The Power of Influencer Marketing

On this episode of 1000 Ways to Market Your Business, Samantha Scott, APR, is joined by Bethany Chadwick Cordero, Digital Marketing & Design Coordinator at PTE. The two discuss how using influencer marketing can help grow your business.

The episode explores what influencer marketing actually is, tips and tricks for doing it the right way, and examples of good influencer partnerships.

Have a question or feedback to share? Visit www.getpushing.com or one of our many social media channels. We look forward to hearing from you.

#marketing #business #communication #strategy

Episode Transcript

Samantha (00:06):
Hi, welcome to the next episode of 1000 Ways to
Market Your Business.
I'm Samantha Scott, APR.
And today we're talking aboutinfluencer marketing, how to use
that to grow your business andsome tips and tricks.
And today I am joined byBethany.

Bethany (00:18):
Hi, everybody.
I'm the Digital Marketing andDesign Coordinator at PTE.
And I'm really excited to behere and talk to you guys about
influencer marketing.

Samantha (00:25):
So influencer marketing, if you're not
familiar with what that is, howwould you break that down?
Explain this to my dad.
I love you, dad.

Bethany (00:33):
Basically, it's almost like having a friend sell you
something.
Like you are so much more likelyto be trusting of your friend
that's telling you about the newshoes that they bought or the
new car that they saw at the lotthat they really liked.
You're so much more likely totrust them over a celebrity or a
complete stranger.
So this is kind of the thoughtprocess behind influencer

(00:54):
marketing is this idea that it'ssomeone that people build
relationships with throughsocial media, through online,
and, you know, they follow thesepeople that are just regular
people like you and me.
They're not these A listcelebrities.
So they have a level ofrelatability that those people
don't have.

Samantha (01:09):
And shared interests, that's usually where that stems
from.
So maybe I'm a foodie and I'mgoing to follow somebody else
who's a foodie influencer, andI'm going to, you know, try to
go to those restaurants thatthat particular person goes to.
So influencers, if you're notfamiliar, we're not just talking
about, I think you made a greatdifferentiation there, it's not
just celebrity endorsements.
That kind of was the beginning,I think, of this.
Influencer marketing is sort ofthe new gen way of doing that,

(01:32):
and it is much more localized,much more specific, and really
very attainable for businesses.
You know, not everybody can getmajor celebrities to endorse
their products, but you can getsomebody who's got a really good
following in your major metroarea who can help your business.
So when you're working with aninfluencer and they're growing
your business or trying to drivetraffic, that's influencer
marketing.

Bethany (01:52):
Yeah, exactly.
I think that sums it upperfectly.

Samantha (01:55):
So what are some ways that you can use influencer
marketing to grow your business?
And give me some examples thatyou've experienced.

Bethany (02:03):
So I think some of the ways that we've probably all
seen it is through sponsoredposts being one of the main
ones.
So you'll just be scrollingthrough your feed, and you'll
see all these different poststhat look like it could be
someone that you already follow.
And they'll be talking about aproduct, all the different
things they like about it.
And it comes across verygenuine, and it's only when you
see that it's a paid foradvertisement that you realize,
oh, this is influencer marketingat its finest.

(02:23):
Even with that, I think it'sstill a very successful way to
showcase products, to get peopleon board with your brand.
Don't be put off by the factthat people have to disclose
that it's a paid foradvertisement, because I think a
lot of the time people do seepast that and they see that,
okay, I trust this person or Itrust this influencer and I know
what they're selling to me, evenif it's something that they've

(02:44):
been paid to mention, will besomething that aligns with me.

Samantha (02:47):
It's been around for a really, really long time too.
I was doing some homework beforethis and I saw an article that
referenced even Mary KayCosmetics and how they were
essentially using this.
This is not anything novel, it'sjust a different way of
approaching it, using digitalresources that are available.
So, I mean, sponsored posts isone way, you also see, like,
unboxing, things like that.
Amazon now even has that whenyou go on and people are talking

(03:09):
about the products and theirexperiences, I don't follow any
of those influencers, but itshows up in my feed, it's, it's
really amazing how this hastransitioned and I feel like
there's also a tie to usergenerated content.
You know, we just talked aboutthat in a previous podcast and
how getting other people to tellyour story and talk about how
great your brand is, is sovaluable.

Bethany (03:28):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And I think like you justmentioned with these unboxings
and different things like that.
It's something that brands arestill learning as they go.
What's the best way to approachthat?
What are the things to avoid?
I know in the beginning it wasall about, you know, sending
these influencers really flashypackagings of this new perfume
or this new product and like themore extravagant the better.

