The core value that makes Influencer Marketing an effective avenue for reaching consumers is a sense of shared experience and trust. Creators spend years building online communities of followers who know, like, and trust their content and opinions. The more specific and engaged a community is, the more likely it is that followers will not only listen to the opinions of influencers but incorporate those opinions in their real-life interactions; from purchasing decisions, to business advice, to how they interact with the people around them. An engaged online community can truly change the conversations and actions people take in their daily lives.
When looking at how brands can involve themselves in those conversations, it’s important to think about how they can do so in a way that’s respectful of the existing community while also contributing something of value to that audience. One of the best ways to do this is through sponsoring long-form videos, specifically, investing in IGTV.
The Benefits of Long-Form Video in a Short-Form Saturated Market
At first glance, you might think long-form video may seem like an outdated approach to influencer marketing. After all, we’re in a time where 30-second TikToks and 15 second Instagram Stories and Reels are “on trend”. But when we look at the likelihood of whether or not a user will stay curious and engaged after that 15-second clip is over, the efficacy of short-form video as a means to connect with an audience starts to drop off.
Short-form clips simply can’t deliver the same level of personal connection that long-form videos can. The more time you spend listening to an influencer, the more they feel like a trusted friend or expert. Now, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be incorporating short-form video in your campaign strategies – on the contrary! There’s absolutely a place for that; consumers appreciate quick and clear information and entertainment delivered through 15-second to 1-minute videos. The point is, many marketers are sleeping on the untapped potential of long-form video to foster a deeper sense of customer loyalty.
Higher Conversion Rates
When a user is truly engaged, when they become fully invested in an influencers’ opinion, they’re hungry to consume longer, more in-depth content from that influencer. If that long-form content is in video format, the rate of conversion skyrockets. Data from our technology provider, Tagger, shows us that consumers are 10X more likely to interact with a video than they are with an article. Also, video can improve conversions by up to 85%.
It’s also important to note that long-term influencer partnerships are seeing huge success this year. When audiences are repeatedly exposed to a brand by an influencer or creator they trust, they inevitably grow to trust the brand as well. When a message from a brand is woven into a longer piece of valuable content (rather than served as a 15-seconds-or-less ad), the message is much more likely to be heard and remembered.
How to incorporate long-form video into your strategies
When partnering with a creator, consider including long-form videos in your campaign brief. Is there a way that your brand can sponsor additional episodes of an existing series? Can you provide the means for that influencer to launch a new IGTV show? Or perhaps you can provide an opportunity for the influencer to record a longer, more in-depth video on the subject of their expertise?
With Instagram and parent company Facebook’s new update, platforms like Tagger who have direct API access are able to provide marketers with never-before available IGTV data. You can now see all the insights that were previously only available for in-feed and stories for IGTV directly from our platform.
In short, there’s never been a better time to go long!
Want to see how Allegiant Media can help you incorporate IGTV into your campaigns? Contact us for a demo and we’ll show you how.
This article was originally featured on TaggerMedia.com on May 04, 2021.