Key Trends in Digital Marketing for 2021: Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is not a new phenomenon as most people would think it is, based on the fact that the entire construct of influencer marketing consists of conventional and contemporary marketing tools. The basic idea is built upon and around the celebrity endorsement strategy and aligning it with digital content-driven marketing campaigns.
The only difference about the entire concept is the fact that the results of this marketing concept are dependent upon the relationship or collaboration between the brands and the influencers. These influencers are regular individuals who unlike celebrities can be anyone from practically anywhere who have an element of attraction that makes them influential. In most case scenarios these individuals have a large number of followers’ online, especially social media.
Influencers could be a writer who writes about cars on Hotwheels.com, a novice fashion photographer on Instagram who takes interesting photographs, a chef who tweets recipes or a well-respected yoga instructor on LinkedIn. All these individuals belong in certain or specific industries and their influence over people (followers) is what influencer marketing is all about as brands need these individuals and more importantly ‘their audience’.
Influencer Marketing Trend in Malaysia 2021
No matter how we look at Malaysians, whether it is 9-year-old primary school student or a 65-year-old grandmother, the chances of both of them owning a social media account would be easily placed at 90% probability.
The advents of the internet, digital device technology social media and apps have changed how not just Malaysians, but people around the world, communicate, think and listen. The entire landscape of marketing has also been swept up by what is regarded as the ‘digital wave’ due to the multitude of alternatives that it provides marketers with to reach their target audiences.
Based on marketing trend assessments from 2018, and 2019, 2020 is being deemed as the year where influencer marketing will take centre stage based on the levels of investment marketers are injecting into influencer marketing strategies. Utilising individual social accounts will be one of easy and fast way to make some money online in Malaysia, especially for those who has its followers and actively post contents on it.
Types of Influencers
Based on general statistics the influencer market is set to be worth billions by 2020 and the mechanics and landscape for a boom influencer marketing has never been better as there seem to be a specific type of influencer marketing category for just about any brand, industry or business concept that is out there in the market. Among the more common categories of influencers are presented below.
The Micro-influencer
A micro-influencer as literally what it means which is an influencer who has anywhere between 1,000 to 100,000 followers. These influencers are generally focused on a specific niche where they are regarded as a topic specialist and generally would have established strong relationships with their audience who hold them in high regard.
Celebrity influencer
Celebrity or also sometimes referred to as mega-influencers are considered to be the highest-ranking influencer on social networks and in general have more than a million followers. Robert Downey Jr. or Awie from the rock band Wings are deemed as celebrity influencers.
Blog influencer
Blogging is considered to be among the most effective ways of promoting brands and via effective collaboration with charismatic influencers, ROIs and KPIs not only can but often go through the roof. Although the method seems simple where influencers within a certain niche are able to come up with interesting blogs and also accept interesting guest blogs, the quality of the blogs is critical. Real Estate, Luxury Goods are some of the few niches that use blog influencers to reach niche target audiences.
Social media influencer
Social Media Influencers are individuals who have gained traction as a ‘voice’ of an industry or individuals who have established credibility within a specific industry. Social media influencers, in general, have access to very large audiences and have the penchant to persuade others to move in certain directions that benefit brands.
Key opinion leader (KOLs)
KOL are similar to micro-influencers and generally have a specific group of targeted audiences interested in specific subjects, such as make-up or cooking or repairing cars even. KOLs are exclusive to the industries that they are involved in and generally deemed as trustworthy and authentic by their respective audiences.
Frequently Asked Questions about Influencer Marketing (FAQs)
Who can be an influencer?
Just about anyone who owns a social media account such as Facebook, YouTube Channel, Linked in or Instagram could become an influencer and based on the latest statistics of Social Media influencer ranking in Malaysia, FB is the biggest and largest platform followed by IG, Twitter and YouTube with What’s-app hinging close behind.
How to be an influencer?
Among the most critical aspect to be successful in influencer marketing is to have an adequate amount of knowledge pertaining to the niche that the influencer intends to build on. Being armed with sufficient knowledge alone however, is never enough as this knowledge will not go anywhere or reach anybody effectively if effective 2-way communication is not thrown into the scheme of things. Being active, posting good quality content (high-quality articles, interesting videos and other multimedia elements are critical success factors.