(03:49):
Sometimes they'd even have likea little TV on there or like all
these extra adornments, and thenpeople started to see that as
wasteful and that was veryscrutinized.
So I think, even for big namebrands, it's still a learning
curve of meet in the middle inthat sense, where do you strike
the right balance?

Samantha (04:05):
Yeah.
And I think the other key ispicking the right influencer.
So it has to obviously alignwith the interests of your
target audience, but also themost effective marketing is
where people can see themselvesin it.
So, does this person look likeme, talk like me, act like me,
you know, making sure that youhave diversity in it as well is

(04:26):
so critically important.
This is really, really somethingto be thinking about is not just
does this align from a, ainterest perspective, but are
all the other boxes checked aswell.

Bethany (04:35):
Yeah, definitely.
Cause I think that's ultimatelywhat's going to make the
campaign successful.
If you're choosing influencersthat align with your brand and
that your audience is going toresonate with, that is what is
going to really drive thatconversion and make people
interested.
I think we've all kind of feltthat when we've watched certain
influencers that we really dorelate to on a personal level.

(04:56):
When they speak about things, itbecomes a lot more enticing in a
way to see what, what they'retalking about.
And you really do see yourselfin their shoes in a sense, even
though this is someone you don'teven know.
So yeah, definitely aligningyour brand with the correct
influencers.
Also thinking about as well thatyou want to align yourself with
influencers, not just interestwise, like we were saying, but,
in terms of ethics as well.

Samantha (05:16):
Yes, I was just thinking that; putting my PR hat
on.
So say this person has a greatfollowing, they are right in
line with your business topic,they've got the right audience
just like yours, but maybethey've had some bad press
recently, maybe they aren'tethically aligned, maybe they
don't have the same culturalperspective and things like
that.
That's so important because ifthat part doesn't match up, just

(05:37):
like people were scrutinized forthe wasteful packaging, your
audience is going to see throughthat and shred you.

Bethany (05:43):
Absolutely.
I mean, I think we've all seenthat, you know, brands that
we've liked have maybe beenaffiliated with people we don't
like so much or that, you know,become involved in recent
scandals after the campaigns andit can really dampen the entire
brand identity when that doeshappen.
So I think that's somethingreally crucial to keep in mind
and it is a gamble and one ofthe kind of downsides of
influencer marketing is thatrisk that you're taking by

(06:04):
partnering with a third party.
You do have to put your trust inthem, that they're going to
represent you and your brandeffectively.

Samantha (06:11):
But you can do a lot of due diligence in advance,
making sure that you've doneyour homework on this individual
and or group of influencers.
The other thing that we'drecommend if you're going to
work with an influencer ismaking sure everything is really
clear on both sides in terms ofexpectations.
So, if you're paying thisinfluencer, how much and for
what?

(06:31):
If it's in trade, so maybeyou're a restaurant or a
professional service orsomething and you're going to
give them something for free,making sure that's documented,
and then being explicitly clearabout what your expectations are
of this influencer.
How many posts?
Are these reels?
Are these stories?
Are they actual posts?
How long before they archivethem?
Think through all of that.
Are they going to tag yourbusiness or not?

(06:51):
There's lots of specifics to goover and make sure you think
about that so that everybodywalks away happy.

Bethany (06:56):
Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head with that.
I think the more specific youcan be, the better outcome
you're going to have.
There's a lot of gray area Ifeel like with working with
influencers sometimes, evensmall things like don't feature
other brands while you'rementioning our product or
different things like that.
I saw one post recently that Irealized was an ad because the
girl had blurred out the Nikewristband that she was wearing,
or other things.

(07:17):
But I had not even realizedbefore that, cause she had made
it like this conversational dayin my life kind of video.
And she was talking about thishair tool that she uses, and she
had blurred out all the otherbrands that she was wearing in
that video.
So that's another thing that youshould keep in mind is do you
mind if other brands are visibleor not?
All of these kind oftechnicalities I think are
really important.

Samantha (07:34):
Yeah.
And if you want brandexclusivity or even category or
industry exclusivity too, Imean, we're kind of getting down
in a deep rabbit hole here, butsomething to keep in mind.
So I think about restaurantcritics and those foodies and
people like that, you know, howimportant is it to you that if
you're paying for this person tocome there and do something that
they wait X period of timebefore they go to your
competitor or something likethat, making sure you think

(07:56):
through all of those components.
We are not legal counsel.
We can't give you legal counsel,but I would tell you there's
lots of different things you cando in terms of documenting that
and contracts and things.
So do talk with somebody who'san expert about that for those
areas.
Okay.
So what's a great example?
I'll give a local one and maybeyou can give one.
Some time ago we worked with arestaurant and instead of going
big, so you talked about somekind of national things in the

(08:19):
course of our conversation sofar, but we have a local
restaurant and they're notlooking for national exposure.
They don't need, you know, aMartha Stewart level person to
be an influencer for them.
So we actually found localfoodies.
These are people who were intheir market and like going to
restaurants, would regularlyreview, and negotiated to have
them come out and do someinfluencer appearances and

(08:41):
things on social.
It worked really well, drovetraffic to the restaurant and it
was specific to the audiencethat they were trying to reach.
You know, we wanted to make surewe were working with influencers
in market to drive people thereversus just getting exposure
that would really be meaninglessotherwise.
So that's a kind of localexample.
So influencer marketing doesn'talways have to be grand scale.
What's another one that youmight be able to share?

