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8 Things You Need to Know About Influencer MarketingWhat is influencer marketing, how do you measure it and where it does fit into a marketing strategy? These questions, along with many more, were put on the table in this afternoon’s session at the MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum. Led by Amanda Maksymiw of Lattice Engines, the panel under her control is the savvy tandem of Sam Fiorella & Kevin Cain. Makysmiw starts the session by instating one of the cruelest rules a moderator can impose on a panel (and most enjoyable for the audience): all questions must be answered as posed. No hybrid answers and no middle of the road positions. Actual answers with a definitive stamp. Thanks to Maksymiw’s rule, the session proves to be a fun, lively discussion that helped demystify the ever growing practice of influencer marketing. Let’s dive in to ‘8 Influencer Marketing Questions’: 1) What is Influencer Marketing?Amanda: I’ll start with the first answer. It is finding and building relationships with those who hold sway with your target audience. Sam: The ability to sway the purchasing decisions of your target audience. The distinction is that influencers must be able to impact purchasing decisions. 2) What Comes First, Influencer Marketing or Content Marketing?Kevin: Content comes first. It’s often the base or the starting point to reaching out to influencers. Sam: Influence should be first. If you’re identifying influencers correctly, you can develop an understanding of the customer lifecycle – as well as those who impact their journey throughout. Therefore influence marketing can define the content that is subsequently developed. Kevin: I would disagree in that content marketing needs to consider customer lifecycle as well, so you can pinpoint content opportunities without starting with influencer marketing. 3) How Do You Identify Influencers?Sam: You have to first understand that their are 2 different types of influencers: 1) Macro influencer- Reach a large audience and can influence or sway decisions. 2) Micro influencer- They may not have a large following or audience, but they are the people that are talking with your audience at the point of purchasing decisions. Kevin: We look to what’s happening within our industry and use old-fashioned manual research to locate who is demonstrating influence within the industry. 4) How Do You Get Their Attention?Kevin: Start by making sure the influencers know you exist. At Openview we lead with who we are as a brand and follow with what’s it in it for them (e.g. ). We also are firm believers of making participation easy for our influencers. Sam: We are all motivated by something. To be successful, you have to understand what motivates your influencers. Know their audience and decipher what is it of value to them. 4) What If You’re Not A Big Brand With A Powerful Network?Kevin: This can be a challenge. It still comes back to what’s in it for them? While you may not have a large network, can you demonstrate that you share a common audience or develop a proofpoint on how your brand can benefit their audience? 5) How Do You Locate Reactionary Content Opportunities?Sam: First, you need to know your lifecycle and identify the archetypes or personas that make up your buying audience. Second, locate and listen to these individuals to locate what challenges they face and factors motivate them. These bits of information reveal the information you need to provide help nurture their customer journey. 6) How Much Of A Role Does Social Play in Influence?Sam: I want to start by saying that social is important. B2B or B2c. It’s important. In terms of social as a tool, there’s value in looking at tools like Klout and Kred. The catch is you can’t look at these scores – which is a metric to demonstrate their reach – without the context of ‘who’ makes up their audience. Kevin: For example, Justin Bieber is incredibly influential according to Klout, but he doesn’t sway my target audience. Sam: Right. Don’t base an influence marketing strategy on the influencer. Base it on the customer. Meaning, if you care about your customer and look for those they value, you’ll naturally find those who influence their decisions. 7) How Do You Measure Influence? How Do YouKevin: From my perspective, it’s pretty simple. Are other people creating our content? Are other people amplifying our content? If our plan is working, we should see gains in those areas. Sam: The direct impact on the customer lifetime value (CLV). 8) Build the Brand or Driving Sales? What’s More Important in Influencer Marketing?Kevin: Both are important, but forced to choose, I would say branding. Sam: I would say sales. What’s the value of the brand if they don’t have sales. In an even more basic sense, a brand can’t exist without sales. Maybe the most important take-away marketers can take from this session is that there doesn’t need to be a universal agreement on influencer marketing. What you do need is an understanding of who makes up your audience, what is their buying lifecycle and who can influence them along the way. If you build a plan with this foundational information, you can call it whatever you like…but you can definitely call it results.
