Social media presented digital marketers with plenty of opportunities to get their products and services under the spotlight. Among the various ways marketing can be done in the social media marketing Dubai industry, influencer marketing stands out. It requires a lot of effort and good relationship building skills, but with the right influencer, great things can happen fast. 

Though digital marketing in Dubai generally caters to the demand of Social Media Marketing – SEO services combo, influencer marketing seems to be garnering a lot of attention. There’s recently been a decline in the paid ads approach in social media networks, with many companies opting instead to promote their brands through social media influencers. 

However, choosing an influencer does come with risks. The key is to understand the audience first, frame a message that they would want to hear, and then choose an influencer who can represent the business’ needs and values and promote the message. 

Finding such an influencer can be tricky too. But if you can get answers to the 3 questions that follow, you might just hit the jackpot. 

Is your target audience drawn to the celebrity/influencer?

Identifying and figuring out the target audience is the first priority when starting a business. However, influencing them with ads or a brand ambassador requires much more than understanding the audience alone. After identifying potential candidates for influencing the audience, the business should make sure that the target audience is drawn towards that particular celebrity. It’d be best to pick an influencer depending on the target audience’s demographics.

For example, if the audience is mostly men above 50 years of age, it’d be best to go for a renowned celebrity who’s almost the same age rather than a youth icon. 

Does your target audience and the influencer’s followers share the same interests? 

This is where proper social media and target audience researches pay off. The business should look beyond the demographics of their segmented target audience. One great approach is to understand the topics that your target audience is interested in and talking about, and see if the potential influencer and his/her followers are discussing them. 

For example, if one of the interests of your target audience is dining, and the potential influencer and his followers are more interested in video games, there is no match. So basically the interests should overlap. If both parties share the same interests and discussing the same, the influencer marketing campaign would most likely become a success. 

Is the influencer is a true advocate of your brand?

The most important trait a potential influencer should have is that he/she should be a fan of the brand and its products or services without being paid. For example, a restaurant business can leverage a celebrity food critic who frequents the restaurant. 

As social media are where people tend to speak about their opinions openly, it’s risky to do campaigns that aren’t authentic. If the influencer and what he speaks about a brand appears authentic, the followers would accept the message and start discussing on the topic. 

Conclusion

Finding an influencer who can resonate what a business stands for, and get the message out to people who don’t mind hearing it is quite challenging. Getting the influencer to promote a brand is the even harder second step. 

Nevertheless, with the right influencer and the right message, businesses will be able to get great benefits in the form of customer engagement, sales, and increased brand value. Many companies in the online marketing Dubai sector don’t take up on themselves to find and convince an influencer to promote their clients’ business. There are many other companies that specifically cater to influencer marketing services - approaching and convincing influencers as the middleman to promote a brand.