To study the results, the team used the frequency of the answer, frequency-construct ratio, construct weight, and construct-table ratio, but the data obtained is not statistical, because the sample is too small.

This encoding consists of sections, constructs, and sub-constructs:

? the section will be a theme;

? the construct will be a sub-theme;

? the sub-construct will be encoded insights.

There is an example of encoding insights below (Table 1):

Table 1 Clipping from the encoding of in-depth interview insights

Section	Construct	Subconstruct	Respondents
			1	2
General questions	Years in fashion/beauty sphere	less than 1 year	0	0
		3	0	0
		4	1	0
		5	0	1
		more than 5	0	0
	Changes in promotion channels	Personalization	1	0
		More online channels	1	1
		AI	1	0
		Chat bots	1	0
		More Influencers	0	1
		Depends on the target audience	0	1
		Depends on the target sphere	0	1
		The transparency and honesty of the brand	0	1

3.4 Variables

There are 3 variables in this research: brands, influencers and followers. Brands is an independent variable, influencers and followers are dependent, because they rely on brands, they are both interested in.

· Brand - Unique design, sign, symbol, words, or a combination of these, employed in creating an image that identifies a product and differentiates it from its competitors. Over time, this image becomes associated with a level of credibility, quality, and satisfaction in the consumer's mind (see positioning). Thus, brands help harried consumers in a crowded and complex marketplace, by standing for certain benefits and value. The legal name for a brand is a trademark and, when it identifies or represents a firm, it is called a brand name.

? Influencers - Individuals who have the power to affect purchase decisions of others because of their (real or perceived) authority, knowledge, position, or relationship. In consumer spending, members of a peer group or reference group act as influencers. In business to business (organizational) buying, internal employees (engineers, managers, purchasers) or external consultants act as influencers.

? Followers - a person who follows or subscribes to another's posts on a social media website ("Definition of follower | Dictionary.com", 2020).



4. Description of the results

4.1 Survey results

All the respondents for the survey are Instagram users from Russian Federation, which were found in this social network by the method of “snowball”, which was described earlier. The survey involved 390 respondents. Among the respondents 67% were women and 33% were men. Talking about age distribution, 68% of whom are aged 18 to 25 years, a significant part (18%) of respondents represent the age category 26-30 years.

Figure 1. Age distribution of the respondents

The question of which social networks respondents prefer to search and view entertaining content is aimed at checking insights received during the interview and identifying key social networks that users are currently using. It turned out that non-text social networks are leading in the survey by the number of preferences. The most frequently selected social networks for entertainment content among respondents were Instagram (292) and YouTube (280). The average number of responses was collected by VKontakte (187) and TikTok (113). Facebook turned out to be the most unpopular social network, gaining only 11 of preferences among respondents.

Figure 2. Social networks preferred for viewing entertaining content

The purpose of the question about description as Instagram users was to collect information about the distribution of the respondents as active and inactive Instagram users. As the answers show, 51% of respondents view the Instagram feed every day, and share their content from time to time, only 25% of the total number of respondents spend a social network time every couple of days and rarely publish photos. Those who lead an active social life on Instagram only 14%, these respondents share content with their subscribers every day and update the feed in the application throughout the day. Among the respondents, a small number of those who devote little time to Instagram, only 10%.

Figure 3. Description of respondents as users on Instagram



Instagram is one of the leading social networks for promoting via influencers (Casalу, Flaviбn & Ibбсez-Sбnchez, 2018), some of the further research and questions in the survey related to Instagram and how it is used by respondents. As for blogs that are followed by respondents, friends and family (356) and celebrity blogs (246) are mostly among the respondents' subscriptions. For bloggers and influencers signed up 229 of respondents. Online shops turned out to be the most unpopular, with only 58 subscribed to them.

Figure 4. What accounts are respondents following on Instagram

The question on Figure 5 is aimed at identifying in which blogs respondents are most interested in social networks. Respondents had the opportunity to answer this question in the form of several points. Based on the results, most respondents are interested in popular science blogs in the number of 96, comedy (166) and celebrities pages (168). The respondents are also very interested in blogs about beauty and fashion in the number of 151 and 161 respondents. To a lesser extent, respondents are interested in food and fitness blogs - they are interested in 85 and 106 respondents. Eco blogs were in last place by the number of interested, only 37. In response to the question, the respondents had the opportunity to offer their own answer in addition to those proposed. Respondents are also interested in content related to art, lifestyle blogs, computer games, travel, music and blogs about animals, as well as about health and psychology, these answers accounted for 36 respondents of the total.

