Influencer Marketing with a Large Budget

If you have a big marketing budget and can allocate substantially to influencer marketing, you can strategically plan your campaigns to maximize the results over the long term than a single spike in traction. Here are some tips:

1. Don’t skimp on your goals

A large budget means more accountability to justify your spending on influencer marketing. So before you start contacting big influencers, take two steps back and outline your goals. Look over your analytics, and see which platforms are performing best for you. And set up a cross-functional meeting with customer success, sales, and product to anticipate the scope of the campaign and what you’re trying to achieve.

Instead of setting far-fetched, vague goals like “blow up the internet”, see what matters most to you—is it reaching a specific audience segment based on their ticket size or a new offering you’re launching? Based on this set of precise key performance indicators (KPIs), look at your historical data and forecast the expected results to set realistic goals.

2. Be picky about your influencer

Your campaign’s objective and goals should define the influencer you pick instead of going with the influencer with the biggest following on social media. Start by defining some parameters that best describe the influencers for your campaign to narrow down your search and pick the closest fit.

Dior’s award-winning campaign, 67 Shades of Dior, which celebrated the launch of its Forever foundation that blended 67 unique shades of foundation, partnered with 67 influencers to celebrate the diversity of the product, where they shared the content on their channels for 67 days consecutively.

Some of their criteria for choosing influencers apart from engagement and follower levels included meeting authenticity tests, being in specific consumer territories, having audiences interested in beauty, and creating high-quality beauty-related content that the brand could share on their channels.

Thus, planning the campaign and then carefully cherry-picking influencers that best suit its objectives and intended results is essential.

3. Get creative

With a large budget, you can move beyond the standard product endorsements and explore unique experiences that align well with your brand’s identity and values. The idea is to craft a memorable experience that strikes the right chord with your audience, creates a lasting impression that builds brand equity and gets you results long after the campaign starts wearing out.

For example, Tarte Cosmetics takes influencers on overseas trips sponsoring their stay right from the flight in business class to stays in 5-star resorts. Influencers have access to all products, even those that aren’t available to the public yet. Thus maintaining exclusivity and compelling the influencers’ audiences to follow along with the journey. Their recent trip to Dubai was shared on TikTok with the hashtag #tartedubaitrip. It generated over two million views and has been a hot topic of discussion on social media, like each of their 20 influencer trips.

4. Prioritize high-quality content production

One of the most prominent benefits of having a big budget is having the ability to get the best-in-class equipment, hardware, and software and a team of professionals who can generate quality content that reflects the brand’s personality. This includes producing extremely well-shot images and videos and investing in expert editing that offers an excellent experience to the audience.

Focus on co-creating with the influencer and providing clear briefs on how you want the vision to translate into reality by discussing how you can support them with content creation. By doing so, you’ll be able to build trust with your audience and deliver the intended impact. Glossier is a good example of a brand that executes minimal yet aesthetic influencer campaigns.

Influencer Marketing with a Small Budget

Contrary to what we usually see on social media, influencer marketing doesn’t have to look like extravagant launches, red carpets, and billboard advertisements. It can also look like inviting some influencers to your office or showroom to give demos while engaging in conversations over snacks and drinks. So no matter how small your budget is, you can make influencer marketing work in your favor. Here’s how:

1. Work with micro-influencers

While the A-listers with many followers may seem more beneficial to you, the right micro-influencers can get you real results because of how engaged their audience is and how personally connected they are with their audience, making them a highly trustworthy source for their audience. Since their followers lie within the 10,000-50,000 bracket, they may also be more willing to enter into collaboration at low costs, as long as you have shared values—that can also explain why over 90% of businesses prefer working with micro-influencers, who have an engagement rate of 3.86% as compared to 1.2% for mega influencers.

Look for employees, brand ambassadors, niche users with a social media following, or community members who actively purchase from you by tapping into your data and eyeing organic user-generated content (more on this later). These are your brand lovers and advocates that already endorse your brand and know about it, thus widening the scope of succeeding on a small budget.

2. Focus on building long-term relationships

Finding micro-influencers who align well with your values, create quality content, relate with your products, and reflect your brand’s true personality with the right tone of voice is a dream. So, instead of entering into one-off partnerships, focus on fostering long-term relationships by creating retainers.

Influencer marketing is everything but an overnight game. Thus, it requires nurturing the audience consistently, which can only be done by developing relationships based on value exchange rather than one-sided product promotion. Retainers may also help you negotiate a more affordable rate with the influencer considering the recurring compensation you offer them, along with other benefits like early access, free products, or event invites that allow them to attach themselves to your brand name and benefit mutually.

3. Champion user-generated content (UGC)

Content generated by a real user is called user-generated content (UGC). It’s one of the most cost-effective ways to get original content for your channels without spending much of your time. Besides, the nature of UGC suggests that those endorsing the products have used it themselves, building trust in the brand. In fact, 79% of people say UGC influences their purchase decision. And consumers find UGC almost 10x more impactful than explicit influencer content while making purchase decisions.

To get the best results from your UGC campaign, plan out challenges, giveaways, contests, or seasonal posts asking users to share their experience with your product(s) with a specific hashtag in return for exclusive benefits like incentives and rewards. Pura Vida is an excellent example of using UGC with #puravidabracelets.

4. Lead with storytelling

Influencer marketing may not generate the expected ROI if you’re looking for a single uptick in sales. However, if you focus on collaborating on campaigns that leave an impact on your audience, they may remember you months or even years after your initial campaign.

The key: storytelling.

