Marketers are realizing that getting the most out of influencer marketing takes more than just a paid social post. It’s time to rethink who your best influencers are and how much they’re worth.
9. IT IS CURRENTLY ESTIMATED THAT
PUBLISHERS LOST OUT ON
$22 BILLION 2015
DUE TO AD BLOCKERS
10.
11. None of those influencers disclosed the fact that the brand had paid them to
wear the dress as part of a coordinated effort to promote its spring line.
12. Influenced by
trusted sources &
point of sale
74%Influenced by
Experience & brand
marketing point of sale
22%
INITIAL
CONSIDERATION
ACTIVE
EVALUATION
MOMENT OF
PURCHASE
Influenced by past
experience & brand
marketing67%
15. SO WHAT IS AN INFLUENCER…
General WOM Brand Advocate Influencer
16. FROM WOMMA’S
INFLUENCER GUIDEBOOK
Not all influencers are “celebrities”
on Twitter. “Every day” influencers
are people we encounter in our daily
lives and are “substantially more
likely than average” to share ideas
and recommendations.
17. WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT INFLUENCERS
Leaders in Word of Mouth
Offline Conversations Dominate
Prolific Communicators in Social Media, Too
Word of Mouth: A Positive Experience
Influencers are hand-raisers
Messaging for Influencers
1
2
3
4
5
6
18. THE POWER OF INFLUENCE
Keller Fay Study Findings
Influencer Consumer
1
ConsumerGeneral
Public
2
The study was conducted with online interviews of more than 6,000
individuals from the United States drawn from Experticity’s expert
influencer network and the general population. In addition, more
than 800 peers of these individuals were surveyed to evaluate the
impact of the recommendations they had received .
19. EXPERT INFLUENCERS ARE MORE…
Credible and
Believable
Knowledgeable
Better at Explaining
How Product Works or
Could Be Used
Enjoyable to Talk to
94% vs. 83%
94% vs. 84%
92% vs. 83%
95% vs. 88%
Expert Influencers vs. General Public
Responses of “8,” “9, “or “10” on a 10 point scale.
20. EXPERT INFLUENCERS PROVIDE
STRONGER RECOMMENDATIONS
74%
66%
Percentage of People Saying “Buy or Try It”
Expert Influencers General Population
21. A RECOMMENDATION FROM AN EXPERT INFLUENCER HAS A
BIGGER IMPACT
82%
73%
% of Peers Reporting That They Are Highly Likely to Follow the Recommendation
A "8," "9," or "10" on a 0-10 scale
Expert Influencers General Population
22. VALUE OF AN INFLUENCER
CONVERSATION
Influencer
1 WEEK22
Influencers are having 22.2x more “buying
conversations” each week where product
recommendations are given than an average
consumer
32. EXPERTICITY
They’re not just influencers,
they’re experts.
1 million
Active Influencers
15 million
Conversations /
Week
60 million
Brand Engagements
Thank you for attending. I am always excited to talk about a topic that I love. Which is getting the right people talking about your brand. A quick backgrounder on me and Experticity. Experticity is a company that works with over 600 leading consumer brands. Our company is focused on the premise that some opinions matter more than others. That key segments are having critical conversations with consumers about what to buy. And brands should have a more metrics driven approach on how to reach those individuals.
My background is that I head up marketing here at this company. Before this I worked at Columbia Sportswear and Ancestry.com. All very data driven companies with a passion about understanding how to have the end consumer hear a great recommendations about our brand.
So with that, let’s go ahead and jump into the deck.
We work with over 700 consumer brands. And all those marketers will voice the same challenge. That commerce is changing. And it is changing quickly.
Think of the selection at a GNC or the health section at a Whole Foods or Sprouts.
Take any consumer buying experience. The reality is that consumers have more choices today than ever before. In just one pocket of shopping – Amazon.com, there are over 200 million skus available. If I was starting my buying journey for (vertical specific example…i.e. mountain bikes) – I would see x options available.
And behind every single one of these items is dozens of reviews, brand websites, social commentary – which provides an endless source of content to match the endless options of what to buy.
Discussion opportunity: how many sku’s in their business & how it has grown
Take any consumer buying experience. The reality is that consumers have more choices today than ever before. In just one pocket of shopping – Amazon.com, there are over 200 million skus available. If I was starting my buying journey for (vertical specific example…i.e. mountain bikes) – I would see x options available.
And behind every single one of these items is dozens of reviews, brand websites, social commentary – which provides an endless source of content to match the endless options of what to buy.