Figure 5. Blogs in which respondents are most interested

To clarify statistics on interest by influencers and bloggers among respondents, the question illustrated on Figure 6 clarifies how many media personalities are interested in respondents. From 1 to 4 influencers are of interest among the majority of respondents (62%). It is important to note that there are those who are not interested in bloggers and influencers at all, of which only 14%. More than 10 bloggers are interested in the smallest number of respondents (4%).

Figure 6. The number of influencers and bloggers that arouse interest among respondents

As previous research in the field of influencing marketing shows, Instagram (Backaler, 2019) and YouTube (Genз & Цksьz, 2019) are the most popular for promotion through influencers. The question of which social network the respondents follow the bloggers allowed to fill in the gap of research on influencers in the Russian market. Previous studies have been confirmed to some extent by the results of the survey. The most frequently called social networks in which respondents follow influencers are Instagram and YouTube. Least of all Russian users follow influencers and bloggers on Facebook. However, there are those who are not subscribed to bloggers at all.

Table 2 Where influencers and bloggers are followed by the respondents

	N	Percent	Percent of cases
Instagram	304	47,70%	77,90%
YouTube	206	32,30%	52,80%
Vk	25	3,90%	6,40%
Telegram	65	10,20%	16,70%
Facebook	9	1,40%	2,30%
Don't follow	28	4,40%	7,20%

The question of the attitude towards advertising of cosmetics from influencers and media personas is an important indicator in a study aimed at determining the tolerance to advertising among respondents. As the answers show, 40% of respondents do not trust any advertising on social networks. On the other hand, 43% trust highly specialized bloggers and influencers, whose advertising content fits into the general theme of the page. Fully trust advertising from influencers and believe that this helps to narrow the range of choice to certain products only 17% of respondents.



Figure 7. Attitude towards advertising of cosmetics and clothes in the accounts of influencers and media personas

As mentioned earlier, middle-aged respondents mainly participated in the survey for the study, therefore, to a greater extent, the results can be generalized to the Russian online market for ages from 18 to 30 years, mainly women. An important characteristic for contributing to the research is the degree to which respondents focus on influencers when choosing cosmetics and clothing. Millennials became the key target audience for influencers as in the other parts of the world (Boerman, S., 2020). The question on Figure 8 of which factor is decisive when buying cosmetics and clothes suggested the possibility of multiple answers for respondents. Thus, the decisive factor to a greater extent than the rest was the review to the product on social networks, 194 respondents noted this point for themselves when deciding to purchase cosmetics or clothing. Considerable influence on the decision about the future purchasing cosmetics and clothes took the advice of friends or acquaintances for a substantial part of the 183 respondents. As for influencers, a YouTube product review by a blogger and a product demonstration in InstaStories and on Instagram post, respondents rely on these parameters to a lesser extent than on the above points, but 78 and 104 respondents noted these factors as decisive. For respondents advertising on the brand's Instagram has the least influence on the further purchase decision, only 15 respondents noted this item as important for them.

Figure 8. Decisive factors when buying cosmetics and clothes

In the research which is entirely focused on the study of influencers as a promotion tool for brands online, it is important to find out to what extent subscribers trust the advice and advertisements of influencers and whether subsequently make purchases on their recommendation. Only 4% of respondents never made purchases on the advice of bloggers and influencers. More than half were more likely to be satisfied with purchases made on the advice of media personas than disappointed (63%). But there are those, represented by 33%, who more often remained disappointed with goods purchased on the advice of influencers.

Figure 9. Making purchases on the advice of bloggers and influencers



Clarification of which particular products respondents buy on the advice of influencers will help to close the gap in the study of the Russian market on the subject of influencers. The study involved more women than men, which explains the high rate of purchases in the cosmetic sector (149 respondents). A considerable share of purchases on the advice of influencers is occupied by clothing and accessories (128), as well as food and beverages (112). Least of all respondents buy goods related to home furnishings: decor and interior - only 29 and household appliances and electronics - 57. network brand commerce advertising

Figure 10. Purchases made on the advice of influencers and bloggers

The question on Figure 11 is aimed at elucidating the key motives in subscribing to bloggers and influencers. Most important for respondents is the availability of useful information and original content. The remaining parameters scored approximately the same number of votes, but the least respondents subscribe to follow trends, only 48 respondents.



Figure 11. The reasons for following influencers and media personalities

Identifying key ways to find blogs and accounts of interest will help brands build strategies based on the responses received to increase their reach and refine their existing marketing strategies. The majority of respondents (237 respondents) most often find the pages they are interested in in the recommendations section, in particular, this applies to social networks such as Instagram and YouTube. This parameter means that intuitive application algorithms and personalization of recommendations for each individual user do the job. Least of all (5 users) users find the content of interest to them in searches related to geolocation.

