Did you know 92% of marketers believe that influencer marketing is an effective form of marketing? 

With a jump of 5.4%, Instagram has touched the count of active social influencers to 5,00,000 in 2023. The social influencer industry is at its peak and still rising at unimaginable heights. Now, every other company is hiring influencers to promote their products. This is called influencer marketing. Let’s understand in deep what is influencer marketing.

What is Influencer Marketing

According to Mckinsey & Company, Influencer marketing is a collaboration between popular social-media users and brands to promote brands’ products or services. Influencers are people who have a following of people who are ‘influenced’ by them for a specific niche. 

To give an example of influencer marketing, recently, Louis Vuitton collaborated with Messi and Ronaldo for their Instagram campaign, in which they were shown playing chess. This post made people berserk and it blew up Instagram with 72 million likes. 

Influencer marketing works on the trust instilled in people, who would buy a product or service promoted by an influencer on social media. Because of this Eager Beaver response, influencer marketing is successful. In 2022, influencer marketing reached an estimated market size of $16.4 billion. In 2023, this is expected to grow a further 29% to an estimated $21.1 billion.

Types of Influencers

1. Mega influencer
   1. These are the influencer having more than 1 million followers on their social media. These are generally celebrities who are well-known in the market. These may include famous celebrities from different industries like sports, fashion, beauty, etc. These influencers capture a large audience and are the perfect fit for large-scale brand awareness campaigns. 
   2. Mega influencers give you exposure to a large-scale audience. But at the same time, they are quite expensive. Also, they cover a broad range of audiences with people from different spectrums. Thus, you might not get the level of engagement that you need
   3. Luxury brands are the main clients of this type of influencer. If you are looking a corporate company and don’t have any budget constraints then this might be a good option. Or if you are a brand, with varying compositions you can collaborate with a celebrity influencer. 
2. Macro influencers
   1. Influencers having followers between 100,000 to 1 million followers are macro influencers. 
   2. These are the influencers who have gained followers and their trust over the period by putting appropriate content. They have created an audience of a specific niche that follows them religiously. 
   3. These influencers have a more centric approach, unlike mega influencers as their audience is driven by a common interest. macro influencers can also be costly sometimes, but they also have a good amount of engagement. 
   4. So if you are a company that wants to create brand awareness among a common group of people and is ready to spend a good amount of money, then macro influencers can be a good fit for you. 
3. Micro-influencers
   1. Influencers having followers between 10,000 to 1,00,000 are called micro-influencers. These influencers are growing rapidly. They generally have a presence on all social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, youtube, etc in order to capture as much audience as they can. 
   2. micro-influencers are creative and open-minded individuals. Companies love to work with these influencers because they are so driven by more engagement. Almost, 56% of marketers who invest in influencer marketing work with micro-influencers. 
   3. Micro-influencers are generally affordable and have more engagement than macro-influencers. 
   4. If you are a small business that is new to this industry, then working with micro-influencers would be a great idea as they would guide you properly. 
4. Nano influencers
   1. Influencers having followers less than 10,000 are called nano influencers. These influencers are new to this industry and have a great connection with their audiences. 
   2. They are very affordable and some of them would even work for free because they also need a break out on social media.

Top Social Media Influencers

Did you know 72% of marketers used Instagram for influencer campaigns in 2022. This number is predicted to grow by 4.1% in 2023.

Here is the list of top social media influencers with their followers and cost per post. 

1. Virat Kohli | 247 million followers | ₹ 8.9 crores per post
2. Priyanka Chopra | 86.9 million followers | ₹ 3 crores per post
3. Shraddha Kapoor | 80.3 million followers | ₹ 1 crore per post
4. Alia Bhatt | 77 million followers | ₹ 1 crore per post 
5. Neha Kakkar | 74.1 million followers | 98 lakhs per post

How to Create a successful marketing strategy

1. Understand your niche and your goals
   1. This is the primary step to creating a strategy and a proper influencer campaign. It is very important as you would have to discuss it further with the influencer. You will also need to make a budget and stick to you it. Your budget can vary depending on what are expecting out of this influencer marketing campaign. If you are looking for a brand launch or to increase awareness among users, then your budget should be quite big. But if you are looking for an increase in sales, then a small budget will also work.
   2. You would also need to decide the perfect social media platform for your brand. For example, if you are a beauty or fashion then youtube and Instagram are your best friends. 
2. Search for an influencer that would be apt for you
   1. Finding a social influencer that matches your niche is quite important. You can not go for a gaming influencer if you have a healthcare brand. Doesnt make sense right? Thorough market research is a must. You need to understand your market and make decisions accordingly.
   2. What type of product you are dealing with? Does the influencer already posts for the type of industry you are working in? Do they have prior experience in working with a company like yours? Does he have the amount of engagement you are looking for? Is the social influencer legit and do people actually get ‘influenced’ by them? 
   3.  One thing to keep in mind is, the influencer you are should understand your goals. He should provide you with the type of content and engagement you are looking for. If you are paying a hefty amount of money and are still not getting the engagement that you want, then it’s not a good option for you. 
3. Communicate your expectations
   1. Setting expectations with social influencers is important. You must communicate your expectations and what kind of results you are expecting. Define KPIs that you can look into before and after the campaign to determine the rate of success.
   1. Setting goals and communicating properly with the influencers would keep you and them, both on the same page. They would be aware of the benchmarks and would create the type of content accordingly. This creates a sense of responsibility that they need to focus on the goal that they should achieve
   2. Determining a timeline would also be beneficial. It would be easier for you to measure the rate of success and how efficiently influencer marketing is working out for you.
4. Setting the influencer free
   1. Social Influencers are very creative and ambitious. You need to set them free and give them space to give ideas because they are experts at this and they know what would be the best. 
   2. Just sit back and relax 🙂

Our Key Takeaway

Influencer marketing is the most trending type of marketing these days. With everyone being active on social media, it has become a type of market where you can get everything in just a click. This would be a great opportunity for small businesses or industries like fashion or entertainment. If you still have any doubts regarding what influencer marketing is and how to get a headstart with influencer marketing then contact us!