How to Utilizing Japanese Influencers for Marketing
Influencers play a crucial role in digital marketing in Japan. Depending on how they are utilized, it can make the difference between profit and loss.
Despite the trend, the complex cultural landscape of Japan presents many challenges, specifically for foreign business owners. For this reason, utilizing Japanese marketers has been popular to penetrate the digital realm of Japan.
However, understanding how to utilize Japanese influencers might help. It is important to note that finding this information is not always easy.
In this article, we will look into ways of utilizing Japanese influencers for finding success in Japanese marketing.
Reasons to use Japanese Influencers for Marketing
There are many reasons for utilizing Japanese influencers for marketing specifically for the foreigners and here are two major reasons why.
The Language Barrier
The language barrier is one of the biggest obstacles foreign businesses face when trying to enter the Japanese market through promotions. As a foreigner, you will likely struggle to communicate your brand message effectively to Japanese consumers, which can be detrimental to your marketing efforts. Additionally, you may encounter challenges in understanding and researching the consumer demographics and trends in Japan.
By utilizing Japanese influencers who are experienced in the local market, you can overcome these barriers. These influencers can provide both convenience and credibility, allowing you to bypass the struggles associated with the language barrier.
Exclusive Nature of Japanese Consumers
One of the major traits of Japanese consumers is their tendency to prioritize group harmony. Their purchasing decisions are heavily influenced by word-of-mouth and peer referrals. This means that if a brand’s message is delivered inefficiently, negative rumors can spread rapidly among Japanese consumers. As a result, it is crucial to build trust when presenting your brand to Japanese users in order to boost both brand awareness and conversions.
By utilizing Japanese influencers who are experienced in the local market, you can navigate this exclusivity more effectively. These influencers provide both convenience and credibility, allowing you to reach their existing fan base while minimizing the challenges posed by Japan’s consumer behavior.
Categories of Japanese Influencers based on Follower’s scale
There are many Japanese influencers in this digital era with different number of fans and they are separated with the following scaling/categories.
Nano-influencer
Nano-influencers are characterized by having followers of between 1000 to 10000 and they are smallest category of influencers you can reach out to. Despite, their small size of their fanbase they provide you with merits of.
- High engagement from their loyal and niche followers
- Strong experience with PR contents
- Reduced cost for collaboration and promotions
Micro-influencer
Micro-influencers are characterized by having followers of over 10000 and they are they second smallest category of influencers you can choose from. This category of influencers give you advantages of.
- High engagement similarly to nano-influencers
- Affordable cost for PR contents
- Better chance of facilitating word-of-mouth
Macro-influencer
Micro-influencers are bigger influencers with followers over 100,000, and some of them have presence on other medias such as televisions and books. Despite the increased cost of promotion when collaborating with this level of influencers, they provide you benefits of.
- Stronger influence across different channels
- Strategic and massive targeting of specific niche
- Stronger chances of facilitating word-of-mouth for awareness
Mega-influencer
Finally, Mega-influencers are the biggest category of influencer as they have followers of over 500,000. When collaborating with this level of influencer, they come with the heaviest cost and less engagement, however, with the return of strong advantages such as.
- Stronger reach even outside of your brand’s niche
- Strong digital and media presence
- Smoother collaboration due to their experiences
How to find Japanese Influencers for Marketing
Now that some of you are hooked to utilizing Japanese influencers for marketing your foreign business, now you may wonder how you can reach out to them for collaboration. Here are some ways of doing so.
Reaching out through DMs
This is probably the easiest way of starting, however comes with lots of demerits. You may face lots of communication error due to language barrier, or even worse, face the chances of getting no reply from them.
Joining Local Events
Joining local events hosted by the influencers can also be way for reaching out. This also comes with obstacle of language; however, it will give you chances of negotiating with them directly for collaboration.
Using Influencer Agencies
Utilzing influencer that provides that specializes in working with foreign companies can be beneficial. Companies like Hotice can facilitate delivery of your brand in Japan without having to face the difficulties of complex communication and nuances in Japan.
Different Platforms for Influencer Collaboration
There are various digital platforms you can choose to collaborate on with Japanese influencers and here are the followings.
Instagram offers various content formats, including posts, stories, and reels. This platform allows you to create visually appealing promotions when collaborating with Japanese influencers to reach your target audience. Instagram is particularly popular for content related to fashion, lifestyle, food, travel, and gaming.
X(Twitter)
Twitter is one of the most convenient communication tools among Japanese consumers. It provides a strong opportunity to generate word-of-mouth marketing through its “retweet” feature. Twitter is especially popular for business-related content as well as comedy.
YouTube
YouTube is a well-known platform, especially among younger users. It has proven to be successful in influencing consumer behavior through entertainment-based promotions. The platform is popular for high-quality content across a wide variety of niches.
TikTok
TikTok is one of the newest platforms in the digital era and has gained significant popularity, particularly among younger users. It is highly effective for targeting and engaging users through short video content paired with interactive music. TikTok is popular for the creation of bite-sized, interactive content that captivates its audience.
Ways of Collaborating on Platforms with Japanese Influencers
There are many ways of collaborating with Japanese Influencers on the platforms introduced above and here are some ways.
Review Contents
To create both awareness and credibility, you can collaborate with a Japanese influencer to promote your brand in form of a review. This will create a natural promotion with sense of closeness among the audiences, with your brand incorporated into lives of their favorite influencers.
Postings
A simple posting with your brand is another idea for promotion with Japanese influencers. Posting for promotion can involve either video or a picture along with a hooking description to stimulate both awareness and conversion of your brand across the Japanese consumers.
Campaigns
You can collaborate with Japanese influencers by establishing campaigns that will engage the Japanese consumers. These campaigns can involve interactive features like utilizing sharing features, in exchange for a chance of getting rewards for both awareness and conversion.
Video Contents
Video contents are applicable among most platforms introduced above, and it the most common form of collaboration. Video contents, depending on the platform utilized, can be done in form of livestreams to stimulate brand loyalty and awareness through live exchanging of information.
Vision and Goal for Utilizing Japanese Influencers
Most of the readers are likely here with the interest creating new opportunities with your brand in Japan.
Relying on Japanese influencers would be ideally the best case for all of you as communicating to Japanese market and its consumers can come with many challenges. If you have a vision and goal of.
- Marketing your brand without having to learn Japanese
- Seeking new opportunities
- Establishing brand presence in Japan
Collaborating with a Japanese influencer will be the most convenient and provide you with higher chances of success.
hotice Provides Matching Support
At hotice, we can help you select the right models for your marketing without you having to contact the influencers individually.
Selection of Japanese models, specifically the influencers for marketing purposes, can be very challenging.
hotice can help you facilitate the selection of influencers while also helping you communicate efficiently with these influencers.
Some models and influencers can be troublesome even after joining an agency, causing issues.
However, with hotice, you will have no problem of such.
If you are looking to optimize Japanese model marketing, hotice is the company for you.
