Influencer Marketing is Only for Big Businesses - Myth Busted
There is a common myth that influencer marketing is only for big brands that can afford expensive celebrities and influencers that charge in lakhs at the bare minimum. But is it really the truth?
Source: Marketing Charts
Since social media platforms have become places for brand discovery, influencer marketing has brought a great deal of success to many DTC brands. One such example is Mamaearth that became a household name overnight by leveraging the power of influencer marketing and generating over ₹100 crores in revenue.
But with celebrity influencers charging exorbitantly for every social share, how do small DTC brands successfully manage their influencer marketing campaigns? The important factor here is the choice of influencers for campaigns.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing involves brands collaborating with influencers and content creators in relevant niches for endorsing their products and services. These influencers leverage their personal brand and curate engaging content to promote the brand’s offerings. Their followers, in turn, resonate with the content they create and trust the influencer’s opinion over traditional advertisements. The trust factor is what helps influencers effectively bring in conversions.
Why influencer marketing is not just for big brands
A study conducted by MediaKix shows that at least 50% of marketers say that the ROI from influencer marketing is much higher than other marketing methods. Previously, big brands like Lux, Lifebuoy, PepsiCo, and several others have hired celebrity influencers for promoting their products. But these influencers charge huge sums that smaller brands do not have the budget for. Usually, these influencers have a follower base of more than a million. However, ever since the pandemic has begun, the number of content creators and influencers on various social media platforms has increased exponentially. It has led to the rise of the micro (10k to 50k followers) and nano influencers (1k to 10k followers).
Smaller DTC brands prefer working with smaller influencers not only because they are much more accessible and accommodating, but also because these are the influencers who are actually able to bring in sales and revenue. When brands work with celebrity influencers, consumers know that promotions are nothing but paid celebrity endorsements with very little truth to them. Their posts and social shares might get many views and likes because everyone follows celebrities, but it might not result in sales. Very recently, several DTC brands have included influencer marketing in their marketing plans, which has helped them double their revenue.
Source: Mediakix
For example, Lenskart on-boarded the social media influencer Bhuvan Bam for their influencer marketing campaigns and in 2019 saw 50% Y-o-Y growth, opened 500 stores across 70 cities in India. Similarly, Bewakoof leverage influenced marketing and had a reach of 10,00,000+ and also received great engagement of 1,00,000+.
The success of these campaigns can be attributed to the trust that consumers instill in influencers. Smaller influencers carefully choose the brands that they work with. They evaluate if their believes and values match the product they are endorsing. They create native content that resonates with their audience. They also personally study what they are endorsing so that they can be genuine with their recommendations.
Such influencers are also not very expensive and charge relatively lesser than celebrities, depending on their number of followers. For example, a micro-influencer may charge as low as ₹2000 to ₹5000 for a post, while a mega influencer may charge ₹100,000 to ₹5,00,000 per post. It is relatively much cheaper than what celebrities charge. All these factors show why influencer marketing campaigns are not just suited for big businesses but are effective for DTC brands as well.
How to get started with influencer marketing for your brand
Here are some steps that can help DTC brands get started with their influencer marketing campaigns:
● Determine what you want to achieve from your campaigns, like brand awareness, sales, subscriptions, etc.
● Identify the metrics that will help you measure the success of your campaigns, for eg. no. of likes, shares, link clicks, etc.
● Look for influencers in the same niche as your product and determine whether their beliefs and values match yours.
● Choose the social media platforms where your audience is present.
● Provide the selected influencers a brief of the campaign along with all necessary details.
● Analyze the performance of the campaign through the metrics that were chosen previously.
An important factor about successful influencer marketing campaigns is the format that brands choose for their post. While videos receive the highest engagements, carousels and posts are also much more suitable for certain products and services. Marketers can test different versions of their campaigns with the same influencer to see what works best.
Over to you
Consumers require multiple touchpoints with a brand before they convert into customers. Along with influencer marketing campaigns, brands can leverage other channels like email and ensure their marketing efforts bring in the results they are aiming for. By looking at these figures, it is evident that influencer marketing is not just for businesses with big budgets but can be one of the most successful channels for smaller businesses that have just launched their DTC businesses.