Instead of controlling the content’s narrative, give influencers the creative freedom to express themselves and relate back to your brand with their story or the shared values with which you lead.

One of the most effective and straightforward influencer marketing campaigns with brand storytelling was executed by Airbnb, called “Live There”. They collaborated with influencers to share their experience and stories of staying at an Airbnb, instead of a hotel.

Influencer Marketing with No Budget

You’re a new brand. You’ve just started marketing, and everyone’s talking about influencer marketing being the “endgame” to get traction and sales. But you don’t have a budget. So you resort to more organic marketing activities like SEO and social media, although they take time to get results.

But what if you could do influencer marketing without any budget and actually get results with it? Seems unrealistic? Let’s see how you can make it work for you:

1. Set realistic marketing goals and objectives

The first and most important question you must ask yourself is: What do you want to achieve with influencer marketing? Is it brand awareness, product demos, sales, or website traffic? And what percentage increase do you want to see?

Define each of these very clearly to map out your strategy because this will define which influencers you reach out to and what kind of partnership you engage in. Besides, this will enable you to track your progress and decide whether to invest monetarily in influencer marketing.

2. Seek nano influencers, existing customers, and brand ambassadors

Nano influencers have highly engaged, albeit small audiences. Thus, they’re the most likely to agree to a non-monetary collaboration. Furthermore, they can help you gain more visibility and build trust through consistent partnerships that highlight the value of your products.

Vanshika Mehta, a brand strategist, also suggests that brands without budget should start with nano influencers and engage in barter collaborations where you can offer equal visibility to the influencer and make it a mutually-beneficial partnership.

Further, she suggests creating a program to turn influencers or users into ambassadors or affiliates who can get compensated based on the results they generate to encourage more skin in the game. As your brand grows, you can develop this program further and foster a community of brand ambassadors that create UGC and benefit from performance-based compensation and exclusive benefits.

3. Offer more than you ask

If you don’t offer monetary compensation to an influencer, a one-off barter may not work. It’s essential to communicate that it’s a two-way street, where they benefit from attaching themselves to your brand to gain more exposure through cross-promotion, build their portfolio, and unlock comprehensive benefits beyond free products.

Moreover, looping in the conversation of a retainer from the beginning can stir more interest than a single campaign, promising continued visibility that can convert into a paid partnership. The key here is to build relationships by adding value to each other and providing them with the resources and guidance they need to give their content game a facelift while allowing you to reach more people.

4. Experiment with content collaborations

While brand ambassador programs, affiliate partnerships, and barter can work well to drive initial traction, you can take it a step ahead to engage in content collaborations. Identify creators who create quality content around your industry, and explore the potential of co-creating content through Instagram collaboration, live streams, profile takeovers, remixes, podcasts, or webinars.

Here’s an example by Nomatic showing an Instagram collaboration post between the brand and an influencer.

Influencer Marketing Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All

When it comes to influencer marketing, no two brands can have the same strategy. As there are so many moving parts to making a campaign successful. However, budget defines the scope and effectiveness of your influencer marketing campaigns, which can be manipulated in your favor if you look at it strategically. Whether you have $100,000 or $50, you can tap into the benefits of influencer marketing through strategies tailored to your business size, goals, marketing budget, and campaign type.

If you’re ready to explore the power of influencer marketing, install the Afluencer app for Shopify.

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]]> https://afluencer.com/how-deinfluencing-impacts-brands-influencers/ Sun, 18 Jun 2023 20:57:28 +0000 https://afluencer.com/?p=22477 This might come as a surprise to some but influencing appears to be on its way out, at least that’s what some experts believe. The $7.36 billion industry is growing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 32.5 percent but some argue that it has gotten too big and it is time to put […]

The post Deinfluencing: How It’s Impacting Brand & Influencer Relations appeared first on AFLUENCER.

]]> This might come as a surprise to some but influencing appears to be on its way out, at least that’s what some experts believe. The $7.36 billion industry is growing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 32.5 percent but some argue that it has gotten too big and it is time to put things into reverse gear. This thought has given birth to the word deinfluencing, which has been trending for a while.

The hashtag #deinfluencing has racked up around 200 million videos on TikTok and has made its presence felt on other platforms as well. So, is the industry really dying?

We don’t think so. It is here to stay and get bigger. Yet, deinfluencing is making a mark.

Let’s know more about this trend and how it can impact the industry.

Introduction to Deinfluencing

Deinfluencing, in simple words, is “the antithesis of influencing”.

Think about influencing and what it does. Used as a marketing tool, influencing includes hiring the services of influencers to promote a product or service with the intention to boost sales. Now think of its opposite: deinfluencing occurs when you encourage users to NOT buy a product or service.

Deinfluencing aims to help users understand the tactics brands use to “fool” consumers and get them to purchase more. Influencers do not want buyers to blindly follow trends. They are trying to curb overconsumption by highlighting products users do not need because they are:

• Too expensive
• Not worth the hype
• Less likely to be effective

But the twist is that while “depromoting” such products, they plug their recommendations that are usually more affordable and less popular.

They make a simple but valid point: not all popular products are good and not all cheap or unknown products are bad.

The trend has received mainstream attention and many popular names have jumped the bandwagon. While some are using it to promote products they truly believe in, others are making people realize that they often buy products that they do not need, resulting in a waste of money.

Why Is It Trending?

If you are a TikTok user, you must have seen deinfluencing videos. While some people choose to ignore them, some appear to be wondering why so many influencers are taking part in this movement and what’s causing it to trend.

Some people seem to be using the hashtag without knowing what it means simply because it can help them reach a wider audience.

