It has been a long time since advertisers realised they can use the power of social media influencers to persuade online audience to buy their products or services. This is different from direct advertisement when products and services are directly fed to the prospective consumer’s attention. Influencer marketing relies on the popularity or reputation of social media influencers who use this popularity to encourage audience to try out some specific services or products. Influencer marketing may not always depend upon explicit recommendations but often a mixture of every kind of recommendations.

Influencer marketing is not limited to social media popular figures. It can come from any sources such as a person, brand, a group or a specific place in the digital world. Celebrities are a great medium for marketing products because of their visibility and reputation.

Influencers who seem authentic and genuine always have loyal followers who pay attention to the influencer lifestyle. This type of marketing is both unique and highly beneficial since the appeal of social media is ever increasing day by day. Advertisers are compelled to form organic relationships with influencers to help their product get endorsed by the influencer.

DRAWBACK OF INFLUENCER MARKETING

Seemingly the only drawback of influencer marketing is that it can heavily backfire if the influencer suddenly faces a negative grade in popularity for some random reasons. Unlike traditional marketing, influencermarketing cannot be controlled as the company pleases and cannot be easily withdrawn from the marketplace either.

WHO BENEFITS MOST?

Any business can benefit from a casual conversation about their product online. Influencer marketing can be a great marketing strategy for small businesses that may need to use inexpensive techniques. This can include something as small as writing a review for their product somewhere.

Larger companies on the other hand can form much bigger schemes and partnerships with major influencers. They can market their products across various platforms and use celebrities or other brands to promote their products.

STEPS IN INFLUENCER MARKETING

1. Find out relevant influencers

The first step in best influencer marketing for companies is to identify influencers who have a decent following and those who can promote their products. If the influencer content is related to or revolve around the intended typeof product, the influencercan easily promote it.

• Build a relationship

Once you choose an influencer who is best for your marketing campaign, companies can develop a relationship with the said influencer. Good Influencers are swamped with offers every day to advocate products. They may promote your product if you can offer a genuine organic relationship along with decent rewards.

• Deliver content

It is important to deliver content related to your product in a format that is convenient for them. For the success of any campaign, companies should make sure they findrelevant influencers in the niche of their products or services.

• Monitor campaigns

Companies need to monitor their campaigns and understand what’s working and what’s not. Influencers are more likely to share their content to followers where it is easier to access. It is necessary to track the traffic and conversions periodically to find out if your strategies are working out properly.

TRENDS IN INFLUENCER MARKETING

In this era of information overflow, consumers have grown smart to avoid mindless advertising that is bombarded at them everyday. It is only a natural move for companies to start advertising in the language of influencer marketing. According to the latest stats, around 33% of the millennial population trust blog reviews before purchasing a product. Around 40% purchased a product after seeing a review on platforms like YouTube. Influencer marketing has been successful in 70% of marketing campaigns yielding the desired results. The numbers speak for itselfas nearly 80% of marketers believe it to be an effective marketing strategy in 2020, and has upped their budget allocation.

Here are some of the major influencer marketing trends in 2020.

1. Influencerevents

Influencer events are a great way of improving brand image. Such events are getting more and more popular as influencers promote this event through their platforms and hence the brands who host them also reach the followers. Large fashion and beauty brands are oftenthe ones hosting such events where social media stars and celebrities from all over the world are gathered together and create enough exposure to the brands.

• Long term partnerships.

Companies and brands are investing more on influencer marketing and spend more on creating long lasting relationships with said influencers. Forging strong relationships have become necessary today as influencers get offers to promote brands from all sides. Long term relationships also benefit the companies in the sense that they can reap the long term rewards of successful marketing campaigns rather than singular posts.

• Role of Instagram

Instagram is steadily growing as an important platform in influencer marketing. When it comes to influencer marketing, Instagram is now the most sought after social media platform. According to a recent survey, 90% of influencers believe that Instagram plays a prominent role in their marketing strategy.

• Product collaborations

Product collaborations with influencers and brands are the latest trend in this field of marketing. More and more social media influencers are teaming up with companies and coming together to launch products that are influencer –centric. Successfulinfluencersbenefit hugely from such specific products which in turn benefits the brands they are promoting.

INFLUENCER MARKETING IN YOUTUBE

YouTube is the single most effective platform today to implement the best video marketing strategies. YouTubehas over 2 billion active users worldwide at the start of 2020. It has been quite some time since marketers realised YouTube’s infinite marketing potential at promoting products through videos. There are a lot of influencers in YouTube with more than one million followers and collaboration withthem promises guaranteed audience for brand promotion. In order to leverage YouTube’sadvertising potential it is important to forge long lastingrelationship’swith niche influencers along with having an effective plan for implementation. If executed properly, YouTube is almostcertain to bring out some buzz related to your products or services no matter how small your business is. But this needs careful and strategic planning and constant monitoring.

Hemito Digital Pvt Ltd is a leading influencer marketing agency in Kochi with a team specialised in influencer marketing.