Source: The State of Influencer Marketing (DIGIDAY)
THE STATE OF INFLUENCER MARKETING
Instagram influencers are taking up larger pieces of the marketing budget pie, but still many brands don’t understand how to properly use today’s influence to their advantage.
What You Need to Know
Instagram is taking higher priority for brands over other platforms, such as Twitter and Snapchat.
Measuring success of a campaign can be difficult, but it is important to take engagement into consideration over reach.
Many brands look at influencer marketing as a media channel, but it should be accessed as content creation.
If your expectations are aligned in the right way, that this is social media, not “social sell-me-everything,” you’ll understand the true potential of working with influencers.
Photo courtesy of Stephanie Liu / Honey & Silk
The Rest
The world of influence is constantly evolving, and it can be difficult for companies to keep up with all the changes. As social media platforms rise and fall, there are always new influencers to tap into for different markets. With the rise of Instagram, companies in 2016 spent $570 million on influencer marketing alone. Tracking the return on investment has been the largest problem with justifying the budget, but the platforms is listening and evolving tools to help both brands and influencer partners tell the whole story behind a campaign, including the data.
“The data presented, as well as the thoughts from industry leaders, simply reinforces the fact that Influence is a long tail, strategic investment. Or it should be,” according to Kyle Hjelmeseth, founder of God & Beauty. “Brands expecting immediate returns are often disappointment because of the hype around influence right now. If your expectations are aligned in the right way, that this is social media, not “social sell-me-everything,” you’ll understand the true potential of working with influencers. This shift in mindset would allow for more meaningful influencer programs, and greater long-term gains.”
Moral of the Story
Focus on how influence, like print and TV ads from years gone by, can expand your brands’ reach! As Brian Babineau from Arnold Worldwide pointed out:
“Influencer marketing is not evolving as quickly as it should because many brands don’t understand the role it plays in their marketing mix.”
Having influencers create content for brands builds greater loyalty, organically. Tracking engagement gives a better sense of how involved the audience is, and helps branch off into brand loyalty and interest. Brand loyalty cannot be tracked in the short-run, but it will have long term success if done with the right influencer.
Little tip from the Top
Work with the influence you have in mind for a program, or their agency, to determine how influence can best help you reach your goals. The right influencer / agency is going to be able to give you sound advice that will help you determine your investment in this area of marketing, and lead you to the desired outcomes — yes, even in sales!
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