Now-a-days the presence of digitalization is visible in every aspect of our life; such as education, health and medicine, entertainment, marketing, finance sectors etc. When it comes to digital marketing, it has rapid changed in Bangladesh. Currently, the brands or companies use third parties’ content creators for promoting new products in digital media.

As people are spending more time on social media instead of TV and trust word to mouth marketing rather than the traditional advertising method, brands are investing more in influencers rather than advertising for effective digital marketing. Those influencers are affiliates and for that they take a payment from the companies.

For an example- Shams is a content creator and usually she creates comedy videos in her YouTube channel and Facebook page. She is very popular among the new generation and 2.1 million people follow her on Facebook page and in her YouTube channel there are 359 thousand subscribers. Recently, Realme Bangladesh promoted their new mobile phones in her videos. Sometimes brands want to create traffic on their website, in that case they provide promo code to their publishers. If any customer visits the website through the provided link or uses the given promo code to purchase a product or service, the influencers will get a percentage of the sales.

Though traditional forms of marketing through TV, radio, newspaper advertising have achieved huge success, the effectiveness of brand communication is decreasing as the market is now dominated by the customers. Virgin America Inc. is a US airline that spends around 70% of its total marketing budget in digital marketing including social media. According to the McKinsey Gen Z Survey, 2019, 65% of Gen Z is influenced by online reviews, blogs or social media when they recommend a product or brand. Influencer marketing is expected to grow to be worth $13.8 billion in 2021. Businesses are making $5.78 ROI for every $1 spent on influencer marketing and that’s why companies are now getting involved in influencer marketing. There has been a 465% increase in searches for the phrase “influencer marketing” on Google alone since the pandemic. In the USA 67% of consumer brands use Instagram for influencer marketing.

According to Hype Dhaka (a digital marketing agency in Bangladesh) statistics of the marketing advantage of Instagram as a marketing platform which is shown by this digital marketing agency.

< 80% of merchants think that influencer marketing is successful.

< 71% of merchants think about the performance of customers and the traffic from influencer marketing.

< 49% of consumers’ purchasing decisions depend on influencers’ opinions.

< In last three years, Google’s scope for “influencer marketing” has increased by 1500%

< 48% of merchants who work with influencers believe that audience connections play a vital role in influencers marketing.

One of the most visited websites in Bangladesh is Facebook; through social media like Facebook and Instagram, brands can easily get attention and popularity. For this reason, startup businesses or even well-established businesses are now investing more in digital marketing specially in social media to gain and retain more customers. For example, Chaldal.com is an online grocery shop, provides special promo codes to the members of Pop of Color which is declared through the influencer Tinker Jannat Meem, admin of the group. Sheba.xyz also follows the same strategy, they choose female influencers of Facebook and provide promo codes to promote their services i.e. Sheba.xyz has partnered with Rounak Ashrafi Prema, owner of Shopping Glowrist to promote such promo codes only for Shopping Glowrist members.

Usually influencers in Bangladesh do live sessions or post image content to present their affiliation with the products. Nowadays, promoting products through live sessions in social media is very popular in Bangladesh. Brands use different mode to promote their products like tutorials if it is a cosmetics/skin care brands, showcasing products if it is a lifestyle product (i.e. Shwapno do regular Facebook live hosted by Aysha Akhter Towshi) or interviews with influencers and customers to give more personal, authentic, and genuine feelings to the customers (i.e. Daraz has launched several launching events with celebrities).

In near future, Micro and Nano-Influencers will also play a big role in the influencers marketing arena. As Big-name influencers and celebrities with millions of followers are expensive to hire and don’t always make the best hosts, using influencers with a few thousand dedicated followers can generate a more intimate and trusted connection with audiences at lower cost. According to one survey, the engagement rates for nano-influencers on Instagram are ten times those for mega and macro influencers. One of the Bangladeshi startup HypeScout, a influencer marketing platform developing a pool of micro and nano-influencers and helping companies and SMEs to conduct their influencers marketing more effectively.

As social media marketing is growing expeditiously; so it is also a concerning issue to maintain a good environment in influencers marketing. Both the consumers and companies have to focus not only on the number of followers an influencer has, but also what message they are delivering and how they are delivering. To maintain the quality, the digital marketing agency and influencers platform like HypeScout can help the brands and as a medium of broadcasting, Live Commerce can play a vital role too.

Written by

RASHEDUN NABI

Start-Up Builder, Innovation Strategist and Intrapreneur

https://rashedunnabi.com