Team AdfluenceIBM’s Entrepreneurial India report in 2017 concluded that 90% of Indian start-ups fail within five years of inception. Though the study was conducted a few years ago, the fact remains that building a brand from scratch is no walk in the park. While navigating the various roadblocks early-stage brands face, start-ups often fall short of streamlining their marketing efforts. Integrating influencer marketing strategies can aid brands in getting off to a flying start. Whether it is creating quality content or effectively reaching the target audience, the influence of influencers can be quite valuable for early-stage brands.
Influencer-based marketing tactics are not exclusive to big, established brands. A robust influencer marketing model can be used as a building block for start-ups and early-stage companies. Let us elaborate on why budding businesses should adopt influencer marketing from the get-go.
A Dependable Source of Creative Content
Influencers’ expertise often comes in handy during the early stages of business, when you’re still figuring out how you introduce your brand to the target audience in the most appealing way. It’s a given that influencers will curate authentic content that blends well with your message, help you reach a wide range of audience segments, improve your brand’s visibility and enhance brand awareness. Influencer marketing can also be instrumental in laying a strong foundation for a brand’s communication strategy. Influencer-based campaigns will help you understand what audiences look for from brands like yours, and you can use the data from one campaign to fine-tune your next steps.
Influencer marketing can be instrumental in laying a strong foundation for an early-stage brand’s communication strategy. Brands can understand what audiences want and can use the data from one campaign to fine-tune the next ones. Click To Tweet
You’ll also get a pool of high-quality content for future use to build strong brand value. Repurposing influencer content can boost brand reputation and establish yourself as a go-to brand in audiences’ minds.
A Partner in Brand Building
In a technology-driven world, influencers help humanise brands. Influencers have loyal followership, and if the former vouches for your brand, the latter is likely to listen. Audiences consider influencers to be a part of their circle, and it’s human nature for people to follow the advice of people they relate to. Influencers will engage the audience on your behalf, whet their interest and, as a result, increase brand awareness, enhance visibility, and build your brand’s credibility.
Influencers have loyal followership, and if the former vouches for your brand, the latter is likely to listen. Early-stage brands can leverage this to increase brand awareness, enhance visibility, and build brand’s credibility. Click To Tweet
You can use influencer marketing as a technique to amplify branded content as well. Say you have created a stunning campaign for your brand; influencers can get the word out for you to their followers and garner your campaign further impressions and engagements. They can forward your message with genuineness and compel audiences to take notice of your brand.
A Cost-Effective Strategy
During the initial phases of your business, when you are trying to streamline your resources, it is understandable that you need to consider the cost implications of every marketing effort. As a brand, you have to carefully figure out where to put the big bucks and where to take a back seat. The good news is influencer marketing doesn’t always cost a fortune. Of course, collaborating with celebrities and mega-influencers incurs significant costs, but they are not the only ones out there. You can pick and choose from several categories of influencers across different fields. Depending upon the budget you can put aside for marketing, you can select an influencer segment that fits your brand the best.
Collaborating with micro-influencers can help early-stage brands reach a variety of audiences and provide flexibility in terms of the money, time, and efforts you invest in the campaigns. Click To Tweet
You can collaborate with micro-influencers to start with. Individually, they cater to only a small set of followers, but partnering up with a few of them can help you reach a variety of audiences. To add to that, you will have flexibility in terms of the money, time, and efforts you invest in your campaigns.
A Tool for Brand Growth
There are multiple digital platforms where you can run your marketing campaigns. You do not have to stick to a single platform, a particular set of influencers, or a specific form of content. There are influencers on every platform who are well-versed in their chosen social media channels. Their knowledge and expertise can help you craft campaigns specifically targeted to your prospective customers.
With influencer marketing, budding brands can access accurate performance tracking, analytics, and insights on each influencer campaign and use the data as stepping stones for future marketing strategies. Click To Tweet
Because they are placed on one or more digital platforms, you will also have access to accurate performance tracking, analytics, and insights on each of your influencer campaigns – something that is not feasible in case of traditional marketing techniques. This data will help you understand what works for your brand and what doesn’t, and the stepping stones of future marketing strategies will be laid. As you start getting the hang of things, you can experiment with your campaigns, add variety to your content, target different sets of audiences, and broaden the scope of your marketing plan.
As an emerging business, you should look at influencer marketing as a tool to gain traction in the market. In fact, many young D2C brands have established themselves with the help of relevant influencers. In the same way, you can also adopt influencer marketing as an integral part of your marketing strategy right from the early stages of your business. Doing so will help you answer questions that are essential for your brand’s success. You will understand what your potential customers are looking for, how to encourage them to interact with your content, and what will convert them to loyal followers. Get started to find the answers!
