We can use various social software or some online tools (such as Tomoson) to find some “influencers” and bloggers who match our product positioning, send them free products and ask them to help promote. Generally speaking, if the product fits their style and is combined with the invitation copy, the success rate is still quite high.
When many sellers or e-commerce platforms first enter the Middle East market, in order to quickly open up the market, they usually use “Internet celebrity” marketing as the preferred marketing method. Social media “influencer” marketing in the Middle East market has developed rapidly. According to a survey by WPP Group’s (Wire & Plastic Products Group, WPP Group) public relations company “Former K&W PR”: In the UAE, 71% of consumers are interested in products recommended by “influencer” bloggers, and 63% of consumers decide to buy beauty products based on the recommendations of “influencer” bloggers.
Famous “influencer” bloggers in the Middle East.
With the gradual development of mobile consumption habits and the frequent use of social media, the shopping behavior of people in the Middle East is increasingly influenced by KOLD. In addition, the population structure in the Middle East is younger, and young groups are more willing to express their ideas on social platforms, and they also like to interact with “influencers”.
According to the 2019 Forbes Middle East version, 8 of the 10 YouTube “influencers” with the most fans in the Middle East are from Saudi Arabia, of which the most fans are 3.7 million; there are also 30,000 YouTube “influencers” stationed in the Middle East all year round, all of which have more than 10,000 fans. Saudi twin brothers Saudi, who became famous for shooting funny videos Reporters and Tamara, who promotes “poison makeup”, are relatively well-known “Internet celebrities” in the Middle East.
1. Twins Saudi R eporters
SaudiReporters is a social account run by Saudi Arabian twin brothers Abdulaziz and Ahdullash. They are the first Saudi “Internet celebrity” to make funny videos on Youlube and have 4 million fans on YouTube. The video content revolves around their interesting daily life and some challenges and experiments, such as traveling, challenging dark cuisine, and demonstrating the taxi software Careem. Almost every video has over a million views.
2. “Poison Makeup” Tamara
Tamara Al Cabbani is not only a Middle Eastern “Internet celebrity” famous for her “poisonous makeup”, but also has 180,000 fans on Instagram. She is also a fashion designer and has founded a fashion brand of the same name. She has been named one of the 100 Middle Eastern pioneers by Dubai’s local magazine Ahlan. In addition to being a benchmark figure in the Arab fashion industry, Tamara has been invited to attend the European FAB fashion show many times and participated in the promotion and cooperation of brands such as IWC, Mare Jacobs and SEPHORA.
An independent station that is galloping in the Middle East through “Internet celebrity” marketing.
Boutiqat, a local e-commerce company in the Middle East, is taking the “Internet celebrity” economic route. In 2015, Boutiqat was founded in Kuwait and positioned as a beauty e-commerce company. It completed a $45 million Series A financing in January 2019. The “Celebrities” section has been set up on its platform, allowing more than 200 signed “Internet celebrities” to conduct online marketing and promotion. Fans can quickly find their favorite “Internet celebrities” and view the brand products they endorse.
As early as 2016, Zhiyu, a Chinese e-commerce company that has been deeply involved in the Middle East market, has already implemented a new marketing model of “e-commerce + local influencers” and established closer ties with consumers by operating its own Titer. Facebook and Instagram social accounts. In addition, on these social platforms, Zhiyu has cooperated with more than 1,000 “influencers” of all sizes in the Middle East to spread product information and online activities, and the information transmission has covered more than 60 million people. The new “influencer” e-commerce model that caters to consumer needs helped Zhiyu quickly win the trust of consumers in the early stage of entering the market, thus laying the foundation for becoming a top e-commerce company in the Middle East.
Influencer marketing has good cost-effectiveness in the Middle East. Choosing an “influencer” cannot only look at the number of fans, and high endorsement fees do not necessarily bring high quality. Sometimes, it is more cost-effective to cooperate with small “influencers”. An “influencer” with 100,000 fans on Instagram charges an average of about 1,000 yuan for each marketing, an “influencer” with 10,000 fans on YouTube charges $2,000, and a small “influencer” with fewer fans charges a minimum of only $5. Sometimes, small “Internet celebrities” actually understand the shopping needs of target users better, and can contact and interact with them in a timely manner, thereby promoting products more effectively.
Teach you how to “know” “Internet celebrities”.
In the cross-border e-commerce circle, everyone knows that “Internet celebrities” have strong ability to bring goods, but not everyone chooses “Internet celebrities”. The reason is that one is the inherent impression that “Internet celebrities are expensive”, and the other is that they do not understand the channels for cooperating with “Internet celebrities”.
1. How to find “Internet celebrities” quickly?
If we have some understanding of the Internet celebrities in our own market segment before, we can sort them out based on existing resources. Using Google browser, input “any keyword that consumers may be interested in + blog” and we will find a lot of blog resources that others have organized.
Using “Internet celebrity” marketing tools is the simplest and fastest way to find “Internet celebrities”. These tools generally provide some basic information about “Internet celebrities”: number of fans, interaction rate, blog backlinks, location of “Internet celebrities”, “fans” details, as well as personal information such as age and gender. At the same time, you can also use some tools to directly contact “Internet celebrities”, such as SocialBook, It will rate Internet celebrities based on the number of their fans, fan interaction participation rate, and influence. There is also a filtering function that allows you to filter based on the location of the Internet celebrity, market segment, and number of fans. After finding these potential Internet celebrities, you need to record all the information about them for easy review and organization later.
2. How do you find an Internet celebrity that suits you?
After collecting information about potential Internet celebrities, the next step is to evaluate whether the Internet celebrity is suitable for our product. First of all, we need to determine the country, age, interests, and hobbies of the user group that meets the product’s requirements. We need to have a good understanding of the audience of our product. Very clear. Secondly, the blogger’s positioning must be clear. For example, today we are going to hold a new product launch conference for drones. At this time, we may choose a blogger who specializes in outdoor research products to make test videos and reports. The effect will be much better than general investment. When we evaluate the data of an “Internet celebrity”, we can’t just look at the number of fans and views. We should also see where the “fans” who follow him come from, their economic conditions, their usual shopping habits, etc.
3. How to cooperate with “Internet celebrities”?
Some sellers will wonder why they have sent emails to some bloggers but have not received a reply. In fact, a blogger with about 100,000 fans will receive 30- 40 business invitation emails, our invitation email is just one in the vast ocean, so it is easy to be ignored by the blogger, and of course no reply will be received. So we need to formulate a better marketing plan and copywriting, which can directly reach his “fans”, so that the blogger will naturally be happy to cooperate with us. In the process of cooperation, it will also involve details such as the optimization of titles and tags, how to get the popularity of traffic, etc. Especially for marketing activities, many people like to directly put links to let customers buy them, so the conversion rate is very low. Therefore, we need to carry out marketing activities such as lucky draws and group buying to make more people feel involved and interactive, and bring more benefits to “fans”.
Of course, doing “Internet celebrity” marketing is not as simple as finding “Internet celebrities”. What needs to be considered more is the matching degree between brands and Internet celebrities, and the conversion rate of drainage.
There are many ways to drain traffic for independent stations. The author only provides three common types of drainage methods. When sellers are doing off-site drainage, they may wish to refer to some cases of local e-commerce in the Middle East, analyze the reasons why some websites are doing well from various angles, find their own shortcomings, and choose a drainage method that suits them.