Influencer marketing has undoubtedly emerged as the most effective tool of digital marketing over the past few years.
Its widespread impact on consumer-facing brand communication is phenomenal, and there’s no shying away from the fact that the word-of-mouth publicity aspect of influencer marketing has overshadowed outcomes of most other methodologies.
In fact, adding to the panoramic impact of this marketing tool is increased internet and smartphone penetration.
These are a few reasons why brands are increasingly shifting their focus towards leveraging influencer marketing for their campaigns, which could be of varied kinds and magnitude.
Choose creators with precision
When a brand takes the influencer route, it is very important the creators chosen for the purpose suit the requirements of the campaign concerned.
In simpler terms, if a campaign is designed around the wellbeing of babies, it is obvious for the brand to engage mom bloggers and influencers who could share their first-hand experiences.
Similarly, for education-centric campaigns, the influencers zeroed in should be related to academics or subject matter experts.
The success of this objective depends on the pool of creators. The bigger the pool, the better is the probability of handling a variety of campaigns.
Pan-platform engagement
When a campaign is ready for marketing, it is assumed that the target audience is already defined. However, it is not necessary for the influencers suitable for the campaign and target audience to be available on one single platform.
Therefore, it becomes a prerequisite to have cross-brand collaboration across different social media or other digital platforms. Remember, influencer marketing should not be confined to leading social media platforms.
We cannot overlook short video apps, who have opened fresh doors for the job. While many creators on these platforms have a relatively wider reach, their content is also often more innovative, entertaining, and thus, effective.
Multi-lingual approach
To further make sure the right set of creators are chosen for a campaign to be successful, their outreach should also be taken into consideration.
Brands should not overlook the reality that influencers are not limited to English or Hindi when it comes to language.
In India, for example, we have creators across different languages like Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, etc., who have an immense following, especially in Tier-II and III cities. And, we know for sure that a campaign that penetrates through these regions are bound to succeed in both the short and long run.
Planning and strategy
Before anything else, an effective influencer marketing campaign needs concerted planning and strategy. The selection of creators must be at the core of strategising any campaign otherwise any disconnect between the two could prove to be detrimental for the prospects of the brand and its campaign.
The engagement rate of influencers, which suggests how well the listeners resonate with their content, also plays a decisive role in the success or failure of a campaign.
The most basic way to calculate the engagement rate is by adding the total likes and comments on a post and dividing that by the number of followers.
The number thus obtained should be multiplied by 100, and the cycle needs to be repeated for at least 10 posts.
Now, what are the most important things to consider while designing a campaign? Some would say budget, while others would say the target audience or the message.
Though these suggestions are not wrong in any way, the level of success would directly be proportional to the influencer engagement achieved during the campaign period.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YS.)
