Page Title: Marketing 101: What is influencer marketing? | MarketingSherpa Blog

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Page Text: Daniel Burstein January 24th, 2022 Comments Off on Marketing 101: What is influencer marketing? Marketing has a language all its own. This is our latest in a series of posts aimed at helping new marketers learn that language . What term do you find yourself explaining most often to new hires during onboarding? Let us know . This article was originally published in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter . An influencer is a person or thing (like a cartoon character, bot, etc.) with an audience and the ability to “influence” that audience to take certain actions – usually involving both their content area of expertise as well as purchasing products and services. For example, a fitness influencer might convince his or her audience to follow a specific workout plan (free) as well buy a certain pair of workout pants (paid product). The rise of influencers In the early 1900’s, America was the land of opportunity drawing immigrants from around the world with the hope that “the streets are paved in gold.” Today those golden streets are on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and the like drawing mere mortals with the hopes that they could be the next homegrown celebrity. The growth of social media and easy internet publishing has enabled this new rise of influencers, however, brands have always leveraged people with influence to act as a spokesperson. In the past, the role was often filled by movie starts, athletes, musicians, or others with access to a large audience thanks to traditional publishing and media distribution channels. Today’s influencers have a far more direct relationship with their audience, and often use their own channels in marketing partnerships. Another factor that has enabled the rise of influencers is the fractured media landscape. As brands found it more difficult to reach mass audiences through traditional channels like television and newspaper advertising, they were forced to find new avenues to reach potential customers. Which brings us to today. The global influencer market is worth $13.8 billion, according to Statista Research Department . More than half of marketers (57%) use influencer marketing, according to Pamela Bump on HubSpot . The role of influencers in a marketing plan There are eight micro-yeses you need to earn from a customer for a transaction or other conversion action to take place, according to the free digital marketing course Become A Marketer-Philosopher: Create and optimize high-converting webpages from MECLABS Institute (MarketingSherpa’s parent organization). You can see all eight micro-yeses in the Landing Page Blueprint PDF . Influencer marketing can help with three of those micro-yeses: Yes, I will pay attention – influencers can help bring their audience’s attention to your brand Yes, I will engage deeper – influencers can create content or position your brand in other ways to engage their audience Yes, I believe – influencers have credibility with their audience, and that credibility can help their audiences believe in your products and services The success (and failures) of influencers Influencer marketing can be successful for brands, and wildly successful for the most popular influencers. In TikTok Stars’ Earnings Rival CEOs’ As They Build Their Own Empires , Joseph Pisani and Theo Francis compared influencer earnings to CEO salaries, with some of the most popular influencers on TikTok outearning CEOs of Fortune 500 companies like Exxon Mobil, Starbucks, and Delta Air Lines. It should be noted that while influencer income came from brand promotions, it also came from creating their own product lines and signing media deals with traditional publishers. But as with any tactic, results will vary and social media following is not the same as revenue and sales. BHCosmetics Holdings, LLC filed for bankruptcy protection two weeks ago despite having 3.6 million Instagram followers and 1.8 million Facebook followers thanks to its influencer marketing campaigns. “BHCosmetics pinned its hopes last year on product launches promoted by newly signed celebrity influencers Doja Cat and Iggy Azalea, Mr. [Chief Restructuring Officer Spencer] Ware said. The influencer campaigns failed to drive the expected sales, exacerbating the company’s liquidity crunch and forcing it to look at restructuring alternatives, according to papers in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware,” Andrew Scrurria report in The Wall Street Journal article Beauty Brand Fails as