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IndiaJoy 2019 will host InfluencerCon an event bringing together digital content creators, brands, agencies and platforms to network and learn from each other. The event will be held at the Novotel HICC, Hyderabad on 22nd and 23rd November 2019.

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Over 500 attendees are expected at InfluencerCon to partake in 30+ speaker sessions, workshops, informal interactive sessions etc. There will be B2B and B2C Expo Stalls as well in addition to top brands and influencer platforms.

Among Imsong, Convenor of InfluencerCon, says

Hyderabad is a great place to host an event of this nature. This is the first-time digital content creators from across all platforms are coming together to network and learn.

Being a digital content creator is now a career option and we want to help aspirants learn from the best. Apart from the main track at the conference hall and workshops, informal interactive sessions will be a vibrant aspect of the event.

InfluencerCon is a non-profit event and is partly funded by the Telangana Government as part of IndiaJoy Festival. IndiaJoy Festival, brings together well-known digital entertainment-focused events such as IGDC [India Game Developer Conference], ESL eSports events, Desitoonz, OTT Pulse, VFXSummit and InfluencerCon.

Some of the speakers at the conference include Kusha Kapila, Karan Talwar, Zayn, Nazim, Wasim from Round to Hell [they have 10 million subscribers!], Sejal Kumar, Rajat Sharma, Viraj Ghelani [FilterCopy], Brandon Roger-Youtuber from LA, and beauty content creators – Sherry Shroff & Jovita George.

Sejal Kumar with 1.8 million subscribers, says

I started making Youtube content in 2014 while in college. I’ve always stood strong for pursuing what you like and not being afraid to be out of the box. I did it with pursuing YouTube and now I’m diversifying as I go! Started with fashion, now I’m acting in a Netflix show, singing, dancing and talking about ‘taboo’ issues with my series ‘Mom&Me’. I want to encourage people to not be afraid of doing the ‘wrong thing’ and be proud of their choices!

Rajat Sharma, from The Rajat Code, says

Exchange of knowledge and ideas between Creators and audience is integral to making qualitative content. It’s vital to any creator that the audience feels a certain emotion and comes back wanting more. If Content is King…Audience is kingdom

Jovita George, YouTuber says

It is tempting to be a content creator with so many successful examples around us in the current era. It’s also an amazing journey because we are carving the path for future influencers. But it comes with more responsibility than one can imagine because the job literally is to influence!

An influencer has to be responsible, genuine and honest such that they can influence the society into betterment instead of guiding them into a more destructive society.

InfluencerCon attendees will also gain access to India Game Developer Conference, E-Sports Arena, IndiaJoy Music Festival and collaboration opportunities with the biggest platforms, brands, and agencies.

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NOFILTR.Group, a leading social media label, and influencer incubator has launched its new influencer community – Creator21. Creator21 is a community of innovative thinkers and creators who will collaborate to reshape the future of content creation in India.

It aims to reach out to a wide audience of creators across the country offering them a platform to meet likeminded people. They can share creative ideas that will help them build a better world and a stronger career path.

Being at the forefront of the influencer marketing space, NOFILTR has always come up with ground-breaking work in the creator and influencer segment. Launch of Creator 21 aims at building a community that focuses on creating meaningful and inspirational work for the next generation of creators to carry forward or build on.

Talking about the launch of this community, Sumedh Chaphekar, Founder & CEO, NOFILTR Group addressed the audience of creators

I am very excited to begin the journey Creator21 and extremely grateful to all the creators for inculcating trust in us and believing in our ideology. Over the past few years, social media has evolved drastically.

We engaged in a thorough discussion of over 6 months and went through various challenges that are faced by the creative minds, that is what germinated the idea of having a community that binds us all. Creator 21 aims to organize collaborative events for the creators from every platform such as YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and much more.

The launch event was followed by various innovative activities where the guests enjoyed the elaborate photo booth setup. Top influencers and creators were invited for the launch. Four spectacularly scintillating photo-booths were set up where the creators could come together and generate some quirky, innovative content.

The community event of Creator21 helped the creators to meet like-minded people and expand their network to collaborate with each other. It will serve as an avenue for all the creators to grow together in the wake of making meaningful content and relationships. With this event, the platform aims to foster offline as well as online community building and help members nurture deeper and professional relationships.

