Influencer marketing is one of the most popular and most effective marketing strategies. Consumers depend on the opinions of the influencers, they love to follow them and their opinions are impacting on the buyer’s journey. Brands are spending almost 10% of their annual budget on digital marketing on influencer marketing only. The market of influencer marketing is increasing significantly in India. Back in 2022, the influencer marketing industry in India was valued at over 12 billion Indian rupees while in the global market, it is USD 13.86 Billion in 2022 to USD 139 Billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 33.4% during the forecast period (2023-2030). A popular new paper has made a report that, influencers are making 3 to 5 lakhs per post. Now it is high time to get into the in-depth details of influencer marketing such as its role, history etc.
1. What is the influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that uses influencers to showcase a specific product or service. In this type of marketing, influencer endorsements and mention the product as they use it and they also get benefits from the product. For example, if you are selling beauty products, you must hire a beauty influencer first. Then they will use the product in her/his videos and share his/her opinion on that.
Influencers are those people who have a set of followers and fanbase. These followers trust them and take their opinions seriously.
2. Types of the influencers:
There are several types of influencers in the market. There are influencers who have millions of subscribers irrespective of demographics or geographical areas while there are some influencers who have limited subscribers (than the previous one), but they have more targeted subscribers.
If we talk about the type, then there are 4 types of influencers. The types are- mega influencers, macro influencers, micro-influencers & nano influencers.
i. Mega influencer: Mega influencers have massive followers such as 1 million or more. Most of the time celebrities of any field such as musicians, cricketers, footballers, actors etc. turn out to be mega influencers. For example, Virat Kohli has 259 million followers on Instagram. So, undoubtedly he is a mega influencer & he has a lot of influence on youth. However, hiring them for your brand can be extremely expensive. For example, Virat Kohli charges 14 crores for each Instagram post which is really high. Well, there are some of the advantages and disadvantages of hiring mega influencers for your brand.
Advantages-
-Your brand gets global attention
-These kinds of celebrities have a high fanbase and influence. So, it is easier to convert them into a buyer.
Disadvantages-
-They have a huge audience. So, this kind of advertisement fails to target the niche.
-High expenditure
ii. Macro influencer: Macro influencers are those who have 100,000 to 1 million number of subscribers. For example, Amy Jackson is a fashion macro-influencer with 847,000 followers. She is a macro influencer. Most of the time this kind of content creator has built their base by regular content creation. They have a very particular niche. However, they are also expensive.
iii. Micro-influencers: Micro-influencers are those who have 10,000 to 100,000 active followers. Most of the time, these are those content creators who have a strong presence on specific platforms, like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. Brands love to work with micro-influencers because they have captivated a niche, passionate audience with their creative content, relatable recommendations and genuine interactions. They are quite affordable than the above two options. Data has shown that 60% higher engagement rate than macro-influencers, and can drive 20% more conversions for your brand.
iv. Nano-influencers: Nano-influencers are those who have more or less 10,000 followers. According to the brands, these nano-influencers are the best to work with. They charge smaller amounts, they have a very targeted & specific niche and they have a very demographically targeted niche as well. So, major brands love to work with them. If you have a very clear target audience, working on a specific target audience & do not want to target the the global audience, you must work with them.
3. The history of influencer marketing:
If we look at the history of the root of influencer marketing starts from Rome. Roman gladiator games began in 105 BCE and remained wildly popular until Emperor Honorius outlawed the events in 404 CE. After that, it started getting printed on billboards and gained popularity.
The journey of modern influencer marketing started in the 18th century. Josiah Wedgwood became the favourite craftsman of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. It helped Josiah Wedgwood to convince the royal family and the rest is history. Many royal & rich families started hiring Josiah Wedgwood for them.
One of the best examples of influencer marketing back in 1905 is the endorsement of Murad cigarettes by Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle endorsed Murad brand by the print media & changed the market.
Well, this is not all, there are various successful examples of influencer marketing such as in 1931 Coca-Cola promoted their product by Santa, in 1950 the “Marlboro Man” adverts etc. Finally, in 2010 this trend came to social media. Amazon was the first brand that brought the idea of connecting with Facebook for a better target audience.
4. The role of influencer marting in marketing strategies:
Influencer marketing helps brands to increase their visibility, helps in enhancing their online presence, helps in creating brand awareness, help communicate & educate consumers & potential consumers.
Data shows that Millennials and Gen Z audiences, 85% of whom are highly open to information about specific products via social platforms. Influencer marketing helps social media marketers grab the necessary attention and present fresh content every day, on every platform which also increases engagement.
5. Advantages of influencer marketing:
● It helps in increasing the brand awareness.
● Helps in getting honest feedback on your product or services.
● Helps in reaching out to the maximum people.
● Helps in cracking new markets.
● Helps in building trust & credibility in the brand logo.
● Generate more engagements.
Final words:
Influencer marketing is one of the most popular & effective marketing strategies ever. Influencer marketing helps in connecting with a larger audience at a single cost. At the same time, it helps in reaching out to potential consumers as well. So, brands are focusing more into. However, brands need to be very careful before hiring an influencer. If the influencer does not have followers from the brand niche then it might fail.