Influencers Fall Short . Transparency in influencer marketing When influencer marketing works, it is because these paid promotions are very similar to organic product recommendations from a trusted friend. The difference is these recommendations aren’t being made only because the influencer likes the product. These recommendations are made because influencers are paid by brands (or given something of value). Its important to be transparent and open about these relationships – not only because you don’t want to alienate your customers, but also because there are Federal Trade Commission regulations. (Editor’s note: obviously this is not specific legal advice and if you have any questions, you should consult an attorney). Here’s a quick example of the importance of transparency in your influencer marketing, from Kelly Keenan’s book Everyone Is An “Influencer” (Full Disclosure: the publishers sent me a free copy of this book): “In 2018, the agency [FTC] issued a formal admonition to detox tea company Teami. The FTC warning clearly advised the Florida-based tea company that all connections between endorsers and advertisers much be disclosed and viewable. Teami, like many other brands, refused to take the warning seriously. In 2020, Teami was charged with making false claims about the benefits of their teas. They were also breaking rules: Burying sponsored post descriptions on Instagram from well-known entertainers and influencers who were endorsing these fallacies. The FTC bluntly indicated that they had seen enough of Teami’s deceptive practices and handed down a $15 million judgement. However, based on the company’s financial condition, the $15 million find was partially suspended upon the payment of $1 million.” Protecting influencer’s reputations Transparency is important to protect your brand’s relationship with its customers and influencers relationship with their followers, and so is coming through for customers by delivering on your company’s value proposition and promises. As mentioned, influencers can help customers reach the conclusion “Yes, I believe.” They are vouching for your brand. They are putting their reputation on the line. So, make sure your company delivers on whatever they are promising. Here’s an example. “We had an Instagram influencer new product/holiday promotion scheduled to run from December 11th – 19th [in 2020] during Covid,” said Karin Shoup, Founder, Sportchic . The vegan leather tote bag and backpack company received 107 orders – 37 were fulfilled directly but 70 of the orders were for products that were stuck on a cargo ship from China and hadn’t arrived yet. The team personally emailed each of the 70 customers letting them know that they did not have the inventory in stock yet and could not promise delivery before Christmas. They offered to immediately reimburse their purchase if the customer chose to do so and wished them happy holidays. There were only four order cancellations. When the company finally received the shipment on December 21st, they notified each customer that their package would ship on the following day. “We were so surprised to see consistent five-star product reviews appear on our website from those customers who praised the customer service as highly as they loved the product. So, setting expectations with timely personal communication is key to putting yourself in your customer’s shoes,” Shoup said. Putting the influencer in the customer’s shoes Putting yourself in the customer’s shoes is not only key for your marketing department, but also for the influencer as well. While it is up to your company to come through on its promises, the better influencers understand your brand’s value prop and its customers, the better they will be able to make the right (appealing and credible) promises. “While working with a snack company, I put myself in the brand’s (and their customers’) shoes by visiting their office and store location. It was enlightening to speak with actual customers and listen to their snack preferences, their brand discovery process, and how they came to love our client’s products,” said Amra Beganovich, Founder and CEO, Amra & Elma , an influencer with 671,000 followers on Instagram. By getting a better understanding of their target audience and crafting the campaign accordingly – highlighting what they learned while speaking to their customers – they received five million impressions and 212,000 clicks on the campaign. You can follow Daniel Burstein, Senior Director, Content & Marketing, MarketingSherpa and MECLABS Institute, on Twitter @DanielBurstein . If you are interested in influencer marketing, you might also like…

