Our blog “5 Must Measure KPIs for an Influencer Marketing Campaign” garnered a lot of attention. We discussed ways to measure an influencer marketing campaigns by tracking key performance indicators such as data, links and numbers – which helps readers identify possible ROI of a campaign. In this blog, we’re going to break down value outside the numbers. Here are three long-term values of influencer marketing every brand should consider when planning a campaign.

Unique Evergreen Content

Creating unique consist content for any brand or business is a heavy lift.

Need to launch a new product in-house via video? Call in the creative director, videographers, editors, production crew, talent, copywriters… the list could go on. After hours of shooting, a few days of editing, a week of back and forth on changes, voila you have a 30-second video showcasing one new product.

Now, call in the advertising and marketing team to plan the content launch, back it with a few thousand dollars. Job well done! No really, job well done, because any brand marketer knows this is a rewarding task to check off the to-do list.

However, working with a handful or 50 influencers (in this case, let’s say YouTube influencers), a business’s ability to create consist consumer friendly yet brand-aligned content increases by the 10-fold.

For example, say an athletic wear company is launching a new awesome shoe. Instead of creating content in-house/with an agency, this brand partners with 10 YouTube creators to each development 1-minute videos about the new product. Yes, the brand marketing team will have the same type of creative upfront planning and a few negotiations to complete, however, by the end of the process the brand has ten times the content and zero production work to complete.

More importantly, this influencer created content could come at a cheaper cost than the one in-house developed 30-second video. Brands typically spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on professional development content. Influencers make for more affordable consist brand content.

Here is a creative example of influencer crafted content the ivvi team assisted with strategizing and executing. Recognize the brand?

Greater Organic Reach

For many marketers, extending reach and brand awareness of products or services is an ongoing, ever-evolving process. Influencer marketing provides brands with an extra arm’s length of audience – think Stretch Armstrong.

Let’s use Coca-Cola as an example. The brand’s main YouTube Channel has roughly 2.4 million subscribers, 1.49 billion video views, and over two thousand owned videos. These are significant numbers for a branded YouTube channel. However, in the last year, Coca-Cola has partnered with many YouTube influencers, including Unbox Therapy, Alex Wassabi, and Chris Rogers. All YouTubers that create for very different audiences that helped the brand extend its reach outside its own social/digital channels.

Using the ivvi software, we were quickly able to track both the influencers and Coca-Cola’s channels to get a better understanding of estimated reach.

From this, we see that the partnerships Coca-Cola made with these YouTubers had the possibility of reaching over 14 million YouTube subscribers outside their owned audience.

The value of a brand’s overall reach may not be easily quantifiable; however, the value of reach is undeniably known all marketers.

Spreads positive brand sentiment

This may be a no-brainer. But yes, a positive brand image holds deep value and is possibly the most valuable brand feature to potential and existing clients/customers. Brands are always working to create positive brand content that resonates with customers. A positive brand image builds credibility, trust and authority. And working with influencers allows a brand to be broadcasted authentically from a trusted third-party brand advocate.

One of the most significant benefits of influencer partnerships is that they create content that is natural, real, forward, which their audience respects. 71.2 percent of influencers feel that their honesty and sense of humor is what keeps their audience engaged. The positive image a brand develops through influencer campaigns holds a value that can enhance customer sentiment and engagement across other marketing efforts such as social media, SEO, digital advertising, email marketing, etc.

There are two ways of categorizing the real value of influencer marketing, by its tangible value or by its intangible value. The intangible benefits of influencer marketing outlined in this blog are those of long-term gain. Influencer marketing isn’t going anywhere, so it’s time for marketing teams to start thinking for long-term rather than for the quick return.

On May 15, 2018, ivvi and VidCon Connect are taking over Toronto’s District 28 event space to host of an evening with over 400 Canada’s top social media stars. The evening will be comprised of creator talks (from some of Canada’s top YouTube influencers), networking session (meet influencers and collaborate with aligned minds) and an electric party outfitted with brand activations. Kicking off the night at 7 pm, VidCon Connect event will follow the insightful, social content edition day conference – InfluenceTHIS!

