Influencer Marketing. November 11, Blue Paper

Transcription

1 Influencer Marketing November 11, 2015 Blue Paper

2 Instead of counting the number of followers, brands are now being asked to consider how influencers can help spread the brand s message. Influencers have expertise, credibility and reach; they know a lot about a topic and know the right people to influence on that topic. They, ultimately, can be a key component of your overall marketing strategy. Inundated with traditional advertisements, consumers are hungry for authenticity. They want connections with people and prefer peer recommendations over branded content. Businesses that embrace influencer marketing have increased their conversion rate by at least 3 to 10 times and show no signs of slowing down.[1] Traditional advertising alone won t deliver results for your businesses anymore. This Blue Paper will provide the history of influencer marketing, describe influencers, discuss their effect on marketing, and outline how marketers and entrepreneurs can tap into influencers expertise to boost brand awareness. What is influencer marketing? Instead of merely focusing on businesses to inform their purchase decisions, consumers are increasingly looking to each other. As Steve Cook, co-founder of Intuit, put it, A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is; it is what consumers tell each other it is. [2] For marketers and entrepreneurs, the thought of consumers, not them, having greater influence and control of purchase decisions may be a scary proposition. However, the rise of this approach to consumer decision making offers marketers and entrepreneurs exciting opportunities to boost brand awareness and, ultimately, increase sales and revenue through what has come to be known as influencer marketing. Influencer marketing can be defined as identifying individuals who have the strongest influence over potential buyers and positioning marketing activity around those influencers. Influencers are typically third-party individuals who shape a consumer s purchasing decision and have a greater than average reach or impact in a specific marketplace.[3] Expertise, credibility and relationship-building ability are key Influencer Marketing Page 2 of 10 info.4imprint.com

3 characteristics of influencers, and tapping into influencers with those characteristics can drive results for your brand. Don t think of influencer marketing as losing control; rather, think of influencer marketing as another mechanism an ever-growing one for dialogue between a brand and its target audiences.[4] The growth of influencer marketing Influencer marketing loosely developed from The People s Choice, a 1940 study about political communication that linked influence to opinion leaders and secondhand information.[5] While that study may have officially laid the groundwork for what we know today as influencer marketing, the explosion of social media has helped propel this marketing approach to the forefront during the past few years. It has become and stayed a key part of many business s marketing plans because the concept is quite basic and has worked for many. People consumers in this case typically trust recommendations from a third party more so than from a brand itself.[6] Think about that idea in your professional, or even personal, life for a moment. Are you more likely to trust and be drawn to a professional who approaches you and incessantly brags about his or her accomplishments, or are you more likely to trust a mutual friend or professional who vouches and speaks highly of that person? Influencer marketing allows your customers those identified as influencers to connect your brand to other potential buyers. Reaching out to consumers through a voice they trust makes them feel more confident in their potential purchasing decisions. This helps businesses not only make that essential first sale, but it helps establish long-term customers. Everyday consumers are becoming influencers, a title that had traditionally been bestowed on celebrities, athletes or journalists with notable press time or exposure. With the right connections and social pull, anyone can become an influencer.[7] Those with a strong niche social media following are typically the best influencers. They are individuals who already have an authentic connection or following in a specific industry, not one created merely in the name of influencer marketing. As mentioned earlier, they have expertise, credibility and relationship-building ability for a specific industry or niche. Content shock propels influencers With information and resource overload, businesses and consumers are in a state of content shock. [8] Figure 1 below shows the average adult s daily media and advertisement exposure:[9] Influencer Marketing Page 3 of 10 info.4imprint.com

4 Figure 1: Average daily media and ad exposure for adults Individuals are exposed to more media today than ever before. However, the ability to capture one s attention or the ability to engage consumers has not increased to the same degree, as shown by the number of ads noted. Thus, businesses must look beyond traditional marketing and advertising techniques to get their message to consumers. The issue is not getting in front of consumers, but it is getting in the minds of consumers to the extent that they act by purchasing your product or service. That s why influencer marketing has captured the attention of so many and led to results like those found by Tomoson s influencer marketing study (Figures 2,3,4):[10] Influencer Marketing Page 4 of 10 info.4imprint.com

5 Figure 2: Online-customer acquisition methods by percent Figure 3: Online-customer acquisition method by cost-effectiveness Influencer Marketing Page 5 of 10 info.4imprint.com

