Influencer Marketing Archives - Page 5 of 10

In News

What Does Your Brain on Influencer Marketing Look Like?

October 1, 2019 No Comments

By Blake Droesch

Measuring attribution and return on investment remains a key challenge when marketing with influencers—which means that it can be hard to quantify the merits of utilizing them. But neuroscience research from the UK, showing cognitive responses to traditional marketing vs. influencer posts, may provide some answers.

In May 2019, influencer agency Whalar and neuroanalytics firm Neuro-Insight analyzed reactions to influencer ads from UK social media users ages 18 to 65. The study looked at subjects’ “emotional intensity” and “memory encoding.” Respectively, these terms were defined as the strength of the emotion being felt and as the experience of committing something to long-term memory.

The research showed that influencer ads generated 277% greater emotional intensity and 87% higher memory encoding in participants than TV ads did. Influencer ads were also similarly more effective than Facebook and YouTube ads, particularly when it came to memory encoding.

Shazia Ginai, CEO of Neuro-Insight, explained to us that emotional intensity and memory encoding were measured using headsets with sensors placed on the areas of the brain specifically responsible for those cognitive functions. “Our brains are very specialized, so these responses can be measured with confidence,” she said.

Researchers also took a look at the effect of “priming,” or the act of one stimulus subconsciously influencing how people respond to subsequent stimuli. When respondents viewed branded influencer content prior to seeing a non-influencer ad for the same company, their reaction was often more positive compared with those who had not seen an influencer ad beforehand.

The study produced similar results for influencer-primed linear TV ads: a 13% positive response (also referred to as “approach”), 103% greater emotional intensity and 58% higher memory encoding. On the other hand, influencer-primed YouTube ads showed heightened approach (63%), but they resulted in just 16% higher memory encoding and a 26% decrease in emotional intensity.

By Blake Droesch

Sourced from eMarketer

In News

Four Reasons Why Influencer Marketing Will Thrive Without Instagram Likes

September 20, 2019 No Comments

By Jim Tobin

Instagram recently added new countries to its test in which it’s hiding the number of likes a given post gets from everyone except that post’s creator. Social networks are constantly testing new concepts, but the fact that this test has expanded indicates how seriously they are considering it, with the main goal being to take the social pressure off acquiring likes.

Some have worried that hiding likes from public view would hurt influencer marketing, as influencers are judged, at least in part, on their ability to get people to react to the content they produce. Here are four reasons why I believe influencer marketing will be just fine without the ability for the public to view how many likes their content receives:

1. Professional influencer marketers don’t look at public view counts.

All the social networks have APIs that let other software ingest the like count on the posts they are most interested in. With this ability, we can look at performance across a wide array of influencers and their posts very quickly and even make on-the-fly calculations in terms of engagement rates, cost per engagement and more. Only part-time influencer marketing folks are manually scrolling through accounts looking for the posts they care about.

2. The like isn’t going away.

Whether we should or not, humans feel a certain positive way when they get another like on their post. While hiding these numbers could certainly remove the pressure of “only having five likes” that we’ve all felt, getting those likes still feels good. Even more importantly, engagement on what we post is the fundamental signal to the Instagram algorithm of what we like to see more of. By the simple act of liking, we’re telling the algorithm who we want to see more often, whether we like video or not, and much more. Barring a seismic reinvention, the social networks can’t eliminate the “like” as the easiest way for us to give a nod back to our friends’ posts.

3. Engagement rate is relative.

While hiding public like counts will almost certainly decrease the total number of likes on the social network, influencers and content are compared against each other in terms of efficiency. So, if an average post once got 100 likes and that drops to 80 likes, the entire scale of what’s good shifts along with it.

4. We’ve moved beyond likes for measuring success.

Just a few years ago, we were reporting “engagements” back to clients as among the metrics showing the success of a given campaign. Today, however, we’re much more focused on measuring business results from influencer marketing programs. Many of our campaigns drive web traffic and measure that traffic all the way through to sales. For retail campaigns, we’re still often tracking sale lift against a benchmark period to measure success. Improvements in measuring influencer marketing are accelerating rapidly and the few left only measuring engagements are likely going to be left behind anyway.

Social networks will continue to make changes to their platforms. When I formed my company in 2007, there were no brand pages and no ways to run paid ads. You couldn’t even upload a video. Today there is another rumor that Instagram is running a test that will hide follower counts. As social networks make these adjustments in ways that favor quality content in front of people who care about it most, high-quality influencer marketing will have a place. After all, inspirational and aspirational content fosters brand discovery online and that is among the things people very much enjoy about social networks and the content we see there.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Jim Tobin

Jim Tobin is President of Carusele, a leading influencer marketing agency, and CEO of Ignite Social Media, the original social media agency.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

Influencer Marketing: 10 Top Mistakes Brands Make and How to Fix Them

July 5, 2019 No Comments

By Pam Moore

Influencer marketing is expected to be a $6.5 billion dollar industry in 2019. This is up from $1.7 billion in 2016.

Influence marketing is helping brands of all sizes big and small engage their dream customers, ignite communities, increase brand awareness and nurture powerful relationships. If you haven’t heard about influence marketing you must have been hiding under a rock.

As with anything in marketing, there are some marketers doing it right and are others who ruin it for the rest of us. Some are burning more bridges than they are building. Many are doing it without truly understanding the extent to which they are damaging relationships.

