Why Startups Should Work With Influencers? With a good context and creative input from an influencer, a brand can create a winning advantage and differentiation right at the start

Nowadays, many brands connect with online influencers to promote a product or service and build a brand quickly. Partnering with influencers is also one of the powerful ways to reach a wider target audience base.Startups can easily trust on influencer marketing because then the founders don't have to waste time on reaching out to the target audience to expose their brand.

According to a recent survey published by influencer marketing platform Zefmo, Influencers having over 50,000+ followers have been found to be most impactful. The report titled India Influence Report 2018, also highlights that Instagram and Facebook are the preferred channels for Influencer engagement. It further pointed out that influencer marketing is gradually maturing in India

Entrepreneur India lists out few reasons why startups should work with influencers:

Reach The Right Target Audience:

If we look at the brand building, there is always a reason big brands pay celebrities to endorse their brand. According to Sumit Mehra, Founder & Director, The Cloth Library, in today's day and age, influencers have taken that place in the startup market.

"Seeing the right target audience (which is also area specific sometimes), the trust their followers have in them and the organic nature of that following help startups to reach the right audience at the right place and time," shared Mehra.

Create a Winning Advantage:

Generally, brands collaborate with influencers to promote the brand by sharing the news of their latest product launch.

Archana Dhankar, a UK-based Fashion Stylist & Blogger emphasized that startups should work with influencers because of the reach and engaged audience they can tap into when launching a new brand.

"The main thing to note and keep in mind is to find the right influencer for your target audience with good engagement and genuine following. With a good context and creative input from an influencer, a brand can create a winning advantage and differentiation right at the start," she added.

Drive More Engagements:

Millennials are on social media networks for mainly two reasons: social proof and engagements. We all look at other's opinion online before buying a product or using a service. Amit Mondal, Founder, Pulpkey feels if you are a startup irrespective of any niche, you can start by identifying key opinion maker from that segment. By partnering with them and building a long-term relationship you will definitely be the 'lucky' one to tell your brand's story to their followers.

"I also believe influencer marketing if done right, can not only help a brand to raise awareness or achieve massive reach but also generate mobile first, visually disruptive pieces of content which are native to each social platform that can be used to fight Ad fatigue and beautify owned/operated channels to drive more engagements," added Mondal