Figure 12. How respondents find interesting blogs and accounts

Talking about hypotheses, three of them were confirmed and one of them was refuted with the survey results.

The hypothesis “Russian influencers and bloggers are mostly followed by the audience in Instagram and YouTube” was confirmed (Table 2). 47,7% follows bloggers and opinion leaders in Instagram and 32,3% follows them on YouTube. On the third place is Telegram (10,2%). VKontakte and Facebook placed on last positions.

The second hypothesis “Cosmetics and clothing advertising is trusted more when it is advertised by bloggers with a similar product profile theme” was confirmed too (Figure 7). Most of the respondents notice, that they trust the advertising posts only from the opinion leaders, whose blog's theme connected with the advertised product. This means that opinion leader needs to be a kind of expert in the sphere of advertised product to advice followers to buy it and to make a promotion more successful.

The next hypothesis “Instagram users first of all rely mostly on the influencers opinion and their adds before the purchasing” was refuted, because most of the respondents firstly rely on advices from friends and products reviews, not on opinion leaders' posts (Figure 12).

Finally, the last but not least hypothesis “The main reason for following influencers and media personalities is original, interesting and useful content” was confirmed. Most of the respondents noticed, that first of all original content, useful and interesting information matters.

4.2 In-depth interviews results

People's screens are filled with lots of ads every day that entice us to spend, spend, and spend money, but in an era when consumers value a more personal experience, influencers have become a great marketing channel. The research team gathered insights from 18 experts who use influencers as a promotion channel in the beauty and fashion spheres.

The obtained data, which will be described in the results section of in-depth interviews according to qualitative methodology are not suitable for statistical analysis.

Years in fashion/beauty sphere

More than half of respondents who took part in the in-depth interviews are people with 4-5 years of experience in the beauty and fashion industry. The remaining respondents have been working in marketing for less than 3 years. Only one person represented a group of the most experienced specialists and he was the CEO of the production company, who has been working in the fashion industry for more than 5 years. He did not specify how long he worked in this area.

The research team did not set out to include only people with a lot of experience in the sample, because people with a little experience in the marketing and beauty sphere could provide no less useful insights. "Yes, I have been working with fashion and beauty brands for less than a year, but in marketing for more than five years," said one of the respondents.

Changes in promotion channels

The majority of respondents (11 specialists) said that there are a huge number of advertising channels on the Internet and "marketing goes online". One person said that "it is impossible to say exactly which of the channels is the most effective, since everything depends on the business sphere." Many agreed with the latest insight that everything depends on the sphere. But much also depends on the target audience. This fact was highlighted by 7 respondents, one of them said: “Many companies that work with government orders are not interested in new marketing trends, they are satisfied with the old channel word of mouth, but it is not our case.”

One of the respondents said “If we are talking about beauty and fashion, then we are moving away from printed mass media as much as possible and dive into the Internet. But it all depends on the brand. Big brands like PRADA are still interested in publishing in magazines, but only online. Recently, our company shoot for such brand with a Russian influencer. They had a whole project with influencers from different countries. Influencers are at their peak now.” “The concept of influencers is quite new. Five or seven years ago, brands did not even think to pay for advertising not to celebrities, but to "ordinary" people. Today, many beauty brands like micro-influencers, bloggers with a small (5-100 thousand) audience: their subscribers like more, comment more -- and in the end buy more,” said CEO of the photo and video production company.

Many experts highlighted such fact as changing the format of content for social networks. Now "video content is shot in the format of 1080 x 1920 pixels" or in "image aspect ratio 9:16". One of the most popular responses about changing marketing channels is content personalization and artificial intelligence. One respondent said “In general, marketing is moving forward quickly, the appearance of a chatbot on the web-site has made our life much easier, but it still works not without flaws.”

Less popular but indeed valuable responses were: “greater acceptance of the transparency and honesty of the brand”; “using of omnichannel marketing in social networks”; “changes in social commerce”; the introduction of UGC and Native content; “more influencers in web”; “algorithmic advertising and automation”; “face-to-face interaction between brand and its target audience”; “content marketing for b2b”.

“Native content is mandatory for everyone now. Ads should not be conspicuous. The buyer must see the naturalness and trust the brand,” said one of the marketing specialists.

Another beauty field marketing specialist said “Of course, in the context of a pandemic, this is not very promising, but it is good to hold master classes, lectures with experts and something like that. The brand comes face to face with the target audience, giving the potential consumers the opportunity to test products at the same time. Such meetings were less popular for example five years ago, but now it is possible to broadcast from such meetings and answer questions online.”