There are also agencies who claim to help brands big and small build relationships with an influencer marketing program. However, they wound up falling to spammy tactics and end up hurting the brand reputation without the brand marketer even knowing.

Every brand touch is an impression of your brand. If an agency or a member of your team is spamming the contact boxes of top industry or even micro-influencers with copy / paste spam messages begging for free tweets, I can guarantee they are hurting your brand more than helping you.

Influencer marketing is not about getting free tweets, Instagram story shoutouts and coverage.

Influencer marketing is not the same as earned media. Earned media = media you actually do something to earn. Many brands trick themselves into believing that they can skip valuing the influencers time investment in community as they lump it into “earned media.”

Agencies and Brand Need to Stop the Unethical Spam Tactics

Brand leaders need to get real, acknowledge spamming contact forms for free tweets, shoutouts and product reviews is not marketing!

Agencies that are falling to these lazy tactics in representation of the brand they represent need to quit damaging the brand reputation and trust of the clients who are trusting them. These brands are paying agencies to help them build relationships, not damage them through a series of spam and begging tactics. This is not earned media, paid media or influencer marketing, it’s spammed reputation damage.

You will get out of influencer marketing what you put into it

You will get out of influencer marketing what you put into it. If you invest time as a human in building relationships the payoff can be big. However, many brands fall to the spammy tactics and then blame it on the fact that influencer marketing isn’t working. The truth is the person running the program never took the time to learn the strategies and tactics that really work. They often skip researching influencers and send a generic blanket email or contact form desperately begging for free amplification.

Instead, brand and social marketing leaders wanting to test the waters with influencer marketing must always also think… “what is in it for the influencer?” How can I bring them mass value in working with our brand. The most successful influencer programs are when there is a partnership, when the brand and the influencer have common ground, beliefs, interests and a base to build a relationship. This is much of why micro-influencer marketing can be so successful for even brands with small budgets.

I developed episode 121 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast with a goal to help marketers brand new to influence marketing as well as seasoned veterans get the most out of their influence marketing programs.

The goal of this episode is to save you wasted time and help ensure you are establishing trust and a brand of integrity as you build, launch and execute your influencer marketing program.

I share with you tips in this podcast from my experience in working with brands of all sizes from startups to Fortune 100 brands helping them develop and execute influence marketing programs as well as from being an influencer myself. We get contacted by at minimum 10-20 brands per week wanting us to be an influencer for their brand.

In this 30 Minute Episode You Will Learn:

Why and how brands are confusing spam with influence marketing
How to choose the right influencers and avoid choosing the wrong influencers
Importance of doing your research on influencers before reaching out to them
The importance of the influencer being able to drive real action to help you achieve your business goals
Why trust matters with influencers
Building your team to succeed with influence marketing
How to create value for the influencer as a top priority
Importance of connecting the influencer with other people at your in person events
Importance of respecting the influencer as a human being, not as a number to help you simply amplify your message
How to decide if you should compensate influencers for their time

Supporting Resources:

Need help taking your brand to the next level? Social Profit Factor Training Academy and Marketing Nutz Can Help!

Social Profit Factor can help you ignite your content and brand architecture to grow your online tribe and business with social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. 2019 is where those who have simply been “hustling” to get by realize they must hustle and work smarter. Before you even think about posting that video on Facebook you must know who you are, what your audience needs from you and how your efforts are going to deliver value for your audience and your business.

Need help honing in your influencer marketing plan, branding strategy, architecture, message platform, online presence, or launching a new product or service? Want to leverage social media, digital marketing and branding to grow your business? Our agency, Marketing Nutz can help you build, launch and optimize your digital and social brand presence to achieve your goals. Give us a shout and let’s get to work!

By Pam Moore

CEO / Founder Marketing Nutz, full service social media, digital marketing, experiential brand, conversion optimization agency. Ranked by Forbes as Top 10 Social Media Women and 10 Social Media Power Influencer. Keynote speaker, author, strategist, consultant, coach, & trainer. Helps businesses of all sizes integrate social media into the DNA of their business, connect with target audiences to nurture authentic customer relationships. 15+ years experience working with Fortune 500, Franchised corporations with 4000+ local franchises to entrepreneurs and startups.

In News

Using Micro-Influencers to Drive Business in A Local Market

June 27, 2019 No Comments

By marismith

Influencer marketing has evolved rapidly over the last few years. In fact, influencer marketing has become such a key growth strategy for businesses that the industry is estimated to reach up to $10 billion by 2020.

For a long time, influencer marketing was mostly associated with big brands and celebrities. The landscape is changing and, as individuals invest in building niche communities on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, businesses are beginning to recognize their value.

We are now seeing a new wave of micro-influencers leading the way, not only for the big brands but for small businesses looking to capitalize on the trend. 2019 Statistics show that 81% of all influencers are micro-influencers.

This has created a level playing field for small businesses with an opportunity to drive sales even in a local market.

In this article, I’m going to show you how you and your business can get started with micro-influencer marketing.

What Is A Micro-Influencer?

Just as it sounds, a micro influencer is a person that may not have the largest following on social media but the following they do have is highly engaged. This person has a lot of influence among their community and, as a result, that community is highly likely to listen and act when a value proposition is presented to them.