Nearly 35 influencers attended the launch event such as Awez Darbar, Nagma Mirajkar, Angry Prash, Mrunu, Sanket Mehta, Aashna Hegde, Sunny Chopra, Funcho and Anam Darbar to name a few.

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A considerate portion of marketers in Asia Pacific [29%] don’t have the right balance and synergies between digital and offline media, while the majority [84%] still struggle with cross-channel measurement. That’s according to the latest annual state of marketing study, Getting Media Right: Marketing in Motion, released today by Kantar.

2020 is set to see a significant rise in digital ad spend, as marketers in the region look to optimise their media mix. 80% of marketers plan to increase their investment in online video advertising over the next 12 months, while 68% plan to increase spend on social media networks and 57% plan to increase spend on podcasts. This is in sharp contrast to print media, where 72% of marketers say they will decrease spend in magazines, while 60% will reduce their investment in newspaper advertising.

Despite the projected growth in online advertising, digital measurement remains a challenge for marketers, with blind spots such as ‘walled gardens’ impacting the ability to understand cross-channel performance. This leaves many advertisers in the dark about the performance of their brand across channels.

Now in its sixth year, Getting Media Right examines the current state of marketing in a fast-moving connected world, and is based on in-depth survey feedback from nearly 500 senior marketers globally spanning advertiser brands, media publishers and agencies globally. It reveals an industry that continues to diversify its usage of different media contexts, yet requires better understanding of how ideas, content and media channels work together to achieve their goals of driving short-term sales and long-term brand growth.

Key findings from the study

  • The short-term vs. long-term dilemma comes to a head. Almost all marketers in the region [89%] now recognise the importance of balancing short-term sales with long-term brand building. However, still only 61% of marketers are using both short and long-term measurement; 32% still rely solely on short-term sales results.

  • Marketers globally still struggle with integrated campaigns, but APAC marketers are having more success.  88% of marketers say they have integrated their marketing organisations, compared to 75% of global marketers.

  • Programmatic targeting continues to grow. Four in five marketers in APAC [78%] currently use programmatic targeting for their campaigns – and that is expected to reach 87% in 2020. But still one in five marketers [21%] aren’t confident they’re successfully targeting the right audiences.

  • Cookieless advertising could leave marketers in the dark. More than a third of marketers [36%] haven’t begun preparations for a cookieless world, leaving many concerned about how such change will impact the industry.

  • Nearly two thirds of marketers [61%] agree that developing custom content is an imperative, but when it comes to understanding how context impacts creative executions, there’s still a gap. More insight is required into how specific content needs to be tailored to specific contexts to improve message receptivity.

Jane Ostler, Global Head of Media Effectiveness, Kantar, said

While the rapid growth in digital ad spend comes as no surprise, this new research indicates that marketers still have a long way to go to when it comes to cross-channel measurement and proving ROI.

The next 12 months will see huge changes for the industry, with the rise of newer channels, such as podcasts and advanced TV, and the move away from cookies set to transform the way advertisers target and measure campaigns. Marketers should aim for the best of both worlds -they need to create a framework to monitor impact on business and brand metrics. That means harmonising measurement tools, building an infrastructure that enables measurement across the diverse marketing mix, and creating meaningful insights to improve performance across all channels.

Pablo Gomez, Chief Digital Officer for the region, said

The results go to show just how dynamic and complex APAC is as a region. Marketers here are faced with the challenge of rapidly increasing their digital investment, whilst at the same time, ensuring there is integration with offline media.

Measurement also remains one of the biggest issues for the region, especially online-offline cross measurement which is critical in a region dominated by TV and mobile. It’s clear that marketers need more focused data, with insights that give them the direction they need to better integrate and optimize their campaigns. This will also allow them to customize content better and improve the entire experience for their audiences.

Sandeep Ranade, Executive Director, South Asia, Insights Division, Kantar said

This research indicates that many marketers today focus on short-term measurement though they recognise the importance of balancing short-term sales vs long-term brand building. Integrated campaigns are the way forward, however there still a lot that needs to be done here. Marketers need to be more cognizant of the specific contexts while developing content.

This will help them future proof their digital measurement approaches in the rapidly growing and changing digital scenario.

