The phenomenon of the rise in digital have influenced the marketing aspect of traditional and new businesses in Singapore. While every business is rushing to grab a share of voice in the online market, tapping on influencer marketing and its reach, let’s take a step back and understand what exactly is influencer marketing and its criticality in Singapore.

Influencer marketing is essentially a form of marketing which leverage on the opinion leaders and their influence to reach out to a larger market via their social media channels such as Instagram and Snapchat. Amongst the various social platforms available in Singapore, Instagram proves to be the future of social media networks. According to Google Trend, Twitter has been overtaken by Instagram, which is now the second most popular social media network in Singapore. Singapore, as a regional leader in mobile internet penetration, further prompts businesses to utilise mobile technology and application to create impactful marketing strategy.

With almost half of the future generation aged 16-24 years old in Singapore displaying trust in what people say online, the benefit of Instagram influencer marketing is amplified. Following the buy-over from Facebook and the constant improvements including the implementation of stories - allowing social sharing and influencer marketing to become more engaging and personal, businesses can be assured that this form of interaction will become much more effective and abled at reaching out to a wider targeted market. It is predicted that future of Instagram is one of great potential and would soon become an upcoming highly sought after influencer marketing platform with high number of quality reach.

Some Important Statistics You Should Know:

• 12% growth in number of active internet users in Asia-Pacific
• 63% of connected consumers using Instagram in Singapore
• 74% of consumers rely on social networks to guide their purchases
• 74% of Singaporeans uses social media regularly
• Almost half (40%) online 16–24 years old in Singapore say they trust what people say online about brands more than ‘official’ sources, such as brands’ own websites, newspapers or TV adverts
• High return-on-investment for Instagram influencer where influencer marketing pays an average of $6.85 for every dollar spent
• Over 1 billion smartphones users in Asia Pacific with 4.2 million users in Singapore
• Singapore has 86% smartphone penetration, the highest across the region
• Twitter has been overtaken by Instagram, which is now the second most popular social media network in Singapore
• Young people are the biggest users of Instagram (85% of 16-24 year olds) but uptake among older generations is picking up (33% of 55-65 year olds)

Brands looking into influencer marketing should take note of the trends in the industry in order to fully strategise their campaign. We have identified 3 prominent trends of influencer marketing coming 2017:

Trend #1: Emphasis Towards Content Marketing

In 2016, we have seen and experienced both the good and not-so-positive impact influencer marketing can bring to a brand. Some prominent mistakes made by brands include the overuse of influencers, selecting influencers irrelevant to your brand and so on. But one big mistake that should be avoided is the posting of content which is irrelevant to the audience.

Coming 2017, the emphasis on quality content will be largely noticeable. Content posted by Singapore influencers not only have to be engaging and interactive, it also have to be new, natural, suited to the influencer and brand, shareable and encompasses a call-to-action to be able to reach out to a wide network of your target and produce positive results. Consequentially, brands which invest greatly in creating quality content will have an edge over the rest.

Trend #2: People-Centric Influencer Marketing

 Most brands and marketers are focused on tapping on the hype of influencer marketing without considering the rationale behind those marketing efforts. In the upcoming year, it is crucial for brands to become more people-centric and focus on the audience when implementing each campaign.

Influencer marketing in 2017 will need to provide consumers with what they desire and explain how purchasing your product or service will add value to their life. With many marketers executing their marketing campaigns without much thought regarding their audience, being the first few to resonate with the audience will bring your brand ahead.

Trend #3: Singaporeans Becoming Risk-Adverse

Being risk-adverse, Singapore consumers are increasingly relying on influencers and word-of-mouth to decide on their purchases. This should be seen as an opportunity to leverage on the available influencers to bring about more sales through the online platform. To be able to leverage on influencer marketing to provide a form of reassurance for the consumers would definitely bring about positive impact on your brand's ROI.

Influencer marketing would hence be a great platform to reach out to the Singapore market, especially the young Singaporeans who constantly look online for reviews. These characteristics of the community is what make influencer marketing extremely effective in Singapore.

