Understanding InfluencersWhat is their value and how can they support your campaign?

Search PPC Content Social

Kay Brown – Content and Online PR Manager• Lead on Blueclaw’s Content and Online PR team to develop and

outreach market leading campaigns across travel, iGaming and e-commerce sectors.

• An experienced communications manager with a history of maximising public and private sector campaigns and events via influencer engagement.

• Founded in 2005, Blueclaw offers Content Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC) and Social Media Marketing; developing campaigns that build online visibility and sales.

Why am I here?

Influencer marketing isn’t new, why revisit it?

• The ways in which influencers credit partnerships has changed

• Creating beneficial relationships has become harder

• Integrating influencer marketing into wider campaigns can be tricky so how do we prevent it from detracting from key messages?

Successful partnerships are about authentic relationships

• Discuss why influencers are becoming harder to reach but why they’re also becoming much more valuable

• Examples of travel campaigns integrating influencers and those that could have used influencers more effectively

• And how we devise campaigns that integrate influencers

Who is an influencer in 2016?

Influencers are:

• Thought to have a wide reach

• Increasingly assumed to have their own readership and/or audience

• Often assumed to be in the public eye in some vein

• Frequent communicators who share their passions

Influencer Types

Celebrities Prominent

Figures

Journalists Bloggers Vloggers Webmasters

CustomersSuppliers

“Fans”

EmployeesFriendsFamily

Blurring between free and paid

No form of marketing is truly free

• Traditionally celebrities and models would command the largest fees, this is no longer the case

• The way in which paid for recommendations and content are disclosed has become increasingly important

Harder to reach?We can all be influencers

• Search top travel blogs in the UK on Google and there are 97,100,000 results

• Many ‘top tier’ bloggers are represented by management agencies, the most recognised being Gleam Futures

• Operating as small businesses, many influencers have a perceived value that may not meet your perceptions of them

Perception is the strongest of all marketing techniques

• The influencers brands want the most are the ones who are perceived to be the most successful

• What is successful for your competitor or a market leader may not be the right approach for you

• In a search environment where follow links have become the holy grail, some techniques used to make the most of influencers may not benefit you later

What does influencer marketing look like?

Mark Warner Holidays’ Family Ambassador Programme

Which campaigns could have benefited further from influencer

relationships?

A Valentine’s Day Twitter campaign from On The Beach• They sent messages in the sand

publicly to just 6 Twitter users

• The largest follower count of those tweeted was 407 followers

• 2 retweets and 14 likes obtained

How do we devise campaigns that integrate influencers?

Creative Process

Brief Ideation Validation Approval Brief

Idea generation and approval

Initial Brief• As much info as possible on client KPIs, budget,

timeframes and target audience to understand the best way to frame a campaign

• Detail on brand guidelines

• An understanding of what other channels are utilised by the client and which teams/agencies would need to buy into the idea for it to work across channels

• Indication as to what the client wants to imitate or avoid

Ideation Process• Ensure that everyone receives the brief in good time

beforehand

• Have an agenda and rules in place

• No ideas are bad, encourage validation

• Build on initial ideas and use techniques such as ‘chunking’ to frame ideas

Idea Validation• Desk research

• Has it been done before? Which influencers were involved?• Has it been done recently?• Is there interest in the topic – mainstream/niche?• Who are the key social influencers around this topic now?• How would the content be served?

• Pre-outreach

• Lean on existing relationships and speak to accessible influencers• Test angles and gauge interest

Questions you have to be able to answer

1. What’s the hook?

2. So What?

3. What are we offering?

4. Has it got longevity?

...and don’t forget about influencers

1. Who is going to be the right influencer or group?

2. Which channel(s) are we seeking promotion on?

3. Why would they want to be involved?

4. How will we define, track and measure KPIs?

Approval

• Internal and external approval

• Approach to the client should be evidence-based at this point

• Be sure to record any changes to the initial concept

• Negotiate with the client

Creative Brief

• Ensure the creative brief hits the budget and timeframe

• Always consider peripheral content – is this where the influencers come in?

• Don’t lose the essence of the idea during design

Influencer Relations

• Make initial contact with key influencers before a campaign is confirmed to test the concept

• Thank the influencers for their time at the pre outreach stage – this can be through an email, a card or with a small gift, and let them know the timeframes for their project and if you foresee them being a part of it

• Stay in contact with influencers throughout the project and engage with them across channels

Takeaways

What do you need to remember?

• You won’t understand an influencers true value if you don’t monitor them

• Influencers are more likely to work with you if they can see what the benefit is for them

• The best influencers for your campaign might not always be the ones with the largest followers. They might be closer to home

Questions?