6 ways to manage effective Influencer Marketing

Managing Partner Jennifer Sudo was recently interviewed by the Business of Apps podcast, sharing tips about how to make influencer marketing campaigns successful.

Jennifer Sudo joined M&C Saatchi Performance in 2017 and was promoted to the new role of Managing Partner for the Americas team last year. In 2021 Jennifer led the launch of a new Influencer marketing service and her team has been delivering impressive results on many influencer campaigns ever since. Jennifer was asked to join the Business of Apps podcast to discuss her thoughts on what makes influencer marketing work. The full recording can be found here and is full of tips, but here are 6 highlights to get started.

Why consider influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing as part of the overall social media landscape has become a major tactic for many brands and is continuing to develop. There is a significant appetite from brands who realize influencer marketing offers opportunities to work with specific people as partners who have influence with their followers. One of the opportunities influencer marketing provides is that there are so many different influencers brands can work with. With very large influencers, you can reach large audiences through just one post; however, there has been a change over the last few years. Working with micro or macro influencers can be just as influential if not more so than a huge celebrity as they are often highly regarded within their audiences.

Building a partnership

While celebrity influencers can have a huge reach, smaller, micro, or macro influencers tend to see higher engagement rates and are more cost-effective. The size of the follower base is only one factor in how to find the right influencers to work with. We work closely with brands to find the right fit, knowing who their customers are and looking for influencers with a specific interest that will be relevant. For example, one of our clients is a very popular audiobook app that wants to promote a niche genre of titles. Their users are extremely passionate about the subject so when choosing influencers to work with, we needed a diverse but highly credible set of influencers, preferably those who are already users of the app. Brand safety is also essential, which means properly screening influencers and their content, only building relationships with influencers who are the right brand fit.

Authenticity and trust are essential

Influencer marketing is all about authenticity and trust. Working with influencers gives brands the ability to build a rapport with customers, communicate brand values or introduce a product. When done well, the influencer becomes a brand ambassador. Since the influencer has already established a reputation with their followers, this should be well respected, especially regarding creative direction. Influencers know their audiences, what content works well, and what doesn’t, so it’s best practice to collaborate and provide creative freedom. This can be a challenge for brands who want more control, but they should remember that followers will recognize when an influencer is not genuine.

What influencer marketing techniques are working?

• Remember, what works for one brand may not work for another – even within the same brand, the same techniques may not work across influencers and need to differ depending on the product, service, or message. That is why working with more than one influencer can be beneficial.

• Constantly test creative and be prepared to do things differently. You don’t need to follow trends.

• Don’t just partner with influencers that are the obvious target audience – look outside of that pool and don’t be afraid to try different influencers. For example, for one retail brand, we were working with female influencers but decided to test male shopper influencers and saw amazing results.

• Content that does well organically can be boosted with paid media to extend reach, which can also enable conversion tracking.

Influencers vs Creators

There is overlap but also significant differences and we tend to think of them as two separate groups. Content creators can be anyone who makes and publishes digital content but they are generally skilled individuals who have expert content production experience whereas influencers, as the name indicates, have an influence on their followers. We often work with creators to produce assets for paid media with the approach that the creator brings their own style to the brand. Influencers on the other hand can post to their organic feeds and offer up more credibility. These different approaches enable brands with more flexibility in reaching their customers through native content.

Visual search

Users are starting to move to TikTok for Search purposes, we recently ran a study that showed that more than half of TikTok users say they favor TikTok over others for discovering new things. The survey found that Gen Z is even more likely to favor TikTok with — 62% saying they are most likely to discover new things on TikTok over other platforms. Only 8% say they primarily use Google. Finding a 15-second video rather than reading an entire blog is a trend we’re seeing with TikTok users preferring to bypass multiple search results and get answers quickly.

If you want to find out more then please read our latest report on influencer marketing; What TikTok users want, the essential guide for performance marketers. You can read this here and please contact us if you want to know more!