Eighty one percent of micro-influencers have between 15k and 100k followers but don’t let this deter you from partnering with audience sizes as little as 5000 followers. A report by Gartner L2 showed there is actually an inverse correlation between the number of followers and the engagement rate in Instagram influencers.

This highlights a critical factor in the success of micro-influencer marketing. It’s not just about the size of an influencer’s audience, the quality of the audience is just as important.

What are the benefits of working with a Micro-Influencer?

It’s A Cost-Effective Marketing Strategy

One of the biggest challenges that businesses face is finding their target audience and earning their attention. To do this exclusively in-house can be costly and extremely time-consuming. It can take months, if not years, to build an engaged audience who buys into your messaging and your product offering.

Micro-influencers have already done all the work. You have instant access to a highly-engaged, targeted audience. That’s hugely valuable especially in a local market.

While some micro-influencers still accept product in exchange for their endorsement, most now require compensation for their work.

The cost of influencer marketing varies greatly based on a number of factors including the influencer’s social reach, the type of sponsored content and the length/ frequency of your arrangement.

A report by Later (2018) stated 66% of businesses paid under $250 per influencer post, while 27% paid between $250 and $1000 per post.

Influencer Marketing Hub created an Instagram Money Calculator to help calculate how much an influencer’s post is worth. Whilst this shouldn’t be used to define an influencer’s compensation plan, it can provide a generalized overview. For the most part, micro-influencers will have their own media kits and pricing structures in place.

As a general guide, you can expect to pay anywhere between $75 and $2000 per post depending on the value that micro-influencer brings.

With that in mind, micro-influencers can be far more cost-effective than if a business were to grow organically by themselves.

Social Proof leads to Sales

Sixty one percent of consumers aged 18 to 34 have, at some point, been swayed in their decision-making by digital influencers.

Micro-influencers have already earned trust among their community. That social proof carries a lot of value when it comes to the follower making a positive buying decision.

Fullscreen, a global leader in social-first entertainment and branded content, partnered with leading social analytics firm Shareablee, to analyze 31,000 influencers. In their report, they discovered 22% of 18-34 year-olds have made a large purchase after seeing an online influencer endorsing the item. With the right micro-influencer(s) working with you, this strategy has the potential to generate large returns on your investment.

Influencer Marketing is Scalable

Micro-influencers act like your own marketing and sales team combined. They have their own audiences and they know what works in terms of engaging and converting that audience into sales. Brand campaigns driven by micro-influencers are estimated to create 60% higher engagement rates.

Micro-influencers don’t require the management of an inhouse team and they already have a community of warm leads. Deploying effective marketing campaigns and consistently generating leads are two of the biggest challenges small business owners face, which makes micro-influencers a huge asset to small businesses especially on a local level.

Influencer marketing is scalable. While it requires a financial investment, the right micro-influencers will quickly generate a return and dramatically build your brand’s awareness and reputation.

How to Get Started Working with Micro-Influencers

Getting started with micro-influencers is simple but not always easy. Here is a basic checklist for you to follow:

1. 1. Create a strategic plan with clear objectives you want to achieve.
  2. Make a list of potential micro-influencers to start exploring.
  3. Reach out to start building a relationship. Make sure your approach is very win/win as the micro-influencer may receive numerous invitations to partner with brands on a regular basis.
  4. Invite the micro-influencer to consider collaborating with your business.
  5. Draw out a written plan with clear terms and conditions to protect both parties.
  6. Set a time period initially to establish success markers.

This sounds straightforward, but it does require a lot of work and there are a few best practices to follow.

Best Practices for Micro-Influencer Marketing

1. Find Relevant Influencers

It’s really important to keep your end goal in mind when it comes to finding influencers with whom you can partner. You’re not looking for just anyone, even if they have an engaged audience. It has to be the right demographics that fit your target audience.

Positioning is key. You are looking for local influencers who have a loyal following that matches your target market.

This way, when the influencer presents your business and call to action, you are going to see some traction and a profitable return on your investment.

The easiest way to find relevant influencers is to spend time researching the platform on which you and your audience is most active. Search locations, hashtags and mentions to find out where the conversations are happening. Once you find potential micro-influencers, monitor their profile and their interactions closely. Look for the quantity but more importantly the quality of engagement on each post.

By investing time up front, you will ensure that you find micro-influencers that are a good fit for your business. Not only will it save you time long-term, it can save you a lot of money working with people who aren’t a fit and perhaps don’t carry the influence you initially thought.

2. Ensure the Authenticity of Micro-Influencers

As influencer marketing has grown, so have the number of companies looking to capitalize on the trend. In 2018, the extent of influencer fraud was exposed as thousands of accounts were found to be buying likes, follows and engagement to appear as though they had gained influencer status.

Captive8 reported that of the $2.1bn spent on influencer-sponsored Instagram posts in 2017, more than 11% of engagement on those posts was generated from fraudulent accounts.

This is a big problem. While technology companies are working to combat this by launching AI-focused tools, influencer marketing fraud still remains a huge issue.

Ninety percent of Marketers believe proving authenticity is critical to the future of Influencer Marketer.

For you, as a reputable business, it’s imperative that you do your research and establish the validity of an influencer before jumping into a relationship with them.

Monitor their account, check the quality of their audience and their engagement. Look for sponsored posts and how the traction gained in quality likes and comments.

When reaching out, ask for case studies and past results that you can cross-check. Also ensure that the micro-influencer is following FTC Guidelines.

