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The rise of the internet age has revolutionized many spheres of business, including how marketing is done. While traditional marketing channels are still important to many businesses, it is digital marketing spend that has been growing over the last decade.

One of the areas of marketing that has risen from obscurity to the top of any marketing strategy in just the last decade has been influencer marketing. Many businesses of all sizes are now engaging online influencers to push their product and brand awareness among target audiences. A 2019 Social Publi study found that 93% of marketers have used Influencer Marketing and over half of those regularly allocate at least ten percent of their budget to the channel. As a result, influencer marketing has now become a multi-billion dollar industry.

Influencer marketing in itself is not new. It has, however, completely changed from the idea of traditional endorsements by celebrities and sports stars into a modern-day content-driven marketing campaign driven primarily by online influencers who build their brand primarily through social networks. An online influencer is an individual who has established credibility in a specific area, such as fashion or travel, and created an audience who they can persuade by virtue of their authenticity. In many cases, influencers profit through promoting products to their audiences through various online channels.

Influencers in Kenya and Nigeria

influencer-impactTo understand the impact of influencers on consumers and their role within a full marketing strategy, GeoPoll conducted a dipstick survey through our mobile application in two of Africa’s most active countries online, Kenya and Nigeria. The study was conducted with over 2,000 respondents in the last week of July 2020.

Here are some of the key findings from the survey:

  • Facebook is the most preferred social network and is the channel where most followers keep up with their favorite influencers in Kenya and Nigeria, followed by Instagram.
  • Lifestyle, fashion, and technology influencers are the most popular categories of influencers followed.
  • Product reviews and live videos are the most engaging types of content by influencers.
  • More consumers trust influencers than they trust brand messages; 53% say they trust influencers over brands themselves.
  • Journalists and industry experts are the most trusted types of influencers.
  • A large majority (80%) of the consumers in Kenya and Nigeria say they have bought products following influencer recommendations.
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Full analysis and more detailed breakdown of results, including a list of the top 15 mentioned influencers in Kenya and Nigeria, are available in this free report.

To conduct your own study with GeoPoll’s global panel of respondents and multi-modal research platform, which enables research through SMS, CATI voice calls, mobile application, and mobile web, please contact us today.