Influencer Promotion: How Do Influencers Make Money?

I wonder if you have heard of "Ruhan" ?

If not, then you have at least heard of the names of internet celebrities such as Zhang Dayi, Dajin, Chongchong, Zuo Jiaojiao, and Auntie Guan .

They are all internet celebrities hatched by Ruhan. Ruhan has hatched a total of 113 KOLs and generated an annual revenue of nearly 1 billion last year.

As one of the top "Internet celebrity factories" in China, Ruhnn was listed on the NASDAQ in the United States on April 3 with an issue price of US$12.50 and an estimated total issue size of approximately US$125 million.

△The picture is from the homepage of Ruhan’s official website

However, Ruhnn, known as the "first Chinese internet celebrity stock", suffered a setback on the first day of listing, with its share price plummeting 37% on the first day.

Although, the first day of listing does not mean that the stock is unpopular in the market, the long-term stock price is a reflection of the real ability compared to the short-term stock price.

However, Ruohan's "plunge" attracted the attention of "national husband" Wang Sicong, who raised three questions about Ruohan in his circle of friends.

1. Huge amount of losses

2. Zhang Dayi is the only popular actress, and she is not replicable.

3. No new KOLs were cultivated

How much money do internet celebrities make?

Although Wang Sicong questioned Ruhan's profit model, he still recognized the influence of the internet celebrity economy.

With the development of the internet celebrity economy, traffic is no longer monopolized by the top big accounts. More and more internet celebrities in vertical fields, public accounts, Weibo, Douyin, Taobao and other platforms are sharing the traffic, and their fan loyalty and purchasing power are even higher than those of some big accounts.

Just like Zhang Dayi under Ruhan, as the most commercially valuable celebrity on Weibo, she became the first women's clothing store on Taobao to achieve sales of over 100 million yuan on Double Eleven in 2016, and achieved sales of over 170 million yuan in 28 minutes during the Double Eleven event in 2018.

Now, with the development of online media and the support of major platforms, anyone can become famous for any reason. Coupled with the high profits in the internet celebrity industry, more and more people are choosing to become internet celebrities.

According to Xiguajun's observation, the current monetization models of the "Internet celebrity economy" are mainly divided into the following three forms.

01 Soft article advertising

Internet celebrity advertising originated on Weibo and flourished on WeChat.

The development of public accounts has provided fertile soil for the internet celebrity economy . Liu Shenleilei and Rebecca are typical cases.

Previously, "Rebecca's Magical World" teamed up with MINI to exclusively sell 100 limited edition customized cars, which were sold out within 4 minutes, setting a sales record of 30 million in 4 minutes . The profit margin can be imagined.

And it's not just soft articles. With the rise of short videos, a large number of live-streaming hosts who sell goods have also emerged, such as Papi Jiang, who started out on Weibo, and Liu Erdou, who made his fortune on Tik Tok. Their ability to sell goods should not be underestimated.

02 Live broadcast rewards

For most live broadcasters, their income mainly comes from users' attention and rewards. The platform will sell virtual gifts in the form of recharge, and then discount the total income received by the broadcaster during the live broadcast in proportion.

A few days ago, PDD, who had just resumed broadcasting, earned 14.22 million in gifts after 9 days of live broadcasting , ranking second in the live broadcast income ranking list of March. The power of fans is truly infinite.

But in fact, the high income of most anchors still requires sacrificing a lot of time, which can be said to cause great harm to the body.

03 Internet celebrity e-commerce

Some people say that 2016 is the first year of the explosion of internet celebrity e-commerce. Internet celebrity e-commerce is a new hot word in recent years, often dominating the Internet circle.

Internet celebrity e-commerce mainly refers to kols who gather a certain number of fans through social platforms and share some product information with them, thereby bringing goods to themselves or brands.

People like Li Jiaqi, the “Lipstick King” on TikTok, and Zhang Dayi, a popular Weibo celebrity, all belong to this category.

