Your Top 3 Influencer Marketing Questions, Answered

01.21.2016 Merrie Beth Salazar

How Partnering With Key Influencers Can Broaden Your Business’ Reach

Part 2 of 3 in our Customer Experience Blog Series

In part 1 of our customer experience blog series, we reviewed how customers now control the customer experience and how online video’s growing dominance is one major reason why.

In part 2, we turn our attention to another development that is transforming how customers interact with businesses, influencer marketing. We’ve answered your top three questions below:

 

1. What exactly is influencer marketing?

In a nutshell, it’s a marketing strategy in which businesses target key influencers on social media who then disseminate the business’ messages to a broader audience. Influencer marketing can help amplify your marketing efforts without having to try to reach that larger audience on your own.

Businesses are embracing influencer marketing in a big way. A whopping 84% of marketing and communications pros around the world plan to launch at least one campaign involving an influencer in the next 12 months, according to a 2015 study by Schlesinger Associates for Augure1.

 

2. What do influencers get out of the relationship?

It might surprise you to learn that compensation doesn’t even make their top three priorities. For more than half of influencers (55%), their number one goal is to increase their reach and grow their own audience. Creating good content comes in second at 45%. Earning money is fourth on the list at 24%2.

 

3. What makes influencers willing to work with you in the first place?

We know what influencers want to happen as a result of talking about your brand online, but why do they want to work with you? Once again, it’s not the money. More than anything, they want to be treated with respect, and this means you give them the creative freedom to choose how they communicate about your brand. According to an eMarketer report3, more than three out of four said this creative freedom was one of the major factors making them likely to work with a business. Money came in second at 68%4.

Your customers are out there, ready to learn about your brand and take action. Identify some of the most widely read and respected influencers in your business arena and begin to build relationships with them. They will take your message to your broader audience for you if you give them free rein to do it.

 

Want to learn even more about the customer experience? Watch for part three on our blog next week, when we’ll take a look at the last of the major developments transforming the customer experience, effective websites. 

You can also check out our full brief here.

 

 


1. Arnaud Roy, “The State of Influencer Engagement in 2015,” Augure, June 18, 2015, http://www.augure.com/blog/state-influencer-engagement-20150618

2. Ibid.

3. Crowdtap, as cited by eMarketer, “Creative Freedom Solidifies Partnership Between Influencers and Brands,” November 23, 2015, http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Creative-Freedom-Solidifies-Partnership-Between-Influencers-Brands/1013261#sthash.b1gkGFpc.dpuf

4. Ibid.

About the Author

Merrie Beth Salazar

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