Influencer marketing is making waves among B2B tech companies because it provides valuable third-party credibility and brand awareness to engaged, well-connected audiences. Influencers can amplify a brand’s social reach, often beyond traditional media outreach, and boost its SEO ranking.
The results speak for themselves – 70 percent of B2B companies report that referrals convert better and close faster than any other type of lead. Although many brands would like to launch an influencer marketing campaign, the challenge is deciding on the who – then effectively managing that relationship to success. There are lot of nitty-gritty details to understand before jumping into an influencer marketing campaign. Here are some important factors to keep in mind.
One-Size-Fits-All Won’t Do
Picking influencers must be done strategically because having the wrong influencer promoting your brand may do more harm than good. Some important factors to consider include:
- Brand relevance. A big-name influencer may be alluring, but if they don’t connect to your target audience, it’s not worth much.
- Audience reach. The size of an influencer’s audience matters and should be taken into account to avoid wasting time and energy on a market that’s too small.
- Audience engagement. It’s about more than numbers alone, if an influencer has 300,000 followers but averages just 20 likes per post, it may mean they have a more passive following.
- Tone. Though every influencer has a unique voice, it’s crucial that their tone is aligned with your brand to ensure consistency across the campaign content.
Looking for ways to locate and engage with key influencers in your industry? Don’t be afraid to utilize influencer marketing tools like Buzzsumo, SproutSocial and Meltwater.
Tracking To Success
If you can’t measure the effectiveness of your influencer marketing campaign, it’s impossible to determine if it’s helping to improve your business and if the investment is truly paying off. There are a number of criteria that can help measure success. For campaign-specific influencer engagement programs, monitor the following:
- How many pieces of content were created,
- Sales attributable to influencer relative to influencer channel spend
- The influencer’s engagement or shares of campaign-related assets such as content, URLs and codes
For an ongoing influencer engagement program, think bigger:
- Tracking web traffic
- Tracking conversions
- Number of brand mentions over time.
Keeping an eye on this information can provide a clearer picture of year-over-year value. It’s also important to note the sentiment of influencer mentions. What are people saying about the influencer’s content? Is it positive, negative, or neutral? Having more than 400 comments on a post may seem promising, but if the conversation is negative, your influencer may actually be damaging your business.
Small Product, Enormous Influencer Success
In 2015, we worked with electronics distributor Newark element14 to announce the launch of Raspberry Pi 2, a pocket-sized computer that offers six times the speed and twice the memory of its original version. We utilized a three-phased influencer marketing campaign to drive sales and grow product awareness among purchases and enthusiasts. In addition to traditional media outreach, we engaged with influential vloggers on YouTube and coordinated giveaways on social channels, generating buzz in places that buyers frequented.
The results were palpable – approximately 40,000 combined shares on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as 84 media placements in a month. Outreach to key influencers resulted in the influx of these social shares and influencers’ videos received more than 60,000 total views. All in all, the company saw a 67 percent growth in sales following the product launch campaign.
Whether you’re looking to harness the power of influencers for a product launch or a long-term campaign, the most important part of the process is cultivating a trusted relationship and measuring the campaign to success.
