The Successes & Challenges of Influencer Marketing

In the days before social media and blogs (in other words, the not-so-distant past), only the big brands with the even bigger budgets could afford to pay influencers to promote their products and services. This usually meant signing an actor or an athlete or a musician as a brand ambassador to wear your clothing line, drink your soda or say your catchphrase on TV.

This traditional approach is still around, of course; you see these ads every day, and many of them still work well for big brands. But the Internet has expanded who we think of as influencers in a way we wouldn’t have believed five, 10, 15 years ago.

It’s much more diverse and – I think – much more interesting now. A powerful influencer, someone with a loyal following and a lot of online clout, can be anyone from a teenager doing YouTube gaming tutorials to a mom blogger writing about what works for her family. Now, instead of getting a big name or a famous face to promote your message, you want to find someone your audience really trusts and relates to. You can’t fake that authentic connection, which is what makes today’s influencer marketing so effective.

Influencer Marketing in 2015 and Beyond

Marketing software company Augure recently published a report about the state of influencer marketing in 2015. Some of the findings:

Influencer marketing is growing in popularity and success.

• 84% of marketers surveyed planned to use influencer marketing throughout this year
• 47% consider it “very effective,” and 34% say it’s “somewhat effective”
• 75% believe influencer engagement is effective in lead generation, and 76% think it helps build customer loyalty
• 81% report positive results (up from 79% last year)

Finding the right influencers is a big challenge.

• 75% of marketers surveyed said finding the ideal influencers was their most significant challenge
• 69% have difficulty identifying the right engagement metrics to analyze in their campaigns
• 53% have trouble measuring the performance of their programs

This report resonates with our experiences designing influencer marketing campaigns for our clients. We know influencer marketing works, and we track the successful results for each of our efforts.

But we also know it’s not easy to match a brand with the perfect influencer. It takes careful research, planning and outreach to get the right fit. Most brands don’t have the time or bandwidth to do this in house, which is why we offer full program management, from start to finish. Our clients don’t have to worry about influencer marketing or how each piece works; they just get to see the engagement, the effectiveness and the ROI.

Interested in hearing more? Learn about our full-service influencer marketing campaigns.