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Page Title: Marketing 101: What is influencer marketing? | MarketingSherpa Blog

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Page Keywords: content marketing,federal trade commission,influencer marketing,influencers,social media marketing,art direction,creative brief,design brief,graphic design,logo,marketing planning,website,executive buy-in,marketing campaigns,marketing ideas,marketing strategies,pitch,a/b testing,data,digital marketing,media buying,roi,segmentation,targeting,trust,copywriting,landing page,business,elevator pitch,marketing,sales,value proposition,conversion optimization,headlines,homepage,value proposition workshop,conversion journey,customer journey,marketing funnel,google analytics,marketing 101,marketing terms,onboarding,search marketing,source medium,source/medium,traffic source,button copy,call-to-action,call-to-action button,call-to-action optimization,cta,process-level value proposition

Page Text: Daniel Burstein January 24th, 2022 Comments Off on Marketing 101: What is influencer marketing? Marketing has a language all its own. This is our latest in a series of posts aimed at helping new marketers learn that language . What term do you find yourself explaining most often to new hires during onboarding? Let us know . This article was originally published in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter . An influencer is a person or thing (like a cartoon character, bot, etc.) with an audience and the ability to “influence” that audience to take certain actions – usually involving both their content area of expertise as well as purchasing products and services. For example, a fitness influencer might convince his or her audience to follow a specific workout plan (free) as well buy a certain pair of workout pants (paid product). The rise of influencers In the early 1900’s, America was the land of opportunity drawing immigrants from around the world with the hope that “the streets are paved in gold.” Today those golden streets are on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and the like drawing mere mortals with the hopes that they could be the next homegrown celebrity. The growth of social media and easy internet publishing has enabled this new rise of influencers, however, brands have always leveraged people with influence to act as a spokesperson. In the past, the role was often filled by movie starts, athletes, musicians, or others with access to a large audience thanks to traditional publishing and media distribution channels. Today’s influencers have a far more direct relationship with their audience, and often use their own channels in marketing partnerships. Another factor that has enabled the rise of influencers is the fractured media landscape. As brands found it more difficult to reach mass audiences through traditional channels like television and newspaper advertising, they were forced to find new avenues to reach potential customers. Which brings us to today. The global influencer market is worth $13.8 billion, according to Statista Research Department . More than half of marketers (57%) use influencer marketing, according to Pamela Bump on HubSpot . The role of influencers in a marketing plan There are eight micro-yeses you need to earn from a customer for a transaction or other conversion action to take place, according to the free digital marketing course Become A Marketer-Philosopher: Create and optimize high-converting webpages from MECLABS Institute (MarketingSherpa’s parent organization). You can see all eight micro-yeses in the Landing Page Blueprint PDF . Influencer marketing can help with three of those micro-yeses: Yes, I will pay attention – influencers can help bring their audience’s attention to your brand Yes, I will engage deeper – influencers can create content or position your brand in other ways to engage their audience Yes, I believe – influencers have credibility with their audience, and that credibility can help their audiences believe in your products and services The success (and failures) of influencers Influencer marketing can be successful for brands, and wildly successful for the most popular influencers. In TikTok Stars’ Earnings Rival CEOs’ As They Build Their Own Empires , Joseph Pisani and Theo Francis compared influencer earnings to CEO salaries, with some of the most popular influencers on TikTok outearning CEOs of Fortune 500 companies like Exxon Mobil, Starbucks, and Delta Air Lines. It should be noted that while influencer income came from brand promotions, it also came from creating their own product lines and signing media deals with traditional publishers. But as with any tactic, results will vary and social media following is not the same as revenue and sales. BHCosmetics Holdings, LLC filed for bankruptcy protection two weeks ago despite having 3.6 million Instagram followers and 1.8 million Facebook followers thanks to its influencer marketing campaigns. “BHCosmetics pinned its hopes last year on product launches promoted by newly signed