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Welcome to the 26th episode of Digital India Podcast on FIR Podcast Network. This show is ‘Weekly Updates’ brought to you by staff and students of Web Marketing Academy.
Discussion : What is influencer marketing?
Marketing using somebody’s influence to get consumers closer to the buying stage- it could be celebrities but today, it can also be common people around you. You are influenced when a friend buys or endorses a product. SM platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Pinterest are capitalizing on this trend. So really, we’re in the age of the social media influencer.
A study by McKinsey found that “marketing-induced consumer-to-consumer word of mouth generates more than twice the sales of paid advertising and has a 37 percent higher retention rate.
As per an article on Adweek, the keywords “influencer marketing” are seeing 5000% growth currently.
Tools to identify influencers in your industry :
- Klout with its Klout Pulse feature
- Buzzsumo
- https://commun.it/
- Social bro
- AgoraPulse
- TweetReach
- Follower Wonk – Tw
- Twellow
- brandwatch – uses thr Kred influence measurement solution
- Keyhole – identifies influencers leading conversations in your social conversations
- Little Bird
- Trackr
- Re:fluence
- Ninja Outreach
https://www.brandwatch.com/2013/08/finding-influencers-on-facebook-twitter-blogs/
Case study :
When 50 influencers posted an Instagram picture of themselves wearing the same Lord & Taylor dress, on the same day, The dress sold out the following weekend.
Why celebrity endorsements work?
Some of the older ads:
- Shammi Kapoor and Ashok Kumar in “baraatiyon ka swagat pan parag se kijiye”
- “I’m a complan boy” “I’m a complan girl” – Shahid Kapoor, Ayesha Takia
- Kapil Dev – palmolive ad
IIMA, 2012 research paper – The trend started in the 1980s and became much bigger in 1990s. But not all endorsements were successful. More than the celebrity, the success of endorsements cane be attributed to cultural parameters that really influence people.
In Indian market, we find that the rise in celebrity endorsements has been phenomenal in decade to 2010. In 2001, 25 % of all TV advertisements carried a known face. By 2008, this had grown to 60 % and continues to grow (The Economic Times, 3 February, 2010).
The popularity of celebrities in advertisements is decreasing by the day as consumers are not easily influenced anymore.
According to a new survey “The Celebrity Endorsement Survey”, conducted over 2019 respondents across 12 metros and small towns in India,, conducted by research agency IMRB (Indian Market Research Bureau) and public relations outfit:
- 86 per cent of the respondents say the most prominent ad that they remember has a celebrity in it
- only 3 per cent feel that celebrity endorser of a brand affects their buying decision
- However, in small towns and South India, showed greater affinity to celebrities
- 55% of the people don’t believe that the celebrities use the products that they endorse
- 78% of the people buy products because of the quality of the product
But not all campaigns connected with people. Some of these:
- Lux’s ad featuring Shahrukh Khan as the metrosexual man didn’t really gain traction.
- Shahrukh Khan’s association with Videocon also broke because the promotion did not lead to adequate ROI
- Leading automobile company Maruti Suzuki was unable to exploit the ‘Big B’ status of Amitabh Bachchan for its Versa brand
What makes influencer marketing successful?
- The promotional features and image of the product is closely integrated with the personality of the celebrity
- uses the creditability of the celebrity
- to make products creating a niche in the market and establish itself as a brand
- The celebrity’s role is most prominent in personifying the product to his/her image and helps it reach the customers.
It can backlash especially when celebrities are seen as endorsing many types of products across a wide spectrum.
Links and resources:
Key Points:
- Make your customers the brand Influencers. The best brand am bassadors are your local customers
- Think of how you can make them special
- Appreciate, give a shout out and share it in your social media channels, tag them
- Be Genunie
- Be Empathic
- Make your employees your brand ambassadors
- Give your employees enough resources and same goes to your employees, appreciate in public, make them special
- Build loyal followers. It dont have to be a huge following start with your current customers and employees
- Educate them, build trust by providing value in terms of content
- Use Twitter videos, when someone shares, Thanking them using a selfie mode is more personal
- Periscope, Blab are good resources to personalize your response
- Use Facebook birthday video wishes
- Favorite tools : Person to person meeting, a Phone call, Emails and personal hand written Thank you notes
- How is your company prepared during any crisis, give enought training for anyone to handle questions, how to react online.
You can share your feedback at: suresh@webmarketingacademy.in
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Website: http://www.webmarketingacademy.in
Follow us on twitter: @wmaindia Until next time, have a good one
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