Understand How Influencer Marketing Drives Sales (ROI) in Singapore's Context and Why Influencer Agencies Play A Pivotal Role In Successful Influencer Campaigns.
What is Influencer Marketing?
In the digital era, influencer marketing has emerged as a dynamic and impactful strategy for brands to connect with their audience. It involves partnering with popular figures on social media, known as influencers or Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), to promote products or services. These influencers, who range from celebrities, high-profile personalities in Singapore, community circles, to niche experts, leverage their sizable and engaged followings to generate buzz and influence for brands.
Influencer marketing transcends traditional advertising by offering a more personalised approach, resonating strongly with today's discerning consumers. This holds particularly true in the context of Singapore, where research shows that at 5.81 million internet users, or 96.9% of the total population, Singapore has one of the highest internet penetration rates in the world. Singaporeans spend an average of 2 hours and 13 minutes daily on social media with 84.7% of the total population using an average of 7.1 social media platforms.
By harnessing the power of social influence, brands in Singapore can effectively reach their target demographics, making influencer marketing an indispensable tool in modern marketing arsenals.
3 Metrics for Measuring Influencer Marketing Success (ROI) in Singapore
Before we get into how influencer marketing drives sales, there is a need to understand the following 3 metrics that measure the success of an influencer marketing campaign:
1. Brand and Product Awareness
Tracks how an influencer campaign increases recognition and knowledge about a brand or product. This involves measuring:
Total campaign reach/views;
Number of potential unique followers reached; and
Total engagement.
2. Brand Image Enhancement
Focuses on measuring how influencers’ content and partnerships position (for new brand), improve (for rebranding), or strengthen (for existing brand) public perception of your brand. You can measure your brand perception through:
Brand focus groups and forums;
Brand perception surveys; and
Social media monitoring.
3. Driving Sales
The ultimate goal of the campaign!
How exactly an influencer marketing campaign translate into actual sales depends on two key factors:
Getting your product viral; and
Bringing out the Unique Selling Points (USPs) of your product and presenting them in a way that connect with the influencers’ followers.
With that done, you can quantify the success of your influencer campaign through several key performance indicators:
Website clicks: Tracking the number of visitors to your website from influencers’ posts;
Reservation counts: The number of bookings or reservations made through influencers’ posts;
Engagement metrics: The number of saved posts and shares;
Promo code usage: Monitoring how often influencer-shared discount codes are used; and
Lead generation: The number of potential customers or inquiries generated from the campaign.
So, Does Influencer Marketing in Singapore Drive Sales?
The answer is yes! Influencer marketing has a definitive impact on sales, but it depends on the following factors:
Agency’s Attribute:
Engaging a proficient influencer agency for quality influencers with a strong alignment to your brand and who are able to produce quality viral content that deeply resonates with their audience, helps to drive sales.
More importantly, the influencer agency should also use data analytics to (a) identify influencers whose followers' demographics, interests, and income level match your target audience; and (b) optimise unique followers in the campaign for optimal reach.
At Taproot Singapore, we are data-driven and we meticulously select influencers through data analysis, focusing on followers' demographics, interests, and ensuring a broad yet unique follower reach.
Client’s Attribute:
Product Novelty (quality is a must): The uniqueness and appeal of the product(s) you are launching/promoting;
Promotional Appeal: The attractiveness of your offer or promotion; and
Brand Recognition: How well-known and trusted your brand is in the international/local market.
Let me list a few scenarios to illustrate:
Scenario 1:
A new (unknown) retail brand launching in Singapore with unique theme and products, or selling common products but with super attractive promotion. Can influencers marketing drive sales? The answer is YES!
Scenario 2:
An international renowned F&B brand making its debut in Singapore but selling somewhat common products with no super attractive promotion. Can influencers marketing drive sales? The answer is MOST LIKELY!
Scenario 3:
A chain casual dining F&B restaurant running a 15% off promotion with no interesting product launch. Can influencers marketing drive sales? The answer is NO!
But there is a catch; here is where the influencer agency’s marketing expertise comes in to advise client on what type of influencer marketing campaigns will drive sales and how to change the campaign or promotion mechanics to make it more attractive while maintaining the same profile margin.
Our team at Taproot Singapore has over 15 years of client-side full spectrum marketing experience across F&B, retail, and Public Sector industries. Hence, having stood in your shoes before, we can advise clients on where influencer marketing should fit into clients' broader marketing strategy, ensuring alignment with your business goals while respecting operational limits.
In conclusion, influencer marketing in Singapore undoubtedly has the potential to drive sales (ROI), but its success hinges on a harmonious blend of strategic factors and adept execution. Influencer agencies play a pivotal role in this equation, where their expertise in choosing influencers with high brand affinity and the right followers' demographics as well as marketing experience to advise client on attractive yet profitable campaign mechanics can make a significant difference. On the client's side, the allure of promotions, the novelty of products, and brand recognition are crucial elements that determine the success of an influencer campaign.
Taproot Singapore is a premium boutique influencer agency providing affordable data-driven social media influencer marketing strategies and solutions through celebrities & KOLs (from mega to micro-influencers).
Our influencer agency uses data analytics in our influencers’ selection (based on high brand affinity and the right followers' demographics and interests). We work on a network of 30,000+ celebrities, media channels, mega to micro-influencers influencers in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong with a predominantly local follower base, planning influencer marketing campaigns for clients in the luxury, F&B, FMCG, retail, consumer electronics, and travel industries across social media platforms i.e., Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Little Red Book (小红书).