The most common way of marketing was going with someone influential to promote your product on print media, television, radio etc.
But today celebrities are not only those who act in movies, is a sportsman or a model, we now have YouTube/Instagram/Twitter (commonly known as Twitterati) celebrities who have given a whole new meaning to the concept of product promotions or reviews.
With 4 billion internet users across the world relying much more on an online promotion or review of a product before buying it rather than looking at a T.V ad or newspaper, it is important that we focus on social media celebrities or influencers to promote our products online, which is known as Influencer Marketing.
So what is Influencer Marketing? Let’s understand.
Influencer marketing is a process where people with huge number of followers on different social media platforms talk about your product. As per a recent survey, 92% of the marketers have used influencer marketing to boost their business.
It is a good way of promoting your business. The followers will certainly try your product once they see the influencers they follow talk about it.
Also, these people are not very difficult to approach, they will mostly have their business email for collaboration updated on their accounts, it is not necessary that they will be overpriced, most of the time they are cost-effective. You can always choose between a Micro-influencer and Macro-influencer depending on your budget and requirement.
Micro-influencers are those who have a follower base less than 10,000 whereas macro influencers are those who have followers more than 10,000 and in millions.
Now that we know about Influencer Marketing, let’s chalk out some points to create an Effective Influencer Marketing plan.
- Focus on your Brand and Product: It is very important for one to have a clear idea of his brand image and the USP of the brand or the product before reaching out to an influencer. Once you know that, it becomes easy to let the influencer know what to focus on while promoting your brand/product through their posts or vlogs.
- Micro or Macro, choose what you need: Before finalizing whether to go with a Micro or Macro influencer, the most important thing that you should keep in mind is your budget.
Also, a few other things that you need to keep in mind is your customer base, no. of people you want to reach out to.
Micro influencer is suitable for any start-up business with less number of competitors, they are not too heavy on pocket and comes with a decent number of followers.
Whereas for a huge business with heavy competition one preferably should go with a macro influencer to reach out to a huge number of audience. Macro influencers will certainly come with a higher price tag. - Select the right Influencer for your business: Make sure that you select the right type of influencer for your brand image and product.
An influencer may have a huge following but their way of portraying things might not be suitable for your brand image. Before selecting an influencer check for the following:
· Way of presentation
· Influencer’s account type (example, fashion, lifestyle, food, movies, books etc)
· Type of audience
· Authenticity of followers (stay away from accounts with fake followers)
· Frequency of engagement on account
Influencer marketing is approximately a Rs.1,500 Crores industry in our country today and is here to stay. When you are trying to promote your business over the internet, running an ad for your business on internet is gradually dying with ad blockers coming into picture, with Influencer Marketing you need not worry about such things, your product will certainly get noticed if you select the right influencer.
We hope this article would help you in marketing your brand and product the right way.
Let us end with a quote that says: “Influencer marketing cuts through banner & blindness by placing your brand where audiences notice it- in natural, native content.”
