Influencers - they are not all the same..
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"Strategic Influencer marketing has never been about scale, its about "Influence", and "more scale" does not necessarily equal greater Influence"

Excerpt from "The Influencer Marketing Manifesto"

There have been multiple issues recently around Influencer marketing, these include fake followers, low R.O.I and a lack of conversion, leading to some negativity around the profession, but all of these issues are avoidable with good process

The issue is mainly because we are a relatively new industry with a lack of nomenclature and systems and experienced players and agencies - so a lot of mistakes are to be expected

Over the years I have created a series of definitions and processes that aim to help brands solve these issues and I have put them together in an "Influencer Manifesto", which I will be releasing piece by piece on my website, Medium and LinkedIn. The end goal is to help guide the industry so that we deliver Influencer campaigns that are efficient and beneficial for the brands, Influencers and customers involved - a true win win.

In the future, we are all going to become data sets, and as this data becomes ubiquitous and accessible, Machine learning and A.I will be able to sift through the information and understand who everyone is influenced by, who gets my attention, who I trust, who I respect, and as this happens it will mean that Influencer marketing will become a central component of every single marketing campaign. I hope in some small part I can help prepare us for that future

THE STARTING POINT - DEFINITIONS

"An Influencer is an individual who has the ability to focus the attention and affect the opinions of a consumer".

Note there is no mention of social media in my definition . Influencer marketing is NOT about only working with those who have strong social media followings, that is an incorrect assumption. The power at the centre of Influencer marketing is related to finding those who affect the opinion of consumers and working with them - wherever they. This could be a blogger, or it could be a Mother in the P.T.A, a business person, someone respected in a trade, a boy at the check out in Walmart, a "Gatekeeper" to an Ultra High Net worth or a school teacher

Social Media and more correctly "data" are the tools we use to find and often engage with these individuals of "influence" and their audience. Most key mistakes and issues related to the efficacy of Influencer marketing can be traced back to focusing on the Social Media scale of an Influencer instead of focusing on the Influence of individuals

 Following from that definition, it leads to my definition for strategic Influencer marketing..

STRATEGIC INFLUENCER MARKETING

"A marketing plan that utilises individuals who have the ability to focus the attention and affect the decisions of a target market, achieving a long term brand goal of either positioning, sales or awareness"

INFLUENCER ROLES & CATEGORIES

So now we start to bring in the goals of a brand and different goals are enabled by utilising different kinds of Influencers. This is because different kinds of Influencers deliver different things for brands, I have broken these down into the following;

TRUST  - How much is the influencer trusted by their followers 

AUTHORITY  - How much authority does an Influencer have over a particular subject

AWARENESS - How much awareness can an Influencer generate for a brand?

So now we can start analysing the different categories of Influencers

YOUR LOCAL HEROES

A "Local hero" is someone who has zero to circa 5000 followers. They are the cool kid at School, or the local football Captain, whatever wine she orders her friends follow suit. They are not S.M professionals & you TRUST what they say. They are rarely approached by brands so when they are approached they respond well and when they talk about it to their followers the response is significant

BEST UTILISED TO ACHIEVE THE FOLLOWING BRAND GOALS;

  1. Sales!
  2. Sales!!
  3. Sales!!!

WHAT COMPANIES SHOULD USE L.H'S?

  1. Insurance
  2. Banking
  3. Home building

NICHE INFLUENCERS

Niche Influencer have authority on ONE SUBJECT. Their follows trust them, but only about photography, or cooking, or whatever their subject of expertise is . They tend to sit in the 5 k - 100 k following area and are often approached by brands. They can can also be trade experts who validate & endorse brands to the consumer & Industry

BEST UTILISED TO ACHIEVE THE FOLLOWING BRAND GOALS;

  1. Validation
  2. Brand Authority
  3. Trade Awareness

WHAT COMPANIES SHOULD USE N.I'S

  1. Technology
  2. Alcohol
  3. Skincare

POWER INFLUENCERS

Power influencer have the ability to affect culture and groups en mass. They demonstrate a lifestyle that their followers or fans aspire to have in some small or greater part. Their lives tend to become more of a focus as do their beliefs , and they aim to have their fans age with them. They are best used for awareness and positioning

BEST UTILISED TO ACHIEVE THE FOLLOWING BRAND GOALS;

  1. Distribution
  2. Awareness
  3. Aspiration

WHAT COMPANIES SHOULD USE P.I'S

  1. Clothing 
  2. Jewellery
  3. Accesories

The above are of course generalisations - but they stand as strong guidelines and definitions to help guide marketing strategies and also to provide the industry a nomenclature and framework to explain what we do. If at the end of this you look at the above and think

"well actually my brand needs some Local heroes to push sales, some Niche Influencers to get some brand authority and we need Power to get the message out there"..., then excellent - that is indeed the point and where we started, strategic Influencer marketing is about using all of the above to achieve your long term brand goals.

I hope this is helpful and if you have any questions or would like to discuss or receive any examples to illustrate the above then please email me on; Dudley@theinfluenceragency.co.uk

Dudley Nevill-Spencer

Dudley Nevill-SpencerComment