Want to get learn more about how your brand can be involved with the thought leaders and influencers in the online video space?

Align your brand with the centre of a community that celebrates online social media, content creation, and progressive thinking.

Connect us for more information! 

VidCon is the largest influencer meetup community. Created by the Vlogbrothers back in 2010, with the vision of connecting the internet with real life. Since then, the annual conference (in the United States) has expanded to 30,000 people, and this year their expansion plan includes partnering with us to foster this growing community in Canada.

InfluencerTHIS the central hub for connecting Canadian media and marketing professional with the goal of building loyal followers and customers through social media and influencer marketing.

YouTube has been a major vehicle for driving equality messaging around the globe. From Hollywood celebrities and mainstream media to social media influencers and everyday people, women (and men) are fighting for change.

With Mother’s Day around the corner, these strong conversations and movements will continue to grow and spark new conversations. Many big brand names are also participating by changing employment contracts and wages. Brands looking to extend their influencer marketing strategy to be a part of the equality rights movement rather than push sales have big opportunities to showcase their companies views and build brand consciousness with new and existing audiences.

Important note to all brands (big or small) not all holidays or season occasions (like Mother’s Day) should be used to push product/service sales. With this in mind, let’s review a few awesome YouTube content creators that that are developing amazing mothers/women related content.

The following YouTube influencers could be a great partnership opportunity for those looking to develop unique conscious women empowered campaigns that are aligned with their brand mission:

The above is just a snapshot of amazing YouTube influencers making family and motherhood related content. This list is a sample of the power of ivvi, there are many more influencers creating content in these categories that might be better suited for your brand or company. We’re happy to provide you with a free consultation if you want to learn more.

Scroll down to get a little more background on the top 5 Mother’s Day influencers sourced from ivvi:

1. WhatsUpMom

This channel all started with two mothers looking to inspire and empower other moms through their parenting journeys. Now, they are the #1 parenting channel on YouTube with over 2 million subscribers and over 35 million video views per month!

2. Missy Lanning 

As a mother of 4, Missy Lanning is a content creator extraordinaire! Her channel showcases a true essence of a woman following her dreams while motivating women around the world to do the same. Since launching her channel she’s attracted over 670K+ subscribers and over 141 million video views.

3. Do It On A Dime

Kathryn is a woman on a mission to motivate and inspire people to live a more organized lifestyle on a budget. As a mother herself, she is an inspiration to many women and recently launched a second YouTube channel dedicated to parenting. Combined both her channels have over 660K subscribers!

4. The Daily Davidsons

This beautiful family of 5 have a lot of fun on their YouTube channel! With three young boys, the Daily Davidsons make a variety of parenting, lifestyle and vlog type content for their fans. This fun-loving family is an inspiration many mothers around the globe! With 233K+ subscribers and counting, this is a family that should be on your radar.

Want to get a free list of influencers for your next campaign? Try our freemium version of ivvi now. 

Influencer Discovery Generator – 1

Brands have a massive opportunity to tap into engaging Gen Xers on YouTube. According to a recent study from Pixability, generation X accounts for 1.5 billion daily video views on YouTube.

In order to have a better understanding of how to reach this demographic effectively, marketers need to know what these viewers are turning to YouTube to watch. Think with Google recently released a bunch of interesting stats on what Gen x users are searching on YouTube! For content creators, marketers and brands, these findings could be an essential insight for future campaigns.

Occasional nostalgia

YouTube is a never-ending time-capsule information. Reminiscing about a concert from the 80s? It’s probably on YouTube. Remember your favourite commercial growing up? It’s probably on YouTube. Want to dance to a hit song from back-in-the-day? It’s probably on YouTube.

75 percent of Gen Xers watch YouTube videos that related to past events or people.

Staying Relevant

Gen Xers don’t want to miss a beat. That’s why 86 percent of Gen Exers watch YouTube videos to stay on top of news and pop culture.

This demographic also wants to stay in the know about what their children are talking about and doing online. They also use YouTube as a means to connect with their children and show them they are relevant and understand what’s going on in their world.

