AUCKLAND, Sunday: By Mango head of digital & social Zoe Virtue: Mango recently held the second instalment of its Evolution of Influence breakfast series: Setting the Standard, which focused on the need for a more transparent and rigorous campaign process within influencer marketing.
This op-ed is based on outtakes from this session. Zoe delves into the ever-changing influencer marketing industry, and demands maturity and rigour for its continued success.
Setting the standard and creating confidence
In some quarters, influencer marketing has garnered a reputation as something of a ‘dark art’, with some marketers consciously avoiding it out of fear, confusion and a lack of clarity.
I’d argue that it’s not just education that will change these perceptions and cement influencer marketing’s position within the wider marketing mix: the influencer industry needs to grow up and agree on some standard practice.
We’ve come a long way from the simple ‘product-in-hand’ type of content. You know what I mean – the “I’ve just received this and here I am holding it” posts.
In a few short years we are now leaning into more professionally produced content that moves beyond blatant endorsement to immersive content, opportunities in above-the-line campaigns and brand ambassadors who have become synonymous with brands and who can make thousands of dollars per project.
But opportunity always comes with risk, questions and doubt. If all players in the industry (client, agency, influencer agents and influencers themselves) can work together and commit to a transparent collaborative process, it’s possible to deliver the results that define a successful campaign, and above all prove its worth. It’s time to set some standards.
No show without strategy – You don’t head to a new destination without a map, so don’t expect results without a strategy. The most successful campaigns start with what you’re trying to achieve, an objective, strategy and then the tactics.
Without defining a campaign objective, how does anybody know what success looks like?
Being clear and confident about your influencer campaign objective will determine what you need to measure to establish its success. Is this a brand exercise, an awareness building campaign or is the goal sales?
A single-minded focus will determine the strategy, the partners and the tactics. Without it, it’s just a good guess.
Be accountable
The best thing about objectives is that they keep you honest. As an industry we are constantly building and refining our tools for reporting, to give our clients the information they need to understand ROI and to move with the changes as the industry moves.
It’s important to create measurement tools that allow you to plot out past results and set benchmarks and KPIs against these.
At Mango, we have created our own influencer insight metric and matrix that enables us to focus on specific objectives and determine the best approach – it may look like a scary Excel document, but it really helps!
Creating a tool that allows you to quantify your objective and then measure it is essential to ensure you can deliver to expectations. Collating this data and defining benchmarks instils confidence in all parties, and builds focus around the same goal. Remember to share the results so everyone can learn from the findings.
“No show without strategy. You don’t head to a new destination without a map, so don’t expect results without a strategy.”
Consistency is key
It’s really easy to let new ways of working and unfamiliar practices get the best of you, especially with a social media landscape that is as fickle as popular opinion. This is why standardising how the influencer marketing process works and how different parties communicate with each other is key to the continued success of the industry.
Thorough briefs which highlight objectives, mandatories and lay out expectations are important. Standardised rate cards with corresponding outputs that can be negotiated will guarantee you’re presented with industry averages that will mean you’ll get the biggest bang for your marketing buck.
Everything will then need to be tied together with a contract to ensure that everyone meets expectations and achieves success.
Matches made in heaven
Successful marketing doesn’t just happen because the numbers look right; you need a little magic to bring your campaign to life and some heart to get that brand love too.
Often, that magic comes in the form of the right partner. For success, it’s important to work with influencers, celebrities and content creators who truly align with your brand and believe in what they’re promoting.
The right balance between brand benefit and audience benefit is key and is often where we see content fall down.
Issues arise when all parties don’t work collaboratively. If a brand wants to dictate messaging and phrasing, the influencer will often alter their “voice” beyond recognition just to get the brand messages across.
More often than not, the change in voice will be recognised by their followers and the content will fail in its objective. Give, take, mutual understanding, gentlemen’s agreement – call it what you will. Trust is the key word here and if you have chosen the right brand/partner it shouldn’t be an issue.
Winner winner chicken dinner?
Success looks different to everyone at the table, the talent agent, the influencer and of course, the client.
In our recent panel discussion, I asked this very question and the response about success was different for every player. The one resoundingly unifying metric is profiling the brand in an authentic way, with key message cut through that drives engagement.
Grace Palmer says: “reciprocated admiration between the brand and the influencer. If you love the brand as much as they love you then it’s going to work. Success to me is interaction from my followers on my content. The response from followers is a great measure for me of success.”
For a client on the other hand, a campaign is deemed successful if the benchmarks set in the objective and planning stages are met, the content delivers brand or product messaging, in some cases spurs action, and is a great visual representation of the brand.
The step that is often missed in the hurry to wrap up the campaign and move on to the next exciting project is the sharing and dissection of results. This is key to continual improvement and better ways of working.
Clear processes shouldn’t mean more control over influencer content, limit creativity or lose authenticity.
Instead, they are required to remove the perceived mystique, create clearer expectations for all parties involved and drive the best results.
With more rigour, influencer marketing will be recognised for what is truly is – a powerful addition to the marketing mix that can drive genuine, measurable results.
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