So, why is it trending? To understand this trend, you will first have to understand influencer marketing and how it has become a rage. It’s said to be the “easy and affordable” way to market. Both small and big companies are utilizing influencer marketing to improve goodwill, sell more, and reach a higher number of people. However, a group of people believe that influencer marketing is overdone.

The problem with sponsored products is that they are everywhere and it can get hard to differentiate between real and paid posts. Everyone from Kim Kardashian to Dwayne Johnson is now associated with companies and making sponsored posts.

They are promoting all kinds of products, at times without even knowing how good or effective a product is. They’ll make a post about it for as long as they get paid. Since they enjoy a great influence, they can convince people to buy something resulting in addiction, overconsumption, and other such issues.

The Power of the Influencer

There are several hashtags related to the issue, including the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt trend that involved people posting products they bought due to social media platforms. The trend highlighted how “influencers” were pushing people to buy things they didn’t need.

Even science has proven that celebs or influencers have the power to encourage people to make impulse purchases. They make videos showing products in a positive light forcing users to quickly make a purchase, often without a second thought.

Deinfluencing promises to tackle this issue and encourage people to live sustainably by making smart choices. Influencers use this term to tell people that they really “care” for them, which is one of the major reasons why the trend has caught up in such a big way. It makes people believe that the other person has their best interest in mind.

They tell consumers what to avoid by highlighting its side effects and mentioning better alternatives. This has proven to be effective in reducing impulse purchases and making people more conscious about what they buy.

Which Brands Are Suffering

A great number of brands seem to be suffering the blow but some are more popular than others. Shien, for example, known for being loved by influencers, is also a controversial name due to shady practices. The fast fashion brand may be affordable but it’s also often in the news for pushing buyers to make more purchases through deceptive marketing and other such techniques.

The brand, however, is very popular among influencers due to its easy affiliate policies and friendly commission structures. On the plus side, consumers seem to love Shien as well. The company offers affordable items and releases 800 to 1,000 new products every day, which can even be purchased for a discount.

So, what’s wrong with Shien? The environmental impact. The brand, available in several countries, experiments with a few dozen pieces of each new item first to ensure it clicks with the buyers. With the company making hundreds of new things every day, it pushes the number to over 30,000 new units per day. Now, imagine how it impacts the environment.

Influencers believe that deinfluencing is necessary to highlight this and stop overconsumption. Moreover, some influencers are not only stopping buyers from purchasing the product but also trying to get Shien to change its practices.

Shien, however, isn’t the only brand facing these issues. Many in fashion and beauty niches are suffering as well.

What Creators and Brands Need to Do

As highlighted above, this new trend is impacting both businesses and creators. Influencers are already worried and brands need to pull up their socks too. So, how can creators and brands fight this trend and stay afloat?

Here are some tips:

Brands Need to Understand That Influencers Will Choose Their Followers First

What Brands Need to Do:

If you look at deinfluencing influencers, you will notice that their loyalty lies with their followers and not always with the brand they choose to work with. Influencers receive incentives in the form of free products and cash payments to plug specific products and while some may only say “positive” things in return, not all are willing to work with bad companies.

Some are very careful about the brand they get associated with. This is something brands need to understand. Influencers will “not” work with bad companies and if you want to continue to work with influencers, you will have to improve your products and services.

With deinfluencing becoming a reality, the balance is shifting from brands to consumers. Influencers have started to say “no” to brands they do not trust in. You need to build your image before approaching top names. In addition, brands need to be open to honest reviews.

Instead of paying influencers or users to remove genuine reviews or editing existing content, they should work on their shortcomings so that people have no reason to talk ill of them.

What Influencers Need to Do:

Influencers need to be “honest” and not work with companies they do not know or trust. The consensus is that money can buy most influencers and they will post anything for money.

If you want to continue to succeed then you will have to change this notion and be more careful about the kind of brands you work with. Stay away from “bad” companies and do not post fake reviews. Even if you enjoy a good reputation today, continuing to plug poor products will hamper your image and force your followers to move elsewhere – to a name they can trust.

Pay Attention to the Language

What Brands Need to Do:

Brands have to be very careful about the language they use as using the wrong words could get them boycotted or canceled. Cancel culture is getting more and more common and brands like L’Oréal Paris, Goodyear, and Goya have suffered greatly.

The best way to solve this problem is to have full creative control over the content that you publish. Influencers enjoy creativity and creating their content but it could backfire as they are not always careful about what to include in campaigns.

Brands need to pay attention to campaign language and highlight real selling points. For example, use words such as climate-certified, woman-oriented, not tested on animals, and made from recycled materials.

What Influencers Need to Do:

Big names like J.K. Rowling and Ellen DeGeneres have been under fire due to poorly chosen words.

People today are being held accountable for their actions. Users quickly judge influencers who push them to buy something unnecessary by using language such as “YOLO” or “Now or Never”.

Today’s generation pays attention to a lot of things, including climate change, sustainability, and excessive consumption. We’re shifting away from excessive consumption to conscious consumption. You need to include this in your content.

Understand Your Target Audience

What Brands Need to Do:

Consumers are saying no to brands for a variety of reasons, including inauthenticity and high price tags. The trend is making people realize how they’re wasting money and why they need to stop doing it. This makes it necessary for brands to rethink their strategy and understand who they want to target.

With inflation, products are getting expensive, and purchasing power is decreasing. This means that people who could afford your products yesterday cannot afford them today. Hence, there is a need to work out your existing audience and ensure you only cater to people who are likely to purchase your product or service.