6 Figure 4: Revenue spent on influencer marketing Tomoson s study shows that businesses are not only making $6.50 for every $1 they spend on influencer marketing, making it more cost-effective than other marketing mediums, but that influencer marketing is their fastest-growing online customer acquisition channel. Beyond those statistics, more than half of marketers believe they acquire better customers through influencer marketing, when rating customer acquisition quality for each channel. Influencer marketing is successful, in part, because it taps into human relationships. Ninety-two percent of consumers rely upon people they know above other sources for referrals.[11] Influencer marketing s success reaches beyond business-to-consumer (B2C) interactions as well; 84 percent of business-to-business (B2B) buyers start the purchasing process with a referral.[12] Influencer marketing has caught the attention of marketers and entrepreneurs because it has been shown to cut through the clutter of information overload and deliver results. Now, let s learn how to bring influencer marketing success to your business. Influencer marketing success for your business Like other forms of marketing, one of the first steps of influencer marketing is to determine who your target audience is for a given product, service or brand. While many marketers and entrepreneurs have a solid understanding of their target customer, the next part determining who your target influencer is is essential to successful influencer marketing.[13] Influencer Marketing Page 6 of 10 info.4imprint.com

7 Context and relationships to consumers are important when determining who your influencers should be. A young female pop star may have an expansive social media following, but if you re a medical device company, is that young pop star the best influencer for your brand? No, because influencers have a strong, contextual following and an organic affinity for the brand.[14] The market is saturated with sponsored spokespeople and million-dollar endorsement deals; consumers desire authenticity, so give them that through influencers who make sense those who don t have to make their way into a niche but already populate that niche. Reach is a key component of finding successful influencers as well. How many people does your influencer have the ability to connect with not only for a specific marketing campaign, but in general? You may have a devoted customer who raves about your product or service, but if he or she has little reach, be that through traditional means such as word-of-mouth and especially through social media, then his or her value drastically diminishes as an influencer. Any one customer can discuss his or her purchase or experience at your business, but who are those customers who can discuss his or her purchase with many people in many mediums and have a measurable impact? One study shows that a tweet will, at most, reach 15 percent of a Twitter user s followers, with the average hovering closer to 1 to 5 percent.[15] Thus, examining and targeting relevant and engaging influencers is more effective than choosing an influencer merely based off of their number of followers. Lastly, an influencer should inspire action, resulting in increased awareness, sales and revenue for a given business.[16] Can your influencers drive people to pull out their checkbooks? Can your influencers effortlessly persuade people to pay for your product or service? Don t confuse reach or audience for true influence. Action is key. Finding influencers Finding influencers comes through a number of ways: 1. Monitor social media: With the explosion of social media, blogs and other means of digital communication during the last few years, someone somewhere is talking about you, your product, your brand or your industry. Monitor social media to find influencers who fit the context, reach and actioninspiring characteristics you want. Monitoring social media also allows you to delve into niches that you may have not even known specifically existed but are best suited for your brand s influencer marketing campaign. 2. Research hashtags: Hashtags can help determine who is active on social media and actively discussing the product, service or brand you are trying to sell. 3. Set search and keyword alerts: Blogs are niche and influential, so finding and establishing relationships with them must be part of your influencer marketing strategy. Internet search alerts and keyword searches can help you find relevant bloggers. Oftentimes, bloggers comment on similar blogs or share other bloggers content, so working to understand key players and the web of influencers in your niche can go a long way in determining your most influential followers. 4. Identify relevant industry events and conferences: While social media may yield the best results for finding most influencers, a more traditional route of identifying industry conferences and events and checking out the list of speakers and vendors can help you find other influencers. Have you ever Influencer Marketing Page 7 of 10 info.4imprint.com

8 noticed that the same people who speak at conferences seem to write guest columns in industry publications? Have you noticed that those who are quoted in news articles are the same people who may be featured as experts in television news stories? If yes, then you re well on your way to identifying some influencers within your industry. Engaging your influencers Once you ve found influencers, the actual influencer marketing part is just starting. Influencer marketing must not be looked at with a one-size-fits-all vision. The best campaigns are tailored for specific audiences. This helps the brand-influencer partnership and further develops engagement with all customers.[17] Because true influencers are passionate about your brand, you want their voices and their positive opinions shared in cyberspace through content creation. Creativity and context are key. 1. Content creation: For some goods and services, asking customers to upload photos of themselves wearing your clothing or eating your new menu item may lead to results. Other times, you may want content to be created by having product giveaways or discounts for the influencers who do a certain task, such as sharing a social media page or writing a review for your website. Generally, people like the opportunity to express their opinions and make their voices heard, so encourage your influencers to create content. 2. Free samples/giveaways: Another way for influencers to talk about you is to give out free samples. While you always risk someone not liking your product or service, if you initially choose strong influencers to develop relationships with, then they are more likely to write a positive review. 3. Mention influencers: On social media, mention influencers in your posts or retweet one of their tweets. For blogs, ask them to be a guest blogger or put their testimonials in one of your blogs. Like the two previous strategies, this builds the organization-influencer relationship by directly acknowledging an individual person. Is influencer marketing right for your business? While the prospect of having others who are already connected to both your brand and your target audience promote your product or service sounds risk-free, influencer marketing, like all marketing strategies, must be approached with caution. Influencer marketing requires groundwork and extensive research before promotion actually begins. A business must identify potential influencers, reach out to those influencers, prepare those influencers in line with your marketing campaign, agree on terms of the relationship, follow the influencer and evaluate the influencer s impact. The actual marketing campaign may begin after extensive groundwork, yet it may not bear fruit for many months, if at all. Influencer marketing also requires businesses to trust influencers, which includes relying upon others and giving them some control. Are your identified influencers people you really want representing your business, or is your business more comfortable with controlling your own narrative and taking responsibility for any wrongdoing or missteps that occur? Whether you re working with 10 influencers, 100 Influencer Marketing Page 8 of 10 info.4imprint.com

