Marketing is a dynamic concept where new methods, strategies, and campaigns are introduced frequently. The methods in digital marketing have also evolved and new marketing ways are often introduced. One such marketing technique is influencer marketing.
All of us are well aware of when well-known and luxurious brands run marketing campaigns through advertisement on television we often see some celebrities endorse their brands, promote their brands through ads and magazine photoshoots, attain various events on national and international platforms of that brands, promote the brands in other events as well till the contract with that particular brands is valid.
The same thing is done in influencer marketing. From the name, we can get a hint that it is a campaign run by influencers in other words the one who inspires their audience base.
Influencer marketing is growing tremendously all over the world. In India, according to Statista and LinkedIn, the influencer marketing industry has generated 12 Billion Rs for the year 2022 which is expected to grow with a CAGR of 25% till the year 2026 leading to the rapidly and second fastest growing influencer marketing industry all over the world.
In this blog, let us understand this concept in deep and how we can obtain the best outcome (boost sales) in the best way possible.
Who are influencers?
As I mentioned above, influencers are people who inspire others through their work. The different types of influencers are bloggers, vloggers, Instagrammers, YouTubers and Facebook influencers. They have a strong audience base on different social media platforms where people like to follow them and know more about them and their work. Most of the audiences are loyal and have a friendly connection with them. They are called social media celebrities where many influencers have a high engagement rate with their brands which means when they promote any product people like to make a visit to the brand’s website and make a conversation so the brands like to contact them to promote their businesses.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a campaign where the influencers endorse your brands on their social media account and have a large fan base. The trends in social media marketing are increasing and so does influencer marketing making the best opportunity to reach out to new targeted audiences to boost our sales.
Why should e-commerce businesses hire influencers for marketing?
- To create brand awareness and credibility by endorsing the brand.
- To attract more faithful and reliable traffic.
- To lead more conversions and boost sales.
What are the types of influencers based on their audience base
The influencers are segregated into 4 categories based on the number of followers and subscribers they have.
- Nano influencer category: They have a small audience base with less than 10,000 followers or subscribers. In this category, influencers can have loyal and friendly relation-based audiences with a decent conversation rate.
- Micro-Influencer Category: Here the number of audiences varies from 10,000 to 50,000 followers/subscribers with a high engagement rate.
- Macro Influencers Category: These category influencers have high authority, supremacy and reputation in their niche. They have a strong audience base of 50,000 to 1,00,000 audience base
- Celebrities: We can guess, they have a huge fanbase with more than 1,00,00 followers.
How does an influencer do marketing?
If you’ve read the blog on social media marketing we have discussed in that blog, people love to discover new things and follow their celebrities’ social media accounts to know about their personal life (diets, fitness, products they use), upcoming work, their approach to life, advice, etc. Their audiences love and feel a bit personally connected when the influencers share those things with them and more of them are likely to use the things influencers said and used in their own life. They give them credibility, trust and assurance that the products they use are of utmost quality and there are fewer chances of involving fraud practices. When an Influencer uses a product on any social media platform in the form of a post, video, hashtag, etc it’s likely to sell out based on the popularity of that Influencer.
Let us understand it with an example, suppose you have an e-commerce clothing brand, you can approach a fashion blogger to write about your brand, or an Instagrammer to add a post about your brand or YouTubers to use your brand clothes in her video in the form of fashion Haul.
Keep in mind popularity is important but with popularity, the engagement rate of that Influencer with adhered emphasis of their words and actions on their audience plays a major role in boosting sales of the business.
Like any other marketing campaign here too, relevance is important because you can’t simply hire an influencer of any niche and expect your sales to rise.
Let us take an example we used above, if you have a clothing brand you should approach an Influencer related to the fashion niche rather than approaching a motivational or education-based influencer in the expectation that the students will buy the clothes from your brand rather than it may turn a bad reputation to that Influencer because he/she is promoting business rather than teaching.
Different steps & strategies to boost e-commerce sales
- The foremost step in any marketing campaign is research, find out the influencer in your niche and shortlist the name with the one you find perfect to work with.
- Approach them to make a business proposal via e-mail or Instagram DM.
- Facebook live and Instagram live
The Internet is so fast. When a celebrity or an influencer uses a particular brand product in their livestream the audience notices it and if that person has major influence it is observed that after a few days, the brand products get sold out. This is a power a celebrity holds.
- Review Video
A positive review video from a known person increases credibility and trust in the heart of the audience. It is extremely useful if you have an electronic-related niche because most people do research on YouTube or other social media platforms about the reviews of the product they are willing to purchase.
- Fashion Haul/OOTD vlogs
People love Fashion, right? Whether traditional or Western they do search styling tips according to their body type, their personality, etc. When an Influencer uploads a fashion Haul /Outfit Of The Day video or does a hashtag on Instagram the followers following them are likely to visit the website and purchase the clothes, watches, handbags, etc they have used because the audiences are following them to know more about fashion and styling.
Zara is one such brand that collaborates with social media fashion influencers to endorse their products.
- Beauty hack video
Beauty hacks are the touchpoint for many women all around the world. They often search and follow beauty niche-related influencers for quick hacks about makeup, skincare, dermic problems, etc. When they come across a beauty product related to their skin type and issue there is a high chance of buying the product.
To give you an actual example My Glamm is a beauty brand that climbed to the height of success with viral YouTube videos on beauty hacks and makeup videos.
- Unboxing
Mostly common in electronic Media, Unboxing videos are videos where an Influencer unboxes and shows the different specifications and features of the product. Unboxing videos can be useful for audiences to create product awareness and knowledge about the specifications they will be getting in the product. Most people watch Unboxing videos to find something related to their requirements and budgets. Collaborating with influencers with additional discounts or referral codes has a high chance of conversion.
In India, Technical Gurujii is famous for Unboxing video creation which has collaborated with many brands and boosted their sales.
- Discount code or referral code
On our e-commerce website, we do mention special offers, sales, and discounts to attract our customers. A referral code is when a brand collaborates with an influencer and gets a special discount to his/her audience base. When an Influencer places a referral code in their respective content the audience visiting their content has a high chance of getting clicks, visiting the website and further conversion.
- Contest and Giveaway
When through an influencer you announce a contest that encourages his audiences to participate and create content like their experience, their photos with the products, etc (UGC) to create a chain that can reach an even wider range of people you can strike 3 things in one strategy i.e. to increase your website traffic, social media following and conversion rate. Be transparent and announce the Contest winner and give them their price (giveaway).
- Instagram posts and hashtag campaign
It’s the most commonly used influencer campaign where the Influencers share a picture using the brand product and post it on Instagram with a hashtag campaign.
Lenskart 2019 collaborated with Bhuvan Bam one of the most popular Youtubers in India where with #halkarakhyaar which went viral among Gen Z in India.
How to find the right influencer?
We approach an Influencer with some specific targets. If we talk about e-commerce then our target is to make as much brand awareness and conversion as possible to boost sales. To find the right influencer we have to do some research
- Research your brand mentions on different social media platforms and find whether any people are mentioning your business in their accounts. In many cases, some influencers may use your business products in their real life and often mention your brand products they use in their daily life. If you come across such an influencer it’s like a bonus point for you because they are not only your loyal customer but also can create an opportunity to make an official business deal with them to promote your business.
- Search on different platforms for your particular niche specialised Influencer.
- Find out their audience base, their past partnership with other brands and what was the success rate with the previous brands they worked on.
Conclusion
If executed properly with clear goals and strategies Influencer marketing can work wonders for your business. It can give a high ROI and can help in outrunning your sales.
