The Beginner’s Guide to Influencer Marketing for Social Media in India

06-Feb-2021 | Social Media

The new buzz term that is creating a rage in the landscape of digital marketing is influencer marketing. The brands in the West have successfully capitalized on this trend and leveraged it to their marketing advantage. 

In recent years, India has caught on to the fever of social media influencer marketing. A report of the digital marketing agency Adlift states that the influencer industry in India is valued at $150 million a year. Another study of Experiticity observes that 82% of consumers make their purchasing decisions based on an influencer’s recommendation. This just proves the immense power influencers have over consumers. But what exactly is influencer marketing?

Simply put, Influencer marketing is a means of communicating about your products, services, and ideas across different social media channels through a wide network of influencers. The influencers can be celebrities, opinion leaders, thought leaders, activists, gamers, artists, YouTubers, etc. The CMS Wire has further classified influencers into 4 categories:

 

• Mega influencers: They have more than 1 million followers on their Instagram. E.g. Shah Rukh Khan, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, or any A-class celebrity, etc.
• Macro Influencers: Followers lie between 100,000 and 1 million. E.g. Kusha Kapila, Shivya Nath, Komal Pandey, etc.
• Micro-influencers: Have followers between 1,000-100,000. E.g. Ankush Bahugna, Kareema Barry, Saloni Chopra, etc.
• Nano influencers: Followers are less than 1000 and target a very specific niche.

Depending on the end goal of your campaign and budget, brands pick influencers from any of the four categories to meet their objective.

Influencers, through the power of word of mouth and popularity, can give a major boost to your brand. If you are looking for instant growth, then influencer marketing is the key. You should know how to develop an effective b2b influencer marketing strategy

Below is a five-step guideline for a successful influencer strategy.

Set an objective

Before bringing an influencer on board, you need to lay down the objectives of the marketing campaign very clearly. The objectives can be on the lines of creating brand awareness, generating leads, increasing website traffic, driving sales, etc. Remember, the influencer has to align with your brand’s interests.

Define your target audience.

No b2b influencer marketing strategy can be effective without defining the target audience. A report of Weebly states that 62% of online marketing campaigns fail because they fail to reach their target audience. That is a pretty big number! To avoid this mistake, you have to study the interests and needs of the target audience in detail and identify the pain point or opportunity. After assessing, you further segment the target audience on demographics, geographical location, behavioral interests, personality traits, etc. Then you collaborate with an influencer who can connect well with your target audience and reach out to a big demographic.

Draft a marketing plan

A marketing plan consists of strategies and techniques to achieve the desired marketing goal. You need to research and develop the content you want to promote through social media influencer marketing. Three points to keep in mind while preparing content are a) virality and b) relatability and c) relevance. The more relatable your content is, the more traction it receives. Build engaging Instagram stories, posts, reels, or IGTV’s, etc. that will increase the engagement of the audience. Use the AIDA strategy for it. Lastly, state the list of the influencers for barter collaborations and paid promotions. 

Choose the right influencer

The infamous Pepsi social media influencer marketing campaign featuring Kendall Jenner faced a major backlash and condemnation from the community due to trivializing and appropriating an important cause like the Black Lives Matter. In a bid to show global diversity, the entire campaign backfired because Pepsi simply chose the wrong face for its brand. The important lesson to learn here is that brands, whether big or small, should do thorough research on the influencer market.

India is experiencing explosive influencer growth. Many brands go for an Instagram influencer with more than 500k followers. However, there is no guarantee that influencers with a big following can always deliver the best results. This is why the best way to choose them is to see whether they align accurately with the brand’s objectives.

There are two ways of achieving that:

Go through Instagram and make a list of influencers of your niche. Send them a mail or DM them with your campaign details. If they reply positively, the process further with the collaboration. Follow up with them if they have not replied to your message/mail. The popular platforms to search for influencers are Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, etc. More than a million influencers utilize Instagram for connecting with users. 

You have Influencer marketing agencies that help you with the right selection of influencers. They have a database of influencers based on interests and numbers which makes it easy for you to make the right selection. 

Check your campaign progress 

You have to measure the success of the campaign. You can use metrics like page clicks, page views, follower growth, leads, sales, etc. A successful influencer marketing campaign is one that generates effective results within a short period.

Companies are reportedly increasing their budget on influencer marketing. For every $1 you invest in influencer marketing, you expect a return of $18. So, it is in the best interest of the brands to facilitate social media influencer marketing to generate revenue and achieve maximum results efficiently and effectively.