"Tag us if you do your makeup with our new palette and get a chance to get into stories" technique is becoming popular. Online channels are growing, it's easier for customers to communicate with the brand, we get free promotion, and UGC marketing works well,” noticed by a PR specialist.

“The first thing that comes to my mind is personal content for users. Over the past couple of years, many websites have started requesting the collection of cookies,” said the SMM director.

Channels that company use

Respondents of in-depth interviews are closely associated with the promotion of clothing brands and cosmetics industry products. Some of the respondents who are associated with the promotion of beauty products note that Instagram and YouTube are the most effective channel for promoting cosmetics in Russia. "In Russia, young people get advertisements mostly from bloggers on Instagram and YouTube, while the Telegram, Facebook and VKontakte are less widespread.”; “Instagram and YouTube, unlike other social networks, get an essential possibility to create a visual representation.” Moreover, nowadays a great part of the market is occupied by millennials, for whom not only the quality of clothing is important, but also the following trends are essential too. One of the specialists said “To meet the trends, people focus on famous personalities.” “Modern shoppers have more confidence in online shopping than a couple of years ago. So, it is important to make their online shopping experience positive, with a lot of attention paid to clear and visual advertising in social networks,” noticed the production manager. “Personalization of content is now very simple; the main thing is to know the target audience. On VKontakte, for example, you can simply select any target audience of the blogs and communities that you want to serve ads to. But we haven't used VKontakte at all for a couple of years, only Instagram. This network has more point coverage,” said the CEO of beauty brand.

The main conclusion from this question, which was observed with the help of all respondents, is that for the successful promotion of a fashion brand it is important to develop promotion strategy in social networks (SMM), increase the audience and create a reputation online. But few respondents (only two) named SMM as a promotion channel. This concept was divided into sub-constructs.

Experts admitted that for some products there is still a need to buy reviews for PR, but this response noticed only beauty sphere employees. Many people have noticed that in the context of the pandemic, social commerce has found its response in the hearts of customers. One respondent said “We started making our own antiseptics and selling them through Avito, Yula, a separate page on Instagram, where the demand was greater and taxes in most cases do not have to pay, if it is not wholesale purchase.” But in general, more than a half of respondents use social commerce.

“We try to make hidden advertising as natural as possible, so subscribers can be sure that bloggers are not advertising the product. The blogger put on our lipstick in her story. In the next story, she says that many people asked her what the brand was, although no one asked,” a marketing specialist shared one of the secrets.

“Began to use bloggers more often especially micro-influencers with the core target audience. They raffle off our products for subscribing to our page. We also do collaborations with other companies,” since the sample for the interview was associated with influencers, all respondents worked with them, including the author of the phrase.

In this question, one of received the insights that answers the question of the role of influencers “Bloggers give a significant number of clicks to our site in their stories. They introduce us to subscribers.” In fact, not only one respondent said this. Many specialists were sure that a lot of customers are getting to know the brand for the first time through influencers.

Cases in which influencers effectively affect the marketing strategy

Most of the experts said that it is impossible to guess how influencer will affect your marketing strategy, since everything is very individual. One of the respondents cited the case of the influencer Regina Todorenko and her statements concerning domestic violence, which led to a drop-in sale of brands with which she collaborated.

But brand identity also affects the effectiveness of the influencer. If the brand is young, this is a good chance for it to become more famous for the target audience, this opinion was voiced by 7 respondents. Despite the fact that there are many insights that highlight in which case the influencers are effective, it is worth noting that more than 60% of respondents said that they are effective for any marketing strategy, but provided that they are correctly selected. One of the respondents said “The using of influencers is an integral and permanent part of a promotion strategy nowadays.” One person also jokingly remarked that the amount of money greatly affects whether or not the influencers will help the potential customers.

“Now it is very easy for audience to get bored with the same bloggers, so using the same faces for advertising is ineffective,” said an SMM director of marketing agency.

One of the respondents told us about several interesting projects that are currently under implementation “Not so long ago, we worked with a very large foreign manufacturer of smartphones, laptops, and so on, which is represented in our market. I can't say the name, I have an NDA signed. In the specification it was written that for shooting they need micro-influencers. Their maximum number of subscribers should be 10,000, and they should not have been featured in ads or any content that was distributed on the Internet or somewhere before. And more and more big companies try this trend. One of the biggest Russian beauty companies have removed something like a travel show with influencers. Their bloggers had a maximum of 15,000 followers. So far, the show is in the process of production.”

