negotiated media deals, allowing you to advertise to consumers via streaming TV and influencers at a significantly reduced cost. By participating in Media Boost, you get the opportunity to tap into the more than 90% of consumers who engage influencers on a weekly basis through channels like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.³

The game has changed — are you changing with it?

The days of traditional advertising are long gone. Consumers have changed their thinking — and their expectations — when it comes to media and information. If you want to reach them, you’re going to have to find new ways.

That starts with meeting them where they are.

Sources: 

¹Oberlo

²GRIN Report

³Statista

⁴Mediakix

⁵Lumanu