How to do marketing with influencers to

increase profits in 2020

Ever bought a fairness cream cause the stunning Deepika Padukone claims to have used it?

Well you have succsfully been influenced my friend. Not to worry though, about 90% of the population
also is.

Have you ever bought a bat cause Dhoni or Kohli use it?

I am guilty as charged here. Numerous times I would simply splurge on items that I did not need or were
too expensive just because my hero used it.

Have you bought Nike shoe just because Virat Kohli uses them? You are not alone the whole world is
doing it.

Just recently I bought a packet of boost just because Dhoni said it was the secret of his energy. I thought
if Dhoni says than it definitely must be true. If it is good enough for Dhoni, then it is for me as well.

Is this really sound logic? Maybe.

But, did I buy it definitely yes. I have been doing since I am 8 years old. This realization goes to prove the
long-lasting effect of influencers. They have become the most effective tool for a brand.

It started as TV ads, but it has now taken over the internet. There are many marketing influencers in
India. Influencers like Bhuvan Bham, Smriti M, etc. have gone from rags to riches due to this.

Every celebrity is now an influencer. Everyone from Virat Kholi to Ranveer Singh to Badshah have taken
to this.

Celebrities are using their fan following to significant effect. You too could become a famous influencer
one day. All it takes is the passion for succeeding. If 3year old singers and 60-year-old comic grandmas
can do it. Why can't you?

What is Influencer Marketing?

It is the collaboration between a brand and famous public figures on the internet to promote a product.

The audience is more likely to trust content creators in the same niche as the product.

You will not trust if Alia Bhatt says Oppo has the best selfie camera. Well, no one in the right mind would
get tech advice from her! If Technical Guruji endorses a product, you would naturally trust him more.
People are no longer willing to buy Maggi because Hema Malini says it is healthy. They do not trust SRK
when he says Byju is the best. People have moved on from that.

I am not saying actors are not fit for endorsing. They have also carved a niche for themselves. Amy
Jackson is promoting Apple and Burberry here.
Notice how she is promoting products that she uses(Ear Pods). Even though she is promoting a tech
company, she gets credibility by doing so.

Why Influencer Marketing?

 TV, Radio etc.. are dead in case you haven't heard. More people watched the Avengers movie
last year than the number of people who watched at least 30 mins of TV a day. All good things
must come to an end, be it SRK's movie career or TV.
 Influencer marketing works because it uses tactics that work.
1. Word of Mouth
2. Social Proof
3. Fan mentality

These tactics succeed in the current scenario. People are naturally inclined to trust their
friends and colleagues than some paid actor.

 More than 66 % of retailers use Influencer marketing. This stat goes to show its popularity.
 By 2025 atleast 80% of marketing budget would be spent on influencers.
 A rising trend is the usage of micro and nano influencers who have about 10k-20k followers but
get huge conversions. They are like sachin size maybe small but the power is tremendous.
  At least 10% of the marketing budget is spent on Influencers. Learn how to allocate your budget
to get maximum gain(https://www.profseema.com/digital-marketing-2/how-to-budget-for-
digital-marketing-secret-tips/).

 A survey found that 34 % of Instagramers purchased a product just because a blogger or

influencer recommended it.
 Influencer marketing has grown over 1500 %, according to google trends.
 There are a lot more exciting facts(https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/influencer-marketing-
statistics/) that prove influencer marketing is the next big thing.

 The most important reason is you have personally experienced how effective it is.

Who is an Influencer?
It is merely someone who has the power to influence someone. No two influencers have the same
attributes. Each is unique and has a niche. It is like garam masala where everyone has their own reciepe
but they are all amazing.
There are many influencers out there. It is crucial to associate with influencers who share your vision.

An influencer must:

1. Create original content.

2. Have the same target audience and ability to influence them.
3. Must be able to build trust.
4. Build an active community and drive engagement.
5. Maintain credibility among peers.

The last point is especially vital. Technical guruji has become a sellout. He has lost his credibility. His
followers no longer trust his opinion. He took payments to give favourable reviews to Samsung. It is now
challenging to build that trust back again. Many YouTubers have been affected by the loss of faith.