Everything from gender to location to age and interests needs to be revisited. For example, someone who pushes the “green” agenda may not be interested in products that are not sustainable.

What Influencers Need to Do:

Content creators need to be more creative and ensure that campaigns are interesting and well-aligned with the target audience’s income, values, priorities, and spending habits. Otherwise, they will be labeled “tone-deaf” or get canceled by the increasingly woke audience.

Many influencers, including some very big names, have faced these issues, including Dwayne Johnson, who suffered backlash due to some old videos where he was in character playing a gimmick. Some other names to have faced a similar situation include Rachel Hollis for comparing herself to Marie Curie and Harriet Tubman, and Shane Dawson for making pedophilia jokes and donning blackface.

Listen to What Industry Experts Have to Say

What Brands Need to Do:

If you look at deinfluencing posts, you will realize they don’t follow the same agenda. Some are focused on calling out lies, some are meant to stop mass consumerism, and some highlight a lack of transparency.

Some influencers, especially those in the health and fitness industry, feel that they must highlight misinformation and help people make the right call. They do this by posting reviews and detailed posts on social media and calling out brands that spread false information.

Brands can use this as an opportunity by working with experts known for highlighting “bad” companies. This can be a great way to add prestige to a brand’s name and make it look authentic by adding value-added commentary to campaigns.

L’Oréal did a very good job of using the trend to push its agenda by pushing the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt tag.

What Influencers Need to Do:

Influencers need to look for brands that people trust. Unfortunately, it may not always be possible for influencers to choose brands as only big names enjoy this luxury. Most influencers, especially new and upcoming influencers, work with all kinds of brands and only look at the perks offered. This, however, is a big mistake as working with brands that do not follow the right agenda can backfire and cause you to lose followers.

Balenciaga, for example, suffered lately due to the use of child models in its campaigns. Influencers that partnered with the giant faced issues as a result due to calls to ban such influencers and many even made calls to destroy Balenciaga products. For your interest, it is best that you keep an eye on what other influencers have to say about a brand before starting any sort of partnership.

Carefully Vet Your Brands and Influencers

What Brands Need to Do:

Brands need to be careful about the influencers they work with. It is common for brands to only look at the number of followers an influencer has; however, it is no more the most important metric. You need to look at other factors too, including who follows them, what their agenda is, and what kind of brands they work with.

Do not approach influencers who are not positive about your brand or niche. For example, some influencers are against cannabis. Brands that sell cannabis-related products should not approach such influencers as it may backfire.

What Influencers Need to Do:

Influencers need to be careful as well. Don’t get too excited when you get approached by a brand. Take your time to study the brand and what they bring to the table. Don’t let big figures fool you and don’t go by a simple Google search.

You need to have a critical look at the products and services they offer and what others think of them. Remember that a single misaligned campaign can cause your followers to lose trust in you.

It might be a good idea to stay away from controversial brands and work with platforms like Afluencer so you can have a look at details such as past campaigns and influencers a brand has been associated with.

Follow FTC Guidelines and Regulations

What Brands Need to Do:

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has set regulations that define some rules brands have to follow when working with influencers to promote products or services.

Not following these guidelines can result in issues such as your campaign getting taken down. Both parties must ensure FTC guidelines are met. As a brand, you must make sure the influencer you work with follows all guidelines.

Social media compliance does not only help avoid legal issues but can also reduce the risk of deinfluencing commentary against you.

What Influencers Need to Do:

FTC has published rules concerning influencer marketing to help users identify “material connections” to brands they are endorsing. Influencers must publish a disclosure when working with brands to recommend or endorse products.

Here is what the document says:

In simple words, influencers must make full disclosure when receiving any form of incentive, including discounted products or services, monetary rewards, or free products in exchange for promotional content such as reviews.

Why Your Brand Needs to Understand Deinfluencing

Now that we have explained deinfluencing, we need to now talk about how it ties into your marketing strategy. As evident from the discussion above, the trend impacts brands more than it impacts influencers.

Here’s why you must spend some time understanding the trend:

You Need A New Tactic

Consumers today don’t blindly follow fashion. They are becoming conscious and are thinking twice before making a buying decision. Their bank account isn’t the only thing they look at, they also care for the environment and like to support sustainable brands.

It is believed that about 90 percent of Gen X are willing to pay up to 10 percent more for sustainable goods. This is a huge increase from only 34 percent of buyers willing to pay more for sustainable goods two years ago.

This is a great opportunity for brands. You can rebrand your products and highlight how it helps the environment. Many brands, including Coca-Cola and Microsoft, are now pushing for a sustainable future and helping the environment.

The push for sustainable brands is very strong in developed countries, including the US where 78 percent of consumers want a sustainable lifestyle. The number is also very high in European countries, making it necessary for international brands to be careful.

We have seen a huge increase in products that support the environment. Some have even managed to outsell competitors despite the larger price tag. Products that claim to be environmentally good recorded 8 percent more growth than products that do not make such claims.

These figures prove the importance of being sustainable and the need to make changes. New buying habits are gradually developing and deinfluencing can be credited for bringing this change.

Customers are looking for influencers with a similar agenda. They look for inspiration and instead of loud and over-the-top brands, they are more interested in brands that offer sustainable products and services.

Older Campaigns and Collaborations May Not Work Anymore

It doesn’t matter how long your relationship with an influencer is, now might be the right time to shift gears and look for influencers people can trust. Regular influencers, including celebs such as Ellen Degeneres, have lost the pull. Experts believe that promotion exhaustion is the reason why users are turning away from popular names and looking for inspiration elsewhere.

