Social Media

Social Hour: Here’s What Spending $10K On Influencer Marketing Will Teach You

Posted On October 19th, 2017 | 8:23pm EST

Influencer marketing is a hot topic right now, due in part to its effectivity and the thin veil that assists in its mystery success. But today, Joel Contartese, a guest writer and marketing consultant, wrote a piece for Entrepreneur.com that helps lift that curtain just a little bit.

“I’ve worked with countless clients on influencer marketing programs, in the process managing over $10 million,” he noted, saying that the most successful programs did have a few standard motifs.

Here are three major takeaways to think about:

  1. When working with an influencer, prioritize quality content over rapid posting. “It’s better to choose a social media influencer who has a smaller but more dedicated audience than to go with numbers alone,” says Contartese. That way, you know the people you who are engaging with your influencer (and your paid content) are authentic.
  2. It’s not all smoke-and-mirrors. You can measure the success of an influencer campaign in a way that’s more data-driven than counting the likes and comments. Contartese suggests looking at website traffic and time spent, and rely on tools like Google Analytics that can help trace a straight line from your influencer’s post to your audience’s behavior.
  3. Don’t expect immediate results. Contartese makes two great points in his analysis when it comes to managing your expectations. First, you need to remember that your influencer is a human being, not a machine. While it may take longer to see results from influencer marketing, these results can hold more weight in that they are person-to-person, not solely manufactured by an algorithm. As important as it is to find the right person to drive your brand message, you need to work with them to develop a “next step” strategy that takes their audience and gets them engaged with your brand. Are you capturing your new web visitor’s information? Are you sending targeted ads or emails, or providing them with first-time brand deals? While you don’t want to be too pushy off the bat, leaving them alone completely shows that you’re not engaged on your end. And if that’s the case, why should they be?

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