Power To The People
Joost Nauta, co-founder and CEO of IMA, on how brands can best work with influencers to increase their reputation, consideration and return on investment
Influencers — people with a certain stature, knowledge or authority — can have a large impact on purchase decisions. These can be people in a consumer’s social circle as well as industry experts and celebrities. Over the last few years, studies have shown that this principle also applies to digital influencers.
Every case and brand are different and influencer strategies should always be based on the company’s business goals and DNA. However, there are some common lessons, which can be helpful for marketing managers who are developing an influencer strategy, that we have developed from our work and best practise cases in the market:
1. Set clear goals for your brand: there are numerous benefits you can gain from Influencer marketing, ranging from obvious things as awareness and brand trust, to more specific goals like storytelling, content creation, conversion and even SEO.
2. Matchmaking is paramount: selecting the right influencers, who match your brand’s core values and DNA, is one of the most important steps in the process. If the match does not feel right, the storytelling will not be authentic and therefore less powerful. The influencers need to thoroughly understand the brand’s values and truly connect with it, to become effective ambassadors.
3. Create exciting storytelling together with your influencers: building on the creativity of the influencer, allowing them to tell the story in their own way, will always make the campaign more authentic and effective. Prefabricated advertorials don’t work.
4. Don’t underestimate the time, focus and expertise that go into managing a successful influencer campaign. Building strong, long-terms relations with influencers takes time, and it is a whole different ballgame than PR or corporate communication.
5. Measure & evaluate: nearly every aspect of the campaign can be measured, quantified and evaluated. From reach within target audience, to engagement, traffic and social buzz. In our campaigns we constantly measure and evaluate based on the initial campaign goals and KPIs. The data is the ultimate verification of the matchmaking process, storytelling and the ROI for the brand.
Originally published at www.contagious.com.
