Deeper look into Influencer Marketing in Tech: Psychology, Problems and Benefits

Influencers...we have all seen them, maybe have a friend who is one, or we are one ourselves. It's a rising trend and it's shaping how we purchase things, in fact, it has been doing so in large scale since the past decade.

I remember getting my hands into influencer marketing back in 2015, but just like most people, I had "studies", "work", "life" on my way and that dream of being like that teenager who makes $1M a month did not come true.

80% of the people in the US alone, trusts Google to be a source of correct information, whether it is about buying things, their homework or symptoms of a disease. This trust is growing for influencers, and it's growing fast.

Psychology in Influencer Marketing

The psychological term for why we trust influencers and why influencer marketing works is called "congruence". There are other phenomenons too but this one is the most common.

Influencer marketing is perceived to appeal better to customers than traditional celebrity-based advertising due to the sense of closeness and fit with favorite influencers.

Cognitive dissonance, congruity, and balance theories predict that followers prefer balance and want to avoid the psychological distress that might arise if they were to disagree with an influencer whom they previously chose to follow.

Source of the information above

Problems with Influencer Marketing

The biggest problem, at least for me, when it came to dealing with influencers in tech that, a lot of them show vanity metrics. What I mean by that is, you can never know how much of their follower base caters to your ICP, or how many of those followers are even real, let alone measure your ROI.

Measuring ROI is manageable through affiliate programs but most influencers want a payment upfront showing you these metrics.

"Oh hey look, my audience is 60% from the United States, that's definitely your ICP right? Now pay me $4000"

Another challenge is, influencers don't come in one size or face. Influencers themselves have categories, refer to this image by Traackr for instance

While these viewpoints are from the experience of a marketer, for the general public, one should also be aware about the information that we learn from influencers. We don't fact check, whether we like it or not, most people usually don't and that is a big problem.

As a marketer I believe we should always be ethical, not misinform and build a genuine trust with our customers.

Benefits from Influencer Marketing

Don't get me wrong, influencer marketing has a flip side, and it's growing widely popular for a reason. Because it works!

One of my mentors and favorite people in the tech marketing industry is Atikur Rahman Tonmoy , he once told me "As marketers our goal is to embed our brand's name into the person's mind"

If you are a brand trying to create awareness, you might as well appear in their inbox every morning, or in their Youtube ads or even in the mouth of their favorite influencers.

And of course as previously mentioned, the word of the day, "congruity". The effectiveness of influencer marketing depends on the congruence between the influencer, consumer, and product, influencing attitudes and behavioral intentions.

There is a reason why we love certain influencers, same goes for celebrities. The feeling of being related to, or agreeing on the same things creates what we call a "fan".

Hence, influencer marketing is effective and shall continue to be.

Ad of the day

Welcome to my favorite segment of this newsletter, I will post a screenshot of an ad I come across every week. This week, this is my favorite ad:

Weddings are a big deal in India, I think Tata's copywriter nailed this one

Tools I had been using this week

• Webflow (for making landing pages)
• Notion (task management and content)
• Scribe (for documentation)
• Trainn (for product demos)

Marketing quick tip

See these product images—what's the best angle to go with? it depends on what vibe you're aiming for.

Are you trying to showcase a product that resonates power?

or do you want customers to feel empowered themselves?

Think of it like watching a movie: when the camera angles up, it gives off this strong, powerful vibe. But when it angles down, it kind of conveys a sense of, well, not being in control.