STATE OF INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT 2015 - CRM … · EFFECTIVENESS OF INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT BY ... drivers and best practices in ... The results of the study confirm that content marketing

STATE OF

INFLUENCERENGAGEMENT2015

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

TAKE-UP OF INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

EFFECTIVENESS OF INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

EFFECTIVENESS OF INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES

CHALLENGES INVOLVED IN INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

USES OF INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

PREFERRED CHANNELS FOR INTERACTING WITH INFLUENCERS

MOST EFFECTIVE CONTENT FOR INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

INFLUENCER MOTIVATION

PAYING INFLUENCERS

INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT BUDGET

MANAGING INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT TOOLS

STUDY METHODOLOGY AND PROFILE OF THOSE SURVEYED

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

Welcome! We are proud to present the second annual study on the State of Influencer Engagement.

For the second year running we've strived to understand the challenges, drivers and best practices in the rapidly expanding field of influencer relationship management. We've surveyed more than 600 marketing and communications professionals from 32 countries and 30 sectors of activity to provide a detailed and thorough overview of the current situation of the field.

We sincerely hope that this study will unearth new discoveries and will serve as a source of inspiration when defining your own influencer engagement strategies for 2015. Happy reading!

Arnaud RoyCMO Augure

Identifying influencers remains the main challenge according to those surveyed.

Content marketing is consolidated as the main use of influencer engagement, while corporate communications loses importance.

Twitter, blogs and Facebook are the platforms ranked as best for influencer engagement campaigns: Facebook ranks first in the US.

Increasing their reach and improving content quality are, according to brands, the main motivations for influencers.

54% of those surveyed from the US said they always or frequently paid influencers (compared to 17% of Europeans).

The most frequently used tools for managing influencer engagement are not always the most e�fective.

Bearing in mind that 84% of brands expect to launch campaigns with influencers over 2015, it appears this field is well established as part of the toolbox used by marketing and communications professionals. An even more telling piece of data is that 81% of those surveyed consider influencer engagement e�ective or very e�ective for attaining their objectives. Influencer engagement is considered a particularly e�ective tool for boosting a brand's notoriety and, to a lesser degree, to generate leads and increase customer loyalty.This data leads us to the assumption that 2015 will be the year influencer engagement comes into its own. However, this might be jumping to conclusions, since the situation is more complex than it appears at first glance. While the US appears to be a driving force in influencer engagement (with a significant 60% of those surveyed increasing their budget for 2015), Europe appears to be slower to take up the trend (just 20% of Europeans surveyed will be increasing their budget). Up-take levels also vary depending on the size of the company, the industry and even the area of specialization (marketing/communications) of those surveyed. Below are some of the highlights of the study.

The study shows that:

2015: THE YEAR INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT CAME INTO ITS OWN?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY State of Influencer Engagement 2015

DO YOU EXPECT TO LAUNCH AT LEAST ONE CAMPAIGN INVOLVING INFLUENCERS IN THE COMING 12 MONTHS?

84%

State of Influencer Engagement 2015. Augure

84% OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSIONALS WILL RESORT TO INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT IN 2015

Influencer engagement is a key aspect of the marketing and communications of the professionals surveyed. Almost 9 out of 10 professionals expect to include it in their campaigns for 2015.

TAKE-UP OF INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

33

State of Influencer Engagement 2015

Influencer engagement was very popular amongst small businesses with under 50 employees, with 85% of them considering it e�ective or very e�ective, compared to 79% of medium sized businesses (with 50 to 1,000 employees) and 78% of large businesses (over 1,000 employees).

Sectors where influencer engagement is considered the most e�ective are health, fashion, cosmetics, energy, tourism, education and the non-profit associations.

Construction, the public sector and the banking sector were where it was considered less e�ective for attaining strategic objectives.

85% of marketing professionals consider influencer engagement to be e�ective or very e�ective, compared to 78% of communications professionals.

In the first study we conducted in 2014,79% of those surveyed said they obtained positive or very positive results thanks to influencer engagement strategies. In 2015, the number reached 81%, an increase of 2%.

The perceived e�ectiveness of influencer engagement depends on the continent. While 91% of those surveyed from the US considers it e�ective or very e�ective, only 77% of Europeans and 69% of Latin Americans believed its to be so.