It’s important to keep in mind that micro-influencers want to ensure the authenticity of your brand and products. Influencers promote what they trust. Take time to share with them and provide samples when appropriate. Micro-influencers have earned a loyal audience and protecting that audience is their responsibility.

3. Measuring the ROI of Micro-Influencers

One of the biggest challenges for businesses investing in micro-influencers is measuring the return on investment. As a business owner, you want to know that your marketing strategy is working and delivering results.

Eighty five percent of marketers say engagement data is the biggest metric of success for influencer marketing. Forty six percent of marketers are using product sales to measure the success of influencer marketing.

Both are valid measures. These are three key areas you want to track:

1. 1. 1. Engagement:cThis is typically measured in new followers, likes, comments, shares, mentions, and all other forms of engagement with your business as a result of working with a micro-influencer. The return here is in brand awareness and growth. You should see a spike in engagement each time the micro-influencer shares your brand. This is a simple way to visually see the impact your micro-influencer has.
    2. Content: This metric is made up of comments, shares and sentiment of the paid posts. It helps establish whether the content fits with the audience and the objective. This may be an indication to try a different type or style of content that may resonate better.
    3. Sales: You can track this by providing affiliate urls, influencer exclusive discount codes and monitoring google analytics so that you can measure the sales each micro-influencer has brought to your business.

If you’re a small business owner, micro-influencer marketing can offer a lot of value and certainly has the potential to drive big sales in your local market. It just takes the right research, the right influencer, and the right partnership.

By marismith

Often referred to as “the Queen of Facebook,” Mari Smith is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on Facebook marketing and social media. She is a Forbes’ Top Social Media Power Influencer, author of The New Relationship Marketing and coauthor of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day. Forbes recently described Mari as, “… the preeminent Facebook expert. Even Facebook asks for her help.” She is a recognized Facebook Partner; Facebook headhunted and hired Mari to lead the Boost Your Business series of live events across the US. Mari is an in-demand speaker, and travels the world to keynote and train at major events.

Her digital marketing agency provides professional speaking, training and consulting services on Facebook and Instagram marketing best practices for Fortune 500 companies, brands, SMBs and direct sales organizations. Mari is also an expert webinar and live video broadcast host, and she serves as Brand Ambassador for numerous leading global companies.

Web: Mari Smith or Twitter: @MariSmith

Sourced from Bank of America

In News

The future of social media marketing

June 26, 2019 No Comments

By Alex Packham

Social media started out with Myspace and Bebo (oh the nostalgia) before graduating to platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Here we are now in 2019, ‘hashtagging’ and ‘storying’ like it’s nobody’s business.

What’s next for the social media industry?

1. A shift in focus: less on feeds, more on private messages

The feed is such an integral part of social media networks that it could never just vanish overnight. Regardless, people are using social media more and more as a way to get in touch with people and have instant message conversations.

To remove the feed entirely could be problematic though. The feed is the main source of incoming for many social media networks as most people will spend their dwelling time here. It’s also used as a key space for advertising. With visual formats such as Stories and Facebook Watch gaining speed, it’s likely that advertising will inhabit these forms in the absence of a feed. After all, IGTV is in the midst of discussions on adding advertisements to the content as we speak.

We have no doubt that the feed will start to play a smaller role in the growth of social media networks, but it’s here to stay for a long while yet.

2. Despite numerous industry worries, influencers aren’t going away

2018 / 2019 has been a tricky time for influencers with a lot of bad press and finger-pointing documentaries. However, not all influencers are deserving of the bad rep.

Influencers who are troublesome in the industry will become extinct over the next few years. Their followers will lose trust and begin to diminish, while brands will ‘wise-up’ to influencer red flags and learn how to find influencers who will work more effectively with their brand.

Although social media networks are still likely to be saturated with #ad and influencers galore, it’s not really the end of the world. If trustworthy and authentic influencers are all that reminds then the odd paid promotion will be much less problematic than it is today.

One trend we expect to see more of very soon is brand marketers educating themselves more about the influencer marketing supply chain. This will enable them to only work with influencers who promote their brand effectively and actually sell their product. Watch this space for further developments.

3. Brands will be making more of an effort to plan their content and be more consistent across channels

As social media continues to be an incredibly saturated space, the quality of content must also rise.

Brands that are smart will invite a social media specialist to take a look at what they’re currently doing, as well as give advice on where social media (and the internet in general) is headed. This will enable them to get a leg-up on future trends and plan ahead for the next five years.

Brands not able to identify what works for their business will lose customers to their competitors.

Plan, execute, analyse and repeat what works.

4. Small communities will trump big networks for most businesses (even more than they already do)

We all know that Facebook Groups and messaging apps have become so very popular over the last couple of years as a way to unite people with similar interests in thousands of niche topics. Whatever your tipple, there’s a group for it, filled with like-minded individuals posed for a heated discussion.

The general public is bored of seeing the same story over and over again. But having the context of a group changes things. A post about a new coffee shop only becomes interesting and relevant to you when it’s posted within a Facebook Group specific to your location.

Furthermore, the average person is usually more comfortable participating in conversations and sharing opinions within a smaller community, without fear of judgement from the entire world wide web. This ‘safe space’ atmosphere will continue to help groups become a hub of activity and engagement.