For more information on Getting Media Right: Marketing in Motion, or to download a copy of the study, please visit http://www.kantar.com/gettingmediaright

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One of the most difficult things for any start-up is to attract new clients. Digital marketing offers a simple and affordable, contemporary solution. It’s helped to level the playing fields somewhat. Now you can reach a wide audience, spread over a diverse area quickly and easy.

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It’s a huge step-up from more traditional marketing media. Twenty or thirty years ago, you’d have to pay some serious money to get an ad aired. Now all you need is a halfway decent mobile phone and a YouTube account.

The downside, naturally, is that everyone is taking advantage. The digital landscape is getting extremely crowded. To stand out, you need to do some serious prep work. That’s why I’d recommend revisiting an old favorite – Email marketing.

The Benefits of Email Marketing

  • Great reach
  • Inexpensive
  • Easy to customize
  • Can be scheduled at the optimal time

The Downside of Email Marketing

The downside is partly that they are so easy to ignore. People, in general, are becoming less tolerant of marketing. If they identify your email as too sales-oriented, or spammy, they’re bound to ignore it and possibly unsubscribe off your list.

That’s assuming, of course, that they even make it into the recipient’s inbox. According to one of the leading online security experts, EveryCloud, the main risk to your cybersecurity is human error.

As a result, the company has developed a cloud-based app that scans emails before they are delivered to the server. That’s great for the company wanting to avoid cyber threats, but it’s not great for the marketer.

How Can We Improve Our Email Campaigns?

In short, you want to make your email seem as legitimate as possible. Here are some dead giveaways that could land your email in the spam folder

  • Lots of links – If you’re creating a marketing email, you’ll want a link for your call of action and perhaps to some research. Aim for fewer links.
  • Sales language – Using words like ‘Sale’, ‘Promotion’, ‘Great Deal’, and so on will get you shot down fast.
  • A very large file – Marketing research proves that a picture really is worth a thousand words. The problem is that images are big files. Rethink the images you want to include. Do they add enough value for the bulk that they’re adding? When you’ve whittled it down to a couple of well-chosen images, be sure to compress them to save even more space.
  • Not mobile-friendly – When designing the layout for your email, tailor it for the mobile user. An email that displays well on a mobile device will look good on a desktop as well. The reverse is not necessarily true. Start by using larger, clearer fonts, single columns, and full-width pictures. Then work on getting the file as small as possible so that it loads fast.

Final Notes

Email marketing requires some serious planning on your part. In the end, though, you’ll find that the effort is well-rewarded. Put a little more thought and effort into your next email campaign, and you’ll see the improved results for yourself.

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When it comes to marketing your products or services, some of the more obvious options may come to mind. Things like social media, brand ambassadors and press releases. These are all good tools to help boost your visibility and attract attention to your company, but when you’re dealing with SaaS marketing your products and services look a little different.

A Killer Proposal

By using something like Qwilr’s Marketing Proposal Template, your company will win over clients and boost your business. Awe potential clients with embedded videos, social media posts, interactive estimates and more. You can create proposals that have features built-in that can alert you to when someone views your proposal, if and when they sign your contract and even when they send payment. Knowing this information the moment it happens will allow you to stay ahead of your growing business.

Email Marketing

Email marketing services nowadays tend to have fewer features, but the features that are available are well worth their salt. They are the features that get your business the best results. Features like auto responder allow you to automatically reply to customer emails with template emails that you customize. This allows you to spend that valuable time on another aspect of your business.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO goes hand in hand with content marketing. You want your content to be easily picked up by search engines so that more eyes can see your business easily. There’s on-page SEO and off-page SEO. On-page SEO is in your hands. You control your content, and you want it to be engaging content that will get shared, read, and linked to. But the real key to SEO is choosing the right keywords, titling and descriptions. And off-page SEO involves mostly link building and a creative distribution strategy. But it is always better to use links that are from high-quality and authoritative entities.

Content Marketing

Here’s the thing about content marketing: its value grows the longer you employ it. It’s an investment that when handled properly can do wonders for your products or services. It can be used to attract visitors to your website, generate leads and build your brand. Content marketing includes things like podcasts, blogs, webinars, e-books and more.

