Can you believe it? We’re on the brink of 2024! 👀
Looking back, this year saw a whirlwind of successful influencer marketing campaigns from brands, from small-scale activations to huge event roadshows. One thing most brands can’t leave it behind - influencers. As we unwind and reflect, it’s crucial to digest every learning and turn them into impactful marketing strategies for the coming year.
Influencer marketing isn’t just here to stay; it will grow even stronger in 2024. With a slew of festivals from January to April in Malaysia - Thaipusam, Chinese New Year, and Hari Raya Aidilfitri - the question is: how can brands seize these opportunities?
I. Marketing Promotions
Seasonal campaigns often come on a bigger scale as these are the golden periods when consumers are most attentive. The key is to outline the components of campaign ideation, and clearly define specific campaign goals, periods, campaign types, and promotions platform.
For B2B and B2C businesses, marketing promotions are imperative, especially for startups. No matter how exceptional your products or services are, people won’t notice your brands until you show up in front of them. This brings up another crucial aspect - brand awareness. However, it takes time to research marketing trends, compile an audience list, and most importantly, generate attention-grabbing content. Hence, having an adequate preparation phase is crucial.
Do you even count on how many times you’ve seen any Christmas limited editions in your feed this month, or probably from November?
- Consumers need to be reminded of your brand.
- Similar to influencer marketing, allocate at least a 1-month promotional period to create enough buzz for your efforts.
- Considering an omnichannel approach could ensure visibility, backed by enough marketing materials to prevent content fatigue.
Hence, a successful marketing promotion for influencer marketing initiatives will span 2 to 3 months, involving sales packages, campaign ideations, influencer selection, and content creation. It requires an ample preparation phase, don’t make your efforts a waste due to time deficiency!
II. Influencer Partnership
Secondly, establishing solid influencer collaboration could be beneficial and elevate your campaign performance. Working with influencers allows them to present your brand before you introduce yourself to consumers, hence choosing the right influencers is the thing that you should pay attention to.
Nanos, Micros, Macros or Megas?
- Given consumer preferences for raw and authentic content, there’s a rising inclination towards nano influencers, who are capable of significantly enhancing brand visibility.
- A report from Cube Asia & Impact.com (2023) revealed that over 80% of consumers have made purchases based on influencer recommendations, with authenticity being the primary influential factor.
- In seasonal campaigns, higher-tier influencers, such as Micros and above can shout out the brand’s promotional events or limited deals swiftly.
- Meanwhile Nanos could spread brand initiatives to their followers a few times since they’re more cost-efficient which could potentially solidify brand awareness among their followers.
How might influencer content evolve within the 2024 marketing landscape to elevate your seasonal influencer campaigns?
- Short-form videos will still be dominant - seize every new feature of TikTok Videos and Instagram Reels.
- Embrace gamification strategies like contests or challenges to attract crowds and instill a ‘Fear-of-Missing-Out (FOMO)’ effect among consumers.
- Leverage user-generated content (UGC) as consumers seek relatable, easily digestible, entertaining, and authentic content.
Empowering influencers to showcase their creativity while holding their true identity is crucial. As the digital landscape evolves, influencers from your specific industry may be more knowledgeable about crafting engaging content for their communities. Trust their expertise! Nonetheless, selecting the right influencers for your brand can be challenging and daunting. With this, teaming up with influencer marketing agencies with automation tools might be a good choice to aid in identifying those who align best with your brand.
III. Storytelling
Consumers nowadays are weary of aggressive hard selling, particularly with flooded promotional messages over the internet during seasonal periods. How can brands break through this noise?
Storytelling. It starts with understanding your audience persona:
(a) Identify their challenges;
(b) Address their needs;
(c) Demonstrate how they could benefit from your brand.
For influencer content, provide influencers flexibility and encourage user-generated content (UGC) to showcase your brand authentically. Even if a product is 95% flawless, acknowledging the remaining 5% flaw can create opportunities. Influencers can highlight the positives while trying to address any minor drawbacks, fostering trust and loyalty among followers.
Best practices for storytelling:
- Illustrating how your brand addresses consumer challenges or improves their current situation.
- Crafting relevant content that could resonate with the target audience.
- Keeping a succinct, authentic, and relatable message.
- Sparking curiosity among the audience to boost engagement.
Crafting campaigns with genuine approaches by understanding the stories or concepts behind every important event could easily resonate with people. When your brand becomes a topic in consumer conversations, that’s when your campaigns are a true success!
“Businesses aren’t B2B or B2C, they’re Human to Human (H2H)” - Dominic Cummins.
Seasonal campaigns present a golden opportunity for brands to stand out and potentially drive substantial sales. To make your target audience a loyal customer instead of a one-off shopper, building strong relationships between influencers, and your audience, as well as echoing your brand message is the key. Remember, building an established top marketing funnel is crucial to guiding down to the bottom. Instant results in influencer marketing aren’t guaranteed; it’s a gradual process.
If you’re yet to have your Chinese New Year influencer campaigns sorted out, now’s the time to strategize!
Contact us for an exclusive consultation: https://www.partipost.com/request-a-demo