One thing that won’t change is that social media is the cheapest, fastest and the most scalable marketing channel available to most companies. That isn’t going away, period.

Welcome to the next five years of social media marketing.

By Alex Packham

Sourced from The Drum

In News

The Future of B2B Content: Data-Informed, Interactive, and Influential

June 26, 2019 No Comments

By Lee Odden

Before starting on any new marketing initiative or trying a new tactic, B2B marketers need to answer and essential question: Why?

While most B2B marketers won’t admit it, many still practice some “spaghetti/wall marketing” wherein each year they throw new digital tactics “against the wall” to see what sticks without really knowing why a tactic would work for their audience over another.

This is not to say that you should slow down on innovating and trying new things. But it’s important for success to be strategic and test. I challenge marketers to do more research around customer insights and preferences so that any changes they make are driven by data and informed hypothesis—rather than simply trying new things just to see if they will work.

Focusing Your Data Lens

For content, we focus on three types of customer data:

Discovery: Where, when, and how buyers find information that helps them identify a solution.
Consumption: Preferences for channels, content types, topics, formats, devices, and experience.
Action: What triggers will motivate the desired action.

With buyer discovery, consumption, and action metrics, you’ll know how to create awareness, great customer engagement, and compelling offers that matter to your customers. And you’ll always know which approach to use to improve your marketing because it will be customer driven.

A New View of Content

What does that customer driven content look like in today’s landscape? It’s data-informed. It’s interactive. It’s influential.

For example, client Prophix provides Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software in an industry not known for exciting marketing. With an understanding that B2B buyers are also consumers, they decided to launch campaigns that would go beyond educating buyers to “info-taining” them.

To create a standout content experience for their annual report for the financial planning and accounting industry, they brought together financial industry influencers with an interactive online game. The quiz-themed game asked questions using data from the report as well as from the influencers who were represented as avatars within the game.

The creative element to the content plus the collaboration with trusted industry experts drove performance of this program above and beyond expectations, beating the benchmark for asset views by 600%.

With a taste for what interactive content and working with industry influencers for content and promotion can do, Prophix followed up with another campaign featuring a simulated voice assistant named Penny.

An interactive microsite highlighted the intersection of finance and artificial intelligence with Penny as the guide. By interacting with Penny, users were able to access a group of influencers that provided their expertise via audio and text. The microsite had 189% more views than the benchmark and 642% more engagement.

By taking what is often called “boring-to-boring” content and packaging it as an interactive experience with trusted experts providing useful information, Prophix was able to realize their “new lens” of marketing as something that was beyond a shiny object. It was effective marketing.

An Eye to the Future of B2B Marketing

B2B brands are increasingly investing in interactive influencer marketing to engage with industry influencers and co-create content that is packaged with brand content in an experience that is engaging for influencers and buyers alike.

The sheer volume of information and media that confronts people in the business world is overwhelming and often pretty boring. Creating compelling experiences with interactive content is one way to stand out, differentiate, and optimize for effectiveness. At the same time, buyers don’t trust advertising or brand marketing messages. Co-creating content with trusted experts brings credibility and interest to the brand message.

My upcoming presentation at the 2019 Clever Content Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark will help B2B marketers understand how to “break free of boring marketing” by exploring the top interactive formats, best practices for influencer engagement and case studies featuring mid-market and large enterprise B2B brands doing interactive influencer marketing right. Learn more about my Break Free of Boring Marketing presentation here.

By Lee Odden

@LeeOdden is the CEO of TopRank Marketing and editor of Online Marketing Blog. Cited for his expertise by The Economist, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, he’s the author of the book Optimize and presents internationally on B2B marketing topics including content, search, social media and influencer marketing. When not at conferences, consulting, or working with his talented team, he’s likely running, traveling or cooking up something new.

Sourced from Top Rank Marketing

In News

Build Your Brand Reputation With These 4 Techniques

June 10, 2019 No Comments

By Susan Gilbert

Today I have some branding strategies to help you create more visibility and increase your brand reputation. Here’s four links with tips and tricks to kick start your work week.

Establishing your business as a leader in our industry takes time and cultivation through the right relationships and marketing methods. Using the strategies can help you connect more with your audience and influencers. There are several ways to help you focus your efforts and improve awareness. Take advantage of these ideas, and let me know how these work for you!

1 – Go beyond online marketing

Build a wider audience through offline marketing. With this strategy your business can reach interested prospects by being active and engaged with them at places like industry trade shows, concerts, book signings, and more. By making a personal connection you can create a memorable experience that will translate into your online properties as well.

2 – Create trust in your community

People who trust your business enough will the spread the word online and offline. This is free advertising for your company that can have a continual payoff. As you build relationships within your niche through methods such as exclusive events, live video, and Twitter chats your customers will have an opportunity to share their experiences. As you take a positive, and encouraging approach with a high value offer you will begin to see your products or services being recommended by others online.

3 – Leverage influencer marketing

Make an action plan to connect with leaders in your industry. This will open the doors for guest blogging opportunities and recommendations that can help bring more visitors to your website and social networks. Engage on places like LinkedIn, Medium, and other blogs to attract more brand followers. After establishing your expertise and authority it won’t be long before your business or name is recommend on authority websites.

4 – Podcasts and video marketing

Would you like people to find your brand online quickly? This is a powerful and popular way to bring interested prospects into your business, provide a how-to segment, or showcase an expert interview. Hosting a podcast or uploading videos to YouTube are effective with both live and pre-recorded methods.

