Influencer Marketing

Influencer Marketing Is No Rocket Science, But You Need To Get Your Fundamentals Right!

We’ve all come across the term influencer marketing in some way or the other. Be it in a newspaper, in a magazine, at work, or just browsing on the internet. If not influencer marketing, you might have come across the term influencer for sure. But what exactly do people mean when they say influencer or influencer marketing? What are the things that affect campaigns like these? What are their benefits? What are the disadvantages? Let’s discuss them. 

 

Who is an influencer? 

 

By definition, it means a person or thing that influences another. We come across influencers regularly in our day-to-day lives, in the form of family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances that influence a few of our decisions but are on a personal level. That’s because we trust them. Now, when we put this on a large scale of the digital world, it can have a massive impact. By that logic, a digital or a social media influencer is someone who has managed to amass an audience that trusts them. These influencers have the potential of driving up awareness and revenues of products and services when they talk about them. 

 

Now, let’s take a look at Influencer Marketing.

 

By definition, Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers, people, and organizations that have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field.

 

What does this mean? 

 

Social Media platforms have been around for a while. There’s a set of people across industries who have built a significant audience and a community. These people have managed to build trust because of the knowledge they share, the content they create, and the authenticity they bring to the table. Besides these, some people (actors, writers, artists, industry leaders, etc.) have developed that same trust in the offline world. This recognition and fame are replicated on social media platforms too. When these individuals (from both the categories) talk about a product or service, their audience would consider opting. It is because of the trust that has been build over the period. 

 

Sounds about right, no? 

 

But a sizeable number of influencer marketing campaigns doesn’t give good returns. There are various factors involved in the overall success of an influencer marketing campaign. It is bound to fail even if one piece is missing. What are the key things that influence the success of an influencer marketing campaign? 

 

1. Have a clear objective: Setting a clear and defined objective is the most overlooked aspect while opting for influencer marketing campaigns. Brands end up burning their money in influencer marketing because they’re not entirely sure what they want from the activity. You cannot say you want results – the results need to be well defined. Having multiple objectives is a recipe for failure. You can’t go about saying you want X reach, Y downloads, Z signups, W orders. 

 

2. Build a strategy: Okay, you’ve got the objective clear, now what? Now you need to decide how you’re going to go about it. What kind of influencers you’d like to bring onboard? What would be the type of content? What would be the timelines? The budget? Logistics? The story? The clearer you are with this, the better is the chance of the campaign being a success. 

  

3. Pick the right influencers: Be it picking the celebrity or influencers, you need to find the right ones. Many accounts end up talking about multiple things, so they don’t have the level of authority and trust. Some profiles only promote random stuff that makes their account look spammy. Some accounts buy followers and likes. Some might not be the right fit for your product or service in general. If you don’t get the right influencers, your campaign will fail. 


There are a few more factors involved, but these are sufficient to understand the basics. 

 

There are so many things involved, and the possibilities of it going wrong are high. So, is Influencer marketing still worth it?


YES! Totally! Influencer marketing is a great mix to incorporate for various brands, and if done correctly, it will deliver desired results. It works on the simple basic ‘word-of-mouth’ phenomenon that has existed even before the marketing field was officially incorporated. There’s absolutely no reason to believe it is a dying trend, or it might not work anymore. The influencer marketing industry could grow to USD 24.1 Billion by 2025. 

 

Have you considered influencer marketing but aren’t sure how to go about it? Get in touch, and we’ll help you with that. 

 

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