Can you remember the last billboard you passed on the highway? What about the last banner ad that popped up on your computer? And how about the last promotional email you got from your favorite retailer? If you can’t, you’re not alone.
In a single minute, your customers and influencers face 300 hours of new YouTube content (Statistic Brain), 2 million fresh Tweets (statistic brain) and 1.3 million new Facebook posts (Jeff Bullas). In total, your average consumer is viewing nearly 11 hours of media per day (Nielsen). Amidst this barrage of online content your Tweets, emails, promotions, ads – or whatever – stand little chance of survival.
As far back as 2014, a full 85% of marketers reported (eMarketer) they planned to launch influencer initiatives, largely in an attempt to regain the attention of distracted customers. But as more of these marketers have entered the influencer marketing fold, gaining the attention of target influencers has likewise become a challenge.
In our new eBook, Influencer Marketing In Real Life, we discuss how brands can gain the attention and participation of their target influencers. As a part of this eBook, we pulled 24 top brands and influencers together to discuss how to improve the craft of influencer marketing, how brands can deepen ties with influencers, and how both parties can find success together. Their insights led to a surprisingly obvious conclusion: What works in real life, works online too.
If you’re looking to scale an influencer program, but aren’t sure how to get your target influencers to participate, read on for some insider secrets. The following 14 insights are all compiled to help you get better with your influencer outreach. Enjoy!
It has to be fun, and just genuinely interesting. If we’re going to do this – let’s do something remarkable.”
- Robert Rose, Consultant, Content Marketing Institute [Tweet This]
Whether your passion and expertise is around a key industry trend, or a deep knowledge of your product’s use cases, it will help tremendously if you can clearly define your passion, expertise and audience.”
- Michael Brenner, CEO, Marketing Insider Group [Tweet This]
In the end, the most successful influencer marketing efforts will come from those brands that can define and document exactly what types of influencers they should work with and why.”
- Joe Pulizzi, CEO, Content Marketing Institute [Tweet This]
Most influencers think big, so if they’re unaware of your big picture they might not know how they can activate to aid your brand.”
- Jay Baer, President, Convince & Convert [Tweet This]
One of the easiest ways to decide if a partnership is a right fit is to test the value of the audience in a low-barrier way.”
- Andrew Davis, Founder, Monumental Shift [Tweet This]
Sweating the small things about influencers you want to work with signals that you care about relationships, not transactions.”
- Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs [Tweet This]
A person doing outreach becomes instantly more credible if they demonstrate their knowledge of the influencer.”
- Ian Cleary, Founder Razor Social [Tweet This]
I feel more of a loyalty to a company that shows they want to build a relationship rather than just drop in for some sound bites from time to time.”
- Carlos Hidalgo, CEO & Principal, Annuitas [Tweet This]
Brands that make a genuine effort to understand what I’m interested in and how working with them can advance my goals as well as theirs can be very inspirational.”
- Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Marketing [Tweet This]
Inspiring engagement and participation requires brands to take a unique approach. The goal should be to go from unknown follower and fan, to advocate and amplifier.”
- Jason Miller, Group Manager, Content & Social Media Marketing, LinkedIn [Tweet This]
If the organic and brand-based benefits aren’t substantial, it’s likely that I’d pass on an opportunity rather than seek compensation.”
- Pierre-Loic Assayag, CEO, Traackr [Tweet This]
My advice for brands is to develop more than one methodology in their approach to influencer marketing.”
- Pam Didner, Senior Marketing Consultant [Tweet This]
Influencers strengthen the momentum behind two major marketing engines that should support every campaign or buyer’s journey map: Paid Social & Content Marketing.”
- Tami Cannizzaro, VP Head of North America Marketing, Oracle [Tweet This]
The most useful benefit for long-term engagement to me is having access to a mutual audience that is engaged, relevant, and growing.”
- Carlos Gil, Global Head of Social Media, BMC [Tweet This]
Influencer marketing is unlike any other marketing tactic. It requires brands to think different. To be nimble. To approach each influencer with a unique set of expectations. Influencer marketing requires a keen sense of personality, professionalism, and dedication to transparency. In the end, we have to be more human, if we want to succeed with influencers. In this age of increased automation, is it any surprise that our customers are turning to influencers they trust instead of the brands that are becoming more robotic in their marketing?
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