When a brand wants to tell a new story about itself, it needs to use influencers, 4 out of 18 experts said about it. Also, influencers are useful if the company wants to increase the level of confidence in itself among customers. Offline communications also work well using influencers. Many companies organize master classes in cosmetics stores and (less often) in clothing stores with influencers. Some want to come and get acquainted with the influencer, some with the brand. Therefore, sometimes bloggers agree to participate in such events for free. Two respondents noticed that influencers are also a brand that needs to be promoted.

Marketing specialist said, that it is important to remember that influencers treat themselves as a media brand. Reputation among the audience is their main income sometimes.

Target audience

The target audience is a specific group of people that all brand marketing communications are aimed at. In this case, the research team wanted to find out which target audience specialists most often use such a promotion channel as influenza marketing. The target audience includes not only existing customers of the company's product, but also potential consumers, which is important to attract in order to gain a stable position in the industry.

As expected, based on the analysis of secondary data, the majority of respondents use influencers for millennials and generation Z. "It seems to me that all your respondents will answer this question this way," said a marketing specialist of one of the agencies in St. Petersburg. But her predictions were wrong. One of the production managers noted that now there is a lot of collaboration and filming with young mothers and pregnant women. He suggested that the state might encourage this kind of blogging to increase childbearing in Russia.

A lot of respondents noted that women are their target audience during the collaboration with influencers, which is logical for the beauty and fashion industry. One person said, that the more prestigious the brand, the higher the scale rises in terms of age or simply financial status. This company has worked with various projects of luxury fashion and beauty companies that are represented on the Russian market. This luxury brands' audience during the cosmetics sales is women who have average or above average earnings, 25-35 years. And for this target audience they use influencers. But when it comes to clothing, the target audience changes. If it's a luxury, company will use an actress or model.

Reasons for using this target audience

Why do specialists work with such target audiences? Most people have highlighted that they are using this target audience because it is the target group of a product or brand, but a lot depends on the customer. "Sometimes a customer chooses the target audience for their service or product and it is difficult for you to influence their choice," one of the respondents shared with the interviewer.

Also, many people said such an insight as “the activity of this audience in collaboration with bloggers”. No less important insight is “the trust and impulsiveness of such an audience”, this fact was noted by the majority of respondents who work with women. Also, 3 respondents noticed that young brands are not reliable, and this audience is the most trustful.

Criteria for influencers for certain project

When analyzing secondary data, the research team did not see a complete list of criteria for selecting influencers for collaboration. But choosing an influencer, the specialist is looking for him or her for a specific role in their marketing strategy. Therefore, it was important for the team to find out exactly how respondents select influencers for projects. And, in fact, this question provided several additional insights that were distributed in blocks.

Below is a list of criteria that were announced by respondents:

1. target audience;

2. content;

3. cost of advertising;

4. coverage of the main core of the target audience;

5. number of subscribers (only for bloggers);

6. activity of subscribers (only for bloggers);

7. real live subscribers (only for bloggers);

8. statistics (only for bloggers);

9. frequency of ads with this influencer;

10. RRR rule (relevance, reach, resonance);

11. advertising of other companies in the blog (only for bloggers);

12. style (photo and video processing/clothing/makeup);

13. location;

14. confidential communication with audience;

15. gender distribution of target audience;

16. visual assessment of the influencer's adequacy;

17. the opinion of the client;

18. the format of the publications in blog (only for bloggers);

19. engagement rate (ER) (only for bloggers);

20. checking a blogger via platforms (only for bloggers).

Certainly, these are not all possible criteria that help specialists. The audience of the selected influencer should correspond geographically, thematically, by age, gender, and income level to the target audience for which the promoted product is intended. Also, the advertised brand must match the theme and aesthetics of the blog. One specialist said “We recently worked with a ballerina from the Mikhailovsky theater. She said that she will not post a photo in her blog in the dress that was shot, because it does not correspond to her style. She was right. How her subscribers will trust her if it gets knocked out of her content.” "The ability to submit an advertising post "delicious", interesting and creative - the most important factor to consider when choosing an influencer, " said one of the marketing specialists.

“To search for a blogger, we often use special bases, since there are a lot of bloggers and they are all different. There we can view the engagement rate and other statistics. This is very important, since any brand must be transparent, and so must bloggers,” said marketing manager of the specialized agency.

Also, some experts gave several comments on pricing from bloggers “The price of advertising integration is affected by the channel's theme: the more specialized it is, the more expensive the ad is. Because micro-blogs in rare subjects can bring advertisers more subscribers and customers than influencers with too wide a target audience.” “Find out the price of influencer in several sources: through exchanges, agencies, and directly or through an agent. Sometimes the agency can convince the influencer of the relevance of the customer's content and the influencer will lower the price, but sometimes it could raise the price too,” said the respondent from marketing agency.