People are smarter than ever. They can catch liars and will not think twice before blacklisting influencers or brands that lie. A great example of this can be a 2022 case where eight influencers had to face a lawsuit due to lying about stocks.

Another big name, Mikayla Nogueira, was also recently in the news due to a false advertisement. The diva was caught wearing false lashes to promote L’Oréal Paris Telescopic Mascara.

These incidents have proven that influencers don’t truly care for their followers, they’re only interested in making money. As a result, consumers have started to “unfollow” unauthentic influencers pushing brands to look for inspiration elsewhere, including deinfluencing creators.

They are known for being authentic, reliable, and honest. As a brand, you should consider working with such influencers as they can offer you a better ROI. However, it can be hard to get such influencers to partner with your brand as they are very careful about who they get associated with. It might be a good idea to look for deinfluencing creators who already use your brand and have faith in it.

All in all, brands need to change existing marketing efforts and utilize the deinfluencing trend. At Afluencer, we have several deinfluencing creators with huge followings. They are looking for authentic and good brands to work with. Moreover, we house several sustainable brands that are looking for suitable influencers.

Join us today to get access to them.

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]]> https://afluencer.com/marketing-agency-best-practices/ Tue, 29 Mar 2022 10:21:31 +0000 https://afluencer.com/?p=17465 Marketing can be tricky. One month, the trend is Facebook and Google Ads. The next month, the trend is… somewhere else. So where can e-commerce merchants look to improve their overall marketing engagement and gain traction with customers? The quickest way to reduce the learning curve is to ask the people who do marketing for […]

The post Best Practices for Marketing Agencies appeared first on AFLUENCER.

]]> Marketing can be tricky. One month, the trend is Facebook and Google Ads. The next month, the trend is… somewhere else.

So where can e-commerce merchants look to improve their overall marketing engagement and gain traction with customers?

The quickest way to reduce the learning curve is to ask the people who do marketing for a living.

That’s why we created a roundtable full of smart people who lead marketing agencies. We asked them what they do, where they focus their marketing efforts, and what they see ahead for the future of eCommerce marketing.

Here’s what they had to say.

The Roundtable: Meet our fearless agency leaders

To get the agency insights we needed, we decided to reach out to leaders in the space.

1. Ali Schwanke, CEO/Founder of Simple Strat
2. Kevin Quinn, co-founder/”sales hustler“ at Market X, LLC
3. Adam Abdulraheem, director, DMI Digital Marketing Agency
4. Marc Rona, Vice President, Affiliate Marketing at Hawke Media
5. Christina Hooper, CEO of Sparkitive, LLC
6. Ben Precious, CEO/Founder of Pace Social Media
7. Dave Diaz, Founder/Marketing Director at RedFork Marketing

We ran a survey tapping into folks holding leadership positions in marketing agencies.

The goal: distill their insights and responses so you can identify high-level trends.

Below, you’ll see some of our top questions. Here’s what leading marketers had to say about how they handle marketing.

Q&A: Insights from top-performing marketing agencies

Question: How do you advertise your marketing agency?

In general, the answers here slanted toward inbound marketing. Four of our six respondents focused on generating leads from incoming visitors via word-of-mouth, SEO, or, in some cases, a mix of both inbound and outbound tactics.

“We utilize a combination of inbound tactics, along with speaking and thought leadership,” said Schwanke. “One of our biggest channels is YouTube, followed by partnerships and speaking to B2B organizations/groups. We also leverage LinkedIn pretty heavily”.

Schwanke is being modest, neglecting to plug her famous YouTube channel, HubSpot Hacks. The success of this channel has certainly made a major a big impact on Schwanke’s position as a thought leader and YouTube influencer.

Marc Rona of Hawke Media echoed the thought leadership strategy. “Hawke Media advertises across multiple channels including presentations at Webinars and Conferences, via Strategic Partnerships and referrals. Our CEO, Erik Huberman, is also a thought leader in the digital marketing space and just released a best-selling book, The Hawke Method.”

Diaz said his team takes a unique approach. They promote “through project-based marketplaces primarily such as Wix Marketplace,” said Diaz.

For Kevin Quinn, word of mouth rules the day.

“We have some amazing connections in the industry that have helped us grow,” said Quinn. “We’re going to be launching ad traffic via the social media ecosystem that’s available to us, which will include FB, IG, Google, and LinkedIn.”

Adam Abdulraheem saw a three-step approach—starting with inbound marketing and then working his way up to outbound.

“The first step was getting organized,” said Abdulraheem. “Since we’re an agency, it made sense that we’d want to reach a lot of people, so we began by making sure that we had a website that was optimized for SEO and a social media presence that made sense for our brand.”

Ben Precious of Pace Social Media agreed.

“[SEO] is the ultimate goal of our PR efforts,” said Precious. “if we can lock down features, listings, and placements within or on articles and various reputable websites, this will, in turn, push our website up the ranks of a search engine, resulting in increased traffic and users.”

On the outreach side, Christina Hooper recommends being helpful. “99% of our customers come from being a helpful human in networking groups and getting referrals from people in the group or current clients. Relationships are the biggest tool we have,” said Hooper.

Question: How has your marketing strategy changed in recent years?

The trend here: slowing down and taking a breath.

For Quinn, that means becoming “pickier in which clients we take on. Initially, we wanted all the business—and quickly realized we only want to work with the right clients.”

Ditto for Abdulraheem. “Now, when we sit down with a prospective client, we don’t jump into an aggressive presentation about why they should use DMi Agency. Instead, we listen.

