How to Succeed at Influencer Marketing

About a week ago, I participated in a Twitter chat lead by Marketo and Traackr about an growing and important program within digital & social media marketing - influencer marketing. Bloglovin found that 63 percent of the marketers it surveyed had increased their budgets for influencer marketing in 2017. Influencer marketing "is a form of marketing in which focus is placed on influential people rather than the target market as a whole. It identifies the individuals that have influence over potential buyers, and orients marketing activities around these influencers."

Influencer marketing has skyrocketed over the past few years and brands have finally caught on. The question is - how do you succeed at Influencer marketing. I'm going to use's Marketo's questions that were used in the Twitter chat to share my point of view on the topic. Here we go:

1. What steps do you consider when developing an influencer engagement strategy?  

The first step is to identify which new target market you need to educate about your offer. Once that is determined, you can start looking for people that have an influence in that market and then see how you can help each other. Mutually beneficial relationships are essential for a lasting influencer strategy.

2. What should brands look for in an influencer? Are there key attributes to consider?

This depends on what your marketing goals are. If your goal is to create video content, then look for someone who has a large following on YouTube & co-create content. Also make sure they're someone that makes your brand relatable to your target audience.  

3. How can marketers align influencer marketing with larger business goals (ie. lead generation)?

One way is to co-create content with the influencer that offers tips/tricks on how to (insert topic here). Offer a few tips gratis and then drive people to gated page for download to get the rest of the tips.

4. Are there any ‘red flags’ marketers should consider when looking for influencers? 

One red flag is when an influencer has a large number of followers, but no post activity. Another is that their content touches on many different topics - which means they are not a clear subject matter on a specific topic. Subject matter experts who have an engaged following is what marketers should be looking for.

5. What are the most effective social channels for influencer marketing?

I would say the most effective social channels for influencer marketing are Instagram, Facebook and Twitter because they support visual content which is easier to digest for people than long form written content. Images can be inspirational and drive an immediate action.

6. How are you seeing brands successfully build long-term relationships with influencers?

We are so focused on our digital connections and engagements, that we forget that there are other opportunities to build long term relationships. For example, extending their online campaigns into real live events.

7. Which metrics should marketers use to measure the success of an influencer program?

That also depends on what your goals are. One item to measure is number of engagements of the influencer posts. That will help you identify what your audience responds to. Keep doing what works to help move them through the funnel.  

Hope this post shed some light on this new digital marketing approach. Would love to hear your thoughts or experiences using this strategy. 

Jason