Reaching out to Influencer Personally or through Influencer Marketing Agency

You may ask, what are the various ways to engage Instagram influencers in Singapore to perform influencer marketing? There are simply two options: businesses to reach out to influencers personally, or go through an influencer marketing agency.

On the surface, it may seem reasonable to reach out to influencers personally with the presumed low cost and easy reach. However, with the vast amount of influencers in Singapore, each focusing on specific topics of interest, performing influencer marketing and liaising can be a real challenge. To execute an effective influencer marketing campaign, one should be sure to read up on the various aspect of influencer marketing from the various articles and ebooks available online.

Alternatively, an influencer marketing agency would be of great help in terms of identifying the right influencer for your marketing campaign, negotiating prices and measuring results.

Singapore Fastest Growing Influencer Marketing Agency

StarNgage is an Influencer marketing and reporting platform allowing brands to customise, manage, launch, and measure digital advertising campaigns on Instagram. StarNgage empowers brands to partner and advertise with everyday influencers - the same way you would on search engines or social networks!

StarNgage provides 4 main services: Targeting, Identifying, Amplifying and Tracking.

After activating more than 10,000 influencers across 120 campaigns, we've seen influencers used in many different ways. Here are the most common goals we saw across our campaigns.

The Pyramid of Influence encompasses the full spectrum of your influencer relationships. Here is a breakdown of how that pyramid works from the top down.   Not all influencers are the same. Over the past few years, there is a big shift in focus from these high-end influencers to micro-influencers. To explain the different types of influencers, StarNgage uses the Pyramid of Influence. Influencers with a high reach and lower relevance, like celebrities and thought leaders, are at the top of the pyramid, while those with lower reach but higher relevance, like advocate and current customers are at the bottom.   Micro-Influencers is a mix of people who have reach, but more importantly, have a high relevance among their audiences. Their influence lies in their niche understandings and the mutual trust with their audiences.

The term ‘influencer’ used to describe celebrity and social media elite. But the mass adoption of social media leveled the playing field to include bloggers, instagrammers, youtubers and even everyday consumers. As such, the industry is working to establish a common taxonomy to talk about influencers. Influencers can be identified among the following three types: Mega-influencers: Actors, artists, athletes and social media stars who have 500k+ followers and drive 2%  to 5% engagement per post. They have the highest reach on the influencer spectrum, with their influence driven by their celebrity (they tend to be brands in their own right). They have the lowest overall resonance when it comes to driving actions on behalf of a brand. Macro-influencers: Professional bloggers, and YouTubers who have large base of 50,000 to 500,000 followers and drive 5%  to  20% engagement per post. They have the highest topical relevance on the spectrum, with category-specific influence – such as lifestyle, fashion or business. Micro-influencers: Everyday consumers  who have 1,000 to 100,000 followers and drive 25% — 50% engagement per post. They have the highest brand relevance and resonance on the spectrum of influencers, with influence driven by their personal experience with a brand and their strength of relationship with their networks.

Mega-influencers: Earn their living some other way (e.g. athlete, actor, artist, top model, celebrity), and monetize their influence as a secondary source of income. Macro-influencers: Earn their living as an influencer (e.g. professional blogger, creator, or journalist). Micro-influencers: Consumers who have relevant influence and may not know it, or aspire to become a macro-influencer. Brand Advocates: Consumers who are passionate and willing to share, but have little influence.

How To Choose Your Influencer Marketing Content Types

How To Choose the Right Incentive for Your Influencer

Did you know that Influencer Marketing generates $6.85 in return for every $1 spent ?

There are different factors you should consider before making a decision on what kind of incentives you offer to your influencers. Exclusivity: Incentives should be exclusive to only influencers that you like to activate in order to motivate participation in your influencer marketing campaign. Influencer type: Most of the mega-influencers and macro-influencers will require cash payment, while micro-influencers will consider other form of compensations aside from cash. Brand affinity: The most enduring and valuable level of influencer relationship is based on the mutual belief that the influencers and the brand share common values. It is advisable to activate relevant influencer who is passionate about your brands for best results. Branded incentives will work best in this case. Fulfilment Effort: If more effort is required by the influencer to create and share branded content, then a higher incentive value is needed.