Use of technology and data to streamline influencer marketing
Influencer Marketing has been the biggest buzz word in the industry since its inception a few years back and it’s on the rise since then in India, with 2020 witnessing its phenomenal growth. The popularity of influencer marketing has made it possible and inevitable for brands to utilize this magnificent tool and has made it into their advertising budget. Though previously, brands that pushed their advertisements onto audiences the most, gained popularity and had a hold in their respective industry – but those days are no more as social media has proven its relevance in making or breaking the brand.
When an industry grows, many businesses venture into it, but its success is only guaranteed when it is supported with facts, data, and technology. While we see a rise in partnerships between brands and influencers, we also notice that many brands continue to depend on vanity metrics (such as follower count of an influencer), rather than diving deep into the end consumer, which is the target audience of an influencer.
With 65% of the brands increasing their advertising budgets in the year 2020 itself, the need for instant data analysis has risen. This is where data-driven technology can provide fast-paced information about consumer behavior and perceptions beyond merely social media impressions.
Today there are multiple factors joining forces to ensure that the brand and the influencer (along with its targeted audience) are a perfect match. Things like the correct brand ambassador for your product, analyzing hashtags, influencers demographics, target audiences buying preferences, what’s the best time to post are some of the few metrics to determine the success of your campaign needs to be kept in mind. At the same time also ensuring a mutually beneficial relationship that provides credibility to both parties.
The need to focus on a data-driven influencer strategy to measure the performance of influencers and in turn track the effectiveness of the brand’s investment and estimate the ROI has risen. Data-driven marketing is the perfect solution for covering all the insecurities brands see and in turn, offer better solutions. It takes into consideration several steps such as influencers discovery, building relations, campaign management, and reporting, for different social media platforms- Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
Technology and data driven strategies help in:
Finding Influencers
Finding the right influencers for the brand publicity is the most integral part of influencer marketing. In many cases, influencers resort to buying bot followers and likes in order to get increased engagement and deceive a large number of audiences as well as brands. Therefore, the process of choosing the right influencer goes beyond just demographics, follower count, and content. Marketers suggest working with the market experts, agencies, and audience analytics tools to reduce the time spent and money.
Decide on the right platform
To think that the initial myth of “one size fits all” is relevant now would be silly. As important it is to choose the right influencers, the brand should know where to advertise what. Resonance, Relevance, and Reach, these are considered the three R’s of influence and they are great way to determine which platform is the best choice for your influencer marketing campaign.
Resonance is measured in the form of likes and comments that an influencer’s post gets. Relevance lets you know how much of your target audience is located on a specific platform.
Reach is perhaps the most important metric when it comes to influencer marketing. Reach is measured by comparing the follower count and audience engagement the brand will receive.
Drive data for ongoing projects
Brand marketing has now moved to a more consumer and content-centric space, where the brand’s worth is showcased and highlighted through its reach with a genuine target audience, that is affected and compelled by the product or service providing the required value to the brand and associated influencer. The difference between ‘just getting likes’ and ‘genuine engagement’ is being understood and worked upon.
The goal of data-driven scientific marketing strategies is to utilize the allotted marketing funds in the best possible way with minimum wastage for your brand’s promotion.
About the author:
Neha Puri, Founder & CEO, VavoDigital