Over the years, you’ve seen different trends and challenges taking over social media platforms. But you’ve only followed those that influenced you. You either participated because everyone was doing it or because you are an authentic follower of the trendsetter. Whatever the reason, someone had the power to influence you.
With the growing sphere of marketing and advertising in this rapidly changing digital era, influencer marketing is a hot topic that is dominating the marketing industry. Simply put, it is a hybrid of old and new marketing tools – the classic idea of celebrity endorsement but placed into a content-driven marketing campaign. The main differentiator is that the results of campaigns are collaborations between influencers and brands.
Influencers can be both celebrities with millions of followers or relatively ordinary people with less than a thousand followers, either way, they have cracked the code to amass large amounts of trusted and enthusiastic followers on social media. This is mainly due to the rise in distrust of brand ads on the Internet among customers who now prefer peer-to-peer communications instead. As a result, nearly 75% of marketing specialists now use social media influencers to spread brand awareness, boost business growth and attract potential customers.
Choose the right influencer!
The influencer marketing industry is unregulated and thus, causes many challenges. There is no guarantee that a particular collaboration would be successful or not. And the first step to tackling this problem is the identification of the right influencers.
The right influencer is the one who has cultivated an active audience within a certain niche and can effectively engage with their audience through a clear call to action and authentic content. You can have influencers dancing to trendy Instagram dance challenges or provide insights on brand products and services, it’s all about staying up-to-date with trends and providing valuable information that can benefit both the customer and the brand.
Inmar reported that 84% of people had purchased through influencer recommendations, highlighting the impact of credible opinion and its powerful effect on the purchase. There are a plethora of opportunities available to tap into influencer marketing, whether it is Instagram lives, Youtube content or Twitter banters. With the right incentives, a successful marketing campaign is the one that benefits everyone involved, the brand, the influencer and the influenced.
How to have a successful influencer marketing campaign?
When it comes to influencer marketing, always remember research is key!
A good way to scout for influencers from every genre is to look up hashtags of those genres and see who’s making great content, go to their profile and note down their followers and reach. It is also important to scout for influencers who are the most sought-after in their respective regions and niche to increase engagement and the relatability factor.
Emailing the Influencer and getting in touch with their managers is also a great way to build and grow your influencer network. This helps in contacting the talent managing agencies the influencers are a part of, here you will be provided with a whole roster of influencers, their prices, and engagement rate.
Nowadays there are also lots of software applications that help us research deeper into influencers and their engagement rates. Some software applications you could use are – Heepsy, Modash, Ninja Outreach, and many more.
When it comes to influencer marketing, make sure to always keep up with what and who is trending because as we know social media is an ever-changing market where people and trends blow up almost overnight!
Here’s what we did!
As a full-stack digital marketing agency that helps brands stand out and deliver a unique experience, we haven’t overlooked the power of influencer marketing. Our in-house Influencer marketing team has integrated some of the best collaborations that mutually benefited both the brand and the influencers.
One such campaign was for Hotel Transylvania 4 streaming on Amazon Prime Video, where each influencer created distinct content based on their expertise. We got influencers like Niharika NM, Kruthika, and Ayushi Verma to create reels around the character ‘Mavis’ and got great engagement on the videos. We also had Jose and Chloe put up a movie review on their YouTube channel. We’ll let the numbers do the talking, we gained a total of ___
The final word –
Influencer marketing is only effective when done right. There are no promises. No guarantees and no quick wins. To achieve success – researching, identifying and engaging with relevant influencers is crucial. Focusing on popularity and number of followers but overlooking engagement with the audience will definitely produce bad results. The perfect recipe for success is combining credibility with the audience’s purchasing power.