9 influencers or 1,000 influencers, each influencer is going to have his or her own opinion, platform and questions. In other words, working with influencers requires a business s time and effort time and effort that would otherwise be spent on other business-related matters. If you d like to implement an influencer marketing strategy, your business will soon learn of the challenges with tracking influencer marketing. Posts, presentations, tweets and other means an influencer may use to promote your product can t be easily tracked directly for each influencer. Thus, unless your business has the time, energy and funds to invest in a sophisticated tracking system, knowing the conversion or the success of your influencers efforts may be difficult to measure.[18] Action, not just influence, is key. The opportunities for engagement and developing relationships with influencers are endless. Understanding that influencer marketing is not a one-size-fits-all strategy is essential. Does your business have the resources to complete in-depth research to find influencers, develop a campaign and manage and grow those influencer relationships? If you believe yes, then what type of campaign is best suited for your business? Retail or fashion companies many find particular success with visually driven campaigns, whereas, a software company may find greater success with written content. While influencer marketing has brought success for many companies, your business s success will be contingent upon your ability to create and grow authentic relationships with established and credible people influencers in your industry. Influencer marketing is about relationships, and by constantly working to maintain loyalty and strengthen relationships, you will reap the rewards of this technique. Like with personal and professional relationships, influencer marketing relationships require continuous effort and can often be a slow process. Work to foster strong and authentic relationships, and your business will reap the highlighted rewards of influencer marketing, too. Endnotes [1] Why Influencer Marketing Is The New King Of Content. Wersm. N.p., 1 May Web. 10 Oct [2] Wong, Kyle. The Explosive Growth of Influencer Marketing and What It Means for You. Forbes. N.p., 10 Sept Web. 17 Sept [3] Barratt, Andrew. Who Is an Influencer? Social@Ogilvy. Ogilvy & Mather, 04 June Web. 18 Sept [4] Armoo, Timothy. Five Must Dos for Successful Influencer Marketing Campaigns. The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 24 Sept Web. 24 Sept [5] Greenwood, Sue. Katz, E. (1957) The Two-Step Flow of Communication: An Upto-date Report on a Hypothesis. Web log post. Sue Greenwood: PhD Blog. N.p., 8 Jan Web. 17 Sept [6] Matthews, Kristen. The Definitive Guide to Influencer Marketing. Kissmetrics. N.p., Apr Web. 18 Sept Influencer Marketing Page 9 of 10 info.4imprint.com

10 [7] Who Are Influencers and Why Should I Care? Mavrck. N.p., 6 Aug Web. 10 Oct [8] Influencers vs. Advocates: What s the Difference? Publication. Tapfluence, n.d. Web. 18 Sept [9] Johnson, Sheree. New Research Sheds Light on Daily Ad Exposures. SJ Insights. N.p., 29 Sept Web. 18 Sept [10] Influencer Marketing Study. Web log post. Tomoson. N.p., Mar Web. 18 Sept [11] Influencers vs. Advocates: What s the Difference? Publication. Tapfluence, n.d. Web. 18 Sept [12] Ibid [13] Matthews, Kristen. The Definitive Guide to Influencer Marketing. Kissmetrics. N.p., Apr Web. 18 Sept [14] 40 PR Pros Share Influencer Marketing Tips and Tricks. PR 20/20. N.p., 3 Sept Web. 18 Sept [15] Grissom, Twila. Relevance vs. Reach: Keys to Influencer Marketing. TechDay News. N.p., 16 Sept Web. 10 Oct [16] Baer, Jay. Why Online Influencer Outreach Is Overrated and How to Fix It. Convince and Convert. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept [17] 40 PR Pros Share Influencer Marketing Tips and Tricks. PR 20/20. N.p., 3 Sept Web. 18 Sept [18] Fryrear, Andrea. We Investigate the Pros and Cons of Influencer Marketing so You Don t Have To. Marketer Gizmo. N.p., 17 Mar Web. 10 Oct Influencer Marketing Page 10 of 10 info.4imprint.com