Are you looking for ways to add to your marketing strategy to increase brand awareness and improve content performance? Influencer marketing is a great addition to any marketing strategy, no matter what your product or service is. Influencer/brand partnerships are on the rise, and as the number of Influencers grows, so do their respective followings. B2C companies in a wide range of industries are finding success with Influencer campaigns. Some companies are taking this a step further by hiring new roles, in-house, to manage Influencer marketing campaigns.
Authenticity, Transparency and Earned Media
Incorporating Influencers into your marketing campaign will expand your content reach, provide a new platform with which you can engage your consumers, and increase your potential target audience reach. This strategy will also increase your Earned Media Value. So, what is Earned Media? Earned Media refers to “publicity gained through promotional efforts other than paid media advertising.” It’s a form of word-of-mouth and Earned Media Value is a way to measure the effect of this type of marketing strategy. With the amount of information that’s currently available on the internet, social media etc., brands are finding it increasingly important to engage with consumers in an honest and authentic way. Earned Media is rapidly gaining the attention of today’s marketers and we’re seeing a shift from paid to earned as consumers are more interested in what other consumers have to say about a brand than the brand itself. Earned Media is best achieved through Influencer marketing.
Choosing the Right Influencer
Looking to add Influencers to your strategy? Before you start searching your favorite social media platforms for the people with the most followers, it is important to differentiate the different types of Influencers that are currently out there. In a recent episode of the Content is Your Business podcast, Beca Alexander of Socialyte divides Influencers into four categories: celebrities, models, creators with a specific lifestyle, and creators with an attainable lifestyle. Just as every brand and company is different, each Influencer has a personal brand that reflects their lifestyle. For this strategy to be successful, it is important to find an Influencer whose content aligns with your brand and marketing campaign. As we noted, Earned Media is rapidly growing ahead of paid and owned, so being able to see the difference between content that comes across as sponsored but still authentic, versus inauthentic content with a sole purpose of the Influencer’s monetary benefit is critical. Brands should strive to be as authentic and transparent as possible in order to earn the trust of consumers.
Finding Success with Earned Media Strategy
As you might imagine, developing, managing, and analyzing a strategy rooted in Influencer marketing isn’t easy. CMOs and CDOs are changing the makeup of their teams in response to the shift from paid to earned. This includes hiring roles like Community Managers (to manage influencer relationships) and Data Analysts (to measure success). Companies are also onboarding new tools to monitor these campaigns. Tribe Dynamics is a tool that offers a holistic approach to driving revenue through earned media and aids in the Influencer campaign process. Tools like Tribe Dynamics help identify, drive, and evaluate campaigns, and are a great skillset for your team members to have, especially if you are planning on working your team around and adding new positions to push a focus on Influencer marketing strategy. Are you ready to add Influencer marketing to your strategy? Our talent database can help you find the perfect fit to increase engagement with your 2018 strategy.
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Sources:
https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/intelligence/luxury-learn-beauty-influencerswww.tribedynamics.com
https://contentisyourbusiness.com/2018/01/015-beca-alexander-of-socialyte-influenced-by-humans/