Influencer Marketing Interview with Valon Asani

Today our CEO Valon Asani was interviewed about influencer marketing. Among other things, he was asked questions about influencer marketing trends and the authenticity of influencer marketing campaigns.

 1 Influencer Marketing

What strategies exist within the framework of influencer marketing?

• Brand Awareness Campaign
• Micro-influencers for product tests and product reviews
• Use influencers as bloggers for SEO Campaigns
• Product review videos with micro-influencers: Authentically describing and testing products
• Event and test reports combination
• Providing customers with discoverable and relevant content throughout their digital customer journey

How do you assess the relevance of influencer marketing in the marketing mix?

• The relevance of influencer marketing in times of ad blockers and new data protection laws such as the GDPR is becoming increasingly important in the marketing mix.

Influencer marketing is often viewed as a fusion of various digital marketing measures. What's your take on this?

• We see it as a distinct discipline that shouldn't be pursued as an afterthought or considered a mere fusion of other marketing measures. It's crucial to know the right people (influencers), to have a large network across various industries, and to be able to rely on these individuals to implement a successful influencer marketing campaign for new clients within a reasonable timeframe. Influencer marketing should be viewed as complementary to SEO and PPC advertising.

How effective is influencer marketing (in terms of ROI) compared to other digital marketing strategies?

• In terms of cost-per-mille (generating 1.000 impressions), this marketing opportunity is significantly cheaper than, for example, online TV commercials or ads in online newspapers (NZZ / 20min / etc.). Furthermore, influencers are active precisely where the client's target audience is active. You get significantly more for your money, and with exactly the right target group. The SEO effect is also always a long-term effect triggered by influencer marketing. This leads to better rankings on Google and thus to many new website visitors. For example, a campaign for a well-known car brand achieved an engagement rate of 3,86%, far surpassing the benchmark for the automotive industry (0.77%).

Influencer marketing campaign KPIs

• Ameritas: 1.65
• Eucerin: 3.32
• Groupon: 4.21
• Daimler: 7.37

To what extent are companies currently using influencer marketing within their budgets?

• 75% of brand companies planned to activate influencer marketing programs in 2017. 80% of companies that had already used these programs planned to increase their budget in the following year.
• Now that this is established, many companies are trying to perfect the system. Often, companies have identified certain influencing factors that they believe are beneficial for their brand image. For example, they might want to ensure that their brand is only associated with family-friendly content.
• Once a brand has found someone who is a good fit, they will be more likely to work with that person than to experiment with a wide range of unvetted influencers.

2. Authenticity in Influencer Marketing

What factors lend authenticity to a company or influencers?

• Nielsen's Global Trust in Advertising Report revealed that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from other people more than those from brands, even if they don't know them. Therefore, it's no surprise that content shared by users on social media is particularly valuable for brands, especially when it's created by influential figures with a large reach.

What factors harm the authenticity of companies or influencers?

• If the content is inappropriate and the advertising is not relevant to the target group, this must be avoided at all costs.

How does authenticity affect the purchasing decisions of followers?

• Influential brand ambassadors within the relevant target group increase brand awareness and sales figures for up to 75% of all brand companies.
• Influencers have built a relationship with their readers, listeners or followers and know how to stage and effectively present a message, product or news in an emotional and very personal way.
• 27% of all internet users already use ad blockers, and this number is constantly growing. Influencer marketing is resistant to ad blocking.
• 84% of all consumers trust personal recommendations more than any other form of advertising.
• Social media influencers reach new target groups and create reusable content with a long-term positive SEO effect.

 Statistics

To what extent is authenticity relevant for a successful collaboration between influencers and companies?

• Authenticity is the key to success. A campaign cannot work without credibility.

3 Future Forecasts

Influencers become more important when people share their own experiences.

1. Influencers will recognize the value of their personal brands
2. Influencers will produce more shareable content for brands.
3. Brands will try to secure long-term relationships with their influencers.
4. Brands will place further emphasis on genuine performance metrics and want to measure ROI.
5. Influencer marketing campaigns are being distributed across more platforms and a wider range of influencers.
6. Greater emphasis on original images and videos created by influencers
7. Instagram Stories will continue their meteoric rise and will be used even more by brands via influencers.