Q&A: Should Insurgent Marketers Embrace Influencers?
Ask a Marketer, Issue #1
I recently posted on LinkedIn asking if anyone had any marketing questions they'd like me to tackle. The first question out of the gate:
How do you feel about influencers?
What's an influencer?
The term "influencer" conjures up a mix of admiration, skepticism, jealousy, and controversy. After all, for many of us it brings to mind someone who is trying to be famous by virtue of fame alone. But is that fair?
First, it's essential to distinguish between genuine influencers and what we might call "manufactured influencers."Â
Authentic influencers are individuals who have earned their authority through expertise, passion, and a genuine desire to share valuable insights with their audience. They have established themselves as reliable sources of advice, much like seeking recommendations from a knowledgeable friend or expert in a specific field.
If such individuals exist within your field, you would do well to collaborate with these genuine influencers. By partnering with credible voices in your respective industry, you can tap into their influence, gaining access to a highly engaged and receptive audience. The endorsement of a true expert carries significant weight and can help build trust, credibility, and loyalty with potential customers.
On the other hand, the rise of manufactured influencers, who view influencing as a full-time job rather than a natural extension of their expertise, is a whole other game. These influencers prioritize the pursuit of a large following over cultivating genuine connections with their audience. Consequently, their content tends to be formulaic and gimmicky, designed to boost numbers artificially.
Frankly, their content tends to be shallow, hollow, and fake. And people are catching on.
For insurgent marketers, associating with such manufactured influencers is dangerous. Sure, you might reach a big audience. But: Are they the right audience? And what will that audience think of your association with this influencer?
Remember these lessons from Ogilvy
1. Everyone knows the influencer has been bought.
Their credibility has to be beyond dispute, and the connection to your brand has to make sense. People need to buy that this influencer would have supported you even if you weren't sponsoring them.
David Ogilvy once used Eleanor Roosevelt to sell margarine. Here was a celebrity whose integrity was beyond reproach. But the fit was terrible. No one believed the former Mrs. President really loved the margarine so much that she had to become the spokesperson.
2. People may remember the celebrity and forget the product
Even though Roosevelt was a bad fit for the product, the ad got a lot of attention. Plenty of people were talking. But no one was talking about the margarine. (It was for Good Luck Margarine, which I only know because it's on YouTube. No one remembers this spot.)
So, how do I feel about influencer marketing?
I'm all for it, as long as the following conditions are true:
The influencer is a recognized authority in your field. Eleanor Roosevelt may have been a poor choice for a margarine spokesperson, but Martha Stewart or Julia Child would be a very different story.
It's believable that the influencer genuinely loves your product. At Legend Boats, we have a whole team of influencers we call brand ambassadors. They're all genuine customers who started posting about their love of Legend long before we ever approached them.
If it's going to cost you a fortune, you better have a way to measure your return on investment. One tried-and-true method is to require your influencer to promote a trackable promo code. Note that this generally involved the added cost of giving people a discount or some other benefit to using the code.