3 reasons why it’s time to action your Christmas influencer marketing strategy now

3 reasons why its time to action now
christmas themed flat lay

With Instagram shopping, a more competitive influencer marketing space and a whole host of new ways you can maximise your influencer marketing ROI, the time is now for Christmas marketing preparations.

1. Australians start Christmas shopping earlier than the rest of the world

Nearly 1 in 5 Australians start their Christmas shopping in or before October, according to a 2018 Holiday Study by Facebook.

Only 4% of all other shoppers say they start their Christmas shopping in October or earlier, compared to 17% of Australians.

Early to start, early to finish too

By the time 28% of Hong Kong shoppers, 22% of Thai shoppers and 19% of Japanese shoppers say they start their Christmas shopping in November, 12% of Australian mobile-first shoppers will have already finished.

Holding off on targeted Christmas marketing on social media too long, then, risks completely missing those early shoppers. 

Slow shipping times

61% of Australian shoppers buy earlier when shipping from overseas because they are more acutely aware of shipping costs and times.

It’s not just international shipping, however, that Australians are conscious of. Last year Australia post made more than 37 million parcel deliveries during December – the busiest month in the organisation’s 209-year history. On December 18 2017, Australia Post delivered a record-breaking 2.5 million parcels in one day. (Source) Australian shoppers aware about potential delays and strains on their postal service will look to shop earlier.

Online shopping on the rise

The increase in parcel deliveries reflects the dramatic increase in online shopping. A report by Australia Post revealed that in 2017 1 in 5 online purchases were made from a mobile device and online spending grew by 18.7%. In 2015, only 1 in 10 purchases were made on a mobile device and the increase in online spending was only 6%. (Source)

According to a recent study, 50% of worldwide internet users say that their digital purchases are influenced by social media (Source). Brands in the APAC region can start activating their Christmas influencer marketing strategy now to ensure that they get the best influencers to help drive sales.

 

2. Instagram shopping is here like a Christmas miracle

With the introduction of new Instagram shopping features in time for the holiday season brands are excited about the new potential of Instagram as a direct sales channel.

Shopping tab in Explore

The shopping tab in Explore means people will have chance to be served shoppable posts on Instagram that are relevant and personalised to them. 

How can our customers see us on Explore?

While the Instagram algorithm can feel like a bit of an enigma to many, essentially the bottom line of it is that Instagram rewards engaging content by surfacing content that people are more likely to engage with.

Your customers are more likely to see your products on the Explore tab if you increase engagement with your brand on social media.

Influencers can help increase user engagement with a brand in several key ways.

  1. Influence.
    – Influencers who are tagging your brand and hashtagging your products help to increase brand conversations on Instagram which are all important for the algorithm. By tagging brands in their posts and featuring the product in an authentic way, influencers help increase conversations about the brand on Instagram.
    – The way Instagram’s community works is that an influencer’s followers are more likely to see your brand surfaced in the Explore tab if they liked and commented on a sponsored post by an influencer they follow. They’re also more likely to follow your brand and see your tagged shopping posts surface on their feed.
    – Herein lies the age-old micro vs. macro debate. In our view, leveraging a larger group of micro-influencers, rather than one solo macro-influencer, will show the Instagram algorithm that more people are engaging with your brand across a number of different communities.
  2. Create.
    – To increase the chances of being followed on Instagram or capturing the attention of potential customers or followers, your content needs to be king. High quality photos and videos that feel authentic to the channel are more likely to generate engagement.
    – 86% of people say authenticity is important when deciding what brands to like and support. stackla.com.
    – Authentic influencer produced content can be re-posted by brands on their feed to give people the social proof that they need to want to support your brand.

Shopping tags in Posts and Stories

Instagram is rolling out the shopping tags for brands around the world in posts and stories. This means that people can click on the product in a picture in your feed or stories and be sent to the shopping page for that product. No long-winded, link-in-bio directions needed anymore! With these shopping tags you’ll be able to track the performance of multiple products directly in your Instagram account. This will in turn help you to optimise your paid media spend on the content that performs the best.

 

Read this

What marketers need to know about Instagram’s new shopping channel >

3. Your favourite influencers are starting to get booked up

We took a poll of our influencers and 18% said they’d already started locking in campaigns with brands during the Christmas and holiday season. Contact us to find out if your brand is on their content creation wish list this year.

There’s only a limited amount of real estate on any influencer’s Instagram feed and this is the busiest season for them when it comes to brand partnerships. We predict that the number of brands looking to partner with influencers around this key season will increase exponentially this holiday season. As we know, 65% of marketers planned to increase their influencer marketing budgets this year so the competition is forecast to be even fiercer this Christmas. (Source)

Brands who don’t want to miss out on leveraging the most authentic, high quality influencers should book their campaigns in as soon as possible.

For marketers, one of the most challenging part of influencer marketing is finding the right talent. This is why 64% of marketers choose to engage third-party providers to manage their influencer marketing campaigns. It’s imperative that you find the right partner for your brand’s needs.(Source)

 

“Vamp are our go-to for influencer marketing. Their response to brief is not only always on the mark, but they continually go above and beyond, coming up with bigger ideas that still fit the brief and the budget. They are extremely process driven and therefore always hit deadlines & timelines. I have never worked with an agency who is so organised, puts the client first and keeps all parties continually informed and up to date with all activity.

Their talent are INCREDIBLE. They only put influencers who are talented content creators forward and therefore the content that is received is always high quality, well thought out and artistically shot. It is on-par with what creative agencies can develop.

Vamp’s people make working with them so pleasant and a breeze. They take care of everything from start to finish, are extremely accommodating should anything need to change mid-campaign and are friendly and professional.

Choosing talent and tracking results are extremely easy due to their online system which can be shared to clients as well who want to see real time activity and share amongst their organisation.

Vamp as an agency have just gone above and beyond what influencer agencies typically provide. Not only as an agency are we happy to work with them, but our clients have been beyond thrilled with the results and their process, even signing up to do more work with Vamp after one campaign has finished and other markets asking to use their content.”

Let’s work together

Enter your deets and we’ll be in touch.

Download the free Vamp guide and learn how your brand can succeed on the original influencer marketing platform, Instagram.

Download this free Vamp guide and learn how to succeed on the world’s most viral platform.