This has been a growing concern among the youtube franternity. More and more reviewers are being
forced to give positive reviews due to them being on the payrolls of companies. Once the trust is lost it
is incredibily hard to win it back. Only associate with someone whose integrity is unquestionable.

Ajey Nagar, aka Carryminati, serves a model for influencers. His content is unique and honest. He even
became famous for criticizing a faulty product of his sponsor. This honesty leads him to become more
popular and build a better brand. Always focus on building an audience first, the brand will follow.

Kendall Jenner is the highest-paid marketing influencer on Instagram. She has a passionate 108 million
followers.
She rakes in over a million dollars per post. She is associated with the top fashion and lifestyle brands
like Chanel and Lauder.

Influencers have penetrated almost every field out there. From travel to food and fitness, they have
spread to every branch.

Here are some top influencers from India

 Fashion-Santoshi Shetty
 Travel-Mohena Kumari Singh
 Food- Sarnesh Golia and DilSeFoodie
 Comics- Kanan Gill and Kenny
 Fitness- Mrunal Jain and A Ranveer
 Photography-Siddarth Seema and Amit Khanna

Follower count is important, but so is user engagement and the ability to convert to buyers. A large
number of followers doesn't mean better influencer automatically. There is more to it than meets the
eye.

What is the difference between Brand Ambassador and influencer

 Brand Ambassadors work under contract to achieve some goals.
 They are usually long term and have fixed commitments like attending events.
 They are not allowed to use any of the competitor's products.
 They represent the company anywhere they go.

 An influencer has no long term contract.

 Has no signed deliverables

 Is free to use any product.

  Do not represent the brand.

 He or she is just a user of the product with no legal ties.

Take Apple, for example. The official brand ambassador is Shah Rukh Khan. He works closely
with Apple in their social initiatives and is part of their delegation to events. He works
extensively to build the brand image.
Amy Jackson, on the other hand, simply posts a picture of her using a product(see the above
pic). Her association with apple ends there. There are no more obligations. She is free to move
on to other avenues.

How to Find Influencers

These methods apply to mainly marketing influencers on Instagram, Twitter and Youtube.

1. Monitoring top hashtags

This method is one of the most effective ways to find the right influencer. Set up a twitter feed
and follow key hashtags and events. Some user's tweet will repeatedly pop on the top. Check
out their content. Make sure you note the engagement level. Check if it is consistent and
organic. You can find nano and micro-influencers this way.
If you take #hindirap for example, Yoyo honey Singh and Nikkita are consistent performers.
2. Use HUB.com

This method is suitable for low-level influencers. All content creators list their profile and portfolio to be
viewed by companies. You can approach them directly on the website.

3. Use Buzzstream and Buzzsumo to find the top influencers in various fields.
4. Check out blogs of the target audience and see who they are following and praising.
5. Contacting marketing agencies that connect you with influencers. This option is expensive and
should be only the last choice.

While contacting, make sure each mail is personal. The influencer should feel valued. Provide
information about your company and product so it can be verified. Make sure you clearly state
what benefits the influencer would get out of this.
More and more companies are working towards having outcome based contracts with
influencers. Like the famous tiktok influencer RIAZ. He gets paid on the amount of buzz and
engagement he is able to generate for their campaigns. This way the influencer takes more
effort as collective growth becomes the focus now.

How to find the right influencer for your brand

There are over a million marketing youtube influencers. There are over 250000 marketing influencers on
Twitter. Wondering how to choose the right one? You can find the Sachin Tendulkar of influencers using
this simple technique.

Three R rule
Influence consists of three parts:
 1. Relevance
2. Reach
3. Resonance

Relevance
The influencer creates content that is relevant to your product line. Their field of work is the same as
yours. Their target audience is well defined and matches yours. Working in the same field adds
credibility to their opinion.

For example, Intrepid worked with a bunch of vegan influencers to launch their Vegan Tours in India.
They collaborated with many influential bloggers like Erin Ireland, who is a vegan. See how they choose
someone within the same field and target audience.

