INFLUENCER MARKETING AND ITS ROLE IN BRAND PROMOTION

Abstract

The article examines influencer marketing as one of the key tools of modern branding, based on collaboration between companies and opinion leaders to promote goods and services. The purpose of the article is to identify the features and key trends in the development of influence marketing, develop approaches to assessing the effectiveness of influence marketing in promoting brands, and develop recommendations for the use of this tool by enterprises in modern conditions. The essence of influencer marketing, its main advantages, and challenges related to selecting relevant influencers and measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns are considered. Depending on the number of followers and level of influence, influencers can be divided into several categories: mega-influencers, macro-influencers, micro-influencers, and nano-influencers. An analysis of the latest trends in influencer marketing development is conducted, including the growing role of micro- and nano-influencers, content personalization, and the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate the effectiveness of collaborations. The article identifies strategic aspects of implementing influencer marketing to enhance brand awareness, build audience loyalty, and create authentic content. Particular attention is paid to practical recommendations for businesses of various sizes on developing an effective influencer marketing strategy, taking into account market specifics and consumer behavior. The predictive effectiveness of influencer marketing should be assessed at the stage of searching and selecting influencers from the perspective of achieving the most effective impact on the target audience. This requires determining such indicators as the activity of opinion leaders in social networks, the number of publications over a certain period of time, the size of the advertising audience and the potential for its growth, the percentage of "likes" and comments, the intensity of publications, and the percentage of feedback. Approaches to evaluating key performance indicators of campaigns involving opinion leaders are proposed, along with opportunities for optimizing marketing expenses through innovative digital analytics tools.