Digital Marketing made easy

Some people (like me) are born skeptics. Influencer marketing? Blah – why would that work? I know my audience – and I can reach them directly. I don’t need no influencer. But, think about this: In 2017, eMarketer reported that marketers spent $570 million on influencer marketing globally. In 2018, $1.6 billion was channeled into sponsored posts on Instagram alone. According to a report by Linqia , only 6% of brands said influencer content under-performed brand content. By 2020, more than 50% of ad content will be created outside of marketing . Marketing-inspired word-of-mouth makes 4x the impact on purchasing decisions [ McKinsey study ] Okay – so why should you think about influencer marketing? Maybe, you are in the B2B business and feel influencer marketing is not relevant for your segment, or maybe you feel your product doesn’t need influencers? Or it may be that you find your audience is not social media savvy – hence the need to obvia...

Hey there! Are you looking to kick-start an influencer marketing program for your brand? I have put together a series of articles for you - right from what is influencer marketing, how it can help, types of influencers - the whole kit. Influencer marketing for beginners How can influencer marketing help your brand Types of influencers How to choose an influencer? How to measure the RoI of your influencer marketing program? Let me know what you think of the posts, and share your influencer marketing stories in the comments section below.

How to choose an influencer? Amidst the roller coaster lives that we all have as marketers, there have always been situations when we have been tasked to get something done on a tight deadline. Well that works, mostly. (with lots of coffee, paranoia, & sleep deprived nights). But an influencer marketing campaign is a tough-do - where do you begin and how quickly can you put things together? Well for that, you can view this series right here, helping you build an influencer marketing campaign from scratch. But wait, for an influencer marketing campaign, you need to have influencers [duh!]. So how do you select influencers? Do you hand over the mandate to an agency? How many influencers do you engage with? What factors should you consider while shortlisting influencers. Some of the factors that you should be consider while selecting an influencer are values, congruence, authenticity, differentiation and engagement, something that I call th...

It is a myth that there is only one kind of influencer group - the celebrity influencer. There is indeed, life beyond the Kardashians. If we believe that anyone who has the ability to reach out to our target audience and has the ability to sway their purchase decision holds influence, then we significantly expand our understanding and consideration of influencers. Want to learn how to start influencer marketing for beginners? Read this post to help you get started right away. Customers Your customers hold tremendous influence. They have experienced your offering once, if not more, and if they are happy / satisfied, they may be more likely to refer you to other like-minded people. Trust is an important decision making variable, and word of mouth from a trusted acquaintance / colleague can influence potential buyers more positively than expensive ads in mainstream media. Everyday, we make countless decisions - restaurant recommendations, applian...

Have you always wanted to learn / start influencer marketing?  Influencer marketing focuses on transmitting your brand message to an audience segment that follows a key leader. Upon aligning your brand w ith an influencer, you are positioning  your product or service for display to his or her already-established large network of individuals who trust what that influencer has to say. Influencer marketing can help amplify your brand visibility, generate awareness in an attention strapped economy, give you access to a niche but potential buying audience. This post is for those brand marketers who have just embraced influencer marketing - and want to learn more to kick-start their influencer marketing program. We are not talking about celebrity endorsers, just influencers at present [What is the difference between mega, macro and micro-influencers - read here ] Some things that you need to bear in mind while commencing your influencer marketing journey are...

To say that it was overwhelming, would not be a long shot. Gary is, by his own admission, unusual. I did watch many of his YouTube videos and came across some of his work prior to picking up Crushing It - the follow up to his 2009 book Crush It . First few pages in, and wham - Is this guy mildly narcissistic? Yes. Was what he saying making sense? Oh yes - and after some time, narcissism didn't seem to matter. For what he said, resonated loud and clear. Clear actionable strategies on how to build your business and influence online - acceptable even with the ever present dose of self-promotion. Having read countless books on social media, you'd think that hey, this is more of the same stuff, perhaps bottled differently. But this book is, thankfully, a lot more. Filled with his unique perspectives on social media, brand building, entrepreneurship and life, it is as much of a live-wire as Gary himself is on stage.  I can almost hear his exhortations as ...

This is for every early-stage marketer out there. Why do certain ideas and products get more traction than others? Why are some stories and concepts more popular than others in the same genre? If you are a marketer and this is what keeps you awake at night, you might just want to grab a copy. As marketers, as we struggle to make things "go viral" - there is very little in terms of formal education that can help you navigate this once you are immersed in a full time marketing role. Marketing agencies might not be able to help either - especially if you are a smaller company without the budgets to create a big-bang campaign. This is an area that essentially can't be back-engineered - or so I thought, till I read Contagious . B erger, a professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, deconstructs some of the mystique surrounding this concept through a framework called as STEPPS. The  "Six Principles of Contag...