Influence marketing involves promoting a product on the Internet through those trusted by the audience — opinion leaders, or influencers. These are not only people who “hang out” in the digital environment (like bloggers), but also media personalities: actors, musicians, athletes.
According to eLama research, the influencer marketing market in Russia has doubled: the segment’s turnover in 2023 amounted to 30 billion rubles, although a year earlier it barely reached 15 billion. What has changed? After the “failed” 2022, the market has expectedly stabilized, quickly adapting to the new realities, even transforming in some places, but certainly getting stronger. We saw this as a reason to tell those who are not yet familiar with the tool.
Benefits of Influence Marketing for Business
Why do people love influencer marketing? The advantage of such promotion is its native nature: advertising is advisory in nature, without imposing recent mobile phone number data anything on the audience, so it does not cause the usual rejection. In influencer marketing, recommendations are the driving force. Although, as practice shows, advertising “head-on” through influencers works no worse.
Involving an opinion leader in promoting a product reduces the time it takes to find clients, since their subscribers are as loyal as possible. Ideally, the influencer’s audience should match the brand’s target audience, but this requirement is more relevant for niche bloggers and experts. Celebrities can advertise anything that will not harm their reputation, but most importantly, will bring in a good income.
How to Choose “That One” Influencer
Influencer is not a profession, but a collective term denoting an influential person. The concept, like the name of the direction in marketing, comes from the English word influence – “to influence”. It is here that the “superpower” of this unique personality lies, who knows how to control the opinion of the audience, forming a positive attitude towards the brand in people. The trick is that the influencer himself uses the product, and thus demonstrates his trust.
Stars or celebrity
Promotion through show business representatives, creative people, athletes is the loudest, but most expensive way to announce your brand/product. The audience of public figures starts from 1 million, so launching influencer marketing with millionaires will require large performance marketing investments. But such cooperation has a downside – a mixed audience, which is why you can only advertise mass-market products. There are many haters and “dead souls” among subscribers, which excludes maximum involvement.
Niche bloggers
It is niche bloggers who support the growth of the influencer marketing market in Russia. As a rule, they work on several related topics, sometimes focusing on one direction, for example, cooking or traveling. Trust in niche bab directory bloggers is higher than in celebrities, because the audience finds in their content the maximum similarities with their lives. That is why subscribers perceive bloggers’ advertising calmly, for them it is like friendly advice.
Typically, niche influencers have an audience of up to 100,000 users, and are considered micro-influencers. Unlike show business stars, they guarantee higher engagement of the target audience, as well as close contact with subscribers. There is a risk of audience manipulation, but this is easily verified.
Experts in a specific niche
These are not just amateurs, but certified specialists in the fields of medicine, law, programming, design, etc. Their opinion is of the greatest value to the audience, but the audience is also “select”: these are clients, colleagues, and simply those who are interested in learning something new on the topic. The bulk of experts are micro-influencers, but over time they grow to macro-influencers, who have an audience of at least 100 thousand subscribers.
Experts promote products only on their topic, so they have little advertising content, and often work with one brand. A successful influencer marketing technique is integrating advertising into a case study, if the blog is kept in this format. For example, a cosmetologist can demonstrate the effect of a face cream using before/after photos of her clients.
Popular platforms for influence marketing
The influencer marketing strategy is built in accordance with the personality of the influencer, as well as their permanent habitat. Where should you look for opinion leaders in 2024? The Russian market does not experience a shortage of channels: brands can place advertising content on social networks, video hosting sites, blog platforms, etc. The most popular ones are YouTube, TikTok, Telegram, VKontakte, Instagram, Yandex.Zen and Odnoklassniki.
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Influencer Marketing Examples
On her Instagram, Ksenia Sobchak stylishly advertises the places she visits, and it’s not just about the photos. The journalist describes her impressions of visiting a restaurant and staying at a hotel, and, of course, recommends that her subscribers personally get this unforgettable experience.