How Indian LinkedIn Influencers Find Brand Deals in Russia

Finding brand deals through LinkedIn is a niche and often overlooked area of influencer marketing.

But when it comes to India and the Russian federation, it’s become a booming industry for Indian influencers.

Despite the many challenges of attempting to penetrate the Russian market, Indian LinkedIn influencers have made significant headway compared to their peers on other platforms.

It’s also opened up new opportunities for startups dealing with LinkedIn marketing to penetrate emerging Indian territory.

📢 The Rise of Indian LinkedIn Influencers in Russia

With platforms like Instagram and Facebook saturated with influencers, Indian LinkedIn influencers have found a lucrative opportunity for brand deals in Russia.

Over the last few months, there has been a noticeable increase in LinkedIn influencers in Russia seeking out Indian influencers for brand promotions.

This new trend depicts the shift in influencer marketing from traditional platforms to professional networking platforms.

📢 Why the Russian Market is Attractive for Indian LinkedIn Influencers

The Indian market is saturated with influencers across platforms, with highly competitive rates costing brands in the millions.

Conversely, Russia has been largely untouched by influencer marketing, especially on LinkedIn, as most Russian businesses still rely on traditional advertising methods.

As a result, Indian LinkedIn influencers can charge Russia brands a fraction of what they would charge Indian brands.

This combined with the high purchasing power of the Russian market means that Indian influencers can bring something to the table for both sides.

On the one hand, they gain a lucrative opportunity to work for international brands; on the other hand, Russian businesses save on marketing costs.

📢 How Indian LinkedIn Influencers Find Brand Deals in Russia

In an interview, LinkedIn influencer Sanjay Agarwal said that he has received many brand deal requests from Russian businesses on the platform.

According to Sanjay, most of these businesses have requested he use Google Translate to communicate with them, owing to the language barrier.

“We start communicating in English, but then they request I communicate in Russian and use Google Translate. For the first few times, it was difficult, but now I have gotten used to it,” he said.

He went on to say that most of the brands reaching out to him tend to be Russian beauty brands. According to him, beauty is one of the largest sectors of the Russian economy.

Agarwal has successfully secured multiple brand deals with Russian beauty brands, and he now charges between $10,000 and $15,000 for LinkedIn posts and articles promoting their products.

📢 How Russian Brands Are Finding Indian LinkedIn Influencers

As we mentioned before, the Russian market is still largely untapped by influencer marketing.

This means that many businesses in Russia are struggling with how to even find influencers for promotions.

Lucky for them, influencer marketing platforms exist that can help them with that, including Indian ones.

📢 How Influencer Marketing Tools Help Russian Brands Find Indian LinkedIn Influencers

While many companies in Russia are looking for influencers to promote their products, there are very few platforms locally for them to find them.

According to influencer marketing manager at FameBuildup India, Harsh Bansal, Russian businesses are coming to their platform to find influencers for promotions.

FameBuildup is an influencer marketing platform that connects brands with influencers across platforms.

Currently, it has over 2000 influencers on its roster, half of which are LinkedIn influencers.

According to Bansal, one out of every five brands that reach out to them looking for influencers is a Russian brand.

He also said that they have onboarded many Russian brands on their platform, and many of these brands are also interested in promoting their products on LinkedIn.

Additionally, Bansal said that they have integrated Google Translate on their platforms so that it’s easier for businesses and influencers to communicate despite the language barrier.

📢 The Benefits of Working With Indian LinkedIn Influencers

According to a report by WhizzCo, influencer marketing campaigns in Russia are reported to have low returns on investment.

The report goes on to say that influencer marketing strategies that are being imported from the West are struggling to achieve high engagement rates and engagement.

Conversely, Indian influencer marketing strategies are achieving high engagement rates and returns on investments for Russian brands.

One of the key reasons for this is that the Western influencer marketing model has focused on influencer-centric campaigns.

This means that brands are often competing for influencer attention, causing many influencers to become unreachable or unmanageable.

On the contrary, Indian influencer marketing campaigns are more brand-centric, which allows for more effective and efficient campaigns.

For instance, Indian LinkedIn influencers often use LinkedIn articles as their main tool for promotions.

They create engaging articles that not only promote the brand and its products, but also build on LinkedIn’s theme of education.

As a result, their articles often achieve thousands of views, which in turn means more eyes on the brand and more sales conversions.

📢 How Indian LinkedIn Influencers Are Getting Paid

Payment gateways such as PayPal and Stripe are often the go-to payment solutions for brands when paying for influencer marketing campaigns.

However, due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, many of these payment solutions have banned Russia from using their services.

One payment platform that has not banned Russia is Payoneer.

📢 Payoneer is a Popular Payments Solution Among Indian LinkedIn Influencers Working With Russian Brands

Currently, payment withdrawal services in Russia and for Russian citizens are highly limited.

However, according to studies, Payoneer is one of the easiest and most popular payment solutions for brands in Russia.

This is because, according to many brands, it’s the only payment solution that offers the cheapest fees, a high exchange rate, and fast transaction speeds.

As a result, many Russian brands are using Payoneer to pay for influencer marketing campaigns.

This also makes it easier for Indian LinkedIn influencers to receive payments from Russian brands for promotions.

📢 The Future of Indian LinkedIn Influencers in Russia

As mentioned before, the Russian market is largely untapped by influencer marketing.

However, according to a report by the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, at least 80% of companies are seeing declining sales figures.

In addition, 30% of companies expect to lose half of their revenue by 2024 if the situation continues as is.

For many businesses, influencer marketing has proven to be an effective alternative to traditional advertising.

As a result, many Russian brands are expected to turn to influencer marketing.

This is a good thing for Indian LinkedIn influencers, as they will have more opportunities to work with more Russian brands.

According to a report by influencer marketing firm Traackr, the influencer marketing industry has grown from $6.5 billion in 2019 to $16.4 billion in 2022.

The report goes on to say that the number of brands that have used influencer marketing has tripled over that same period, indicating that there is much more opportunity for growth in the future.

📢 Conclusion

While it may seem that influencer marketing opportunities have dried up with increased competition, the case of the Indian LinkedIn influencer market in Russia proves that there are still untapped markets.

It is reasonable to predict that the Indian LinkedIn influencer market with Russian brands will continue to grow into the coming years.

For brands looking for influencers to promote their products, LinkedIn influencers are a great option for them, especially when they are targeting the Indian market.

At the same time, Indian marketers and influencers can take advantage of this opportunity to expand their reach into new territory.

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