followers with a lack of genuine focus on
real engagement or purchase. Most times,
no call to action. Interesting to note is
that the big names in the influencer game
would only talk about a product and not
mention the price. This means they still
may not have any financial obligations.
With the economy facing a tough time
and revenue of most companies dwindling,
marketing spend has experienced a cut.
Marketers are now beginning to realize
that exposure can be achieved in other
ways, perhaps and more effective cheaper
ways. More tools are also available to drive
awareness for brands besides influencers.
Digital teams are being held more and
more accountable to digital spend and
must therefore deliver some ROI on
boosted posts and influencer driven
marketing.
Brands that have begun to tie influencers
to delivering ROI have lost them as they
are unable to convert sales even with
millions of followers. New products may
temporarily gain from this, but the gains
would not be substantial as majority of
the influencer followers would only like or
comment but would not pay any attention
to the product.
Followers
are
seldom
customers,
additionally they are exposed to so many
brands in a single day that they wouldn’t
particularly take any purchase decision
based on an influencer. Having an audience
is good but putting your focus solely on
building a following is a fool’s game. This
pursuit of recognition is proving to be a
terribly crowded race.
The truth is, if you understand how people
make decisions about your products then you
will have the right influencers and commu-
nicate the right message making people feel
like you have a better product or service or
brand. The point really is not having a par-
ticularly more superior product, it’s about
making people buy from you because it feels
right to do so.
recollection of these activities with the
versions that play out online, it eventually
turns out to be a pale comparison of the
reality. If the followers cannot place your
product into their life, they may never
purchase it. The influencer strategy is
much like advertising that followers have
become numb towards. It’s evident that
with filters and existing apps anyone can
be as skinny, happy, beautiful, or perfect as
they may want.
While it’s not all bad for influencers
with the debate on the influencer bubble
bursting and the real monetary value that
they bring to the table, influencers can
remain a key driver for select products.
Perhaps we need to rethink how much
we are subjecting our brands to filters
and influencer push. Our customers are
inherently logical people, especially when
they do not have a lot of extra money to
spend on things they do not particularly
need.
The amplification of specific scenarios and
moments brought out by influencers also
changes how customers may perceive the
human experience and practicality of your
brand. There are three key stages that fight
for our attention: what happens, how we
perceive these events; and, a fictional layer
we have individually curated. Consumers are also not all logic but are
also emotional. We need to go back to
basics and invoke cognitive biases in our
online marketing strategies to drive logical
purchase decisions. The comedy is fun, the
beautiful images make us dream about
having the things we see but it is only
the reason behind the purchase that will
push us to make actual conversions from
influencer driven online marketing.
When customers compare their own The truth is, if you understand how people
08 MAL31/19 ISSUE
make decisions about your products then
you will have the right influencers and
communicate the right message making
people feel like you have a better product
or service or brand. The point really is
not having a particularly more superior
product, it’s about making people buy
from you because it feels right to do so.
These are basics of influencer marketing
and as a marketing professional with many
years of experience, a lot of us still have
no tangible ways to measure the real value
of using influencers. We would report
about likes, comments, shares made to a
post and how much people talked about
a product. That is a great way to achieve
the awareness KPI, but how then does
awareness contribute to driving purchase
of a product?
Attaching a sales target to an influencer,
can be powerful when used together with
other marketing tactics such as public
relations, retargeting, repurposing content
and social proof.
Public relations would be ideal to make an
initial announcement about a campaign,
product or service. With the fleeting
nature of news, this would only last a
few days. Customers would have initial
awareness about your offering but would
soon forget it because of the number of
messages they receive daily.
Retargeting would then come into play to