celebrity influencers Doja Cat and Iggy Azalea, Mr. [Chief Restructuring Officer Spencer] Ware said. The influencer campaigns failed to drive the expected sales, exacerbating the company’s liquidity crunch and forcing it to look at restructuring alternatives, according to papers in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware,” Andrew Scrurria report in The Wall Street Journal article Beauty Brand Fails as Influencers Fall Short . Transparency in influencer marketing When influencer marketing works, it is because these paid promotions are very similar to organic product recommendations from a trusted friend. The difference is these recommendations aren’t being made only because the influencer likes the product. These recommendations are made because influencers are paid by brands (or given something of value). Its important to be transparent and open about these relationships – not only because you don’t want to alienate your customers, but also because there are Federal Trade Commission regulations. (Editor’s note: obviously this is not specific legal advice and if you have any questions, you should consult an attorney). Here’s a quick example of the importance of transparency in your influencer marketing, from Kelly Keenan’s book Everyone Is An “Influencer” (Full Disclosure: the publishers sent me a free copy of this book): “In 2018, the agency [FTC] issued a formal admonition to detox tea company Teami. The FTC warning clearly advised the Florida-based tea company that all connections between endorsers and advertisers much be disclosed and viewable. Teami, like many other brands, refused to take the warning seriously. In 2020, Teami was charged with making false claims about the benefits of their teas. They were also breaking rules: Burying sponsored post descriptions on Instagram from well-known entertainers and influencers who were endorsing these fallacies. The FTC bluntly indicated that they had seen enough of Teami’s deceptive practices and handed down a $15 million judgement. However, based on the company’s financial condition, the $15 million find was partially suspended upon the payment of $1 million.” Protecting influencer’s reputations Transparency is important to protect your brand’s relationship with its customers and influencers relationship with their followers, and so is coming through for customers by delivering on your company’s value proposition and promises. As mentioned, influencers can help customers reach the conclusion “Yes, I believe.” They are vouching for your brand. They are putting their reputation on the line. So, make sure your company delivers on whatever they are promising. Here’s an example. “We had an Instagram influencer new product/holiday promotion scheduled to run from December 11th – 19th [in 2020] during Covid,” said Karin Shoup, Founder, Sportchic . The vegan leather tote bag and backpack company received 107 orders – 37 were fulfilled directly but 70 of the orders were for products that were stuck on a cargo ship from China and hadn’t arrived yet. The team personally emailed each of the 70 customers letting them know that they did not have the inventory in stock yet and could not promise delivery before Christmas. They offered to immediately reimburse their purchase if the customer chose to do so and wished them happy holidays. There were only four order cancellations. When the company finally received the shipment on December 21st, they notified each customer that their package would ship on the following day. “We were so surprised to see consistent five-star product reviews appear on our website from those customers who praised the customer service as highly as they loved the product. So, setting expectations with timely personal communication is key to putting yourself in your customer’s shoes,” Shoup said. Putting the influencer in the customer’s shoes Putting yourself in the customer’s shoes is not only key for your marketing department, but also for the influencer as well. While it is up to your company to come through on its promises, the better influencers understand your brand’s value prop and its customers, the better they will be able to make the right (appealing and credible) promises. “While working with a snack company, I put myself in the brand’s (and their customers’) shoes by visiting their office and store location. It was enlightening to speak with actual customers and listen to their snack preferences, their brand discovery process, and how they came to love our client’s products,” said Amra Beganovich, Founder and CEO, Amra & Elma , an influencer with 671,000 followers on Instagram. By getting a better understanding of their target audience and crafting the campaign accordingly – highlighting what they learned while speaking to their customers – they received five million impressions and 212,000 clicks on the campaign. You can follow Daniel Burstein, Senior Director, Content & Marketing, MarketingSherpa and MECLABS Institute, on Twitter @DanielBurstein . If you are interested in influencer marketing, you might also like…