© Online Marketing Blog, 2013. | 8 Things You Need to Know About Influencer Marketing | http://www.toprankblog.com          How to Build a B2B Community in FacebookYes, B2B marketers lean towards LinkedIn as the social network of choice…and for good reason. But that doesn’t mean that a very real opportunity doesn’t exist to create a community in the world’s largest social network – Facebook. Consider this, according to Hubspot’s ”Intro to Facebook for Business", 41% of B2B companies have acquired a customer through Facebook. Mike Lewis,VP of Digital Strategy TATA Consultancy Services, kick starts the panel discussion with a challenge to marketers to consider the opportunities they may be missing in Facebook. With his challenge heard, Lewis shares his methodical approach to determining how to best create & nurture a B2B community in Facebook by launching into his ’3 Initial Keys to Standing out on Facebook’. 1) Pay AttentionBefore you ‘listen’ for your opportunities, begin with an understanding of:
As Lewis points out, the amount of information in Facebook is seemingly insurmountable to harness. For brands to be effective listeners who actually pay attention, a more organized approach to identifying and tracking key conversations is needed. What to listen to in Facebook:
2) InteractionContinuing his systematic approach, Lewis encourages brands to identify their various audience types and to nurture their involvement differently based on their level of participation. 1. Passive Followers
2. Moderate Interactors Regular Engagers
3. Active Interactors Top Fans
4. Influential Interactors
3 ContentCorey O’Laughlin, Content Marketing Manager at MarketingProfs, takes the stage to share a story on the power of letting your audience inform your content. It all started with MarketingProfs asking their Facebook audience what topics they care about. They received an overwhelmingly response for ‘mobile content’. Surprisingly, when they did produce content on mobile, their audience wasn’t engaging. So what gives? That is precisely what O’Laughlin needed to know. So she turned to her audience once again for that info, this time cleverly asking her Facebook ‘mobile marketing is _______?’ What she found based on the audience response was that they love mobile…but fear it as well. Armed with this information, O’Laughlin was able to more effectively break down content on mobile marketing to produce the information their audience was craving. And Remember!As the session wraps, Kristen Curtiss of Constant Contact offers some important and often overlooked counsel: don’t saturate your audience with content. With a customer empathetic approach to social, Curtiss encourages marketers to really consider if the content your publishing is valuable and whether the rate at which your publishing is helpful to your audience. So cultivating a B2B following in Facebook requires sound listening, strategic interaction and customer-driven content? What marketer could resist this opportunity? Stay tuned for more from the 2013 MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum. Up next ’10 Key Influencer Marketing Questions’.
© Online Marketing Blog, 2013. | How to Build a B2B Community in Facebook | http://www.toprankblog.com   2013 MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum Preview – And a 'Cheers' PlugLet me start by saying that any trip to Boston has high expectations. Just a few months ago I, along with our Executive Director of Operations Jolina Pettice, traveled to Boston to meet with one of our favorite clients. During our stay we dined at the 'Cheers' bar and later 'ran into' NBC's Lester Holt (ran into = sat in the same hotel lobby). In regards to the latter, one of us may have gone a little fan crazy. I won't say who, but their name rhymes with 'Molina'. Suffice it to say that while attending MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum in Boston I fully expect to run into more celebrities while carving out time to revisit America's favorite bar to perform my best 'Naarm!' call (to this day I don't change the channel when it comes on). But alas, I'm burying the lead. Let's get to the real reason I'm traveling to Boston and the reason you're reading this post. There are some intriguing and thought-provoking presentations slated for this year's B2B Marketing Forum that have me resizing my learning cap in anticipation. So for those unable to attend or for attendees just looking for some daft guidance on which sessions to attend, here is a preview of 4 sessions that any B2B marketer would be crazy to miss: 1) Amp Up Your Content Marketing With InfluencersThis panel session, moderated by clever content marketer Amanda Makysmiw of Lattice Engines (disclosure: Lattice Engines is a TopRank client), includes a panel of respected content strategists who intend to break the notion that content marketing and influence marketing are separate practices. Highlighting the importance of crafting content that appeals to those who influence your target audience, key actionable take-aways promise to be:
2) The Essentials of Marketing Automation for Small BusinessesClosing the loop and effectively tracking how marketing activities drive actual revenue is not just a requirement of Fortune 100 companies. This is a reality for small businesses as well who often need to apply even more scrutiny to marketing dollars. Unfortunately, budgeting for a full-scale marketing automation solution that can help them better quantify their efforts and refine their strategy is not always in the cards. Frank Days, VP of Marketing at Correlsense, leads a discussion designed to uncover the essential marketing automation functions small businesses need to finally close that loop without blowing their budget. 3) Content Marketing in the Age of CrapGood content simply isn't enough to stand out in today's vast content landscape. But how can brands make truly great content? Maybe more importantly, how can brands make great content at scale? Doug Kessler of Velocity Partners aims to answer those questions and explain how great content doesn't always mean greater investment. Kessler also breaks down some of the important traits that make content truly great. 4) Power Panel! Content All Stars Share Their SecretsAptly titled and quite appropriately the final program of the conference, this panel session contains enough marketing firepower to intimidate small nations (you listening Tokelau?). Luckily, these marketers come in-peace and with the collective goal to share some of their marketing secrets. Since the real magic of this session will come from the stories and tips shared by the panel, let's take a look at who comprises the 'Power Panel'.
Enough said. As is the case with any great conference, these sessions represent only a micro fraction of the great presentations scheduled over next few days. Check out the conference program for the full lineup. Can't attend the B2B Marketing Forum this year? No problem. We'll be live-blogging the sessions above and more to share key nuggets & conference updates. You can also keep tabs on the conference via Twitter by following @leeodden, @bslarsonmn or by tracking the hashtag #mpb2b.
© Online Marketing Blog, 2013. | 2013 MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum Preview – And a 'Cheers' Plug | http://www.toprankblog.com   More Recent Articles
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