“We find out what their problem is and what kind of solution they need,” continued Abdulraheem. “Only once we understand their needs do we present a solution—and sometimes it isn’t even one of our services. Because if what you need can be solved by someone else, why would we pretend otherwise?”

“Our marketing strategy involves real people and real value for these people,” said Precious. “PR and SEO are two fundamental marketing methods that won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, PR has existed since we figured out how to write and SEO since the internet hit the on-switch.”

But Precious added: “With this being said, we don’t need to change something that works well. We simply adapt to the industry’s climate and identify new and potential outlets we’d like to work with.”

And what about the changes he’s seen?

“The one major change I can comment on is the implementation of our blog page to our website,” said Precious. “This allowed us to introduce backlinks from the PR we seek out, which supercharged our entire process as soon as we started this due to improving our SEO on many fronts.”

Others have shifted focus to social media and influencers, noting their importance in building brand memorability. “In recent years, we have shifted to focus more on social media marketing and influencer marketing to build brand awareness,” said Hooper.

Rona agreed.

“In addition to the traditional affiliate partners such as loyalty, coupon, and cashback partners,” said Rona, “we are highly focused on leveraging influencers and content providers.”

To Schwanke, the big change has been in building relationships. “We started our YouTube channel in 2019, and while that didn’t provide much ROI initially (beyond a social proof point of our credibility) we did start to see some of the video content start to rank at the start of 2020 when we revisited our strategy and created conversion opportunities and a funnel to bring folks back to our website for a consultation.”

Schwanke continued: “Other changes have been recently we’ve spent much more time on LinkedIn and not much at all on Facebook or Instagram, purely for the sheer effort needed to succeed on platforms and having a limited amount of time and resources as an agency of 10 people.”

The pandemic saw fewer speaking engagement opportunities for Schwanke’s team. They pivoted by building relationships with podcasters and other companies putting on virtual events.

Question: Are referrals a meaningful source of business?

The overwhelming response: Yes, with a capital Y.

“Absolutely,” said Quinn. “The power of connecting is second to none. The more you help someone else, that energy flows back to you. We’re working with some high-level clients right now, because of relationships we established and nurtured along the journey.”

Chalk another “absolutely” up to Diaz. “Absolutely. We ask for reviews from every person that we complete work for and we prompt them to share their experience with others.”

Diaz also mentions partnering with other agencies who aren’t willing to take on smaller work, then paying small commissions for those leads.

“45% of our clients have been through referrals,” added Abdulraheem. “The rule of thumb here is to deliver the best service. We have clients who look for clients for us for free.”

“We receive a tremendous amount of referrals from clients,” said Rona. “As well as via our strong Partnerships referrals.”

“We love referrals!” said Hooper. “Some of our best practices include investing time to build relationships with our customers, having good customer service, and listening to your customers’ needs.”

“It’s the people that will make your business work,” added Ben Precious. “They are your business lifeline. You should be tapping into your current client base to unlock untapped revenue.”

Precious believes word of mouth is one of the most important and powerful marketing methods available. “[Word of mouth] can instantly turn a complete stranger to your business into a boiling hot lead ready to work with you, all because they place more trust in their associates over you.

“We tend to offer reduced rates for clients who send business and referrals our way,” elaborated Precious. “I have many agreements in place whereby I open up our agency’s toolbox and capabilities for business owners willing to help grow my business alongside theirs.

“Ultimately,” Precious said, “I run a marketing agency. And this is our main objective.”

Ali Schwanke added her own caveat to the answer.

“Yes, [referrals] are,” said Schwanke. “But we don’t take all business that comes in the door.

“As a result,” Schwanke added, “the more you can help educate your clients as to the type of work you can knock out of the park and who/what type of companies those are, the better they are at sending business your way.”

Schwanke recommends rewarding and thanking people who refer business their way. “We do not have a formal referral process in place,” said Schwanke, “but do make a practice of introducing our clients to contacts that would be helpful to them.”

It’s a practice Schwanke says is often “reciprocated.”

Question: What future plans does your agency have on the advertising and marketing front?

This is where the roundtable provided a mix of answers. Agencies have a lot of choices at their disposal—and it seems that every agency made a separate one.

“We are doubling down our video production this year,” said Schwanke, and “releasing more short educational content. It’s likely that search engine marketing or paid search ads and social ads will be in our mix this year as well as in-person events where it makes sense.”

The same is true for Diaz, who plans on “investing heavily in video and digital ads” to get the video content out to larger audiences.

For Kevin Quinn, the plan is to “jump in with both feet for ad traffic. We have a high ticket offer that will feed the agency with the right clients. We feel that targeted ads in the right niche will be crucial to our success.”

Meanwhile, Abdulraheem is always looking for the “next thing” in both advertising and marketing, which he currently believes to be metaverse marketing.

Marc Rona believes Hawke’s best approach is growing “via acquisitions” and strategic partnerships, as well as expanding product offerings.

Christina Hooper echoed the growth sentiment, saying Sparkitive is “building [its] ambassador team, working with influencers, and gathering organic contact of our customers enjoying [its] products.”

Ben Precious’s plans are two-fold: scaling his personal Instagram account with relatable content and leveraging the network it helps generate.

Precious also sees opportunities all over video platforms, including YouTube and especially TikTok. “[These] are becoming hot topics for us regarding bringing in clients.”

Precious’s future plans include keeping the influencer at the forefront, which helps drive video engagement like no other variable.

Anything else we should know about marketing a marketing agency?

Finally, we left an open-ended question: what do these marketers recommend to improve the visibility of an agency?