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Page Description: About MarketingSherpa Blog MarketingSherpa is a publisher focused on reporting on inspirational stories of customer-first marketing. Our goal — to give

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Page Text: Twitter Linda Johnson, Copy Editor, MarketingSherpa and MECLABS Institute Linda oversees the technical integrity of the content for MarketingSherpa, MarketingExperiments and MECLABS Institute. She places special emphasis on clarifying the writer’s intentions while preserving the writer’s voice. But first and foremost, Linda is an educator. Before joining the team, she was an educational consultant, a blogger and a freelance writer for various print and digital magazines. Her focus is on simplifying complex topics for all kinds of learners, including aspiring marketers. Linda believes in living life on purpose. Blog Posts Other MarketingSherpa team members, present and retired, and contributing partners include: Dr. Chuck Coker, Kaci Bower, Stonie Clark, Adam T. Sutton, Todd Lebo, David Meerman Scott, Bob Heyman, Jen Doyle, Brad Bortone, Zuzia Soldenhoff-Thorpe, Jeanne S. Jennings, Chris Heine, Stefan Tornquist, Anne Holland, Sean Donahue, Natalie Myers, Boris Grinkot, Tom Sather, Jay Baer, Marcus Sheridan, Justin Bridegan, Chad Divine, Jonathan Greene, Rachel Minion, Eric Coffman, Allison Banko, Brittany Long, John Nye, Erin Hogg, Taylor Kennedy, David Kirkpatrick, John Tackett, Matthew Hertzman, Taylor Lightfoot, Philip Axelrod, Daniel Beulah, Maria Lopez, Beata Bordas, Lauren Pitchford, John Cockburn, Kayla Cobb, Jessica Lorenz, Shelby Dorsey, Kylie Hyer, Joey Taravella, Andrea Johnson, Brian Carroll, Emily Rogers, Emily Munns, Martha Faulk, Jon Powell, Shaun James, Spencer Whiting, Regina Love, Liva LaMontagne, Tony Doty, Susan Warren, Brent Knauff, Courtney Eckerle, Michael Groszek, Ashley Lazo, Ken Bowen, Greg Hamilton, Annie Summerall, Tara Marotta, Gina Greco, Rebecca Strally and Paul Cheney. We no longer accept comments on the MarketingSherpa blog, but we'd love to hear what you've learned about customer-first marketing. Send us a Letter to the Editor to share your story. Top Resources Infographic: How to Create a Model of Your Customer’s Mind You need a repeatable methodology focused on building your organization’s customer wisdom throughout your campaigns and websites. This infographic can get you started. Get the Infographic > Infographic: 21 Psychological Elements that Power Effective Web Design To build an effective page from scratch, you need to begin with the psychology of your customer. This infographic can get you started. 7 Steps to Discovering Your Essential Value Proposition with Simple A/B Tests Drive better results when you discover what it is about your business that customers love. Download the File > Six Quick Call-to-Action Checklists These are specifically designed to help the time-pressed marketer quickly consider the customer psychology of your “asks” and how you can improve them.

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Page Title: Marketing 101: What is influencer marketing? | MarketingSherpa Blog

Page Description: Marketing has a language all its own. This is our latest in a series of posts aimed at helping new marketers learn that language. What term do you find yourself

Page Keywords: content marketing,federal trade commission,influencer marketing,influencers,social media marketing

