Because of the expanding number of millennials and Generation Z,
consumer
preferences have shifted dramatically over the previous
decade.
A large section of the consumption curve has shifted to online
channels,
whether for e-commerce (groceries, fashion, food, and so on),
entertainment (OTT and digital media replacing conventional media
like television and print), or communications (social media platforms).
These alarming trends have picked up steam in the post-COVID age
and appear to be here to stay.
When it comes to the present state of e-commerce, brands are finding
it more challenging to attract and keep customers, as several rivals
compete for the same clients on the same platform. As a result,
product
price is the only way to get momentum and sales.
In addition, social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, and others
have evolved into social commerce centres. Customers have been
successfully diverted from e-commerce portals to their platforms.
As a result, brands all over the world are struggling to
differentiate
themselves on e-commerce websites and social media platforms while
attempting to attract and keep customers.
Leveraging the power of social media influencers is one of the most
significant ways that businesses are presently employing.
It's an intriguing field that's about to take over the world of
e-commerce. Influencers are well-known figures on social media who,
by their influence over their social media following, help numerous
firms, both old and new, expand their brands. These influencers are
part of the "creative economy," which is gaining popularity.
In this post, we'll look at how the creator economy is evolving and
how
businesses may use Live Commerce to overcome the hurdles of existing
influencer marketing strategies.
Creators are a new breed of individuals or teams that are actively
using social media to create and curate high - quality content.
Content
transmission might take the shape of blogs, images, short videos,
audio,
and other formats via a variety of social media sites, including
Youtube,
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
Over time, creators have built up a very large following among fans
of
their content categories. They have succeeded in forming a community
of like-minded individuals. As a result, these artists have become
influencers,' as they have the power to introduce or change their
followers consumption choices.
Multiple income sources open up for influencers as they scale,
including
brand growth collaborations, advertising revenue sharing,
subscription
services, affiliate marketing, and so on. It's no surprise that the
worldwide creative economy is exploding, with recent estimates
putting the figure at over USD 100 billion.
Here are some popular social media influencers nowadays to give you
an idea:
On Instagram, Whinderssonnunes, a Brazilian comedian and Youtuber, has 58 million followers.
Huda Kattan, an Iraqi-American beauty artist, blogger, and founder of Huda Beauty cosmetics, has more than 50 million Instagram followers.
Lele Pons– A comedian who frequently engages with businesses and has over 47 million Instagram followers.
Nusret , a food influencer known for his 'salt bae' videos and jokes, has 44 million Instagram followers.
Influencers assist companies in triggering conversions, building a loyal customer base, and delivering highly effective marketing campaigns with a wide reach.
According to a survey, roughly 41% of buyers
discover new items recommended by influencers
weekly, and 24% are affected daily.
Influencers may help businesses achieve a reach that rivals traditional
media advertising.
For example, to promote the debut of Dior's Forever Foundation, the
firm teamed up with 67 social media influencers, each representing one
of the brand's 67 foundation tones. Dior chose the influencers based on
a number of factors (level of engagement, location, beauty-focused
audience, among others). The influencers were given the responsibility
of generating one post every day for a total of 67 days. These influencers
had a combined audience reach of over 2.7 million by the conclusion of
the campaign, 1.9 million impressions, and over half a million
engagements!
While the creator economy is fueled by nearly 50 million content
creators, they are divided into distinct sectors based on the size of their
audience.
Nano - less than 10,000 followers — reach is restricted to friends
and family, but significant conversions can be achieved (most content
creators globally fall under this category)
Micro - 10,000 to 100,000 followers — selected audience with specific interests, which is more likely to create qualified leads.
Macro - 100,000 to 1,000,000 followers — focused audience with high levels of interaction.
Mega/Top - More than 1,000,000 followers — broad appeal but poor engagement.
Aside from the well-funded companies, the majority of brands connect
with micro and macro category influencers and structure their
influencer marketing campaigns to optimise their return on investment.
Over time, social media influencers have gained universal acceptability
from their followers. Because they have similar interests and tastes, they
may interact with their audience more effectively than traditional media
sources.
Consumers in the Millennial and Generation Z generations spend the
majority of their waking hours online watching short-form video content
and watching live streams. During their search for useful material, they
begin to follow a number of such influencers.
Video is the most impactful and persuasive tool to push
consumers further down the purchase journey.
Source: Criteo
Instead of using traditional techniques, these new-age customers are
turning to influencers for product and service suggestions. They feel
safe since the influencer has subject matter expertise, and the
community is moving forward with their purchasing choice.
According to recent study, user-generated content has grown in
popularity and now accounts for about 40% of all media hours.
Furthermore, according to another survey, 92 percent of GenZ
individuals rely their purchase decisions on the advice of a social media
influencer.
As a result, marketers have learned that in order to reach these digitally
sophisticated consumers, they must move away from traditional media
campaigns (TV, print, radio, etc.) and instead rely on user-generated
content. As a result, collaborating with influencers becomes increasingly
important in order to stand out in the market.
Despite the growth of the creative economy, unique structural obstacles
hinder the great potential for influencers and brands to collaborate in
the most effective way possible.
