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What We Learned At BrightonSEO: Influencer Marketing Is On The Rise

We made the journey down to Brighton last week for the second BrightonSEO conference of the year, and we left feeling motivated and inspired!

Now don’t let the name throw you; BrightonSEO might have started off as a small SEO conference but it has soon become one of Europe’s biggest digital marketing meet-ups. With around 3500 in attendance, there are a number of detailed, informative seminars on throughout the day covering topics including social media, email marketing and, of course, search marketing.

Whilst we like to keep on top of the latest SEO news, we decided to take this as an opportunity to learn more about the things we do at Red Marlin on a daily basis – PR and social media. So over the next few days we’ll present a series of blogs highlighting a few key things we learned, starting today…

  • Influencer marketing is on the rise, and it’s here to stay

Not familiar with the term influencer marketing? You should be. According to a study by Captiv8, $570 million was spent in the USA alone on influencer marketing on Instagram in 2016. This is where brands work with (pay) people with large social media audiences to promote their product or service. They work in the hope that they will influence their audience to buy the products. Does it work? Well, Neilsen’s Global Trust in Advertising report states that 92% of consumers trust earned media above all forms of advertising. So yeah, it works.

Source: SEMPO

But it’s not just a case of finding someone with lots of followers and throwing money at them to promote your product. The thing is, consumers are savvier now. They get it. They can spot an #ad post a mile off. So how do you do it better? Following these simple steps will help:

  • Start with a single-minded objective

What’s your goal? A few to bear in mind are brand consideration, data capture, direct revenue, social follower acquisition

  • Define your strategy

You know your goal. Time to define how you’ll get there…

  • Know your audience

Who are you targeting? What age are they? What are they interested in? Who do they follow?!

  • Pick your influencer

Now you know your audience, time to pick your influencer. Who does your target audience follow? Whose content do they read?

  • Measure

78% of US marketers see ROI of influencer marketing as their biggest challenge this year. Look back at your initial objective. Look beyond engagement.

  • Drive audience to your platforms

You’ve got a captive audience now. Drive them to your platforms. Capture their email addresses. Convert them into sales!

We reckon influencer marketing is here to stay for a little while. Morar Consulting agree; they state that 75% of UK marketers will up their spend on influencer marketing in 2018. A big thanks to Allyson Griffiths for her talk at BrightonSEO, providing the inspiration for this blog post! You can find her full presentation here.

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