The format of advertising that the client intends to order from the blogger is also important. According to experts, a special review or story video will cost more. A blogger will spend more time creating them than placing an ad layout in their account. But if the look at the format from the other side is done, then the specialist must understand what the blogger is ready to post, and what is not. There are bloggers who work exclusively with negative advertising or product placement.

“More effective collaboration is possible with bloggers with an audience of up to fifteen thousand people who almost do not place ads in their blogs. But for such opinion leaders, money is not the main thing, it is important for them to advertise what they believe in, the products that they themselves like and which they can leave," said one of the respondents. The real cases described by respondents most often concerned comparison of work with blogs of millionaires and micro-influencers. during the promotion, it turned out that the real target audience of blogs of millionaires often does not coincide with the expected one, that is, “it was less effective to advertise clothing for a model with millions of subscribers than for a girl with 30,000 subscribers. It turned out that more men subscribed to it, that is, such advertising is not interesting to its subscribers.”

Respondents note that the audience is attracted when influencers and bloggers express their personal opinion about the product, showing the process of use in their stories or on video. Advertising that does not look like personal opinion is not beneficial for brands because the effectiveness of the campaign is reduced. Influencers are in the same situation; they lose the trust of the audience.

Experts notice a correlation in the size of the audience with its activity. So, the profiles with 10-100 thousand subscribers will be the most effective in this regard. Then there is a sharp decline in audience engagement. A thorough assessment of how a blogger works with other products and whether it works at all is required. How often influencer publishes advertisements, how maintains discussions under advertisements, finds his or her own advantages or operates on advertising advantages, how deep personal experience is and what degree the blogger is immersed in work. Any blogger broadcasts his or her view of the world, sometimes very specific, which may not fit the philosophy of the brand being promoted.

Effectiveness of using influencers like the main marketing channel

Half of the respondents believe that it is better to combine promotion channels and not use influencers as the only tool. “Yes, you can use the influencer as the main, even the only channel, but the influencers are very unpredictable. Sometimes we just don't understand why advertising doesn't work through a certain influencer, even though she fits all the criteria. In other words, 90% of cases are effective, but you can't guess,” said the PR director. The other respondent given the example “It is best to combine several promotion channels, in addition to using influencers. For example, collaborations with other brands plus influence marketing, plus event marketing. In the case of the fashion industry, particularly this works now.”

On the other hand, some new cosmetics brands promote themselves only through the Instagram (due to the limited budget resources), particularly through the opinion leaders and Instagram targeted advertising. According to the PR and production company's marketing manager's response, such a method (using influencers as almost one and only way of promotion) is an effective one in some cases. Also, half of the respondents think that the use of influencers as the only or main channel is suitable for young brands that need to attract the attention of the audience and earn their trust. “Properly selected influencers increase interest in any promoted products,” said the SMM director. He also added that this works even when it is the only promotion channel. The marketing specialist noted that promotion through influencers in the form of contests has a positive impact on audience coverage, especially if it is a lot of small or one large opinion leader.

One of the respondents noted that now the influencers, as a promotion channel, have reached their peak. Search queries on the topic stopped growing. Therefore, he is not sure that at this time there is a need to rely on this channel as the main one. Also, some experts believe that this strategy will only benefit in certain areas. "Yes, if you sell the tonic only through influencers and invest a lot of money in it, then everything will work. But if you are going to sell a Canon camera, I doubt it, " an employee of a marketing agency. Many experts said that the pandemic has affected their use of influencers and someone considered them their main channel now “Thanks to the pandemic, we are now using them (influencers) more often. People are sitting at home, screening their phones, watching entertainment content on YouTube. They do not aim to buy anything in a crisis, so they will not visit our site. We need to be visible.”

A considerable part of the respondents is convinced that the success of the company depends on how correctly the target audience of the influencer is identified. To understand the potential payback of an advertising campaign, marketing specialists need to thoroughly analyze in advance the solvency of the target audience of the influencer. To do this, you need to study the target audience so that it doesn't turn out that subscribers cannot afford to buy goods, for example, a luxury brand. Also, according to experts, influencers have a habit of disappearing and not responding to messages, which indicates their low level of responsibility. One of the managers of the production company said "So, we wait for the right moment when she should post, but it doesn't happen. Five minutes pass, and nothing happens. We call, but no one answers. Already the customer writes, what is wrong? Then her agent writes to us, 15 minutes later, that the video is cut off in an ugly way and they decided not to expose it. It is good that we wrote it in the contract and they eventually posted it out. But she had 250,000 subscribers. This doesn't happen with small bloggers."