How to track and measure influencer marketing?
- Tracking links (affiliate links) is among the easiest ways to keep track of influencer marketing progress (Tracking Direct Traffic Flow)
- Promo Codes is another great way to trackoffline activities as promo codes are unique to influencer campaign and through these codes, it becomes easy to track actions/ activities (purchases, store visits, etc.)
- Social Data acquired via Google Analyticssuch as the number of followers, comments and likes provide an overview of how effective a campaign has been or is being.
Why is Influencer Marketing deemed as a Marketing Solution?
Influencer marketing is closely linked with word-of-mouth advertising which is regarded as the most reliable and effective marketing method ever. People generally talk to others what they come across on social media platforms and often share these links which are equivalent to word-of-mouth advertising. Influencer marketing is linked to or regarded as ‘expert opinions’ and it also provides a platform to present social proof.
Facts & Figures – What You Need To Know About Influencer Marketing
- 71% of marketers agree that the quality of customers and traffic from influencer marketing is better than other sources.
- 49% of consumers today depend on influencer recommendations for their purchase decisions. 60% say they’ve been influenced by a recommendation when shopping in-store.
- Google searches for “influencer marketing” grew 1500% in the last three years.
- 48% of marketers working with influencers say audience relationship is the most valuable factor when considering which influencer to collaborate with.
- Influencer marketing strategies focused on branding or engagements generate 8x ROI.
- The top three goals of influencer marketing for businesses include increasing brand awareness (85%), reaching new audiences (71%), and generating sales and conversions (64%).
8 Steps to Achieve Influencer Marketing Success – A Basic Guide
- Determine your campaign goals
- Define your campaign audience
- Set your budget and choose your influencer type
- Choose your influencer and review their work
- Develop your campaign messaging for your influencer
- Finalize campaign expectations with your influencer
- Reward your influencer
- Measure your results
Success Stories of Influencer Marketing
Mohd Nazri Bin Mohd Johar aged 42 promoted Indonesian garments in Malaysia for years and his business remained stagnant for more than a decade. Everything changed when he decided to utilise influencer marketing under Accesstrade , he managed to increase sales by 100% within the first two months and within six months, Mohd Nazri managed to reach 5 X the sales revenue on a monthly basis.
Even companies such as Coca Cola and organisations such as FIFA used influencer marketing to promote the 2018 World Cup. The use of influencers such as Ming Han, Reuben Kang and Faiz Dickie from both Malaysia and Singapore delivering commentary was successful in associating Coca-Cola with FIFA which was the primary objective of Coca-Cola as a world cup sponsor.
Top Influencers Agencies in ASEAN
There are numerous influencer agencies that are popular in the ASEAN region and among them are Sushivid and Accesstrade. Agencies such as Accesstrade are competent and strategic towards arranging micro KOLs and handling management and administrative issues for prices that are as low as RM100 to Rm500. Influencer agencies such as Accesstrade can offer such services at amazingly low cost due to their established formats and economies of scale. These influencer agencies are able to deliver timely and accurate reports that allow businesses to have a clear perspective on the effectiveness of their respective campaigns.
Who is ACCESSTRADE
ACCESSTRADE platform is unlike any other affiliate agency due to a variety of factors. Thus, if the question of why choose ACCESSTRADE Affiliate network arises, the explanation to this question are as follows:
- The platform/ application/ dashboard is user-friendly, secure, well managed and supported anytime, anywhere
- Rates given are competitive
- They hear your demand
- Full KOLs reporting will be provided once the task completed, for you to review the performances
- ACESSTRADE also provides platform where not only do KOLs management, but it also gives an opportunity for people to earn side income through social media.
- People trust ACCESSTRADE because it has been in the market for 20 years now and expanded meticulously across South East Asia
- ACCESSTRADE has a commendable number of registered affiliates/advertisers registered with them and this includes the big players
- By comparison, it is the best affiliate marketing option in not just Malaysia, but the entire South East Asia
