Digital Marketing

Influencer Marketing

More than 75% of consumers made a purchase based on a recommendation from an influencer in the last 24 months according to Retail Dive. Influencer marketing is leveraging someone else’s network to sell your products or services. Influencers act as brand advocates and create authentic messages and content about their experience with your products to help sell those products to others.

More and more consumer brands are adding Influencer Marketing to their toolkit. Some brands are new at Influencer Marketing, so they build the program from the ground up or learn from others in their industry. There are services like Impact or Meltwater that can be used to help identify and partner with influencers and measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. Large brands frequently have in-house teams or use their advertising agency partners to do influencer research and uphold their brand standards.

Most often, the influencer is paid in product, paid a commission rate (Also called an Affiliate Influencer), or paid a fee for producing content that they share with their audience on your brand’s behalf. Depending on the size of the brand, a combination of these options can make sense to help build out an Influencer Marketing program over time. Some brands only want to partner with celebrities, in which case every partner will either be paid for content or will be given free products. Most celebrities do not work on commission. Micro-influencers with an engaged following are more likely to work on a commission basis. For some brands, affiliate marketing is the most cost-effective way to build an influencer program.

Regardless of the potential sales upside and the size of the influencer’s audience, Influencer Marketing is risky for brands. Even the “Nicest guy on the Internet” who has millions of followers is currently under fire as of this writing. All influencers are subject to scrutiny by the public and all influencers are humans. Which means they are also capable of making mistakes. A successful Influencer Marketing strategy requires planning, contracts, and thoughtful PR. All of these are achievable for any brand.

With strong influencer partnerships, a brand can typically reach a larger audience than other digital marketing channels. By partnering with authentic brand champions, the messages your influencers create will advocate for your brand and increase your reach and conversions. Influencer Marketing can be managed internally or externally, but it should be reviewed monthly or quarterly as part of your larger marketing strategy.

If you need help to get your Influencer Marketing program off the ground, reach out! We’d love to talk about your goals and help you determine what kind of influencers might be right for your brand.

Is AI Right for My Business?

Is AI Right for My Business?

AI is a popular buzzword right now in marketing and other aspects of business. AI is probably right for most businesses in some capacity, especially if protection is layered into the tools. Salesforce, for example, is building an AI environment on top of Open AI that allows its customers to use AI within the Salesforce ecosystem, while protecting their data and the data of their end users. Even without a protected environment, AI is being integrated into many of the tools we use at work every day. Google now uses Generative AI to render summarized search results. Creepy? Maybe? In the end, the search users get to decide and will tell Google if they’ve gone too far. If users begin to search using other platforms, that sends a clear message.

AI is capable of automating tasks quickly and with accuracy if the prompts you provide the tools are specific and accurate, but still relies on a human behind the keyboard to provide prompts and direction. To prove the point, I had ChatGPT write the following using the following prompt: “Write me a blog article about AI in marketing and the benefits and drawbacks of using AI”

How Can I Use Digital Marketing to Promote My Business?

How Can I Use Digital Marketing to Promote My Business?

Whether you have an online business or a brick and mortar location, digital marketing can help drive revenue for your company. Digital marketing can help put your business in front of customers who would not otherwise find you. I typically recommend that clients spread out their marketing budget across various digital channels, but you can leverage digital in whatever ways make the most sense for your business. Detailed below are some of the options available as digital marketing channels. This is a quick guide to help you make decisions about where you spend your digital dollars.