Why Influencer Marketing Matters

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Presented at the 6th Annual Social Media Marketing Conference, Toronto, Feb 12-14 2013 Bloggers and social media content creators are the new influencers, and often have larger and more trusted audiences than enterprise brands. Influencer marketing is the idea of partnering brands with bloggers and other active social media users to create and distribute relevant content that is targeted towards an audience that cares, and is shared in a way that is authentic and transparent. It involves less shouting and more listening. It means less advertising noise and more quality conversations about things that matter. When brands partner with fans and influencers who are closer to their target audience than they are, they are taking a huge step towards building consumer trust and being part of the social conversations consumers are having long before they ever buy a product. This session will educate brands on best practices for creating powerful influencer marketing programs that help them shift from ineffective advertising to earned advocacy.

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6th Annual Social Media Marketing Conference

Why Influencer Marketing Matters

Presenter: Holly Hamann, co-founder, BlogFrog

Co-founder, BlogFrogInfluencer Marketing Platform 18 years in digital marketing

Mathematics and Computer Science Degree

Blogger – www.LoveandMath.com

About Your Presenter

Holly Hamannholly@theblogfrog.com

@HollyHamann

Where are your customers?

#BlogFrog

Disruptive Trends in Digital Marketing

Online Advertising

Content Marketing

Social Media

1. Banner Advertising Doesn’t Work

Advertising budgets are shifting to social media, and major brands are looking for intelligent, proven and measurable strategies to improve engagement and influence.

8% of internet users account for 85% of all clicks

2. Consumers Want Content

Content Marketing – compelling, relevant content, developed internally or through a community of key influencers, is driving more meaningful and stronger levels of social engagement with consumers.

There is only one true branding mechanism online and that’s content marketing.

3. Social Media Creates Influencers

Social Marketing – a new breed of technologies and best practices are emerging to target, automate and measure PR, sales and marketing processes and the ROI of social marketing campaigns.

In 5 years, marketers will spend more on social, mobile, and video than search.

Shifts in Brand Marketing

ControlImpressionsPurchaseReaching everyoneConclusionsFactsLinear (print/tv)

PartnershipEngagementConsiderationNiche audienceContentOpinionsNon-linear Mobile and video

The New Influencer

Customers Follow Her

What do influencers have that brands don’t?

What is Influencer Marketing?

Partnering with influencers who help create and share peer-trusted content.

Partnerships With Influencers Are Key

• Helps reach more target consumers

• Creates trust

• Provides relevant consumer content

• Helps create highly engaging, authentic content (video and mobile, blog posts)

• Scalable

• Creates powerful earned media

• Effective supplement (or alternative) to banner advertising

What do influencers want?

We asked 65,000 of them

What does the ideal brand partnership look like?

Which product category campaigns are most desirable?

How does trust and social good influence partnership choices?

How is influence measured?

How effective are brands at connecting, pitching, and compensating bloggers?

Which brands are the most successful at forming influencer partnerships?

We Wanted to Know

Survey Demographics

Top “Other” categories:

• Personal• Beauty• Books• Faith/Religion

This is where thousands of untapped powerful niche influencers live.

Core Influencer Categories

Hours per week spent engaged with other blogs

Hours per week

Bloggers who spend 6 or more hours per week commenting on other blog communities show a correlated increase in revenue.

Influencers favor brand-sponsored social media and blog campaigns!

• 60% respected brands who wanted to interact with bloggers, thought campaigns were fun, validated their blogs, or thought they were great opportunities to earn revenue.

• Less than 2% disliked brand-sponsored social media or blog campaigns.

93% have purchased a product based on information they found on a blog or online community.

90% of bloggers surveyed were somewhat or very interested in working with brands, provided they were compensated.

What bloggers want in a brand relationship

Most popular brand categories (view 1)

Brand Categories Highly and Somewhat Desirable

What’s TRUST got to do with it?

• 70% of influencers trust a brand more when that brand is promoted or recommended by someone they know from a blog or social media.

• 56% of influencers trust a brand more when a campaign includes an element of “social good” (raising money or awareness for a non-profit or social cause).

58% of bloggers have never been approached by a brand to work on a

campaign

How brands are reaching out to bloggers

• Nearly 2/3 of bloggers reject at least half of the brand pitches they receive.

• 87% said personal feelings about a brand influences whether they will work with that brand.

Number of brand pitched received by bloggers each year

Effectiveness of brand pitches

PersonalTargetedRelevant CompensationClearOrganizedConcise

Elements of a good pitch

What product category campaigns were accepted?

12% of bloggers had a negative experience working

on a brand campaign.

Reasons for negative experiences

Brands creating successful partnerships

Photo source: Warner Bros.

Just like any perfect relationship…

Photo source: Warner Bros.

Influencers want:

Photo source: Warner Bros.

Brands want:

Photo source: Warner Bros.

How do you get it?

What bloggers want How to get it

Commitment Engage bloggers for multiple campaigns to create relationships you can rely on for years.

Partnership Products and trends evolve over time. Take the time to ask bloggers about your brand and product. Then listen.

Respect Be as professional as you would with any business colleague.

Compensation Asking bloggers to work for free is short-sighted. Create powerful partnerships by providing mutual benefit and compensation.

Clarity Be clear about campaign scope (amount of work required, deadlines, compensation, non-competes, etc). Make it easy to say yes or no.

To champion valuable products

Provide a high-quality product that is appropriately targeted (i.e. don’t ask a diabetic blogger to write about your chocolate bar).

Social engagement Follow bloggers on Twitter and Facebook, join their community discussions, comment on their blogs, get to know them.

Balance Create campaigns that accommodate family-oriented lifestyles.

Current Clients

Thank You!

Holly HamannCo-founder, BlogFrog

holly@theblogfrog.com