Difficulties with work with influencers

As one of the marketing specialists said, there is no perfect channel for promotion. But the CEO of the production company did not agree. According to him, the choice of the promotion channel depends on the target audience and the company's goals. Five people out of all respondents cited the inability of influencers to make compromises. Of course, this does not apply to all opinion leaders. "We had a case when after a photoshoot the influencer refused to put a photo in her profile, because she did not like the angle, although this photo was chosen by the client," said a specialist from the agency. "You should never ask influencers, if they are bloggers, to show statistics, they always send absolutely useless indicators, and many people used to lie. You should always check them through third-party sites, now there are quite a lot of them."

It is important to note that many experts said that influencers with a large number of subscribers are already outdated "Yes, before Russia lagged behind and everyone ordered advertising only from influencers like Olga Buzova. But now we look at Europe, the United States and understand that we need to use little-known personalities with the core of the target audience. But customers don't understand this, they want a huge useless coverage. Such a post can cause an influx of users. But the effect will be one-time or even reverse. Subscribers will see one post, decide that the star herself doesn't use it, and won't either." "To be honest, it's very difficult to keep everything under control, to find the perfect person, take into account all the customer's wishes and then be happy with the result. This is all because of the complex structure of modern social media," - said a marketing employee. Marketers advise to build long-term relationships with opinion leaders, not to set up short business relationships when a blogger publishes a one-time post that does not have the desired effect.

One of the experts believes that if the influencer does not use the company's products for some time before review or advertising, it reduces the effectiveness of the channel. In addition, some influencers often do not attach importance to what they advertise. They can easily advertise competitors in the same market.

Six respondents noted that cooperation with influencers did not always meet their profit expectations. This was despite the fact that all other indicators were on top. But at the same time, they invested quite a lot of money in promotion. Also, one of the experts said that influencers "go crazy in their pricing." "You know, we are always happy to work on barter, but we get a huge number of people who ask us to send them, for example, our coat in exchange for a review," the marketing specialist of the fashion brand said with a smile. “The most amazing thing is when bloggers with “dead” subscribers want to cooperate with us. You can see it right away, " said the woman from the marketing agency.

Influencers sometimes forget to respond to messages, skip deadlines, and strive to make money with minimal effort. However, this in no way means that there is a need to give up on influence marketing. On the contrary, a high-quality post or video can be the key to success.

Publishing in the influencer feed should not look like completely advertising material, the purpose of which is clear to any user. Such posts irritate the audience, and as a result, the user response drops. According to agencies representatives, such content is not created simply when the creator not involved in the production process. Advertising that does not resemble personal opinion is not profitable for brands, the effectiveness of the campaign is reduced, or for influencers, they lose the trust of the audience.

"Turning to influencers, companies are exporting an increase in conversions. In practice, paid posts primarily work for brand awareness, " said the marketing specialist of the beauty brand.

One of the production-managers highlighted that it is generally assumed that bloggers with hundreds of thousands of subscribers can sell and promote any idea, opinion, or product. There was a time when people believed that a blogger dressed in something really bought it and sincerely recommended it. Or he or she just wore the thing not to advertise, but simply because today he or she wanted to. Today, when the blogger shows the product, almost everybody understands that the description of how wonderful this thing is will follow. It is good if the opinion leader writes that the product is an advertisement, but many bloggers continue to deceive the audience by insisting that they bought this thing themselves. Unfortunately, few people continue to believe this.

One of the marketing specialists said "Now bloggers are really leaving and becoming less popular as a channel than before. We make greater use of micro-influencers, it is the trend of this year and 2019, but what will happen next?"

If the company wants to work with influencers, it will need to pay a round sum for the post. According to one of the production managers, advertising the brand's new collection in the influencer's profile cost them 150,000 rubles for a blogger with 119,000 subscribers.

Last but not least, there are a lot of technical difficulties on the blogger's side. There is a need to carefully check the correctness of tracking links and react quickly to changes. It is also important to keep in mind the time zone difference if the company is working with several regions at the same time.

Advantages of using influencers

Of course, using influencers in a marketing strategy has its advantages, otherwise, companies would not use them. Many experts noted the native content as the main advantage. Influencers can advise and recommend products, not just post someone else's content or participate in ads. One of the marketers said that the line between commercial and user content is blurred thanks to the influencer. One of the most important factors is that influencers are trusted. One of the respondents said that this is because bloggers let subscribers into their lives, and they know the influencer as their good friend.

Some experts believe that it is important to give the blogger the opportunity to find the perfect balance on their own, listen to all their advice and work together. Only a blogger knows exactly how to reach the hearts of their subscribers and lead them to buy a product.