Discussion opportunity: how many sku’s in their business & how it has grown
In todays digital world consumers are inundated with significantly more messages from brands trying to grab their attention. It is no surprise that as the sheer quantify of information has accelerated the quality and trust would be impact. Who do you trust? Whose opinion is valid. Are 100 reviews all averaging out at 3.5 stars any better than a no reviews at all?
In fact, consumers are actively seeking to find the right information to help them make the right decision. The average consumer check 10.4 different touch points prior to a purchase.
What this does for sure tell us is that Consumers are really look to buy what is best for them.
Slides changes on 9-10?
One thing is clear. Consumers no longer look just to the brand as the trusted source of information. Only 4% of Americans believe that marketers act with integrity. And it doesn’t help that other marketers have very public mis-steps that continue erode trust.
Take the use of celebrity> It once was on the marketing go-to playbook as the way to influence purchasing decisions. A credible recommendation for what to buy
But does anyone believe that Alicia Keys really uses a Blackberry? Especially after she is caught tweeting from her iphone only a few months later. And official parts after only a single year with the company.
Kia would love for us to think that this is what Lebron drives out of his mansion each day. But social media is clearly telling us a different story.
In March 2015, L&T scored a social media coup after 50 Instagram stars wore the same dress on the same day, and the item in question quickly sold out. Closer examination, however, revealed that none of those influencers disclosed the fact that the brand had paid them to wear the dress as part of a coordinated effort to promote its spring line.
The FTC later filed an official complaint against L&T.
So in this new consumer world where trust is waning and choices are endless. What does that mean for today’s marketer?
Gone are the days when we drew clean purchasing funnels on a whiteboard, assuming consumers waited for carefully triggered messages to move them through the buying journey.
All the current research points to a much more dynamic experience.
Something happens that triggers the buying journey. You start that journey with a set number of brands. But when you move to active purchasing mode, you actively move away from brand led advertising to seek your own independent opinions on what to buy. You stay in investigation mode often right up to the point of purchase. Where despite extensive research, 40% will change their mind at the point of sale based on something they hear, see or interact with.
All that traditional advertising definitely gets you into the game. The brands that they start with at the beginning of the journey – 67% of this is influenced by advertising & past experience. But once they turn away from brand advertising – you lose that influence. In fact, by the time of purchase traditional advertising influences only 23% of the purchase. 74% of the actual decision of what to buy is driven by the trusted sources they seek out and the point of sale interaction.
Our most innovative companies realize that they need to change their marketing mix to address these new realities. That they need to think about what % of their budget they are putting towards impacting conversion.
Discussion points:
How do they align their marketing strategy against this funnel today?
What tactics fall into each bucket?
It is clear that these trusted recommendations. They are people. And if that is the case – it becomes important that brand’s make a real compelling strategy of adding them into their mix. And many brands do attempt to think about it. It can be named influencer marketing. Brand advocate marketing. The names are not always aligned but the intent is similar.
In their attempts to launch this channel. There are some common pitfalls that we often see. I want to cover several of them here.
The first is around language.
Unique, research-based marketing consultancy, focused on word of mouth, with a decade of experience tracking online and offline consumer conversations about brands
Ed Keller & Brad Fay authors of two books on word of mouth and consumer influencers
Company merged last year with Engagement Labs, specialists in social media analytics. Together will deliver a “Total Social™” perspective in the months ahead
Animate other key terms & their definition
Gen – Word bubble
Person with product
Not all influencers are “celebrities” on Twitter
“Every day” influencers are people we encounter in our daily lives and are “substantially more likely than average” to share ideas and recommendations
In our work with Experticity, we focus on a more elite type of every day influencer
They also have significant category expertise
400 million WOM conversations per DAY
7 in 10 happen face to face
20% to 90% more active on every platform
8-1 positive to negative ratio
Influencers will often find you, particular if the offer is right
Respect their knowledge, and desire to be first-movers
Drawing from Experticity’s unpaid influencer network, Johan Berger and Keller Fay randomly surveyed “experts” from across the United States about the number of buying conversations they have with consumers each week. They then polled average consumers nationwide to measure the value of expert influencer recommendations. Additionally, they polled peers of both groups to evaluate the impact of recommendations received.
The study was conducted with online interviews of more than 6,000 individuals from the United States drawn from Experticity’s expert influencer network and the general population. In addition, more than 800 peers of these individuals were surveyed to evaluate the impact of the recommendations they had received.
Image ideas - 3 logos & short descriptions of parties involved or image outlining methodology (stick figure drawing from creative brief?)
Responses of “8,” “9, “or “10” on a 10 point scale.
