What Influencer Marketing is not

This new marketing tool, currently all the rage of the marketing world and advertisers, is the key to a new playing field. Properly used from start to finish, it can have major benefits for brands. The secret to managing this process smoothly and easily is working with an agency that understands the delicate balances of influencer marketing, and strategy and process management. Conversely, our recommendation is also valid for influencers interested in sustainable collaboration with brands and in properly managing their own brand.

Let’s have a look first at what Wiki has to say about this new playing field. It defines influencer marketing as a new form of marketing that has arisen from different needs and focuses on specific key individuals who have influence on the target audience, rather than on the target audience as a whole. This explanation gives the impression that focusing on “influential” individuals rather than the entire market is easy. It is not.

By itself, “individual” is a concept held by a thread. Brands are used to advertising through the traditional channels they have employed for years to communicate their messages to their target audience. Brand managers trust these traditional media channels because of their well-established strategies and, most importantly, their corporate stance. This is the key feature that distinguishes traditional media from digital media as a communication channel.

However, with unceasing digital expansion, Andy Warhol has never been more apposite with his famous “15 minutes,” which are now longer than ever.

Actually, you will get two different answers depending on which side – brand or influencer – you ask. Are you a brand or are you an influencer? We wanted to begin this week with the brand side.

The key influencer marketing principle, brands need to know:

- Strategy and Contents Creativity: influencer marketing requires a different strategy from that employed in the traditional communication channels to which many are accustomed to and it demands more creative thinking. Let’s say you want to conduct a digital media campaign and that you’ve outlined your campaign strategy, set your goals, and even planned the parameters that will measure your success at the end of the project. If you do not work with an agency that can conduct your campaign strategy creatively and provide content on digital channels, your campaign will be unsuccessful. Equally important is that your agency is competent in the influencer world. You should know from the start that working with an agency specialized in digital projects and influencer marketing is crucial.

- 1 Hashtag + Several Influencers: Starting with a hashtag and several influencers for a digital channel campaign is not a good idea. What are you aiming to accomplish with this campaign? Perception management? Sales? What is the campaign’s creative idea? Who are the influencers you think will best represent the positioning of your brand? Many such questions need to be answered. Several issues have to be delicately balanced. For instance, just as important as the strategy you choose to deliver your communication objectives are the content and the influencers with whom you will work.

- Have an Interesting Original Story: Since the appearance of the term “influencer,” confusion has pervaded the marketing world and some marketing managers genuinely do not understand the situation. Actually, “influence” concerns getting people to act. Popular personalities on digital channels generally build trust between themselves and communities and, at the same time, are regarded as authorities. Even so, the only way to prompt their followers to act is for brands or agencies to present a story that will excite them.

- Influencer Selection: When you choose the right people, both sides benefit. So how should we choose these people? First, don’t ignore influencers with low follower counts. The number of influencers with low follower numbers, but who produce great content, achieve genuine interaction, and who can add value to a brand are constantly increasing. Think carefully about the influencers who work with every brand and who everyone goes to. Send those influencers one or two posts and see what happens. Don’t forget that you need to work with the right agency on this lengthy path of finding suitable influencers and setting the right approach to them

- Being Influencers’ Favorite Brand: Many brand managers add in capital letters “To be the favorite brand of influencers” to their long-term strategies. Start by thinking about what kind of content-value you can create as a brand for these people. Recognize their strong points and create appropriate content. Use your social media brain, take an honest interest and establish genuine relations in content. This mutual value creation will attract influencers’ attention and help form an emotional connection with you and your brand. Like any other relationship, this one should be mutual, shouldn’t it?

- The Human Factor: Always remember that the digital channel you are working with belongs to an individual. Actually, the crux of the influencer marketing concept is that simple. Investing in an influencer is not equivalent to investing in a two-week billboard campaign, a 30-second TV spot or a two-page magazine advertisement. To communicate your message to the target audience, you are not only investing in a channel but also in an individual or individuals. Manage or have your agency properly manage these balances, which are as delicate as a thread.

- “The Pay and Publish” Principle is Inappropriate: Influencer marketing does not work with the pay-and-publish principle. It should be remembered that this business is not at all like a two-page magazine advertisement. The impact of a successful influencer project will continue even after the project has ended. Meanwhile, define what you need to ask from your chosen influencer and how to ask for it. Don’t ask your agency or influencers for anything that wasn’t discussed at the beginning. Remember that getting yourself liked means getting your brand liked.

- The Beginning of Process Management: After planning your strategy, goals and which influencers you are going to collaborate with, the most important next step is to ensure your new digital partners properly understand your brand, product or service. You should do this, or have this done, correctly. When preparing content, you should either formulate a sound brief or have one formulated to create a good story and visual perception.

- Process Management: Communicate your creative ideas and guidelines thoroughly to the influencers who are to be your campaign partners, and leave them room to use their own creativity. Give up trying to obsessively control content. Do not transform influencer created content into content that smacks of the brand. Don’t become “that person.” Research shows that 77% of influencers would only do long-term business with brands that use what they, the influencers, have created.

- Budget: Brands that work with celebrities have difficulty comprehending what influencers are in the digital world. The influencers and celebrities are incomparable. We hear many brand managers say, “The budget this influencer wants is greater than the budget I have for the face of my brand.” This is normal depending on the scope of the project. If, by working with an influencer, your market share, brand value, and sales performance is going to rise more than it would with a celebrity, why not?

- Treating Digital Like TVc: We are appealing to brands that use TVc. If you want a digital project, you should use your budget as if you were making a production for TVc as there is no such thing as digital productions being cheaper. The equipment and requirements are the same.

- Continuity: you know your budget for conventional channels, and how much you have budgeted for which channel for the next year or performance period, right? Similarly, you should plan for digital channels and the influencers you will work with. If you don’t, then you are still at the point of 1 hashtag and a few influencers.

- “Shining on digital channels is very easy”: this is one of our favorite subjects. Brand managers and decision-makers in the marketing world have valuable educational backgrounds and they have devoted themselves to work. Everything these people have made required great effort, overcoming many difficulties, and making many sacrifices, all to achieve what they rightfully have in their careers today. Of course, influencers aren’t born with silver spoons in their mouths, but brand managers who are outside this business often have an image of them as lucky people who live a Dolce Vita life, take expensive and endless trips, have a lifestyle so perfect as to be enviable on Instagram, and are showered with gifts from numerous brands. In short, this appears unfair when looked at this way. But, in the main, it is fair.

- Be Respectful: Producing valuable content is harder than it seems. Creating a certain group of followers, or even an army of followers, is far from easy. Under existing conditions, the most reasonable approach a brand manager can take is to accept the power of influencers today, to admire their achievements, and to find the best way to ensure mutual benefit.

While referring to mutual benefit, as we said at the beginning of this article, this story has two sides. To discover the influencer side of the story and to understand misconceptions about the influencers who shape the new digital channels, keep tabs on them. 

May the #InfluencerPower be with you...

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