Page Text: Marketing has a language all its own. This is our latest in a series of posts aimed at helping new marketers learn that language . What term do you find yourself explaining most often to new hires during onboarding? Let us know . This article was originally published in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter . An influencer is a person or thing (like a cartoon character, bot, etc.) with an audience and the ability to “influence” that audience to take certain actions – usually involving both their content area of expertise as well as purchasing products and services. For example, a fitness influencer might convince his or her audience to follow a specific workout plan (free) as well buy a certain pair of workout pants (paid product). The rise of influencers In the early 1900’s, America was the land of opportunity drawing immigrants from around the world with the hope that “the streets are paved in gold.” Today those golden streets are on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and the like drawing mere mortals with the hopes that they could be the next homegrown celebrity. The growth of social media and easy internet publishing has enabled this new rise of influencers, however, brands have always leveraged people with influence to act as a spokesperson. In the past, the role was often filled by movie starts, athletes, musicians, or others with access to a large audience thanks to traditional publishing and media distribution channels. Today’s influencers have a far more direct relationship with their audience, and often use their own channels in marketing partnerships. Another factor that has enabled the rise of influencers is the fractured media landscape. As brands found it more difficult to reach mass audiences through traditional channels like television and newspaper advertising, they were forced to find new avenues to reach potential customers. Which brings us to today. The global influencer market is worth $13.8 billion, according to Statista Research Department . More than half of marketers (57%) use influencer marketing, according to Pamela Bump on HubSpot . The role of influencers in a marketing plan There are eight micro-yeses you need to earn from a customer for a transaction or other conversion action to take place, according to the free digital marketing course Become A Marketer-Philosopher: Create and optimize high-converting webpages from MECLABS Institute (MarketingSherpa’s parent organization). You can see all eight micro-yeses in the Landing Page Blueprint PDF . Influencer marketing can help with three of those micro-yeses: Yes, I will pay attention – influencers can help bring their audience’s attention to your brand Yes, I will engage deeper – influencers can create content or position your brand in other ways to engage their audience Yes, I believe – influencers have credibility with their audience, and that credibility can help their audiences believe in your products and services The success (and failures) of influencers Influencer marketing can be successful for brands, and wildly successful for the most popular influencers. In TikTok Stars’ Earnings Rival CEOs’ As They Build Their Own Empires , Joseph Pisani and Theo Francis compared influencer earnings to CEO salaries, with some of the most popular influencers on TikTok outearning CEOs of Fortune 500 companies like Exxon Mobil, Starbucks, and Delta Air Lines. It should be noted that while influencer income came from brand promotions, it also came from creating their own product lines and signing media deals with traditional publishers. But as with any tactic, results will vary and social media following is not the same as revenue and sales. BHCosmetics Holdings, LLC filed for bankruptcy protection two weeks ago despite having 3.6 million Instagram followers and 1.8 million Facebook followers thanks to its influencer marketing campaigns. “BHCosmetics pinned its hopes last year on product launches promoted by newly signed celebrity influencers Doja Cat and Iggy Azalea, Mr. [Chief Restructuring Officer Spencer] Ware said. The influencer campaigns failed to drive the expected sales, exacerbating the company’s liquidity crunch and forcing it to look at restructuring alternatives, according to papers in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware,” Andrew Scrurria report in The Wall Street Journal article Beauty Brand Fails as Influencers Fall Short . Transparency in influencer marketing When influencer marketing works, it is because these paid promotions are very similar to organic product recommendations from a trusted friend. The difference is these recommendations aren’t being made only because the influencer likes the product. These recommendations are made because influencers are paid by brands (or given something of value). Its important to be transparent and open about these relationships – not only because you don’t want to alienate your customers, but also because there are Federal Trade Commission regulations. (Editor’s note: obviously this is not specific legal advice and if you have any questions, you should consult an attorney). Here’s a quick example of the importance of transparency in your influencer marketing, from Kelly Keenan’s book Everyone Is An “Influencer” (Full Disclosure: the publishers sent me a free copy of this book): “In 2018, the agency [FTC] issued a formal admonition to detox tea company Teami. The FTC warning clearly advised the Florida-based tea company that all connections between endorsers and advertisers much be disclosed and viewable. Teami, like many other brands, refused to take the warning seriously. In 2020, Teami was charged with making false claims about the benefits of their teas. They were also breaking rules: Burying sponsored post descriptions on Instagram from well-known entertainers and influencers who were endorsing these fallacies. The FTC bluntly indicated that they had seen enough of Teami’s deceptive practices and handed down a $15 million judgement. However, based on the company’s financial condition, the $15 million find was partially suspended upon the payment of $1 million.” Protecting influencer’s reputations Transparency is important to protect your brand’s relationship with its customers and influencers relationship with their followers, and so is coming through for customers by delivering on your company’s value proposition and promises. As mentioned, influencers can help customers reach the conclusion “Yes, I believe.” They are vouching for your brand. They are putting their reputation on the line. So, make sure your company delivers on whatever they are promising. Here’s an example. “We had an Instagram influencer new product/holiday promotion scheduled to run from December 11th – 19th [in 2020] during Covid,” said Karin Shoup, Founder, Sportchic . The vegan leather tote bag and backpack company received 107 orders – 37 were fulfilled directly but 70 of the orders were for products that were stuck on a cargo ship from China and hadn’t arrived yet. The team personally emailed each of the 70 customers letting them know that they did not have the inventory in stock yet and could not promise delivery before Christmas. They offered to immediately reimburse their purchase if the customer chose to do so and wished them happy holidays. There were only four order cancellations. When the company finally received the shipment on December 21st, they notified each customer that their package would ship on the following day. “We were so surprised to see consistent five-star product reviews appear on our website from those customers who praised the customer service as highly as they loved the product. So, setting expectations with timely personal communication is key to putting yourself in your customer’s shoes,” Shoup said. Putting the influencer in the customer’s shoes Putting yourself in the customer’s shoes is not only key for your marketing department, but also for the influencer as well. While it is up to your company to come through on its promises, the better influencers understand your brand’s value prop and its customers, the better they will be able to make the right (appealing and credible) promises. “While working with a snack company, I put myself in the brand’s (and their customers’) shoes by visiting their office and store location. It was enlightening to speak with actual customers and listen to their snack preferences, their brand discovery process, and how they came to love our client’s products,” said Amra Beganovich, Founder and CEO, Amra & Elma , an influencer with 671,000 followers on Instagram. By getting a better understanding of their target audience and crafting the campaign accordingly – highlighting what they learned while speaking to their customers – they received five million impressions and 212,000 clicks on the campaign. You can follow Daniel Burstein, Senior Director, Content & Marketing, MarketingSherpa and MECLABS Institute, on Twitter @DanielBurstein . If you are interested in influencer marketing, you might also like…