With micro- and nano-influencers that are not spoiled by advertisers' attention, a company can also negotiate for barter placement in exchange for goods. This fact was in the cons, but it is also a plus. Niche influencers are more suitable for this type of promotion: they have a more stable and loyal audience and a higher conversion rate.

Also, two marketing specialists of the beauty brand highlighted that collaborations with popular influencers brought a fairly good increase in sales and recognition. One example was a line of organic cosmetics from bloggers in collaboration with Organic Kitchen. "This company has released more than five lines of collaborations, which brought a good profit. For this product, the price was set slightly higher than for conventional cosmetics. But this did not reduce the demand for products that were invented and recommended by the influencers themselves and the Organic Kitchen process engineers, according to the brand itself," - said one of the marketing specialists.

Some respondents noted that original content is a big plus for influencers if they have a blog. One of the marketing specialists said "We can push one recognizable ad everywhere that everyone will get tired of or make original native content through opinion leaders. Of course, we will choose the second option." Also, according to experts, there are influencers who very rarely agree to cooperate with brands and to win their trust means to make a breakthrough in a marketing company. These bloggers really test the product and do it in front of their subscribers. Such bloggers have a loyal and active audience, which quickly increases sales by up to 30% according to the SMM Director.

Loyalty of subscribers is very important when working with an influencer-blogger, this fact was noted by six experts. As one of the production managers noted, influencers have a focus on creating long-term relationships with subscribers, which is the essence of loyalty. Therefore, if the opinion leader uses the brand's products regularly, this will be noticed by his audience and loyalty will extend to the brand. As the manager noted, this only works if the person has not formed an opinion about the brand before.

Some respondents believe that the advantage of influencers is that they can be made part of the brand, so there is a need to count on long-term relationships with opinion leaders. The company needs to immerse them in the life of the brand. And a large number of influencers, according to experts, will help to choose the ideal opinion leader for particular company, which is a great advantage. "You can't choose which social networks to use to promote your product for a long time. But when you work with influencers, the choice is huge," said the PR Director.

The respondents also highlighted individual insights such as:

? “influencers have a unique power of managing people”;

? a small contribution to the production of content, since the influencer sometimes makes content for the company;

? the highest ROI (Return on Investment) of influencers;

? in some apps customer can block ad impressions, but in influencers blog they cannot do it;

? “ability to work with a narrow audience”;

? viral potential of content in some cases;

? real opinion of real person, if the influencer does a review and does not get paid;

? posts stay in influencers' social media for a long time.

"You don't always have to pay a lot to get a good result with a blogger. Sometimes it is possible to work on barter or influencers themselves make a review of your product, because they are really interested," said the marketing specialist. In fact, influencers are "given the opportunity to directly contact the target audience of the product." They are well aware of what their subscribers want. There is a constant interaction and live communication between opinion leader and his or her subscribers. People know that this influencer is an ordinary person, not part of a beauty or fashion brand team that is waiting for them to buy products. One of the marketers compared influencers to movie screenings, before which people see ads and they have nowhere to go from it. A similar situation occurs for influencers with their own blogs on Instagram or YouTube. The native ads they make seem natural and people watch it like they're watching an ad in a movie theater.

A smaller number of experts noted that some fans of influencers see their idols in opinion leaders and want to be like them.

Influence marketing involves recommendations and advice, but not direct calls to buy. Blogger's publication should be bright, interesting, but most importantly -- natural. Most often, such publications are obtained when the micro-influencer has freedom of action. Conversely, attempts to interfere with the creative process can turn a blogger's content into ordinary advertising. An opinion leader creates cool content that their audience likes. It produces content that it considers attractive, which is why it demonstrates such effectiveness in influence marketing. However, in a situation when a brand comes to a blogger and asks him to tell about the product "using exactly these words", it becomes bad for everyone -- both the customer and the performer. Explicit advertising irritates subscribers, and they will not believe in such a recommendation. As a result, the audience is dissatisfied, and the brand also remains in the red. The company must provide the necessary information to the opinion leader, and he, in turn, digest it and create native content: in his own style and speaking the language familiar to subscribers. This is the only way the recommendation will work.

With the advent of social networks, it has become easier for a company to interact with its audience. Beauty and fashion brands were affected to a greater extent. One of the experts noted that this area is probably the only one for which promotion exclusively through social networks is suitable. Recently, the possibility of product or item contests has provided a quick way for the audience to get interested in the brand, as they are interested in what they will get if they make a post report. This fact was noted by the SMM Director. 95% of new subscribers of the brand will leave after the competition, but there will be 5% who are really interested.

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