The Do It Yourself Generation

As the generation known for their independence and self-starting nature, it’s not a big shock that 73 percent of Gen Xers watch YouTube videos to learn something new. From brands looking to market to this generation, DIY, how-to, and tutorial type video content could be a golden opportunity.

The top “how-to” content categories that generation X tunes into on YouTube fall under home repair, cooling, technology use, arts and crafts, beauty and personal care. These diverse categories provide brands from various sectors to tap into a unique angle of influencer marketing.

Finding the Right Influencers

Now that you’re armed with some amazing insights on how to engage generation X demographics on YouTube. You might be wondering, how to find the appropriate influencers to partner with?

Using a predictive software like, ivvi, will ease to the process of researching and vetting influencers that are brand and campaign aligned.

For fun, let’s pretend that you’re a home renovation supplier brand that is looking to launch an influencer marketing campaign that will reach the gen x demographic on YouTube.

Our technology sorts through millions of videos to filters content and influencer based on your brand and campaign topic. ivvi does the heavy lifting for you. Once your account is set up, you’ll have direct access to brand-related content and influencers with zero research time needed.

Interested in running a campaign targeting generation x on YouTube? We can help! From insights, influencer vetting, video strategy to campaign consulting. ivvi is your start to finish influencer marketing software. Want to see a live demo? Email us here: taylor@influencerstrategies.com

(image source: https://hub.uberflip.com/social-media/storytelling-the-killer-app-of-content-marketing)

Selling through standalone marketing mediums that can be considered “new” (such as influencer marketing) to bosses and decision makers can be difficult. However, incorporating this tactic into existing strategies will be easier to sell-through for trial purposes.

The following article walks through five marketing mediums that can be paired with influencer marketing in 2018 to boost campaign success and prove influencer marketing is worth investing in:

1. Email Marketing Campaigns

The main reasons why email marketing is so successful is because of exclusivity and directness. When customers give a brand their email address they are basically saying, “Ya, I’m interested! Call me.” Which means this could be a great medium to incorporate influencer marketing tactics with branded newsletters, and promotional outreach.

Influencers provide brands with a unique spin and perspective on products, services and movements. They also provide brands with unique, high-quality content. Using this content in an email campaign is a great way to freshen up content and increase engagement – higher open rates, more link clicks, increased shares or improved sale conversions.

If your email marketing management is strong you should be able to segment your campaigns by demographics that match those of the influencers you’re working with.

2. Event Marketing Opportunities

A tale as old as time – in other words –  event marketing!

Event marketing is face-to-face contact with existing and prospective customers. For marketers, if executed effectively, it’s a goldmine opportunity.

Over the years, we’ve watched event marketing strategies evolve from print handouts to contesting to digital sign-ups to tweet walls, we all know this list goes on. Which brings us to influencer event marketing, an idea that can be scaled by budget or by brand.

Social media influencers are the new (more accessible) celebrity. By inviting influencers to a marketing event, you can extend an offline opportunity to reach millions of people online.

Your event influencers can be as small-scaled as event attendees or as large as a YouTuber with millions of subscribers. Either way, the main benefit is the unique content created by these individuals. How a brand uses this content after the event is important as well. Can you incorporate this into an email marketing campaign?

3. Website Customer Journey

All websites have a similar goal. Unfortunately, all website goers use it differently. Web developers and UX designers have a tough job. They work with one platform in hopes of providing an exceptional experience to all its distinctive users.

Influencer onsite partnerships could help feed website users through your sales funnel. For example, let’s use a tech brand to illustrate how onsite influencer partnerships could help. YouTube tech influencers are continuously developing content about the latest gadgets with tutorials, unboxing and how-tos.

Have a few gadgets for sale online? Partner with a rising tech influencers to create unboxing videos that inform visits of tech specs. If you provide the influencer with creative freedom they will likely share the content with their followers as well.

4. Social Media Calendars

Creating new creative social media content isn’t a simple task – especially if you’ve been developing owned content for years. Partnering with influencers can we a great way to cultivate new content that will engage your existing social media audiences.  

Having influencers create unique content doesn’t have to be a heavy task. It can be as simple as providing them with a product and having them share on their social media channels. Once they have shared the content, you can ask to repurpose this on owned channels as well.