Influencers are having 22.2x more “buying conversations” each week where product recommendations are given than an average consumer
Just influencer
Reach is a great way to consider influence. But it isn’t the only metric. It lines up most closely to the old celebrity fame model. While it can help with awareness, it often struggles with the idea of credibility & the reality of how consumer’s view buying decisions
It is not a big leap of faith to say that some influencers may not be found through this reach mentality. Social monitoring website Mention analyzed over 1 billion social mentions from the past two years, found that 91% of mentions come from people with fewer than 500 followers.
Clearly within that audience – there are many credible opinion leaders.
http://
A recent study this fall was performed by Keller Fay – one of the leading agencies in attempting to measure the impact of word of mouth. Their landmark study had some interesting findings and some of my favorite data points – do a great job of putting on the table a definition of “social” as a broader conversation.
They found that Wom drives 13% of consumers sales. That is roughly $6 trillion in annual consumer spending. And in their view is that social is roughly a 2/3 offline, 1/3 online activity.
http://www.kellerfay.com/2014-landmark-study/
They also made the argument that there are different weights of those conversations. An ambitious stat that I am sure will continue to be a point of discussion. But the thing I find interesting is the focus in on the outcome – which is a huge element I find we make the argument for daily. When word of mouth is tied to sales – how does that start to change your strategy.
What’s more, 80% of your best WOM will come from your top influencers—the top 20% in your cohort—and their commitment to your brand deserves special recognition and treatment.
Which is why I love this line. Don’t just focus on social. Focus on social consumers.
(do we have an image from our white papers/worksheet here?)
https://www.experticity.com/business/resources/ebooks-whitepaper/the-consumer-buyer-journey-is-changing/
It’s also worth pointing out, that although we are only starting to explore the professionals that have the greatest influence in your industry, we would want to work with you to identify who the right people are that could make the greatest impact for your brand, and grow the network together. We are dedicated to finding the exact people you want talking about your products.
There are a lot out there. For our company we often use the SAPS model. That stands for status, access, power & stuff. You can see it shows a trade-off with both costs & its overall meaning to members. The appeal of this one for our company is that much like the customer journey exercise – it helps put you into a new mental model of thinking about your engagement.
One example of how we use this…
-There isn’t a place today where these category influencers & retail influencers get real visible status for their level of expertise. We focused some new initiatives around “status” to draw a deeper connection to the brand. Our our network, you can prove your brand knowledge by passing a brand certification program. It is not easy. Companies like Strivectin, Oakley, TNF have special create brand certification programs. If you proven your worth - a visible badge found on their profiles on their network. Some brands have printed pins and shirts that show their certification status. It sounds like a simple thing. But for people that are passionate about a cateogry – they love showing off their expertise. We have people post their certifications on social media. In one instance, we had someone send us his tattoo of his certification. Luckily, we have a great design for these things…so hopefully his regrets later in life may not be as high.
What are the ways that you can provide more true insider relationship with your brand that focuses on something that is more in line with what an influencer (versus a consumer) craves
Study materials (we will move to an appendix slide)
On average, consumers check 10.4 sources before purchasing.
2x increase in just one year. The amount of content available has created an environment where we no longer guide people what to buy, we leave it is up to them to try and decide what to buy.
Is Your Website Driving People Away To Your Competitors? Marketing That Sell.
Today, Amazon.com sells over 200 million products.
A common go to source when considering a product, Amazons reviews range from helpful to hilarious but don’t identify whose opinion you can trust.
How Many Products Does Amazon Sell? ExportX World Wide Access.
Just 4% of Americans believe marketers act with integrity.
The marketing industry ranks lower than congress on the trust scale. Consumers stating that integrity means “always keeping promises” meaning they don’t think our products will do, what we say they will do.
No One Trusts Advertising Or Media (Except Fox News). AdAge
A brands influence drops from 67% during a consumers initial consideration to 22% during the moment of purchase.
Think about how you buy, something triggers a need, you consider what you have purchased in the past, and as you go into research mode or “active evaluation.” You now consider your own personal experience, you seek advice from people you trust, and you are open to looking at more brands than you initially considered (tying back the 10.6 sources). As you go to buy, you are confident in your decision, but based on a conversation you have at the store, with a fellow patron or an employee, there is a 40% chance you will change your mind and buy another brand.
The consumer decision journey. McKinsey&Company.
87% more of that brand than their peers, 9.5% increase in sales performance
2 years of data, 63,500 retail store associates, 330 stores
Sales associates who are empowered by brand and product knowledge go on to influence the buying conversations that a brand can’t, every day. They also impact the overall consumer experience by learning how to talk about products and ask the right questions.
Wharton School of Business and Experticity