“Marketing a marketing agency can be tricky,” said Abdulraheem. “You have to sell your services to people who are already experts in the field, and that can be intimidating.”

Abdulraheem recommends focusing on your niche: what separates your agencies from the rest. “Maybe you specialize in a particular industry or geographic location—or maybe you’re excellent at event marketing. Whatever it is, start there!”

Hooper agreed with the differentiator route.

“Look at what works for you and do that for your clients instead of just doing what all the gurus in the industry… are doing,” said Hooper.

She went on: “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and be honest with your clients about your skillset. You can hire internally or outsource for talent on specific projects or tasks, but it’s your job to drive strategy and ensure execution.”

For Ben Precious, the key was in looking at other agencies as friends, and not competition. “It’s very easy to fall into the trap of other marketing companies being your enemy and competition.”

“While this may look like the case… instead of turning a blind eye to your competition, greet them with open arms, after all, it’s the execution of ideas that matters not the concept itself so you have nothing to fear and everything to gain by working alongside your fellow man!”

We’ll leave it with Diaz:

“The biggest, most successful thing we’ve done to date is work to provide as much feedback as possible to larger companies that have garnered a small business audience. This allows us to meet influential team members within the organization who then open up opportunities for us.”

Next steps for your marketing goals

Want to engage one of the most-recommended tactics of our marketing panel and leverage the power of connections and influencers?

Install the Afluencer app for Shopify or register your brand directly with Afluencer.

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]]> https://afluencer.com/success-stories-vela/ Mon, 14 Feb 2022 08:49:47 +0000 https://afluencer.com/?p=17016 Afluencer. The platform that brings brands and influencers together for money-making Collabs that can skyrocket their success. We tend to harp on about our service. Afluencer this… Afluencer that. What can we say? We believe in this platform and we know it works. This is our baby and, well, you may think our opinion might […]

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]]> Afluencer. The platform that brings brands and influencers together for money-making Collabs that can skyrocket their success.

We tend to harp on about our service. Afluencer this… Afluencer that. What can we say? We believe in this platform and we know it works. This is our baby and, well, you may think our opinion might be biased. So, instead, we thought we would let one of our customers tell you their Afluencer success story.

This is Raphael. He developed and produced an awesome workout product. Next, he needed fitness influencers to help spread the word about Vela!

Here’s how Raphael, on a shoestring budget, recruited more than 100 fitness influencers in just a few months for Vela…

What challenges did you face?

One of the biggest challenges was believing in myself. Jumping into unknown waters can feel like walking in a tunnel in darkness with no light in sight. It took consistency, boldness, and the ability to continue to walk the path of believing that others would connect with the story, and the vision, and ultimately want to walk the path with me on building this brand.

Once I got out of my own way, things started to fall into place and I would see and take opportunities as they came.

How did you overcome them?

It was not an overnight thing. I would see success in bands selling, people telling me that the band is working for them and that they like how it feels, and getting constructive criticism on the brand, the messaging, and the product. All of this is helpful on the journey because I look at myself as an artist creating for people. I need to hear what people are saying to know how to move forward to create more.

What future plans are in the works for Vela?

There are more fitness products in the works, clothing, and continued affiliate opportunities.

How has Afluencer helped attract the ideal Influencer for Vela?

Afluencer has helped with attracting influencers from many walks of life. It’s been a great way to bridge the gap and connect people to the brand and product.

How has it helped you to overcome the challenges you had before?

It’s made it easier to gain influencers to get the word out about the product. It’s a true blessing.

How is Afluencer different than other alternatives you’ve tried?

Afluencer’s customer service is great. Brett and Lisa have been helpful in staying in the loop with me, introducing me to influencers, and getting things moving in the right direction.

What is your favorite feature? Why?

I love the access to influencers, it’s become easy to accept potential Collabs and move them to the next steps of partnership.

How has this product/service helped you achieve your business goals and what has your return on investment been?

It’s helped with building the influencer team and I’ve seen some revenue come in.

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This is but one of many Afluencer success stories. There are so many stories of humble one-man-band startups becoming multi-million dollar enterprises through social media influencers.

So how can you get a piece of this action? By joining Afluencer, of course! It’s the place to be. Our large database of brands and influencers continues to grow with people from all corners of the globe.

If you need guidance, we have loads of resources to help you. For example, if you’re just getting started, here is a detailed guide with steps to creating your brand profile and post Collabs. Alternatively, you can watch this demo for a practical breakdown with Brett – Afluencer’s Founder and Chief Matchmaker! 🙂

If like Vela, you’re a brand in the fitness industry, you too can harness the power of influencer marketing. There has been rising popularity in health and wellness. The awesome thing about influencers is that they have the trust of their followers. So, not only can they promote your product, but they also have the ability to convince people that your product is what they need to attain their fitness goals.

Hey, what can we say? Influencers are trendsetters and your brand can benefit from this.

Check out this awesome list of fitness influencers to Collab with. See how we love to make influencer marketing easier for you 😉

Not in the fitness industry? We got you covered as well! While we often compile lists of top influencers in various categories, this piece is the ultimate. It features over 400 – FOUR HUNDRED – social media influencers and content creators to look out for. We’ve broken it down and split them into different categories to help you find the perfect influencer.

Sign Up With Afluencer at Any Point in Your Brand’s Journey

Do you need to be an already well-established brand to get started with afluencer? Nope. Whether you’ve literally just started or have been in the game for a while and need a bit of help finding the perfect influencer, Afluencer is the platform for you.

What’s your Afluencer success story going to be? We can’t wait to find out!