If you’re working with influencers on any of the shared tactics above make sure to incorporate this into owned social media channels as well.

5. Product Launches

Have a new exciting product launching this year? Why not launch it in a new exciting way!? Partnering with influencers is an excellent way to increase awareness and engagement surrounding a product launch.

Before the product hits the shelves makes sure it hits a select group of influencers first. Selling the product online? Have influencers review or test the product and developed their own content surrounding the launch. Take it one step further and provide each influencer with a unique promo code to understand how content is tied to sales.

These are just a few tactics of how you can incorporate influencer marketing into your 2018 business plan. Did we miss one you’re putting to the test? Share in the comments below. :)

For those tapping into influencer marketing this season, you’re ahead of the curve for breaking the “noise” against the competition. As November quickly comes to an end, most marketers are passed the stage of vetting influencers for a holiday campaign. The outreach is likely complete and negotiations are being finalized. And as you set up to pass the ball over to these amazing influencers to execute a stellar holiday campaign, ask yourself is there anything we can do in-house to enhance this campaign? The answer is YES!

Check out this influencer holiday campaign sponsored by Daniel Wellington Watches. Now over the next few weeks see if you spot any additional marketing efforts by the brand to enhance this awesome campaign.

In this blog we outline 5 tips to enhance your holiday influencer marketing campaign to increase awareness and engagement on your marketing channels and your partnered influencer’s channels:

1. Drip, Drip, Drop Marketing

As marketers you have a backstage pass to all the awesome creations coming through your holiday pipeline – use this information to your advantage.

Tell your audience through social media or email marketing that you have something cool coming soon and to stay tuned.

Provide your audience with hints and clues of an upcoming promotion to hold their interest. Once your influencer campaign has dropped informed your audience that the promotion is live by using campaign specific links and hashtags.

Selling a product? Drive your audience to influencer content to access a promotion code for discounts.

2. Sponsor Influencer Content

Many marketers are advocates of organic reach and engagement, but when an influencer creates authentic content during a highly competitive in of year, paid boost shouldn’t be frowned upon. However, a strategic approval to ad spending needs to be considered.

Internally, marketers should discuss the best channels for advertising. This largely depends on the audience you wish to reach. Does it make more sense to repurpose the influencer’s content on owned channels or should you work with the influencer to promote the content on their channels?

3. Talk to the Media  

Media outlets, traditional or online, love great angles for holiday-specific content. You’ve worked hard to develop a unique influencer marketing campaign so now you should be thinking who else would be interested in this?

For example, perhaps you developed an influencer holiday shopping challenge. How could this be spun for traditional media? Pitch outlets a few angles:

• How to get your holiday shopping done in 1 day
• Challenge: Finding amazing holiday gifts for under $100
• 5 of the must-buy holiday gifts for 2017

Use this as an alternative channel to insert influencer campaign content. Use influencers imagery or videos and links to their channels with the campaign specific content.

Creating a media worthy angle for an industry is possible with a little brainstorming and the right outreach strategy.

4. Blog or Vlog About it

Similar to the last tip for media outlets, think about how you can repurpose your influencer marketing initiatives to create a blog or vlog content for owned channels.

Using the example above of an influencer holiday shopping challenge. Think of ways you can repurpose this internally. Create a staff holiday shopping challenge and write or create a video about their experience. This could be great content to link to influencer content to increase awareness.

5. Retarget to the Influencer’s Audience  

Without taking away from the effect of your well-crafted influencer marketing campaign, there’s an opportunity to enhance awareness by marketing to an alike audience for the duration of the influencer campaign.

For this to be effective you must have a good understanding of your influencers existing audiences and platforms.

If your influencers are marketing a specific product (let’s use shoes for this example) to their audience, you should create ad content about the same shoe(s) and target your influencer’s audience. This way after the influencer’s audience is exposed to your brand offering you have the opportunity to remind them how to purchase. This is a great tactic in case the influencer call-to-action was missed or as a means of retargeting.

These are just a few ways you can enhance your influencer marketing campaigns this holiday season. Have any more ideas? We’d love to hear them in the comments below. :)