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.

(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. :)