She visited many Veg restaurants and home cooks in India and posted about that on her page.

Reach
Reach is the number of potential buyers you would be able to connect with through this post. The
range is mostly dependent number of followers. You can even get influencers to collaborate to increase
their reach.

See how in the boost ad they have both Dhoni and Kohli. Collaboration helps in diversifying the target
audience.
Resonance
Resonance is the potential to draw engagement. Larger follower count is pointless if the users are not
receptive. A study found that Micro and Nano level influencers enjoyed higher engagement and more
trust. These markets have substantial untapped potential. Ask for their previous campaign results to get
a better understanding.

Let us say a company is looking to sell Ayurvedic face masks. Some, like Sai Pallavi, a renowned advocate
against cosmetics, would be a better fit than Deepika or Katrina. The reach would be further for Sai
Pallavi as her opinion carries weightage in that sector. People are likely to buy it and recommend it.
Word of mouth would spread like wildfire.

Know your target audience

There is no point in advertising to everyone. Select a well-defined target audience to get maximum
ROI(https://www.profseema.com/digital-analytics/top-tools-to-champion-digital-marketing-for-
business-growth/).

You need to market to the right people using the proper means. There is no point in selling a bat to
Vishwanathan Anand and a chessboard to Dhoni.

Learning to market to your most profitable user(https://www.profseema.com/digital-marketing-

2/powerful-tips-to-crack-targeting-in-digital-marketing/) is a vital skill.
An excellent way to do this is to think from the perspective of the buyer. Understand what the is
looking for in a product. This method is also known as developing a buyer persona. It is vital to
understand the buyer to succeed.

Kindly embed this video into the blog. This video is to explain how to target audience. Kindly use the tag
"How to target like a champion marketer" while embedding the video.

Look for trust

Trust is everything in this business.

The trust between the influencer and the user is vital. Building trust on the internet can be tiring, having
an influencer who already has it makes your job easy.

You will not buy a product if you do not trust the source. The trust is crucial in conversions.

One way to measure trust is to check for user engagement. Especially shares and comments can give
you a good idea about faith involved.
As you can see all the content, I post is liked by my subscribers. It shows I can provide useful content
wanted by my users.

Go for a consistent influencer

The content and brand image of the influencer must be consistent. The influencer must have his own
identity. As you can see, my youtube channel picture across videos has consistency.

The tone of your campaign and the influencer should match. You cannot have Lata Mangeshkar promote
rap songs and Badshah promote Carnatic music. It is essential to see your vision matches the
influencers.

Watch out for sponsorship saturation

Saturation is one of the most significant issues faced in digital marketing and influencers, especially.

Keep an eye out for how often influencers are sharing paid posts. If it is too often, the engagement rate
is likely to drop in the future. Look at the organic, non paid content to judge the quality of an influencer.

Youtube recommends one in five posts be paid posts. This hack makes sure you can retain your
followers.

Keep an eye out for bot accounts:

"The smarter we get, the more criminal we get". The latest trend amongst celebs is to buy insta
followers from vendors. These are mostly fake accounts for the sole purpose of promoting the celebrity.
Instagram has come down harshly on this and even celebs have gone on to be banned. A recent case is
being investigated by the Mumbai police that claims 50% of followers of two popular heroines are fake.
How to work with different kinds of influencers
Micro-Influencers
Micro-influencers are prominent members of various media. They have a sizeable following. You can ask
them to post a review or experience using your product. Due to the well-defined nature of the followers,
you will be able to engage well with content shared to the user. Avoid simple pictures as they are not
suitable. Short videos work great. Learn how to maarket short
videos(https://www.profseema.com/content-marketing/how-to-do-video-marketing-to-grow-business-
remarkably/) yourself.

Ayesha Billimoria is a good example. She makes small videos of her training in her sponsor's products.

PRO TIP: USING INFLUENCERS AS PART OF CSR INITIATIVES

With the onset of the corona, various global corporations are doing their part in helping out
communities in a variety of ways. If you do some charity or social work you got to show off to the world,
haven't you? More and more influencers are willing to be part of various companies CSR initiatives as it
is a good chance for them to boost their image and you will get free branding as well.