Influencers are extremely reliant on the social media platform that
has allowed them to achieve such great success. The complicated
algorithms that these tech behemoths perform in the background
determine their reach and eventual success.
Because these platforms are walled gardens with limited analytical
insights into an influencer's capabilities, brands cannot quantify the
true ROI of an influencer in terms of their ability to lead genuine
conversions.
Because these platforms are walled gardens with limited analytical
insights into an influencer's capabilities, brands cannot quantify the
true ROI of an influencer in terms of their ability to lead genuine
conversions.
Increasing prices — Today's influencers can fetch pay comparable to any major celebrity, depending on their fame. For nano to macro-grade influencers, brands must pay anything from USD 500 to USD 10,000 each post. This significantly reduces the expected return on investment from social media efforts.
Influencer marketing has become pricey for firms, particularly smaller
brands with limited marketing expenditures. As a result, influencer
marketing's potential is underused. To gain some size, brands normally
need to employ a multi-influencer approach. As a result, many
businesses must rely on direct traffic to their e-commerce sites.
Choosing the appropriate platform and influencer — The herd
mentality frequently leads marketers in their selection of platform and
influencer. Brands typically conduct campaigns based on an influencer's
popularity, with little or no means of knowing whether the influencer's
platform followers are the brand's target groups.
According to a research, just 48% of marketers perceive a return on
investment social media, owing to a failure to connect with the
platforms and accurately analyse their impact.
Selling items or services directly through social media platforms like
TikTok, Instagram, and others' shopping and checkout functionalities
is known as social commerce. These systems' live commerce capabilities
have turned shopping into an immersive experience.
However, social commerce, in its current form, is the primary cause for
influencer marketing's current limited impact.
Social Commerce 2.0 claims to address many of the issues that plagued
its previous incarnation.
Brands are increasingly using social media to break the chains of a bad
buying experience and bring customers back to their websites and
mobile apps. Brands are working with influencers to execute Livestream
shopping campaigns right on their website to facilitate this shift (in
addition to the social media platform, if required).
Most consumers start their buying journey on the
retail website. Source: Criteo
Influencers highlight forthcoming Livestream links to their followers,
encouraging them to visit the brand's website and purchase directly
from there.
Influencers highlight forthcoming Livestream links to their followers,
encouraging them to visit the brand's website and purchase directly
from there.
With live commerce, companies may create a "experiential shopping"
experience inspired by social media. Consumers may interact with the
seller/brand to mimic a similar live and realistic in-store experience.
Consumers may also use the chat messaging function to communicate
with other shoppers and learn about their preferences and buying
triggers. Because of the community-based shopping experience, live
commerce is preferable than traditional e-commerce.
On their websites, brands can calculate the genuine ROI of working
with influencers for social commerce. They can better link their
marketing budget to actual leads and conversions created by the
influencer marketing strategy.
Brands may obtain analytics tools that give in-depth information into
the watch time, CTR (Click through rates), add to cart rate, final
conversions, a drop-off point, and seller communication, among other
things, by adopting technology that supports live commerce on their
website. These indicators assist brands in precisely determining the
ROI of their campaigns.
Because of the popularity of China's live commerce model, influencers
have been divided into KOCs (Key Opinion Consumers) and KOLs
(Key Opinion Leaders) (Key Opinion Leaders). KOLs are influencers
who aren't necessarily major influencers but have a strong relationship
with their audience. Brands work with KOLs for promotional material
because they believe they can influence their followers directly and
provide value to the company.
Regular customers that share fair and authentic product feedback and
are typically product users with an honest, organic opinion on the
brand/products are known as KOCs.
Brand marketers today have more choices in terms of the kind of
influencers they wish to engage to promote their businesses.
Invite influencers to participate in a native experience on your platforms.
Brands may now build a place for influencers on their own website/app,
replicating the native experience for their fan base/audience, thanks to
social commerce 2.0. (similar to their social media handles).
The influencer can make video-driven content like swipeable short
stories with a shoppable component. Influencers may also compile a
selection of products that they would ordinarily promote on social
media and sell them directly from the brand's website via live
commerce.
In China, the world's largest live commerce market, marketers leverage
nano influencers and their staff to run Livestream shopping campaigns
on a daily basis, providing customers with more concrete value.
The success of the China model implies that businesses may use nano
and micro-influencers to produce more potent campaigns than
traditional social media efforts.
Brands and retailers may develop digital shopfronts that predominantly
showcase renowned influencers and enable them draw their captive
audience to the brand's website/app using Livestream shopping
platforms like Flykup. Brands may generate conversions immediately
on their platform by offering video commerce with shoppable content.
Brands may also use Flykup's sophisticated analytical capabilities to
implement influencer marketing effectively. As a consequence,
companies can offer a more immersive and authentic Livestream
shopping experience, which leads to increased consumer data quality,
conversions, and sales.
Flykup brings the TikTok / IG / Snap Story experience to any
website or app. our goal is to unite the open internet to fight against
the giant social networks (centralised and closed).
Flykup provides a platform allowing e-commerce businesses, publishers,
and advertisers to leverage Web Story Platform to create an engaging
user experience on their website. Web stories have traditionally only
provided consumers with an active social media experience. You can
now provide your customers with a familiar engaged content experience
right on your website.