Bethany (09:02):
Yeah, that's a really great example of a local way to
use influencer marketing.
Another more global example wasthe McDonald's menu hacks
campaign, which I don't know ifyou all are familiar with, but
it was a 30 day campaign.
They partnered with differentinfluencers for Tik Tok and
Instagram, and they basicallyhad these influencers sharing
their favorite McDonald's menuhacks, and just creating videos

(09:23):
about that, encouraging peopleto go and try these hacks, to
create new hacks, and sharethose videos.
It was hugely successful.
A lot of us are very familiarwith McDonald's already, but
this was a great way of showinghow different McDonald's fans
enjoy their products and how itreally can cater to a lot of
different people.
The campaign drove 1.4 millionengagements, which is just mind

(09:44):
blowing.
They had 9.6 billion hashtagviews, and the campaign only
cost$0.03 per visit so 70% morethan they benchmarked which is
really impressive.

Samantha (09:56):
Yeah.
So that's one way of rethinkingyour marketing.
That was kind of creative.
Instead of just saying, we'reMcDonald's and we're known for,
you know, burgers and fries andnuggets and things like that,
they said,"How can you make thisdifferent and what do you like
about it," and then justleverage the power of other
people telling the story.
They could have very easily donea campaign where they just
showed different ways to makeyour burger or different sauces

(10:17):
you can make by combiningthings, but it wouldn't have
performed the same way becauseit was them telling it instead
of somebody else telling it.
And we've talked about that inother podcasts recently is it's
not about what you're trying tosell.
It's about what your audience isinterested in, what they need or
what they want.
So, some of the benefits ofinfluencer marketing: it can be
very cost effective, low cost tono cost depending on the scale

(10:39):
that you're trying toaccomplish, but also
believability.
Right?
Is somebody else telling yourstory, an influencer, someone
that means something or islooked up to by your target
audience?
What other benefits can you seefrom influencer marketing?

Bethany (10:51):
Like you mentioned Samantha, I think there's that
relatability as well.
And that authenticity that comesthrough with that of it being
just a normal person, not acelebrity, not the brand itself
telling you why you need theproduct.
Because I think a lot of thetimes brands will just have
different, you know, celebritiesworking with them or different
people kind of showing theproducts that are affiliated
with the brand.
And for some reason, a lot ofthe time that can come across as

(11:12):
very disingenuous, versusinfluencer marketing, you're not
even looking for it, you know,it's like you're just scrolling
through and you're alreadyseeing like your friends and
different people that you like,that you're following.
And then the way that theyformat these ads per se is, is
so informal in a sense that thatreally adds to that
relatability.

Samantha (11:28):
Yeah.
And that's the trend in socialmedia now is it doesn't have to
be pretty, perfect and shiny andoverly commercial.
It's real.
It's just day in the life,genuine, I can see myself in
this, I can relate to this, andI can see how this would benefit
my life.
Or make somebody want somethingthat they maybe were previously
unaware of.

Bethany (11:47):
Yeah.
And I think another greatpositive of influencer marketing
as well is the fact that, theseinfluencers, they know their
markets so well.
So if you are aligning with thisinfluencer in terms of target
audience, they know what thataudience is responding to.
They have experience with that.
They have experience with otherbrands working to try to reach
them so they know what they'veresponded positively to and

(12:08):
negatively to in the past.

Samantha (12:09):
That's a great point, you can take advantage of that.
If you're new to influencermarketing and you're working
with somebody and they're givingyou feedback on, ah, maybe that
wouldn't perform so well, or Itried it this way in the past,
be willing to kind of put youropinions to the side and
leverage their experience toyour advantage.
Well, this has been a reallyawesome discussion on influencer
marketing.
I hope that this was helpful foryou.
If you have tips on how you doinfluencer marketing, feel free

(12:31):
to share them in the commentsbelow.
Or if you have questions abouthow to do this, we would love to
answer them for you.
Thanks for tuning in to 1000Ways to Market Your Business.

Bethany (12:39):
Thanks, everyone.