Content marketing differs from pay-per-click advertising because the content is owned by companies. And advertising is more like rented space. It may not be accessible all of the time, but your business’ content is.

Retargeting

Regardless of the type of product or service you offer consumers/clients, most visitors to your site are not going to do what you want them to do, buy, sign up, etc. But re-marketing or retargeting can give you a second chance with site visitors. Retargeting tracks your visitors and will display ads for your business as they surf other web pages. This software can also be used to target specific demographics or users.

Each of these marketing tools is a tried in true SaaS marketing strategy that deserves a test run in your business. Remember that every business presents its own unique needs and clientele, so some tools may produce better results than others. With that in mind, research, test and optimize potential tools to see what gets you where you’re trying to go.

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These days, the moment ‘digital marketing’ or ‘social media marketing’ gets uttered, we can’t help but include influencer marketing. Many marketers swear by influencer marketing because it’s effective on younger audiences who don’t believe in advertising.

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However, marketers agree that it gives them a hard time to calculate the ROI of their influencer marketing campaigns. Let’s see what we can gain from influencer marketing campaigns.

It Increases Sales

Did you know that 53% of companies use influencer marketing strategies to increase their sales? The feedback and reviews from influencers are completely genuine. Such authenticity helps brands win the trust of their customers and encourages them to make more purchases.

70% of millennials are influenced by social recommendations while making a purchase decision. Therefore, recommendations by influencers can definitely increase your sales.

Generates Great Content

Influencers know their audience and therefore create the right kind of content that works for them. The added benefit is you can always re-purpose the content for other marketing communications.

Establishes Your Thought Leadership

Consumers can associate an influencer’s thought leadership with your brand. Therefore, if your influencer is an expert in a particular field, it adds value to your brand by strengthening your authority in the field.

Gets You More Engagement

Authentic and engaging content from influencers is what attracts their audiences towards them. It encourages their followers to engage with such content too. Many influencers believe that their sense of humor and honesty are the reasons for their high engagement rates.

According to Linqia, 89% of companies use influencer marketing to share authentic stories about their brand. Due to such authenticity, followers continue to engage with an influencer’s branded content. And in this way, audiences are effortlessly transformed into becoming paying customers for brands.

Multiplies Your Reach and Access to New Markets

Influencers can help brands tap into and explore new markets and expand their reach. Many people largely depend on the recommendations of influencers. So, this helps brands access new potential customers and win their trust.

Improves Search Engine Ranking

Did you know that 47% of marketers use influencer marketing to boost traffic to their websites? Using influencer marketing, you can also improve your search engine rankings.

You need to ask influencers to write and share their honest reviews about your products or services on their blogs. This can help you get the attention of your prospects and gain valuable back-links that can help to improve your rankings on search engines.

The ROI of Influencer Marketing

A study by RhythmOne found that you can generate massive ROI in earned media value using influencer marketing. Influencer marketing has helped companies generate $11.69 for every $1 they’ve invested.

In addition, 76% of marketers agree that influencer marketing has helped them build brand awareness on social media. Almost 71% of companies have agreed that it helps them reach more targeted audiences. When calculating the ROI of your influencer marketing, you should also keep the following points in mind-

1. Influencers’ Cost

No matter how you are paying your influencers – cash, kind, event tickets or any free service – it would incur you some cost. Obviously, the bigger the project, the higher the cost would be. You can also opt for an affiliate model where you give a percentage of sales to the influencer

2. Time Invested

A lot of your time will be invested in planning and executing your influencer marketing campaign. You’ll have to especially invest your time into communicating with influencers and helping them understand your goal and the brand personality.

3. Cost of Hiring an Agency or Buying a Software

For bigger projects, marketers might need to hire agencies to kickstart their influencer marketing program. You might need to too. If you’re among the businesses that require the help of an agency, make sure you consider the agency cost. And if you’re investing in an influencer marketing platform, consider the cost of that.

Check out the infographic below to further discover more factors to consider when calculating influencer marketing ROI.

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Almost everyone checks out reviews on social media before buying anything today. Brand messages combined with those from influencers can do wonders for businesses. They have been known to increase purchase intent 5.2X. No wonder why influencer marketing is said to be one of the most effective methods of customer acquisition.