Judging from the data, basically every time Li Jiaqi recommends a lipstick, it will be out of stock; and 53.5% of Ruohan’s revenue in the first three quarters of 2019 came from Zhang Dayi’s e-commerce company, and among Ruohan’s 91 self-operated online stores, about 39% of users will choose to repurchase , which shows the influence of Internet celebrities.

Why are internet celebrities so good at selling products?

Judging from the data of internet celebrity e-commerce, it can be said that internet celebrity e-commerce has now become the first choice for most mid-level and even "small internet celebrities". So why are internet celebrities' ability to bring goods so strong?

Xiguajun thinks that it can be attributed to the following three points.

01 High Decentralization

Internet celebrities are more approachable than celebrities, and with the help of exposure on social platforms, they can quickly capture the hearts of young people.

At the same time, the popularity of internet celebrities does not only rely on the traffic and support of a single platform, but also attracts user attention around "content".

Internet celebrities can use their own recommendations to actively recommend screened content to their fans to stimulate consumption.

02 Trust increases stickiness and conversion rate

After all, the internet celebrity economy is essentially word-of-mouth marketing.

Users trust the products and features recommended by the influencer because they trust the influencer himself.

At the same time, people are willing to spend more money on things or people they like , which creates a brand premium. This is why nearly 39% of Ruhnn’s users choose to repurchase their products.

03 The development of live streaming e-commerce

Live streaming is a catalyst for the accelerated development of influencer e-commerce. Through live streaming, influencer e-commerce can show buyers what they would see in a physical store.

The dynamic effect display is more vivid than the text + picture format. At the same time, the live interaction makes users feel more involved and have a better "trial feeling" of the product.

Taobao Live, Douyin, and Kuaishou, the current major video platforms are all promoting e-commerce live streaming, and I believe they will receive greater attention in the future.

Many internet celebrities become out of fashion before they even become popular?

The low threshold for becoming an internet celebrity and their explosive and wild growth mean that the frequency of their emergence is also increasing.

But at the same time, the increasing speed of internet celebrity iteration means that the frequency of internet celebrity reshuffle is also accelerating. Many internet celebrities have fallen before they became famous; some internet celebrities have experienced explosive popularity on all platforms, but lacked stamina and were soon forgotten.

If you want long-term popularity and traffic, there are many things that require internet celebrities to prepare in advance.

① Learn to label users

It is said that "user portrait" is the best way to test the ability of operators, because only by identifying the target users can they be better served and thus better realize monetization.

But in fact, it is difficult for most people to identify the user portrait in one go.

At this time, you might as well take it step by step, first label different users with similar tags, and then extract accurate user portraits from the keywords of the tags.

②Monetization should be considered from the beginning

The ultimate goal of most internet celebrities is to monetize, but not all types of accounts can be monetized directly.

Categories like fashionable men and beautiful women, cosmetics and clothing are relatively easy to monetize, but some characters are relatively difficult to monetize, such as the currently popular detective series. Their monetization model is not yet mature, and it is difficult to find accurate users.

Therefore, no matter what content you create, you must think clearly about the monetization model at the beginning, otherwise you will end up having fans but it will be difficult to monetize.

③ A clear personality is the long-term solution

If you want to gain long-term attention, you must have a clear positioning of yourself so that users can notice you among the vast number of Internet celebrities and be willing to "pay" for you.

Speaking style: the "Ke Ke" at the end of "Gu Amo"; the non-standard Mandarin of "Beautiful Girl Xiao Hui";

Content style: "Daily Food" is warm and healing; "Fairy Yeast" is classical and retro;

Classic words: "Li Jiaqi" is amazing! 、Oh My God! ;

…….

In fact, there is much more to a person’s personality than just this. The key is to find out what makes you different from others and amplify it so that users will remember you.

Some people say that although the ceiling of content entrepreneurship is gradually approaching, dividends will always exist. After all, social media is subverting the behavior of young consumers.

In fact, the development of the internet celebrity economy has confirmed this point of view. The gradually expanding influence of KOLs in vertical fields has led to the iteration of KOLs from e-commerce traffic diverters to product influencers.

Please wait and see where the internet celebrity economy will eventually go.

Source: Xiguajun (ID: xiguaxiaoji)