Using Celebrity Influencers? Save Money & Increase Sales with an Influential Blogger Instead

Think about reaching your marketing goals via influencers and you think about getting that famous local celebrity to endorse you. But before you throw down the big bucks, consider this: in a survey Americans said they were 30% more likely to buy a product when it was endorsed by a non-celebrity.​

This could change the whole playing field of content marketing and it brings up the idea that it could be better to use non celebrity influencer to hit your marketing goals.

Why are Celebrities Not Trusted?

The big reason why celebrities are significantly less effective is because everyone is aware of why they are doing it. Nobody is stupid enough to believe a given celebrity is really shopping at Dick’s Sporting Goods. Yet a non-celebrity influencer probably is.

Rightly or wrongly, there’s the belief that celebrities are not being honest about their endorsements and that they are just doing it for the money. Choosing to have a celebrity endorse you may do absolutely nothing to your online reputation. It could turn into a completely futile experience.

Easier to Identify with a Peer

Word of mouth marketing is huge in this day and age - and with a zero cost of acquisition, is absolutely the highest ROI. For proof, consider the growth of Amazon and Yelp: in-app reviews have become the very backbone of these companies. It also proves that people are more likely to trust their next door neighbor than a brand or a celebrity.

The problem with celebrity influencers is they have little to no connection with your target audience. They don’t live like you and they are unaware of the challenges and pain points you are experiencing every day.

But a non-celebrity influencer does. They are not super rich and they are not living a life too dissimilar from your own.

That’s one of the main reasons why you can better trust them.

Complete and Total Honesty

Any non-celebrity influencer that wants to keep generating leads on Facebook or Twitter has to be honest. A celebrity can be laughed at and criticized for their endorsements, but it’s not their main line of work. People are still going to buy their albums and pay to see them.

With an influential blogger - this is their life. If they lose their reputation, they are going to suffer. Non-celebrity influencers insist on revealing their connection with any business they endorse. If they are being paid for a post, they are honest about it.

That level of honesty is what makes them so trustworthy. It’s what practically guarantees that they are going to have more clout than any celebrity.

So Do Celebrity Influencers Still Have a Place?

It may appear throughout this article that celebrity influencers have absolutely no place at all. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. They do have a use - but it’s not the endorsement itself that gives you the most value. It’s the visibility.

A non-celebrity influencer is there to appeal to a targeted niche audience. A celebrity is there to simply shout from the rooftops about what you are doing and who you are. This can have the effect of bringing in a bigger audience than ever before. They may simply attract interested parties and then it’s up to you to actually make them buy.

Prominent bloggers will not only broaden your audience but they’ll do the selling for you.

How to Find a Great Influencer

The biggest businesses use a combination of celebrities and non-celebrities to boost the value of their products. It’s true that if you use both you are going to hit a bigger swathe of people, while at the same time paying back a lot of your investment.

Finding a great influencer takes time. You need to do your research and figure out your target audience. Your celebrity influencer must have an appeal to that audience or people are not going to listen to them. Likewise, a non-celebrity influencer has to have a large enough following to make them a worthwhile prospect for you.

Last Word – A Shift

Celebrities used to be the crowning glory for any business looking to get themselves endorsed. Today the exact opposite is true. Ordinary people have far more clout than celebrities, but they still have their uses, and as long as you can acknowledge that there’s no reason why you can’t reach a broader audience and reach your marketing goals.