Myths about influencer marketing

Marketing has always been at the heart of any successful business.

“Business has only 2 functions- Marketing and Innovation,” said a famous Czech writer, Milan Kundera. While Marketing has been here for as long as humans themselves, the term “Influencer Marketing” is relatively newer and people have kinds of misconceptions about it. And we are right here to bust these myths and establish facts.

As an agency working with both brands and influencers, we will talk about only the real facts with 0 masalas, so come let’s dive in.

Influencer Marketing: An Emerging Industry, but, is it really so?

Before we talk about myths, let us talk about what exactly is influencer marketing and why it is the talk of the town. Influencer marketing has been around us for ages, almost as long as marketing itself but it is only today that we are acknowledging it with a name.

Sounds weird right?

Okay so how many times have you dropped a product because the reviews on it were not good enough? Or how many times have you asked your friend to suggest a cafe? Or decided which dress to choose for that party?

There are many other examples but I believe you got my point. We have always been influenced into buying or not buying something, visiting a place vs not or even picking a dress for a party by people whom we trust or those who have experienced it before. This exactly, my friend, is influencer marketing. When you take your decisions on getting influenced or inspired by someone whom you know closely or idolize or even like.

So, now that it is all clear, let’s dive into and bust a few myths.

1. Influencer Marketing is only for those with Lakhs of followers: Well, this is the biggest myth a lot of creators and other people have. You don’t need lakhs of followers but a strong community of people who can be as low as 10,000 who engage with your post regularly and love you. That is enough.
   
   
2. Well, if you are not yet convinced then let us tell you about Vineeta Singh, founder of SUGAR Cosmetics. She told in an interview once that Sugar prefers to work with Macro-Influencers instead of Macro-Influencers it loves to get its campaign done by nano and micro-influencers (10,000-50,000 followers) who love them genuinely and not promoting because they are being paid to do it.
   
   
3. Influencer Marketing is related to just Social Media: Well, social media constitutes a majority of influencer marketing campaigns but it is not just restricted to Instagram, YouTube, Chingaari, LinkedIn and other platforms but also in the real world. The best example of it could be movies. Remember the Darlings movie? So brands can get placed in the movies where it catches the attention of the general public.The myth is done and dusted, right?
   
   
4. It is easy to manage these campaigns: The biggessstttt myth of all time. People assume it to be quite an easy-peasy job with little to no challenges but hell no, there are so many challenges and efforts involved in pulling off a successful campaign. Challenges can be of different forms like brands refusing to pay or going MIA, unhealthy expectations from the brand’s end, etc. which can lead to a lot of stress.