Capturing the Attention of Rural India: How Influencer Marketing Helps Brands Secure Customers

Aug 14, 2023

Table of Content

Internet Penetration and Influencer Reach in Rural India

Why Influencer Marketing is Showing a Resounding Success in Rural India

  • Massive population stays in rural areas
  • Rural populations are often more social & community-driven
  • Localization and cultural relevance
  • Word-of-Mouth amplification
  • Educational content and awareness

How Brands are Roping in Regional Influencers to Win Rural India

Are you Looking for Local Influencers With Budget & Custom Requirements?

Conclusion

The way influencer marketing has risen in India is nothing short of incredible. With the existing market worth more than 12 billion Indian Rupees, it’s projected to grow at a rate of a whopping 25% over the next five years.

Now, one might think that influencer marketing gets more attention and response from the urban audience given that a large population is more technically aware and advanced. But this is far from the truth.

In reality, social media users from rural India are equally engaged, if not more, in their online lives than urban users. Apparently, brands are tapping into this huge opportunity and attracting more customers by digital means.

In this blog post, we’re going to discuss why brands are spreading their legs in rural India via influencer marketing and how regional influencers are playing a crucial role in this entire dynamic.

Resounding Success in Rural India

Internet Penetration and Influencer Reach in Rural India

Here are some fascinating stats on India’s Internet penetration:

  • More than half of the Indian population are active Internet users. That’s 759 million people! 
  • Point to be noted, rural India has more Internet users than its urban counterpart.
  • Urban India witnessed only a 6% growth in Internet penetration. Whereas, rural India saw a 14% jump in Internet penetration over the past year.

Source - The Hindu

Given the excitement that rural India is showing in the Internet world, the whole digital marketing landscape is seeing a paradigm shift. And influencer marketing is a subdomain of digital marketing that is also spreading its reach toward rural areas.

Why Influencer Marketing is Showing a Resounding Success in Rural India

rural areas for influencer marketing

Here are the major reasons why India is seeing a huge surge in rural influencer marketing:

  • Massive Population Stays in Rural India

One of the major reasons behind the immense popularity of influencer marketing in rural India is its population. Since about 65% of the Indian population lives in rural areas, the ratio of Internet users increases automatically. The more people are active online, the more content they tend to consume content posted by influencers.

  • Rural People are Often More Social and Community-driven

Regional Influencers for Rural India

The second reason behind the significance of trust and recommendations in rural communities. People living in rural areas often possess a sense of community. They’re more accepting and like engaging with others more energetically. And their loyal-community behavior stays persistent in their online world as well. They connect deeply with the influencers they follow and respond to their suggestions in a more positive way.

  • Localization and Cultural Relevance

The best thing about influencer marketing is that it requires little effort for a brand to connect with a regional audience. Regional influencers are already making content in the local language with all the cultural relevance. They find their favorite influencers highly relatable and trustworthy. Brands get astonishing results without doing much in designing a campaign. The local influencers are well-enough to send the right message.

  • Word-of-Mouth Amplification

Rural communities are more price-sensitive and function largely on word-of-mouth. They tend to trust the recommendations of the people they know and trust. Since regional influencers are the figures they see on a regular basis, they feel safe to act on the recommendations from them. Hence, influencer marketing work largely as word-of-mouth marketing in rural areas and gives tremendous results.

  • Educational Content and Awareness

People living in rural areas often have a knowledge gap on many topics. Regional influencers are addressing such educational challenges rural communities face– that too in their local language. This is why the rural audience trusts their influencers on another level. They help their regional influencers become sort of cult figures in their region.

Local Influencers for Rural India

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How Brands are Roping in Regional Influencers to Win Rural India

Some of the most renowned brands like Hindustan Unilever, PepsiCo, ITC, and Flipkart are tapping the potential of regional influencer marketing. These regional influencers are often called “Bharat Social Media Influencers”.

In non-metros and villages in India, people are more active on short video streaming platforms like Moj, MX, Chingari, and Josh than Instagram & YouTube. Hence, brands are targeting content creators on these platforms to promote their brands in tier 2 and tier 3 markets.

Shubham Mapralkar, a Marathi content creator from Pune, creates short informative videos on various topics on Moj. Shubham has collaborated with many brands including McNROE-owned perfume brand Wild Stone.

Shubham Mapralkar

Apart from the short video platforms, some regional influencers are also highly active on Instagram as well. For instance, Nikita Singh from Ranchi, Jharkhand creates stomach-aching funny videos that teenagers and young population find amusing. Nikita has collaborated with brands like Dualingo, Amazon mini TV, etc.

Nikita

Are You Looking for Local Influencers with Budget and Custom Requirements?

You’ve landed at the right place! Our platform, InfluGlue, provides you with a wide database of influencers nationwide.

Select your target location and industry; and get a handy list of regional influencers and their details in seconds!

Apart from connecting you with the right influencers, we also help brands strategize highly effective and result-oriented influencer marketing campaigns.

Our skilled professionals specialize in crafting brand-focused content that will deeply connect with your desired demographic and generate favorable outcomes for your brand. From strategizing your campaign to handpicking the ideal influencers, initiating your campaign, and diligently tracking your progress, InfluGlue handles every aspect seamlessly.

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Conclusion

Regional influencer marketing is on a consistent and exponential rise in India. It makes targeting the price-sensitive rural and small-town audiences much simpler and more effective. Hence, this trend is only going to become a marketing habit in the near future. Brands of every size and every kind are ready to grab a share of this golden pie.

We hope you jump on the bandwagon & make a fortune for yourself too!

Summary

This blog post talks about how rural India is seeing an exponential surge in digital influencer marketing & why regional influencer marketing is proving to be a big success for brands.

Team InfluGlue

Team InfluGlue helped to build the content of the site along with several other sites with its SEO driven content. It delivers informative content to different niche of Influencer marketing. That helps the entrepreneurs to coose the right influencer to reach their target audience.

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