5 point mantra before your next influencer marketing campaign

Five points that you need to be absolutely clear about before planning your next Influencer marketing campaign

According to reports, based on research,  92 percent of consumers trust an influencer more than an advertisement or traditional celebrity endorsement. Nearly 40 percent of Twitter users say they’ve made a purchase as a direct result of a Tweet from an influencer.  70 percent of internet users want to learn about a product through content rather than through traditional advertising.

Influencer marketing has a far and wide reach now - how do you use it to achieve your objective, depends completely on your understanding of the subject.

So, what is Influencer Marketing?

“Influencer marketing as a whole is the power of the person, who may or may not be a celebrity. This person has the power to influence your buying decision or let you know, which direction you are supposed to go in and that is what this kind of marketing is all about,” shares Mitechelle Carvalho, Co-Founder and CEO, CogMat.

According to Carvalho, there are few things, which need to be kept in mind, before one plans to do influencer marketing.

1. It is an art and not a science: First ask yourself, why do I need influencer marketing? Whom do I need to have in this influencer marketing exercise and what benefit will I get out of it? Only reason and logic will help you understand the concept better.
2. Figure out who would you like to target with influencer marketing: Engaging a person, purely on the basis of number is not right. Hence, it becomes very important to figure out, who are the people whom you would want to engage with and talk to.
3. Stick to qualitative, rather than quantitative influencer marketing: One way is to go blitzkrieg, like I want 1000 people talking about my product and sharing it. But at the end of it, has it made an impact? Has it been spoken to the relevant set of audience? Therefore, don’t run after numbers.
4. Celebrity endorsement is nice, but don’t confuse it with influencer marketing: Recently we have seen that a lot of influencer marketing is being confused with celebrity endorsements. You should have the right mix of both; see whether the celebrity endorsement cost is not eating into your marketing money.
5. Focus on building the right network and look at relevance: Ensure that you have the right network. Even if the number is small. It is not necessary that for every influencer marketing exercise, you need to have a minimum of 100 people, even if there are 20 and they are doing their job right, it still serves your purpose.

Mitechelle Carvalho, Co-Founder and CEO, CogMat spoke at #SamosaTalks organized by Social Samosa. You can view her entire session below.