What does 2018 have in store for influencer marketing?

There have been a lot of predictions for 2018. We agree with many, but want to take trends/predictions to the next level and make them tangible for business making decisions.

We recently surveyed a large cross section of marketers from a variety of industries, most are either doing influencer marketing or planning to in the new year. Before moving forward with any influencer marketing campaign, the big question is always it’s ROI. Let us help you with some quick high-level information to demystify the ROI’s of influencer marketing for you.

1. Influencers are currently being used for a variety of objectives including: inspiring your marketing narrative, creating content you can license, increasing interest, driving sales, encouraging advocacy and boasting SEO. We know this, we see it or are doing it. But is it really an advocacy/awareness play?

Based on our survey results this past month, more than 76% of those surveyed said they use it is a great tactic for driving sales! 71% said it is also helping to “Encourage Advocacy and Inspire Marketing Narrative”. How you measure that ROI depends on what the goal is for your Campaign. If it is to drive sales, those are different KPI’s than brand engagement or awareness. But there is no doubt it is a cost-effective way to drive sales.

So now you are wondering, “well there are costs associated with it”. Sure, there are. So we asked marketers the following:

2. How are influencers currently compensated?

Our survey showed it is a mix bag of Freelance Fee, Pay per Social Post (or post performance) and gifting.

a. 43% — pay per social post

b. 38% — freelance fee

c. 29% — gifting

From a cost-effective perspective, research shows that using influencer marketing as a tactic (based on industry cost averages and our own research) can be 2.5–3.0x less expensive than professional production. Therefore the ROI from a cost efficiency perspective is higher. Our survey results also align with recent publications that state close to 30% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product endorsed by a non-celebrity blogger or digital content creator than a celebrity endorsement.

These are two major points that are not without challenges some of which are; the ability to search and find the right influencer, getting good costs and contact information for an influencer, ensuring authenticity for the brand. This has of course spurred an industry of software’s which are not all created equal.

That’s why we have spent so much time building a platform that doesn’t just address a need but address’ the challenges brought on with those needs.

So what is in store for 2018?

1. The need for GOOD QUALITY DATA is the most important thing — full stop! It is the only way to ensure your campaigns are authentic and cost effective.
2. The need for process efficiencies to work at scale. Influencer Marketing is a process oriented discipline with many steps and variables that cannot effectively be managed manually without a high degree of error. Many tasks can and should be automated.
3. Influencer Marketing Platform no longer a “nice to have”; it’s a “must have”. As more and more marketers turn to influencer marketing as the #1 tactic for content creation and curation, the need for a platform to search, create and report on campaigns will be a basic need in their toolbox.

Here are the top 3 reasons our clients love working with us:

#1: Discovery of Authentic Brand aligned influencers. Our human, curated and vetted database is powered by a research team made up of vertical experts who are continuously and relentlessly adding and checking data for every influencer on our platform. No more googling other brand work they have done; no more manual calculating their average engagement and searching for recent content. You can be sure that the heavy lifting of the vetting process has been taken care of not by bots or machines but by a qualified research team. It’s why large media and agency organizations use the software.

Julius’ campaign management dashboards allows users to track everything from influencer outreach to final deliverable reports in one place.

#2: Streamline Campaign Management. No more spending hours pouring through spreadsheets, google docs and emails. Our platform has best in class data with a comprehensive campaign workflow. Now you can search, vet, contact, negotiate and collaborate internally on any campaign all in one place.

#3: Measure what matters. Analyze results by platform, influencer and or post in one easy to use dashboard.

In the New Year, we will continue exploring ROI and its many facets in the hopes of helping our clients and the industry at large understand what to measure for, how to measure and understand the effects of influencer marketing to the overall bottom line.

If you are as passionate as we are about this, we want to hear from you and collaborate on studies. Send us an email and share your thoughts any time.

Wishing you a wonderful 2018 filled with lots of influence!