#SMLive Influencer Marketing: The Leap from Content to Commerce & Performance

In a panel session, experts discuss Influencer Marketing & making the journey from content to commerce & performance at #SMLive 2020.

Praanesh Bhuvaneswar, Chief Executive Officer, Qoruz, Shreshtha Mathur, Head of Digital Marketing (Luxury) at Tata CLiQ, and Tushar Bajaj, Senior Vice President, MSL Group discuss the relevance of Influencer Marketing in the recent times at #SMLive 2020.

Shoppable Content - Way Forward?

While discussing how brands and people are adapting to the post COVID-19 world at #SMLive, Mathur shares that content is the king and till brands don't deliver good content, they are not doing justice to themselves. Speaking on content delivery, she exclaims, "Influencers have changed the wave of content on social media channels."

She further explains that as a brand, the automatic shift from Publisher Content to Interactive to Shoppable content comes naturally. However, with the ongoing pandemic, it is an evolving time with many lessons for everyone. Shoppable content could be the next big thing, she asserts

Bajaj emphasizes the above factor, explaining that while Influencer Marketing will only grow, the brands will tilt towards Shoppable Content as a lot of them are now questioning RoI and budget methodology in the context of influencer strategy. They want to know where their money is invested, even in the case of the related campaigns.

Further, he puts forth that initially, influencers used to jump from one category to another but with shoppable content, this tendency will reduce, and brand loyalty for influencers will increase.

Also read: #SMLive: Deepali Naair’s take on Six Feet Economy

Evolving influencers' ecosystem with conversion-based strategy

Bajaj shares that influencers are leveraged for brand campaigns at various stages of the marketing funnel. Since brands are looking at ROo, a conversion-based strategy will be adopted in the future.

He further sheds light on three crucial points:

• At these times, people closer to the conversion funnel will be targeted
• There will be an increase in impulse buying at these times
• For the audience, authenticity & credibility of the influencers will continue to be relevant. Brands must pay heed to this

In a similar context, Mathur explains that while influencers sit at every stage of the marketing funnel, it is upon the marketers as to how they create the business impact that drives RoI & directs them.

Also, the brands need to rope in influencers basis following points:

• Take influencers who understand your brand
• Align with your TG
• Drive the right brand message

Campaign Metrics & Challenges

When it comes to influencer campaigns, for agencies and brands, alike, it is challenging to get access to any engagement metrics along with defining the metrics, in the first place. In-line with the thought, Bajaj shares that the closest as an agency they have come, is putting the influencer in the journey & figuring out what the metric is while engaging with the target community for the campaign.

Mathur explains further, "Right now, nobody knows how to measure influencer marketing; in terms of engagement metrics and there is a budgeting journey that is missing in for the conversion stage. In consideration and awareness stage, we still have indicative metrics but not in the case of conversions."

Defining success & driving brand loyalty for influencers

Now, the question that arises is, when it is difficult to have indicative metrics for influencer marketing strategies, how do brands and agencies define success through their campaigns? In content creation, it is not possible to benchmark the performance, Mathur says

At a time, when consumers are spoilt for choices, brands need to be cognizant of the content being put on the media channels & leveraging appropriate content through influencers

Some content creators/influencers know what they want to do that aligns with the brand. "I don’t like to hand-hold people who know how to do their job, she says

For driving brand loyalty amongst influencers, Bajaj shares that giving exclusivity is the best thing a brand can do for the influencer. It cannot be one-sided. In order to drive better results in the future, brands also need to have a relation with the influencers.

"We create multiple touchpoints for giving exclusiveness to influencers and help create better brand experiences for them, too", points out, Bajaj.