Hopefully you will find these brand reputation methods useful to your online strategy. Are there any that you would like to add as well?

Have fun with these tips and tools.

By Susan Gilbert

In News

Proven Influencer Marketing Tips For Those Just Getting Started

May 14, 2019 No Comments

By Will Robins

Influencer marketing can be a powerful way for businesses to connect with consumers. Today’s brands are leveraging the power of influencers in mutually beneficial ways. Fortunately, this is a great time to get involved. Here are a few reasons why:

• According to Reuters, 27% of consumers in the United States use some form of ad-blocking software on a day-to-day basis. Antiquated ad models are no longer working, and companies are turning to influencers to reach their target markets in more humane ways.

• According to a study conducted by Collective Bias, 30% of consumers are more likely to buy a product that is recommended by a non-celebrity blogger. Additionally, non-celebrity influencers are 10 times more likely to drive in-store purchases.

• Linqia, an influencer-focused marketing company, found that 39% of marketers plan to increase their influencer budget in 2018.

Stats are great, but how do you apply influencer marketing to your brand?

Don’t just focus on growth. Finding the right fit for your product is the first step in the process of building meaningful relationships with influencers. Focus on the fit. This should be easy at first. If you are a health-related company, engage with health-related influencers. And don’t underestimate the power of microinfluencers; they make for a great testing ground when you first begin.

What do you need to know to get started?

Starting is easy. Begin surfing the web. You can use a lot of different tools, but here are my favorites: I use the search function on YouTube to find influencers in my niche. Next, I document on a Google Sheet their social media stats and contact information. Many creators have their business emails listed in their Twitter profiles — I’m not sure why, but I’ve noticed it is a common place to find contact information.

How do you know which influencers to work with?

Testing is the answer to everything. While you may not be able to judge performance and results in the beginning, use data to your advantage throughout the process. Start by looking at the percentage of views the influencer has in your country. That will be the first number to use for all calculations. Use that percentage to calculate how many people are going to see videos that the influencer will share for your brand.

In my experience, YouTube videos have a longer life cycle than other channels. Videos gain views over time, and that helps attribute for the cost of the engagement.

How can you leverage influencer relationships for mutual benefit?

Look for influencers in your market to ensure brand alignment between your company and the influencer. It is better to micro-niche down and work with influencers who have smaller but engaged communities. Don’t try to hit home runs — hitting singles is a great way to engage customers over time. Here is a quick list of action steps to get started:

• Start by working with five smaller influencers and test.

• Know your numbers for conversions on your website. Views become site visits. Site visits need to convert. These numbers will inform the results you expect from your influencers and how much to pay them.

• Have continuous outreach efforts.

• Look for deals. Who can you work with at a discounted price?

• Influencer marketing isn’t just a visual medium; ask the influencer to include copy in the description and comments of an Instagram post or YouTube video.

• Create a campaign document that outlines phrasing and copy to be used when describing your brand, and hold your influencers accountable for that language.

• Ask to view every video first before it goes live for any errors or off-brand comments.

• Get meaningful feedback early on and adapt.

• Channel into different sub-niches. For example, instead of the general “health” niche, consider keto, paleo and fitness influencers.

• Build an influencer page for your brand — I get new domains from NameCheap.com for $0.88. Then, create an email campaign and send out the site link asking for signups and directing people to “pitch you.”

What is the pay structure of an influencer like?

I get this question a lot, so I wanted to address it in this article. A survey conducted by Later, an Instagram scheduling tool, found that 66% of brands pay under $250 per post. However, the bigger their follower count and engagement, the more an influencer will be able to charge. After all, it’s not uncommon for influencers to be paid $50,000 for a single post.

When evaluating how much to pay, focus on engagement and potential return. Look for smaller influencers (with less than 100,000 followers) and do a test campaign at an inexpensive price. Track the results; if it performs well, then engage the influencer for multiple videos.

The most important part of the pay structure is the ask. Don’t be afraid to test first before you commit to a relationship. Stacking up smaller wins is more important than signing on for one huge deal with higher risk. Once you know your numbers, you can go for bigger deals — they aren’t as risky once you have a proven model.

Final thoughts: How can you ensure influencers and subscribers actually like you?

Don’t just think about the numbers. I know, I know — I base all of my decisions on the numbers. But it is just as important to engage in meaningful conversations with the influencers with whom you are working. Don’t be all promo all the time. Let them promote you while you engage their fans.

You can do so by buying ads to promote the video of your brand on their channels. Watch and comment on their videos. It takes time to have a relationship. Make it fun, but remember that the human element is the most meaningful way to stand out. When influencers and followers realize that you are a likable person who really cares about other people, then everyone in the community will relate to you more. That is when your influencer marketing can start to soar.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Will Robins

Organic Marketing Director at Manscaped.com, Overseeing SEO, influencer marketing, and branded content.

Sourced from Forbes

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IBM CMO Michelle Peluso Shares Her Top 3 Trends In B2B Influencer Marketing

May 13, 2019 No Comments

By Kate Talbot

YouTube stars and the Kardashians are not what you’d typically expect to discuss with one of the most sought-after marketers, who spends her days thinking about how to help people better understand how technology will shape our lives.