34%

47%Very effective

15%

3%Not effectiveat all

Somewhateffective

Somewhatineffective

PERCEIVED EFFECTIVENESS OFINFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES


81% OF THOSE SURVEYED CONSIDERS INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT TO BE EFFECTIVEOR VERY EFFECTIVE

47% of marketing and communications professionals said that influencer engagement strategies were very e�ective for attaining their objectives, and 34% considered them to be e�ective.

EFFECTIVENESS OF INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

4


As expected, marketing professionals appear more in-line with business objectives than their colleagues from communications. Although they admit that influencer engagement is mainly focussed on boosting visibility, 36% consider it a very e�ective strategy for generating leads (compared to 20% of those working in communications) and 34% considered it useful for building customer loyalty (compared to 20% of those working in communications).

The level of maturity of this trend in terms of business objectives varies depending on the continent.

In the US 44% of those surveyed sees influencer engagement as a very e�icient in lead generation (compared to 17% in Europe and 25% in Latin America).

At the same time, 47% of those surveyed from the US considers influencer engagement a very e�ective tool for building customer loyalty (compared to 14% of Europeans and 22% of Latin Americans).

49%44%

5%2%

27%48%21%

4%

26%50%20%

4%

Increasecustomer loyalty

Generatesales leads

Raisebrand awareness

Totally ineffective Ineffective Effective Very effective

COMPARISON OF INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT EFFECTIVENESS DEPENDING ON OBJECTIVES

INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT: MORE A QUESTION OF BRAND STRATEGY THAN OF PROMOTION OR CUSTOMER LOYALTY

Influencer engagement is considered particularly e�ective as a channel for increasing brand visibility and value. Almost one out of two people consider it very e�ective in attaining this objective (93% consider it e�ective or very e�ective).

Likewise, we see an interesting impact on objectives that have a direct influence on companies' P&Ls: 75% of those surveyed consider influencer engagement to be e�ective or very e�ective for generating leads and supporting sales; 76% believe it e�ective for customer loyalty strategies. It's inevitable to relate this trend to the increasing weight of customer advocacy in the marketing mix, especially in the Americas.

EFFECTIVENESS OF BY OBJECTIVESINFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT


5



Identifying influencers represents a challengefor 8 out of 10 people who work at companies with less than 50 employees (82%).

In the US the ability to monitor influencers' activity on a daily basis (publications, social media activity, event attendance…) jumps to third place in the ranking of main challenges

Identifying (61%), recruiting (56%) and measuring (44%) were the other 3 main challenges mentioned in our study in 2014.

Identifythe right

influencers

Find the right engagement

tactics

Measure the performance

of your programs

Keep trackof your

influencers’ activity

Find budget for your

campaigns

Automate your engagement

processes

Find / train qualified

staff

75% 69% 53% 32% 26% 26% 8%

MAIN CHALLENGES DETECTED WHEN ROLLING OUT YOUR INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY

IDENTIFYING RELEVANT INFLUENCERS CONTINUES TO BE THE MAIN CHALLENGE FOR MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSIONALS IN 2015Identifying relevant influencers for the brand strategy is considered a challenge for 75% of those surveyed. The everyday challenges named by marketing and communications professionals were: getting influencers' attention through adapted engagement tactics (69%) and having the suitable indicators to e�ectively measures the results of campaigns (53%), similar to the results for the study conducted in 2014.

It's particularly surprising that a lack of budget or qualified sta� appear in 5th and 7th place respectively, especially in the case of small and medium businesses.

CHALLENGES INVOLVED IN INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

6


Marketing: Content Promotion (68 %) Content creation (63 %) Product launches (53 %)

Communications: Content creation (57%) Product launches (50%) Content Promotion (50%)

The preferred scenarios of use in 2014 were: Product launches (76 %) Content creation and distribution (57 %)* Event promotion and management (50 %)

*Nota: : these two scenarios have been separated in the 2015 study

USA: Content Promotion (66%) Content creation (62%) Product launches (52%)Europe: Content Promotion (66%) Product launches (64%) Content creation (58%)

Latin America: Content Promotion (75%) Product launches (58%) Corporate Communications (54%)

INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT USE CASES

Crisis management

SEO

Corporate Communications

Event management

Content creation

Product launch

Content Promotion 67%

59%

59%

45%

32%

23%

14%

SEOSEO


INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT AND CONTENT MARKETING: THE MAGIC FORMULAThe results of the study confirm that content marketing and influencer engagement are closely related. The distribution of brand content is the situation that brands most work with influencers (67%). Brands see influencer engagement as a springboard to launch contents and be heard above the noise with the aim of gaining credibility and reaching their desired audience. From what we can see from the study, influencers are no longer mere amplifiers: 59% of those consulted consider that collaborating with influencers from the content creation stage (co-creation of whitepapers, webinars, guest blog posts, etc.) makes for an extremely e�ective strategy. It is in fact, the preferred scenario for communications professionals.

Launching new products and services continues to be the a very common scenario for interacting with influencers for 59% of marketing and communications professionals but not longer takes first place as it did in 2014.

It is interesting to note the place taken by SEO (search engine organic positioning) in this year's study, mentioned by a quarter of those surveyed. It's a fact that everyday it gets harder to meet the technical challenge posed by Google's increasingly complex algorithm, meaning that content creation and quality links garnered through working with influencers is a growing positioning strategy.

Once again this year corporate communications is ranked lower in the list, slightly less so amongst communications professionals (in 4th place with 46%).

USES OF INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

7


Despite the results appearing homogeneous there is in fact a great deal of geographic disparity, such as the fact that Facebook is considered the best channel for influencer engagement in the US. Is the chronic decrease in the much talked about organic reach pushing brands to use influencers to reach their audience?

There are also major di�erences depending on the industry:

Visual platforms such as Instagram (and to a lesser degree Vine and Pinterest) have managed to find their niche in some industries such as fashion (3rd place), cosmetics (2nd), tourism (3rd) and consumer electronics (4th).

Video platforms, led by Youtube, have been consolidated as strategic influencer activation channels for industries such as the automotive industry (4th place), fashion (4th), culture (3rd), health (4th), non-profit associations (4th), the media (2nd) and, surprisingly, the banking and insurance sectors (4th).

Communication media continue to be the preferred channel of the more traditional sectors such as the construction industry (1st place), the banking and insurance sector (1st), the public sector (2nd) and the industrial sector (2nd). Linkedin appears in the top 3 for two sectors, telecommunications (3rd place) and services (2nd).


TWITTER, BLOGS AND FACEBOOK: THE TRIUMVIRATE OF INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENTTwitter (68%) is the main channel for influencer engagement. Blogs (54%) have always been the traditional means of expression for influencers, and are now in second place with third place taken by Facebook (51%). Surprisingly, LinkedIn is relegated to 6th place in the ranking (20%) bearing in mind the e�orts that this social network has made to position itself as a platform for showcasing influencer content.


24%

ć

42%51%

v

54%

t

68%Twitter Blogs Facebook Media Instagram


8


MOST EFFECTIVE CONTENT TO LEVERAGEA COLLABORATION WITH INFLUENCERS

EVENTS AND BLOG POSTS ARE THE PREFERRED AVENUES FOR BRANDS TO ENGAGE WITH INFLUENCERSWorking with influencers at events organised by the brand is the most e�ective way of leveraging influence for 70% of those surveyed. Having an expert take part in a round-table discussion or a keynote session is an excellent way of making campaigns more attractive, bearing in mind that the influencer will no doubt promote the event amongst the members of their community by announcing attendance.

Collaboration through blog posts is e�ective for 69% of those surveyed and is ranked in first place by 71% of marketing professionals. Whether it be using guest bloggers, interviews or simple mentions by influencers, this type of exchange is very e�ective and easy for brands to carry out.

Video is considered a strategic format for 44% of those surveyed. Making webinars or writing joint whitepapers are the favourite formats for B2B content marketers taking 4th and 5th place respectively. Webinars take 3rd place in the ranking for the Americas, something that can be explained by the format's simplicity and logistical convenience compared to more traditional events in an area as vast as the Americas.

Lastly, we can conclude that press releases are no longer considered an adequate format for influencer engagement.