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However, you need thorough planning to get outstanding results from your influencer marketing campaigns. Here are a few strategies to help you get phenomenal results

Discount Codes

Discounts have always been effective in boosting sales and conversions. If you combine this strategy with influencer marketing, it can be even more effective. All you need to do is share a unique discount code with each of your influencers and ask them to share it with their followers.

This can drive more conversions and also help influencers woo their audiences more easily. For example, watchmaker Daniel Wellington provides unique discount codes to their influencers and asks them to share them in their sponsored posts. This strategy helps them get greater brand awareness and also increase their revenue.

Brand Mentions

When an influencer mentions your brand in their content, you get to grab more eyeballs and be seen by a relevant audience. This can help you build trust, generate greater brand awareness, and can make their followers buy from you as well.

Giveaways

Giveaways can help to increase your engagement drastically. After all, who doesn’t like free goodies? You can partner with influencers to host giveaways in which you give away some of your products as a reward. This can help you build brand awareness and encourage people to buy.

Takeovers

57% of marketers believe that influencer-generated content is more effective for marketing than the content they create. So, seasoned marketers often allow influencers to take over the brand’s social media accounts and post content on their behalf for a limited period of time.

Influencers promote such takeovers on their own accounts which can help brands gain more followers and engagement.

Long-Term Collaborations

In a long-term collaboration, an influencer becomes the face of a brand. They both have a vested interest in the partnership and work together for the growth of the company. This way, the brand as well as the influencers can gain more followers and get more visibility.

An influencer can help you enhance your brand’s personality and get you quality traffic. Long-term partnerships with influencers can help to enhance brand advocacy and awareness too.

Freebies

An influencer creates quality content and spends their valuable time engaging with their followers to drive traffic to your website. One way of collaborating with them is to offer free products or services in exchange for their hard work.

You can also offer such freebies in addition to their monetary compensation to thank them for their efforts. Such gestures go a long way to improve your relationships with influencers.

Influencer Challenges

When you challenge your influencers, they get motivated to put in their best work. You can arrange a little contest during which the influencer who can get you the maximum number of likes, comments, or shares, wins a prize.

Challenging influencers is a great strategy when you want to launch a new product. It can also help to boost brand awareness and drive more traffic.

These are just a few strategies that can help you run profitable influencer marketing campaigns. For some more ideas, check out the following gifographic

The ROI of Influencer Marketing Infographic

About the Author

Brandon Brown is the CEO of Grin, an influencer marketing software solution for brands. Grin’s software helps customers identify, recruit & activate the world’s most engaging influencers. Prior to Grin, he led marketing for the #1 energy drink market in the world, Los Angeles & Orange County, at Red Bull North America. You can know more about Brandon Brown here.

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Indian media is growing at an exponential rate. The advent of smartphones and internet has revolutionized the Indian media industry. Backed by the growing economy, India has witness launch of a host of new TV channels and print publications in the last decade. Public Relations has therefore grown as an important part in any company’s activity when it comes to informing general public about news related to their company or products.

However, due to various factors, small and medium, enterprise, individuals, corporates have found it challenging in sending their news to relevant journalists in newspapers, TV channels or trade magazines.

India PR Distribution discovered the solution to the problem by introducing economical options for press release distribution. It is India’s first press release distribution service that sends the press-release to Indian reporters and publications including Newspaper, TV, Radio and others. Reporters can directly contact news sources. The news is distributed to online portals, Indian reporters, and bloggers. The startup is also helping many businesses in improving their marketing and PR campaigns.

Nitin Jain, Co-founder – India PR Distribution, said

We have launched India PR Distribution with an aim to bring relevant stories to reporters and at the same time, provide an easy platform for businesses to send their news to both online and traditional print and electronic media.

India PR Distribution, a new-age start-up founded in November 2017, with a 10 member team is presently based in Gurgaon. So far India PR Distribution has successfully delivered the service to more than 70 clients including Startups, Educational Institutions, and small businesses.

How it Works

India PR Distribution carefully vets every Press Release submitted on its website and checks if the news is worth reaching out the public and the topic covered is fit to be covered in a national newspaper or TV channel. The news is then sent to the Industry specific journalists and publications, therefore bridging the gap between news source and media house.