However, if from my interview with IBM’s Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Michelle Peluso, reinforced one core theme, it is that sometimes your most powerful influencers come from unexpected places.

IBM

Influencer marketing has become commonplace within B2C marketing. Now, more than ever B2B companies are racing to do to the same. The fact is that influencers are pivotal to brand success and remain a growth lever to promote products and inspire community. B2B influencers might just look different than a stereotypical fashion influencer posing in front of the Coachella Ferris wheel or the fitness trainer promoting protein powder.

Peluso has the task of marketing a legacy brand within a world of digital content and consumption. This new wave of consumerism leans heavily on influencer marketing; especially as the next generation of millennial and Gen Z buyers and consumers look at technology through a more digitally savvy lens:

“When you have a company that has reinvented itself over 100 years many, many times, there’s a legacy that’s quite attractive. But we have to tell our story in the right way – we’re always working on the latest, most cutting-edge technology, and helping clients make a difference in their companies and in the world.”

Peluso and I talked at length about a topic that is integral to the future of B2B marketing. Here are three takeaways about the current state of B2B influencer marketing gleaned from IBM’s strategy.

It’s all about authenticity.

Similarly to B2C trends of using nano influencers over macro influencers, Peluso encourages quality over volume, “It’s not necessarily about how many followers someone has, but rather what makes them valuable and interesting to their audience. It’s crucial that B2B companies commit to preserving an influencer’s authenticity as credibility is paramount.”

IBM’s ad campaign, “Dear Tech, Let’s Talk,” features an array of celebrities, influencers, and IBM employees and advocates. This includes IBMer, Lisa Deluca — a Distinguished Engineer and mother of four. She wants the world to know that STEM isn’t just a boys club. Peluso is determined to show that, “Whoever you choose to associate with your brand – they have to have that authentic connection. It simply can’t be manufactured or bought.”

Enterprise marketers must remain focused on finding influencers that relate to their products and values, and in turn, whose personal communities and followers will do the same.

B2B influencers differ than B2C influencers, and that’s awesome.

B2B influencers engage and thrive across a variety of offline and online channels – both inside the workforce and online through communities like LinkedIn or Reddit. These influencers are able to on their unique ability to convert non-physical concepts like artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing into consumable and exciting ideas for the masses…not just techies.

This is extremely important as content creation has a huge effect on the sales cycle as 80% of B2B buyers consume at least three pieces of content before talking to a salesperson.

“Employees are often an untapped influencer base for enterprise companies. Companies must find a way to identify these people, learn about their audience, and then support them to expand their mission and goals,” Peluso shared.

“In regards to external brand advocates, IBM works with this one developer, for example, Tanmay, who started learning how to use IBM’s AI platform (Watson) when he was a little kid. He has this uncanny ability to break down the technology in ways that people can understand. He does Facebook Live, YouTube, attends our events, and is becoming incredibly influential in his sphere.”

B2B influencers have a different audience than their consumer counterparts, which requires a different approach to content creation. Luckily, their audiences are passionate and drive results that can have a huge impact on the bottom line.

Give life to the intangible.

With sophisticated technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and blockchain in their technology stack, IBM brings abstract products to life through creative content. “What I think is really interesting is that, even now, a lot of what we do, you can’t see and touch. There are so many ways that AI and Cloud are touching people’s lives that you can start to make real,” Peluso explained.

One of the most famous examples of this is when IBM Watson won Jeopardy in 2011, defeating super champion Ken Jennings. This event brought the topic of artificial intelligence into mainstream conversation. And more recently with Project Debater, which showcased how AI could effectively debate a world-class human debater.

Another includes IBM engineer, Benin Saffo, who used machine learning and cognitive computing when she built a custom model to define different hair types through Watson Visual Recognition. By taking photos of hair, she could classify the unique characteristics associated with different hair types and further demonstrate the power of Watson.

By illustrating complex technologies in a digestible way for the modern audience, B2B influencers can share product vision and capabilities in an entertaining manner.

In the end, storytelling delivers.

Through understanding the importance of authentic storytelling and humanizing complex technologies, B2B companies can use influencer marketing for brand affinity and sales. The companies that get influencer marketing and social media right are those that consistently create engaging stories and compelling visual content, all with genuine intent for the audiences and stakeholders they serve.

Fortunately, B2B companies of all sizes have more opportunities than ever to connect with like-minded people through the power of influencer marketing.

I’m a content marketing consultant in Silicon Valley and millennial marketing expert. My book “Oh Snap! You Can Use Snapchat For Business” can be found here. Check out my website too!

By Kate Talbot

I’m a freelance content marketer, author, and entrepreneur who helps brands engage millennials. I’ve been featured on the Nasdaq, NPR, NBC News, CNBC, Huffington Post, VentureBeat and named an Instagram Marketing Expert from Foundr Magazine and Social Media Examiner. I wrote a best-selling book, “Oh Snap! You Can Use Snapchat for Business” which IBM named their ‘Book of the Month.’ My strong understanding of the digital landscape comes from my career managing social media for Virgin America and Kiva. I’m also a millennial marketing post-graduate lecturer at Ireland’s Digital Marketing Institute and social media expert witness. When not snapping, I spend my free time at Burn Pilates, reading at Dolores Park, and hosting art and charity events.