MOST EFFECTIVE CONTENT FOR INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

Marketing Blog posts (71%) Events (65%) Videos (42%)

Communication Events (77%) Blog posts (67%) Videos (48%)

USA Blog posts (66%) Events (61%) Webinars (46%)

Europe Events (76%) Blog posts (74%) Videos (62%)

32%Webinars /Hangouts

29%Whitepapers /

ebooks /studies

27%Infographics

26%Press

releases

2%Others69%

44%70%EventGuest postsVideos


9


USA Boost reach/audience (69%) Increase content quality (49%) Build their brand image (35%)

Europe Increase content quality (78%) Boost reach/audience (74%) Get brand perks (57%)

Latin America Increase content quality (67%) Boost reach/audience (67%) Get brand perks (55%)

INFLUENCERS' MOTIVATIONSINFLUENCERS WORK WITH BRANDS TO BOOST THEIR VISIBILITY OR IMPROVE THEIR CONTENT QUALITY, NOT TO EARN MONEY "Work with an influencer, they’re friends for a day. Help someone become influential and they’re a friend for life.” This quote by Lee Odden sums up influencers' motivations for working with brands according to the people contacted for the survey.

Therefore, for 55% of those consulted, influencers expect brands to help them strengthen their status as opinion leaders. This is why strategies aimed at enabling influencers to express their opinions or boost their visibility are frequently a good bet for engaging influencers.

Improving content quality (45%) appears as the second motivating factor in the “Maslow influencer pyramid” (an objective which is closely linked to the previous one). Having access to exclusive information, experts or resources otherwise inaccessible to them are aspects influencers take into account when choosing to work with brands.

The opportunity to shape their own image (29%) takes 3rd place in the list of influencers' expectations, which is why non-profit campaigns are so popular.

Just 24% of those surveyed mentioned getting paid. As we will see later on in this study, this perception doesn't always match reality in practice.

INFLUENCER MOTIVATION


22%

24%

25%

29%

45%

55%

Earn money

Get perks (Discounts, Free Samples)

Living new experiences (trips, events...)

Shape their image

Create quality contents for their audience

¡Increase their reach / grow their audience

10


PAYING INFLUENCERS FOR COLLABORATINGWITH BRANDS

PAYING INFLUENCERS: COMMON PRACTICE IN THE US AND LESS COMMON IN EUROPE

69% of those surveyed said they never paid their influencers or did so rarely. This result, at first glance, seems to tally with the results examined in the previous section, where payment came in 5th place in the list of influencer motivations.

However, there are major geographical di�erences. Paying influencers appears to be very common practice in the US, where 54% of those surveyed said they always or very frequently paid their influencers. This can be explained by the high levels of professionalism of American influencers, who know exactly how to monetize their influence. It seems paradoxical therefore that our study showed that only 13% of those surveyed in America considered financial compensation as a motivating factor for influencers.

There is a similar contrast between marketing and communications departments. 12% of marketing professionals said that they systematically paid their influencers compared to the paltry 2% of communications professionals. This result may be due to the nature of the objectives of each collective: while some marketing campaigns seek to reach maximum visibility and short-term business objectives (the launch of a product for example), the work of communications professionals tends to be about establishing long-term relationships with opinion leaders to improve brand positioning.

PAYING INFLUENCERS


Industries that most resort to paying influencers are fashion, consumer electronics, wine and alcoholic beverages, retail, and somewhat surprisingly, the construction and banking and insurance industries.

Large-scale companies tend to pay their influencers more frequently:

35% of large companies pay influencers frequently or systematically29% of medium-sized companies pay influencers frequently or systematically15% of small companies pay influencers frequently or systematically

12% of marketing professionals always pay influencers, compared to 2% of communications professionals.

25% of marketing professionals never pay influencers, compared to 47% of communications professionals.

14% of those surveyed from the US said they always or frequently paid influencers, compared to 3 % of Europeans.

13 % of those surveyed from the US said they never paid influencers, compared to 51% of Europeans.

36%Rarely

33%Never

22%Frequently

9%Always

11


INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT BUDGET: WILL INCREASE FOR 33% OF THOSE SURVEYED

33% of professionals consulted will increase their influencer engagement budget in 2015 and just 6% will allocate less budget.

The decision to spend more appears closely linked with the perceived e�ectiveness of influencer engagement. Those who perceive greater e�ectiveness in this field are more likely to increase their budget.

INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT BUDGET


Expecting to increase their budget for 2015 were: 48 % of marketing professionals 20 % of communications professionals

With no budget allocated to influencer engagement were:

12% of marketing professionals25% of communications professionals

Expecting to increase their budget for 2015 were: 61 % of Americans20 % of Europeans8 % of Latin Americans

In 2014 44% of those surveyed expected to increase their budget compared to 33% this year. This result is surprising since for the same period the perceived e�ectiveness of influencer engagement has increased.

BUDGET EVOLUTION 2015 VERSUS 2014

41% 33% 20% 6%Will increaseWill remain

stableNo budget Will decrease

REPUTATION I N A C T I O N REPUTATION

12


COMMUNICATIONS AND PR PROFESSIONALS LEAD INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT

The Head of PR is in charge of managing influencer engagement in 28% of the companies surveyed. They are followed by community managers (17%) and CEOs (17%).

As can be seen in the following graph, the situation varies depending on the size of the company. As is to be expected, it's mainly in small-scale companies where the CEO takes charge of relationships with opinion leaders. Likewise, we see that the person in charge of content marketing takes 2nd place in large-scale companies (21%), a trend that is on the rise and testament once more of the convergence of content marketing and influencer engagement.

MANAGING INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT



In Europe, community managers tend to be in charge of influencer engagement in 20% of companies, and just in 11% of US companies.

In the US the head of content marketing is in charge of influencer engagement at 18% of companies, compared to just 8% for companies in Europe.

OWNER OF THE RELATIONSHIP WITH INFLUENCERSIN THE COMPANY

Digital Marketing Manager

CommunityManagerCMOCEO

PRManager

Content Marketing Manager

43%12%

19%29%

30%

32%

10%18%

21%10%

9%5%

5%17%10%

5%8%11%

SMEs

Medium-sized companiesLarge-scale companies

OWNER OF THE RELATIONSHIP WITH INFLUENCERSIN THE COMPANY

CommunityManager

PRManager CEO

Digital Marketing Manager

Content Marketing Manager CMOOthers

28% 17% 17% 11% 11% 9% 7%


13


THE MOST FREQUENTLY USED TOOLS FOR MANAGING INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT ARENOT ALWAYS THE MOST EFFECTIVETwitter (42%) is the most used platform for finding influencers. It is followed by digital monitoring tools, press and blog databases and Google. Klout, an influence scoring tool which was so popular some years ago is no longer the preferred tool for professionals. Plus, three of the top five tools are free.

But, how e�ective are these tools? According to our study (see the graph below), the most used tools are not necessarily the best. People who use specialized influencer engagement management tools (influencer engagement so�ware and influencers marketplaces) are more e�ective on average than those that use Twitter or Google for example.

INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT TOOLS

PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WHO CONSIDER THEIR CAMPAIGNS EFFECTIVE COMPARED TO THE TOOLS USED

Influencer identification programs

Digital monitoring tools

Google

Twitter

Media and blog databases

Influencer Marketplaces

Influencer rankings

Klout

42%

38%

29%

26%

25%

24%

22%

17%

TOOLS FOR ENGAGING WITH INFLUENCERS

Others

Klout

Influencer identification programs

Influencer rankings

Influencer Marketplaces

Google

Media and blog databases

Digital monitoring tools

Twitter

6%11%

20%21%

28%37%

39%42%

42%



14


This study has been carried out in collaboration with the market research firm Schlesinger Associate through an online panel of marketing and communications professionals.

The survey was given to 967 people, of whom 603 answered 100% of the questions. Only the later have been taken into account for the results of the study.

The characteristics of those surveyed are listed below.

STUDY METHODOLOGY AND PROFILE OF THOSE SURVEYED

43%C Level (CEO, CFO, CTO) & Senior Management

Middle Management& Staff

57%

POSITION HELD AT COMPANY

11%41%48%

SPECIALISATION AREAS

Marketing

PR

Others

41% 32% 27%Large companies(>1001 employes)

Medium-sized companies(51 to 1000 employees)

SMEs(<50 employees)

Large companies(1001 employees)

Medium-sized companies(51 to 1000 employees)

SMEs

SIZE OF THE COMPANY

56%34%

9%

1% Europe

North America

Latin America

Others

GEOGRAPHIC AREA





15



www.augure.com/en

@AugureRepMgmt

Documents

STATE OF INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT 2015 - CRM … · EFFECTIVENESS OF INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT BY ... drivers and best practices in ... The results of the study confirm that content marketing