A classic one stone two mangoes situation.

Celebrity Influencers
These people have a massive fan following. They also do not have a well-defined target audience. They
are widely recognized and hence can help you take your product to the masses. Popular everyday
products are suitable for these influencers. They are often expensive and offer low ROI.

You can post on social media, or even print and TV are good options. You are looking to associate their
name with your product only. You can also sponsor an event the celebrity is likely to attend.

Shah Rukh Khan promoting Byju is a good example. Although Shah Rukh Khan is an actor, he succeeds
due to his millions of followers.
Bloggers
Bloggers usually have their site or write in popular sites like Medium.com. They have thousands if not
millions, of subscribers. Their ability to reach puts them in a league of their own. You can either ask to
be mentioned in a post or sponsor an entire post about your product.

A whole post is the right choice if you are looking to increase your reach. Mention of your products in an
article also work well. You can give them a special discount voucher to mention. This way, you can track
the number of conversions. This is called affiliate marketing.

Kindly embed this video on the blog.

Amit Agarwal is an excellent example of a blogger influencer. He has grown from nothing to the top
blogger in India. He is a professional blogger and Tech guru. He is known for his unique writing style.
Check out his blog Labnol(https://www.labnol.org/about) for good ideas.
Key Opinion Leaders
They are experts in super-specific niche markets. These people shape the course of that field.

Elon musk is KOL of space tourism. Bikram developed a brand of yoga, so he becomes the sole authority
on that.

These usually do not influence. They are particularly expensive for marketing. If you are lucky enough to
work with them, you can go crazy with your ideas. They are the sole leaders of this space. Whatever
they say will be followed religiously by their followers.

While working with influencers, it is vital to arrive at a campaign strategy along with your team. Give
the influencer important product information and critical brand image guidelines. Necessarily give an
outline with which the influencer can use. Do not curb the creativity of the influencer also. Make sure
to provide him with the avenues to avoid and rules to follow.

Now that you have a fair idea as to how to work with influencers lets move on.

Decide campaign expectations with influencer

This step is critical in deciding the direction of your campaign. Different brands have different goals. You
could look to generate sales or build a brand identity.
Make sure to clearly define the salary, number of posts and any other essential details. Sign an
influencer contract to avoid any problems in the future. Note that this is not a binding legal contract.
Any party may choose to withdraw at any point.

Measuring your campaign success

This process again mainly depends on the goals you set. Make sure all your goals are measurable. You
want to know if the campaign provided the expected results or not. Here are a few of the key metrics
you can use.

1. Clicks
If you have provided a link to a site or a blog, this is useful. Look at the total number of clicks
generated due to this post. Note this does not equate to revenue generated. It does create a
good buzz around the company.
2. Conversions
This metric is the most important stat. The whole point of spending money on marketing is to
generate revenue. You can provide a coupon code or direct link to keep track of conversions.
3. ROI
ROI is basically the relationship between the money you spent and the money you made. Higher
the ROI more the success.
4. Follower count
If you are looking to increase followers on your social media handle, this can be an essential
goal.

Expected future influencer marketing trends

1. Rise of nano influencers
These influencers have great potential to generate sales. They have a small but devout
following.
2. New channels to market
Instagram is the leading market avenue as of now. Other sites like Tik Tok and Pinterest are
slowly rising. They are soon to take over a sizable chunk.
3. Rules will become more strict concerning influencer marketing.
4. Investment in long term Influencer partnerships
5. Becomes the primary avenue for marketing

Marketing and influencing are all about creativity.

Learn how to stay ahead of the curve and beat the
competition(https://www.profseema.com/content-marketing/the-best-digital-marketing-tools-
for-competition-analysis/).

This article covers the basics of the marketing strategy for influencers. I would love to hear
about your feedback on this article or my blogs in general.
Please leave your suggestions on what topic you would like me to create content about. The
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Summary
This article talks about marketing with an influencer. It explores the potential and reach of this
channel. It also gives examples and insights into how to choose and work with influencers.
It gives some tips to increase ROI.