Influencer Marketing and its growth
Over the past few years, the digital and social media scenario in India has changed drastically. If you have a product to sell in the Indian market, you would have already realized the importance of having an online presence by now. The only way to sell your product or increase sales for your product is to spread brand awareness and grow the brand’s online stature and this is where influencer marketing can be introduced. There was no doubt that 2018 was going to be a crucial year for influencer marketing specifically, especially with new and upcoming brands coming up with fresh and innovative ideas and concepts.
Influencer marketing has been on a rise for a decade in India and has definitely picked up over the past few years through social media. The continued adoption of influencer marketing to increase brand awareness and reputation is becoming an important part of the marketing mix. The most striking part of influencer marketing would be picking the right kind of influencers for the right brand. Influencers can be put into categories based on the content they normally post, like fashion, beauty, travel, lifestyle, fitness, food etc which makes it easy to pair a brand or product with the right influencer.
How Influencer Marketing works
Brands usually offer their own product or service to an influencer and ask them to come up with content for the marketing idea. This has proven to help reach their followers will result with so many different ideas and concepts that the brand may not have been able to come up with themselves. This process actually humanizes the brand which has been the main aim behind influencer marketing. Consumers are able to value the opinion of influencers more than celebrities because they are able to relate more to influencers.
Influencer marketing can be used in a number of different marketing scenarios. As long as they are used efficiently, you are sure to get the maximum return on investment and help create a relevant customer base. The following are three scenarios wherein marketers have been utilizing influencer marketing effectively to help expand their customer base in 2018:
Product Pre-launches – This helps educate potential customers about the brand and the products that are available within the brand.
Content promotion – This is mainly done after the initial launch of a product or brand, it cultivates an interest inside the mind of the viewer and creates a demand for the product.
Event/product promotion – This is mainly to satisfy an already existing demand with the right product, at the right price.
Things to consider before brands implement Influencer Marketing
In order to fully manage a campaign, brands must look into the trends of the influencer marketing industry before jumping right in. Influencer marketing is a well-researched trend in marketing that recognizes and selects certain individuals with some influence over prospective buyers. Here are a few trends that were common in 2018
Macro and micro influencers have come into light over the past couple of years. It not all about celebrities anymore, customers also want to see people they can relate to endorsing brands. Micro influencers (10,000 – 50,000 followers), globally, are starting to have a big impact on the buying trends of their followers as compared to that of Macro influencers (above 50,000 followers) which is what is mostly seen being used in India.
Social media channels that are used in India in terms of influencer marketing is mostly Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. It is also to be noted that unlike the US, UK, and other European countries, Indian influencers and their followers are not ardent users of Twitter. It is, in fact, the least used amongst all.
The use of Promotion codes has suddenly seen light in India. When a brand is using multiple influencers to market a particular product and want to know from where exactly the in-flow of customers are coming from, they issue promotion codes to each of the influencers so that it is possible to track the traction.
Paid sponsorships help let the customer/follower know when the influencer is being paid to endorse a brand and when they are promoting a product because they regularly use the product.
Making products easily available through social media platforms has become a very common trend wherein brands link their sites where you can shop online to the post or story that’s promoting the product.
Running campaigns in regional languages attract a lot of regional customers and to increase customer knowledge about the products. Especially in India where within the country itself there so many different cultures and languages this trend will definitely attract more buyers.
Some successful Influencer Marketing campaigns
Doors of India
Pravesh steel doors, Tata steel doors, Tata steel launched an influencer marketing initiative – #doorsofindia with 6 explorers over 30,000 km across 46 cities, who traveled through diasporas of Indian geography, dialects and cultural nuances curating stories of prominent doors. This took place over the course of 5 months.
Kerala tourism
As a part of their yearly campaign, Kerala tourism invited eminent travel influencers for new experiences in the state. Palakkad and Wayanad appeared to be two of the attraction points of their campaign this year. The bloggers were given a wonderful trip, giving them an opportunity to speak about their trip on their social media feed and on their blogs
Nykaa
In September, Nykaa released a series of videos with veteran comedian and influencer Rohan Joshi. The idea was to bank on Joshi’s online stardom and fan following, by featuring him in an unlikely scenario.
Planning to invest in Influencer Marketing in the upcoming months? Greenroom has helped hundreds of brands connect with influencers for many successful campaigns. Your thoughts and comments keep us relevant. You can let us know your comments below or reach out to us at Greenroom’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Comments