Mon, Nov 23, 2020
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With the increased social media presence of audiences in 2020, both brands and creators are leveraging influencer marketing to the maximum. Theindustry is evolving rapidly and its scope is expanding equally fast. Brands are using influencer marketing to increase brand awareness and boost audience engagement. The focus is on delivering value, resulting in better relatability for audiences and higher ROI for the brands.
Given the popularity that influencer marketing has gained in India, it has now become a mainstream marketing practice. Reports suggest that 72% of marketers are considering to increase their budget allocation for influencer marketingthis year. Influencer marketing activities are becoming more personalized, catering to the unique perspectives of the Indian social media users.
Authenticity is the key to uniting audiences. Social media influencers portray a more reliable, genuine, and approachable picture of brands enabling them to connect with their target audiences and enhance engagements.
There is a huge demand for fresh, entertaining, and relevant content in the Indian market. Collaborating with social media influencers provide brands with the opportunity to create such kind of branded content and hook the audience to their channels.
Brands need a good representation to grow in the market. And social media influencers help them with that. Be it talking about a brand’s social cause campaigns or CSR projects, influencers create a positive perception of brands among their audiences.
Social media has exposed people to a wide range of products and services. Influencers create awareness about these products and brands by introducing their audiences to new trends in their niche. They generate needs for new products and thus help brands increase their sales.
Influencer marketingis highly successful for brands for creating a space for themselves in the audiences’ lives. As per a report by Zefmo Media, 65% of marketers and strategists believe that influencer marketinghelps in increasing brand awareness. 50% of them also think that it is effective in managing brand reputation and 47% agree that it is useful in reaching out to new target audiences.
successful influencer marketing
Influencer marketingoffers multiple benefits. But to leverage those benefits, it is important to devise effective influencer marketing strategies for your campaigns. Here is a step-by-step guide that will help you get started with your influencer marketing campaigns.
Be specific about what you want to achieve through your campaign. Do in-depth research about your brand. Consider the overall growth graph of various aspects like brand awareness, lead generation, sales, customer loyalty, etc. Look for areas that need improvement and then define your goals accordingly.
Your target audience is your potential or existent customer base. It can be selected based on the product or service you want to promote or other demographic factors like age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, nationality, etc. Keep in mind that the target audience you select will directly impact your campaign strategies.
There are plenty of social media platforms available, but you don’t have to use all of them for your campaign. Research about which platforms your target audiences are most active on. Analyze your campaign needs and then choose the platforms accordingly.
Selecting the influencers is a crucial step because they will be the representative face of your brand. Follow the quality over quantity mantra during the selection process. Look at the kind of content they create, their audience engagement rates, and their overall relationship with their audiences.
Next, construct a brief for your campaign that will be the roadmap for its execution. Mention all the guidelines that you want the influencers to follow while creating the content. Provide the campaign timeline and other crucial details of the campaign.
After the successful launch of your influencer marketing campaign, the last step is to monitor its performance. Analyzing the statistics of the campaign will help you measure the effectiveness of your strategies and techniques. It will let you know if your campaign is on the right track or it requires changes.
Social media is a dynamic world. With the changes in algorithms of social media platforms and audiences’ online behaviour, the trends in the influencer marketing industry keep on evolving. And with each changing trend, influencer marketing is transforming the way brands communicate with their audiences. Here are some top trends in influencer marketing in India that are shaping the future of this industry.
changing trends influencer
Instagram is the most widely used social media platform for influencer marketing globally. And the trend continues to remain the same in India. Content curation on Instagram is quite easy as it offers a variety of tools to creators and businesses. The ‘Shopping’ feature lets brands tag their products in the posts, which helps them with their sales. With both short and long-form video support, Instagram is perfect for influencers to engage more audiences.
A Storytelling Approach to Connect with Audiences
Stories connect people in a way that no other content format can. It involves the audience emotionally and makes them invested in the content. This approach works exceptionally well for influencer marketing in India, as stories manage to connect the diverse audience of the country on common ground. Brands use storytelling to talk about their journey, the lives of their employees, the experiences of their customers, etc.
Video content is the perfect solution to the problem of low attention span. With a variety of video content formats such as Instagram stories, reels, IGTV, Facebook stories, YouTube stories and videos, brands can better engage audiences. Statistics show that videos get shared the most among the Indian audiences. Marketers also get the maximum return on investments through video content.
Audiences today are no longer being passive consumers of content on social media. They are also actively curating content. This helps brands in increasing their engagement as showcasing user-generated content makes audiences feel a part of the brand. It also makes brands seem more considerate of their audiences’ efforts.
The celebrity culture is now getting replaced by micro-influencers in India. Micro-influencers are seen as more authentic and relatable to the general audiences. Their niche following, high credibility, and good engagement rates make them the right fit for brands for promoting their products.
The effective implementation of these trends can help brands create successful influencer marketing campaigns. However, it is important to keep the digital persona of your brand in mind before employing any strategies or trends. Every brand is unique. And the relationship it shares with its audience is equally exclusive. Influencer marketingis all about creating a profound connection with audiences. If people can relate to your brand, they will gravitate towards it and your business will boom itself!
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