Sourced from Forbes

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4 Steps to Creating a Successful Influencer Marketing Campaign

April 9, 2019 No Comments

By Christina Nicholson, Media Maven

Influencer marketing is a relationship built between a brand and an influencer, where the influencer promotes that brand throughout social media outlets. Influencer marketing allows businesses to advertise directly to their target audience through an influencer that consumers follow and already trust. Influencer marketing has become a very popular social media strategy in the past

Influencer marketing is a relationship built between a brand and an influencer, where the influencer promotes that brand throughout social media outlets.

Influencer marketing allows businesses to advertise directly to their target audience through an influencer that consumers follow and already trust.

Influencer marketing has become a very popular social media strategy in the past few years. With the rise and advancement of technology, it’s important for businesses to learn and master this tactic to drive traffic and increase sales.

Here are the four steps an entrepreneur can take to successfully execute the influencer marketing strategy.

Define main goals and target audience

The first step to achieve success with any tactic in marketing is to define and set goals throughout the campaign. This preliminary step makes it easier to measure success and generate returns on any investments made.

Identify and make your product appeal to your target audience. Take time to research your target audience and identify what your ideal influencer would look like. Then, you will be able to target your product towards that specific audience.

“For a small business there’s one simple goal for influencer marketing: sales,” said Dhar Mann, an experienced entrepreneur and founder and CEO of LiveGlam, a cosmetics company that he took from $600 in starting capital to 8-figures in annual revenue in less than two years.

According to Mann, it is important to consider your company’s current stage when choosing where to focus your time and effort. In the beginning stage of your business, always place the focus on sales. After some cash is put away, you can focus on building up the brand.

Develop performance-based affiliate program that pays commission for sales

A business starting with a small budget can get the most return on their investments working with influencers by creating a performance-based affiliate program. Using this approach can help a business generate sales without spending any money.

“My company, LiveGlam, a beauty subscription box, will generate $20 million in sales in our third year of business and we will spend a whopping $0 on advertising. All of our sales come through commission-based influencers that love our products and make a great living selling them,” Mann added.

However, you must create personal relationships with key influencers in order for the performance-based affiliate program to be put into effect.

Create personal relationships with key influencers

Building trust and a personal relationship with an influencer is key to holding a mutually-beneficial relationship. People feel more of a connection with a person than they do to a brand.

“My advice is to take time to build personal relationships and don’t blow your whole marketing budget on a few pay-to-post activations.

“First, make sure the influencer loves your product and consistently uses it so their audiences know the love is real. Once that history is developed and the influencer’s audience is warmed up to your brand, then paid activations can start to work,” Mann said.

It’s also important to focus on developing a really good relationship with a smaller number of influencers then it is to depend on thousands of micro-influencers to drive sales.

“We constantly send them thoughtful gifts, fly them to our studio in Los Angeles, interact with them on all their social channels, take them on trips and do whatever it takes to build personal relationships.

“We pay attention to the small details and it’s paid off in a big way,” Dhar Mann added.

Also, creating a strong relationship can lead to many different, exciting opportunities to promote your product including giveaways, exclusive product bundles, and collaborations. These opportunities will also help expand your company’s social media followings.

Use the right platform

Using the right platform for influencer marketing makes a huge impact, depending on your brand. It’s also more efficient to become an expert one platform at a time.

“I suggest start with one platform, master that, and naturally it will start spilling over onto others especially since most Influencers are multi-platform. If they love your product and your brand, they’ll start talking about you everywhere,” Mann advises.

Facebook Live is a great platform to use for the start of your influencer marketing strategy.

According to a study held by Statista, Facebook is the most widely used social network.

“Not only do influencers on Facebook Live have the deepest engagement with their audiences, they’re also not being flooded with offers by big brands because live content is so new. So, you can get a lot of bang for your buck.

“Established YouTubers and Instagrammers have so many deals coming at them that you’ll have a tough time getting on their radar and will have to pay an expensive price to get in the door,” added Mann.

Review and Repeat

Keep your social media influencer relationships strong and continually monitor the success of your business. Reviewing your influencer strategy helps you to adjust any problems and replicate success. It also helps you find out what works best for your business.

“When LiveGlam first started we looked at everything like this: if we spend $X then we expect a $Y return. And we defined a successful activation as one that generated a positive return on our investment.

“As our business grew we started to look at the brand lift potential from an influencer activation. How many followers did we gain? How many impressions did we generate? How many people now know about our brand that had never heard of us, including other influencers?” said Mann.

Monitor your sales, leads, traffic, followers and engagement consistently. Make changes according to your business growth and keep your influencers happy for future demands. Influencer marketing is one of the most effective ways to improve your brand’s awareness. Using these strategies can help take your business to the next level.

By Christina Nicholson

Christina Nicholson, (Media Maven) is a former TV reporter and anchor who has worked in markets from New York City to Miami. She is still telling stories, but instead of doing it for a newscast, she’s doing it to help businesses grow. With her business, Media Maven, her podcast, Become a Media Maven, and in her TEDx talk, she helps entrepreneurs reach thousands, even millions, of their ideal customers or clients in minutes instead of months through the power of media without spending big bucks on advertising.

You can still see her in front of the camera as a host on Lifetime TV, in national commercials, and read her work online in Huff Post, Inc. Magazine, and Fast Company. Christina also has a local lifestyle and family blog, Christina All Day. She lives in South Florida with her husband and two young children.

Sourced from THRIVE GLOBAL