If you have only recently dipped your toes tentatively into the influencer marketing world, you can perhaps attest that it is a peculiar beast. For many businesses, it’s rich in as-yet-unchartered waters – but even those firms might have noticed how significantly women dominate the influencer field.
Across all industries, including travel, fashion, food and entertainment, women comprise 77% of influencers, reports Marketing Land. Why is this the case? The answers shed a revelatory light on the nature of influencer marketing – and why it can help you to get your business noticed.
Female influencers don’t have to rely on a gatekeeper
It’s worrying that, despite easily making up the majority of influencers, women are still paid much less than their male counterparts in this field, recent figures have shown.
It’s one sign of the anti-female bias that still seems to linger in payment policies – but, fortunately, at least female influencers don’t depend on the approval of a gatekeeper, such as a casting director or producer, to control their public presence or gain it in the first place.
Women are willing to share personal stories
That’s in comparison to men – and it’s clear that influencers’ fans are lapping those stories up. As acknowledged in an Entrepreneur article, women account for most users on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, perhaps due to the female enthusiasm for sharing personal details.
Through imparting those details, women are fostering their authenticity – a crucial ingredient of an especially effective influencer marketing pie. Women have also been shown to hugely outpace men in their activity and engagement on social media.
Women rely heavily on social proof… from other women
According to studies, 86% of women take to social media as they try to discern whether to make a particular purchase. Those women are consulting people who have been in the same position as them, perhaps because those advocates have the same body shape, skin tone or, quite simply, taste.
Questions especially relevant to women, such as how long lipstick will stick or how postpartum depression can be tackled, can be answered by social media influencers.
Female influencers are making advertising more inclusive
The days of brands being fronted by impossibly good-looking actresses, singers or models appear to be fading. These days, brands are often instead recruiting relatively authentic-looking women to star in their campaigns – and the rising fame of gatekeeper-free influencers has driven this development.
However, it’s the highly positive reaction of customers that is encouraging it, further incentivising brands to start catering more for “real” women, such as by offering clothes in a wider choice of sizes, as Adweek points out.
Influencers are surprisingly accessible
Partnering with an influencer does not have to be a distant dream. Contacting the influencer marketing agency Socially Powerful, for example, can lead you to reach almost any influencer you would like.
Therefore, if you’ve got a product to promote and are aware of an influencer who you reckon could promote it effectively on your behalf, you know what to do.