84.8% of marketers say influencer marketing works, reports keyword everywhere. Do you? As old marketing methods are ignored nowadays, marketers use real connections in branding with trusted voices.

Influencer marketing is used to promote a brand, product, or service and reach a new audience through influencers. Think, why does this matter? Influencer marketing gives a high return on investment (ROI), which means the profit that is earned from every dollar that you have spent on marketing. It builds trust to reach targeted audiences for the brands. For quick and cost-effective results in brand awareness or a product launch, marketers use influencers.

Influencers

Influencers are people with a large following on social media. They fall under fields like beauty, advertising, travel, food, and fitness. They know what attracts the audience, and hence, we are using them for marketing.

Choosing the right category of influencer is a strong influencer marketing strategy. The types of influencers vary depending on the size and niche. Here is the breakdown of the influencers category.

Must-know influencers categories

Influencer by followers count

Mega Influencers (1M+ Followers)

Celebrities and internet-famous creators offer massive reach but lower engagement and higher costs. Think of celebrities and channels like the following.

• Actor Soori – 2.2 M followers
• Bj Bala – 3.8 M followers
• Madhan Gowri – 2.5 M followers
• Rashmika Mandanna– 46 M followers
• Village Cooking Channel – 28.2 M YouTube subscribers

They offer massive reach and higher cost. Even check for the top 25 influencers of 2025 in Tamil Nadu.

Macro Influencers (100K–1M Followers)

Established influencers with more targeted scale reach than mega influencers. They have a large and loyal audience for branding awareness, such as,

• Anitha Sampath – (Lifestyle) 1 M followers
• Farina Azad - (Fashion) 1.4 M followers
• Deepika Venkatachalam – (Fashion) 1.2M followers
• Mohamed Ashik – (Social Impact) 1 M followers
• Sarath - (News Satire) 1 M followers
• Irfan – (Food) 1 M followers
• Yuvarani - (Finance) 1.1  M followers
• Abishek Kumar – (Entertainment) 1 M followers

Micro Influencers (10K–100K Followers)

Micro-influencers often have three to four times more engagement than macro-influencers. They are deeply connected to the audience, with highly trusted voices in specific niches.

• Dharani Aruhn – Travel enthusiast  (190k followers)
• Farhana Suhail – Travel enthusiast (330k followers)

Nano Influencers (<10K Followers)

Every day, these creators are well-connected. They’re cost-effective and ideal for hyper-targeted campaigns.

• @katha_ignite (Nano Influencer Community) - 6K
• @chennailocalfoodie (Food / Street Eats) - 8K
• @financewithpriya (Finance / Budget Tips) - 3K

Influencer by niche/industry-specific

Branding a specific sector or industry is Industry-specific influencers. They focus on industries such as fashion, technology, food, marketing, or fitness.

These are some industry-specific influencers around India.

Affiliate Marketing

Influencers earn a commission by creating a unique link or code for each sale. The main goal is to drive sales and track performance.

Example: Srinivasan K shares affiliate links to tools like SEMrush.

Giveaways & Contests

Brands collaborate with influencers to provide giveaways. Their target is to boost likes, comments, and followers.

Example: Saranya runs a beauty giveaway with a Tamil e-commerce brand.

Takeovers

Influencers temporarily manage a brand’s social media account to post content. This is to bring a fresh voice and a new audience to the brand.

Example: Ravi Shankar handles a brand’s Instagram page to share marketing tips.

Long-Term Ambassadorships

It is an Ongoing partnership where an influencer regularly promotes the brand. They build trust and long-term brand loyalty.

Example: Irfan partners with Swiggy to promote restaurant offers and delivery services.

Master your influencer marketing

Define Your Goals

Start with a clear outline of what you want to achieve through influencer marketing. Your goals will shape your entire campaign strategy and help measure success. Typical objectives include:

• Brand awareness – Make the brand reach your target audience.
• Engagement – Keep your audience engaged through likes, shares, and comments
• Leads – Attract leads and gather the contact information for future follow-up.
• Sales – Focus on the result and make influencer marketing views lead to sales

Find the Right Influencers

Search the influencers who match your niche and audience using platforms like AspireIQ, Upfluence, or manual search.

Key factors to consider:

2. Analytics Tools

HypeAuditor

• HypeAuditor gives information on influencers' audience quality and engagement rates.
• It helps prevent fraud by verifying that influencers have real, active followers.

Traackr

• Traackr is an influencer relationship management platform that tracks performance.
• It provides analytics to identify top-performing influencers for future campaigns.

3. Relationship Management Tools

Grin

• Grin is an influencer marketing platform that helps in influencer relationship management.
• It offers outreach, campaign management, and reporting tools on one platform.

AspireIQ

• AspireIQ is a relationship management tool for influencer collaborations and campaign management.
• It features influencer outreach and campaign workflows, simplifying large-scale campaigns.

4. UGC Collection Tools

TINT

• TINT collects user-generated content (UGC) from social media for marketing campaigns.
• It helps brands to turn content from influencers. It even helps customers with effective marketing material.

Stackla

• The Stackla platform helps brands collect user-generated content.
• It brings the influencers' images, videos, and customer posts to boost engagement.

Smart moves in influencer marketing

Key benefits of influencer marketing

Influencer marketing has many benefits for brands and businesses. Here's a list of benefits:

1. Improved Trust