Have you purchased something because a well-known person you admire used a certain product or service?

We are all guilty of this.

From a data source we go to, We Are Social and Hootsuite’s Digital 2020 reports (https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-malaysia) pegged that the content creator ecosystem is confidently leading the social media user penetration in Malaysia. YouTube has the strongest social media usage (93% of users surveyed), followed by Facebook (89%) and Instagram (72%); with this, evidently the market for digital services and social media users are powerful platforms any company would want their product and service to take the lead in. Bearing this in mind, it is safe to say that influencer marketing is becoming a powerful marketing tool in Malaysia.

Influencer marketing is a great way to drive traffic to our website or socials, a great way to recruit new customers and also a great way to just yell at everyone that, “Hey! We exist!”.

We’ve seen a lot from our local entrepreneurs slowly shifting into using this powerful tool but, in the past month of October, a fairly good point was raised by our Endeavor Mentors in this groundbreaking, revolutionary tool that is supposedly attracting the market. We cannot deny that it is a powerful tool, but a double-edged sword is a powerful tool too.

Here are a few things to be mindful of when you are leaning towards using influencer marketing as your marketing strategy:

1. Do Your Research / Do A Profiling.

Have a team that will look into profiling influencer candidates. Don’t just go for the ones with high followers or views. There are many factors you’ll need to keep in mind during your search. To name a few, who are their audience, what are their values and are their content of quality content that is able to represent your brand? THEIR audience, determines YOUR audience.

2. Prepare A Damage Control Playbook In Advance.

As much as it is a widely used strategy, influencer marketing in Malaysia still has more room for growth. Employees who are working closely into marketing strategy are still limited to the length of how influencer marketing is being conducted in Malaysia. What we can do however, is look into how other countries are doing it. A name that pops up in mind is Endeavor Entrepreneur Hendy Setiono, Indonesia’s Most Inspiring Franchise Leader where he scaled Baba Rafi Enterprise from a small cart to having over 10 brands with the push from influencer marketing. He is known to be the king in the game of influencer marketing. We can move forward with his expertise and create a damage control playbook that sets the terms that if anything may go wrong, companies would know what to do.

3. Leave Room For Trial & Error.

Here’s a gap Endeavor Mentors addressed. There is no trial run when it comes to influencer marketing. We approach a potential candidate to become an influencer, and the influencer would need to do their magic and get back to us with their results.

“There is a lot of trial and error in the process of implementing influencer marketing, because accurate profiling of influencers is extremely challenging to establish a so-called influencer-product market fit.” - Endeavor Mentor

With that he suggested not to rely solely on these influencers without having a time-span where they are able to run through the content creation plan with the team, a time-span to go through trial and error before launching on their respective accounts.

The essence of marketing is to refine a message and convey to our audience on why the message can be important to them. Instead of employing a marketing strategy that on surface-level, works, focus on authenticity, opportunity, and strength within a strategy to build on longevity and long-term success.