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]]> https://afluencer.com/common-influencer-marketing-mistakes/ Mon, 30 Aug 2021 13:40:00 +0000 https://afluencer.com/?p=13506 Influencer marketing has been one of the most dynamic and disruptive trends that have emerged in the last couple of years. Especially during this pandemic, the popularity of this form of marketing has accelerated as people now prefer content that’s more original and less scripted. According to research, the value of the global influencer market in 2020 […]

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]]> Influencer marketing has been one of the most dynamic and disruptive trends that have emerged in the last couple of years. Especially during this pandemic, the popularity of this form of marketing has accelerated as people now prefer content that’s more original and less scripted. According to research, the value of the global influencer market in 2020 was $7.68 billion.

Due to the soaring popularity of this industry, many people are now interested in becoming an influencer. However, because of the entry of many players, the industry has been saturated. This is why many influencers are now looking for ways to go above and beyond while producing their content so that they can be distinct.

In this blog, we’ve listed and discussed the common influencer marketing mistakes that are making it difficult to break through the content clutter.

Not Having Goals

It’s imperative to have clear campaign goals. This is important because by only having clear campaign goals, you can engage with your audience and steer conversations.

You also need to have clear, well-defined KPIs. For instance, you should know by the end of the year how much your platform should grow in terms of engagement, sales, followers, leads, etc.

Unfortunately, one of the most common influencer marketing mistakes is not having any set goals in place.

Check out our infographic on goals your brand should focus on:

Not Choosing the Right People to Collaborate With

One strategy through which many influencers increase their follower base is by collaborating with other influencers. However, this strategy can hit back if you do not collaborate with the right person. It’s critical to find another influencer to collaborate with who has similar values to yours and is relevant to your platform and audience.

So don’t be the one who makes the mistake of collaborating with the wrong influencer for your marketing campaign.

Not Selecting the Right Outreach Methods

If you have started influencer marketing recently, you should test your outreach methods. Knowing which one is most suitable for your campaign is super important. In this phase, you should also make sure you don’t prioritize reach over context.

This is one of the most common digital marketing mistakes that an influencer can make. While engrossed in increasing their followers, they don’t focus on producing high-quality content.

In order to be distinct and unique, if you’re looking for the best influencer programs, you can check our resources. This platform is also useful for brands as we allow them to find influencers online. You can easily signup for our influencer marketing program. If you need more information, you can contact us at (916) 480-8425.

Bonus Infographic: Influencer Marketing Goals Brands Should Focus On

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]]> https://afluencer.com/5-ways-how-technology-can-help-your-influencer-marketing-campaign/ Wed, 23 Jun 2021 00:32:18 +0000 https://afluencer.com/?p=12460 To be a marketer and run a successful influencer marketing campaign is far from simple. Nowadays more and more brands are leaning towards influencers to promote their products on social media. When using influencers, brands can speak directly to their target audience in an original and creative way. However, influencer marketing programs need support from […]

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]]> To be a marketer and run a successful influencer marketing campaign is far from simple.

Nowadays more and more brands are leaning towards influencers to promote their products on social media. When using influencers, brands can speak directly to their target audience in an original and creative way. However, influencer marketing programs need support from technology.

In the past influencer marketing depended on word of mouth.

But now the progress of technology has made it far simpler for brands to run their marketing campaigns.

These days a lot of tools exist to help marketers to:

• manage their social media content schedules.
• find adequate influencers.
• handoff referral links, and codes to the influencers.

If you choose a marketing platform for promotion you will have total control of your influencer programs and actions.

Firstly you need to understand how technology works in order to use it to the fullest for your marketing benefits.

In this article, we have a few tips on using influencer technology in your marketing campaign.

1. Know Your Marketing Goals

As a brand, before you turn to technology for influencer marketing first you need to figure out what your key performance indicators (KPIs) are.  Do you want to reach more people, engage your followers, make more sales, increase your audience, etc?

It’s very important to know your goals from the start to create a more efficient marketing strategy and design an original voice for your brand.

2. Social Media Channels Are Very Important For Your Brand

It’s very important to know which social media channels you need to target.

For example, if TikTok is the best choice for promotion, then you won’t want to partner with an influencer who is operating only on Facebook.

You need to deeply research your niche before you start promoting your brand. Knowing which social media platforms your target audience mostly spends their time will help you make the right choice.

3. Performance Marketing Network Is Essential For Your Brand

After you understand your KPIs and the channels you prefer to use, it’s time to connect to a performance marketing network.

Most social media platforms have an option that allows you to create groups. Thus, giving your collab partners technology to communicate with each other and help you build a stronger influencer marketing strategy.

4. Find The Best Influencer Strategy

It’s only a beginning when you complete your marketing site.

The next thing you need to do is reach out to influencers.

You won’t need 1000 influencers to start, starting with a smaller number of influencers is the best choice.

5. Create A Content Schedule

Developing a content schedule is one of the best uses of technology you can use for your influencer marketing campaign.

Even though your influencers will create the required content for your brand you still need to create your own content in order to spread your brand’s message properly.

Creating a content schedule will help you to verify content deadlines and understand where to upload your content.

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]]> https://afluencer.com/how-to-get-started-and-thrive-in-influencer-marketing/ Thu, 20 May 2021 22:31:37 +0000 https://afluencer.com/?p=12095 Nowadays influencer marketing is taking the world by storm. But what does it mean? Can anyone become an influencer? Can influencers make enough money to live from influencer marketing? And how would one get started with influencer marketing? Most people are perceiving influencers like social media celebrities, and popular bloggers on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc. […]

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