The world of marketing has seen a drastic evolution from something as basic and powerful as word-of-mouth to as advanced and intriguing as AI integrated activations. Having tasted everything, and relished the perks, we humans have a tendency to ‘go back to our roots and that’s exactly what we have been spotting in the marketing industry lately. Influencer marketing might feel like an intimidating term and unchartered territory for traditional players but in its fundamental sense, it is nothing but a dynamite fusion of word-of-mouth and our very dear social media.

What is Influencer Marketing?

In simple words, it is a brand collaborating with social media influencers to target their follower bases. While influencers are not traditional celebrities, they are indubitably the “new age celebs”. They might not lead a lavish, paparazzi life with the common man swooning at their sight, but they do have an extremely strong and loyal fanbase, one that is even ready to pay per month to see their premium content. In fact, one of the major reasons they are loved so much by the average consumer is that they are more accessible and relatable than celebrities.

Note: They are also mindful of what they endorse as they cannot afford a dwindling reputation; social media being their primary bread and butter.

The numbers don’t lie.

• From 2015 to 2021, there has been a phenomenal 115.59% increase in the number of people actively using social media and this number will continue to increase greatly.
• 55% of Indians engage with social media platforms, spending an average of 2–3 hours on the platform every day.
• A major chunk of this time is spent consuming content.
• Content creators or influencers are one of the primary reasons for attracting people to social media platforms.
• Influencer marketing business is expected to reach $13.8 billion in 2021, a sharp jump from $1.7 billion in 2016.
• Instagram is the most effective platform for influencer marketing, followed by Youtube.
• 75% of the majority of brands are inclined towards dedicating a separate budget to influencer marketing.

Why influencer marketing works so well?

Influencers have a very strong hold on their audiences, so much so that they can effortlessly gauge attention, impact opinions, and control their decision-making process. They regularly interact and engage with their audiences to build credibility and trust among them. With free reign, influencers don’t have to stick to scripts and can create unique content making ads appear less sales-oriented and more genuine. And the fact that more than the product itself, people are interested in what the influencers have to say about it has convinced brands to adopt this channel. On top of that, choosing influencer marketing rids you of the heavy production cost involved in traditional channels.

Types of influencers

Picking the influencer/s for your brand is a complicated process. There are multiple factors to consider, e.g., number of followers, area of specialization, platforms on which they have established themselves, etc. There is no bound to what all they can talk about. An influencer can not only teach you how to dress, use your iPhone or invest in stocks, but also convince you to adopt a healthier lifestyle, sustainable products or veganism. The list is endless. If we get into the depth, it will need more than a day to cover everything. So, let’s get straight into how to get your influencer marketing right.

1) Set communication goals

Whether it is targeting existing customers or acquiring new ones, influencer marketing can help you achieve any goal effectively. As long as you have a strong and clear objective in place, your campaign is set for success.

• What are your marketing objectives? Is it increasing awareness or promoting an offer? Is it brand engagement or direct sales? Is it driving them to your website or making them follow your social media page?
• You have to know if your strategies are working. So, set some parameters based on your objective — impressions, website visits, increase in followers, etc.

2) Create an audience persona

For a successful, fruitful campaign, you must reach the right audience and hence need to hunt for the right influencer/s who caters to your niche.

• Build an audience persona.
• Who are they? Are they new, or do they know you?
• What kind of content do they consume? What kinds of triggers attract them the most? Do they value new experiences or do they value real connection?
• You can use different personality profiling techniques like the OCEAN model by Cambridge Analytica to build your target audience profile.

3) Pick the right influencer

Once your audience persona is clear, you can head on to find the apt influencer/s who makes content that aligns with your audience and is someone who would actually use your products (that’s how good word-of-mouth works). Look at relevance, engagement, category served, legitimacy, etc. You should also:

• Keep an eye on the activities of influencers on your list. Remember, the ones posting a lot of sponsored content might not get good conversions.
• Collect enough information about them to gain their confidence when you approach them. They should be convinced that you truly understand them, their audience, and have very thoughtfully chosen them for your brand.

4) Get the legalities straight

In India, according to ASCI — Advertising Standards Council of India, if anything goes wrong, consumers can sue both — the brand and the influencer! Here’s what you need to know:

• Draw up a detailed agreement with the influencer/s
• Make sure every time they post for you, it clearly mentions that it is an ad / a paid promotion / a collaboration.
• The disclosure must be direct, accessible, easy to understand and accompanied by relevant hashtags like #ad, #paidpromotion, #collaboration, and so on.

5) Plan and execute it well

This needs no explanation, but your campaign needs to be executed well and planned even better. Most of the time, it is poor planning that takes down your influencer marketing campaign. Just because it is a new and slightly unofficial marketing tool, do not take it lightly. Choose the right influencer, set tracking tools in place, give the influencer creative freedom, and don’t try to hard-sell your brand.

6) Track, measure, repeat.

The campaign is in action, but can you say “Voila” yet? The answer lies in various insights and results that need to be analyzed.

• It goes beyond counting likes, comments, and impressions. Decoding insights offered by social media platforms forms the base of your next strategy.
• Who is engaging? Where is the traffic coming from? Did you see an actual spike in orders? Did you gain more followers from the influencer’s community?
• All these things can sound complicated but they are not a pain in the b**t if you have proper tracking tools and techniques in place.

Bonus tip

It is the quality and the quantity of the impact through the influencer that matters. “The bigger the better” does not apply here. An influencer with a smaller following but a better engagement rate can be more beneficial than going for a mega influencer with fewer conversions.

Why do brands hire an agency for this?

Just like traditional marketing, influencer marketing is getting a front row seat in the hall of advertising which is why brands choose to approach it as they would approach a mainline marketing campaign – via an ad agency. Even if you are a small business, imagine running your day-to-day operations and managing your influencer marketing all by yourself. Your in-house team might also not be able to crack it since it might be their first time.

If done right, influencer marketing can be a turning point for your business. And if done wrong, it will just be money down the drain. Not to mention that you can get a lot of flack on social media very quickly if you rub people the wrong way. Now that is quite unnerving.

Hence, a practical way out is shaking hands with an ad/influencer agency and have them do all the dirty groundwork while you can reap the sweet fruits from your corner office.

Meet Thinking Partners.

With more than 6 years of making brands bigger and a cumulative industry experience of over 50 years, we are here to make your life easy! Our specialty is targeting all your marketing related pain-points, and shooting right at the bullseye with our ideas and our reach. Our spidey web is well established in the industry, and as far as influencer marketing is concerned, just let us know your requirements and we will get the ball rolling for you.

Hope this blog post was influential enough to make you see influencer marketing in a new light and get you to approach us to reach the right influencers effortlessly, and influence the audience you wish to reach. Pheww. That was a lot of “influence” in one breath! Anyway, drop us an email at niraj@thinkingpartners.co.in, and let’s get your business going!