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Page Title: Daniel Burstein | MarketingSherpa Blog

Page Description: Daniel Burstein, Senior Director of Editorial Content, MECLABS. Daniel oversees all content and marketing coming from the MarketingExperiments and

Page Keywords: content marketing,federal trade commission,influencer marketing,influencers,social media marketing,art direction,creative brief,design brief,graphic design,logo,marketing planning,website,executive buy-in,marketing campaigns,marketing ideas,marketing strategies,pitch,a/b testing,data,digital marketing,media buying,roi,segmentation,targeting,trust,copywriting,landing page,business,elevator pitch,marketing,sales,value proposition,conversion optimization,headlines,homepage,value proposition workshop,conversion journey,customer journey,marketing funnel,google analytics,marketing 101,marketing terms,onboarding,search marketing,source medium,source/medium,traffic source,button copy,call-to-action,call-to-action button,call-to-action optimization,cta,process-level value proposition

Page Text: Marketing has a language all its own. This is our latest in a series of posts aimed at helping new marketers learn that language . What term do you find yourself explaining most often to new hires during onboarding? Let us know . This article was originally published in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter . An influencer is a person or thing (like a cartoon character, bot, etc.) with an audience and the ability to “influence” that audience to take certain actions – usually involving both their content area of expertise as well as purchasing products and services. For example, a fitness influencer might convince his or her audience to follow a specific workout plan (free) as well buy a certain pair of workout pants (paid product). The rise of influencers In the early 1900’s, America was the land of opportunity drawing immigrants from around the world with the hope that “the streets are paved in gold.” Today those golden streets are on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and the like drawing mere mortals with the hopes that they could be the next homegrown celebrity. The growth of social media and easy internet publishing has enabled this new rise of influencers, however, brands have always leveraged people with influence to act as a spokesperson. In the past, the role was often filled by movie starts, athletes, musicians, or others with access to a large audience thanks to traditional publishing and media distribution channels. Today’s influencers have a far more direct relationship with their audience, and often use their own channels in marketing partnerships. Another factor that has enabled the rise of influencers is the fractured media landscape. As brands found it more difficult to reach mass audiences through traditional channels like television and newspaper advertising, they were forced to find new avenues to reach potential customers. Which brings us to today. The global influencer market is worth $13.8 billion, according to Statista Research Department . More than half of marketers (57%) use influencer marketing, according to Pamela Bump on HubSpot . The role of influencers in a marketing plan There are eight micro-yeses you need to earn from a customer for a transaction or other conversion action to take place, according to the free digital marketing course Become A Marketer-Philosopher: Create and optimize high-converting webpages from MECLABS Institute (MarketingSherpa’s parent organization). You can see all eight micro-yeses in the Landing Page Blueprint PDF . Influencer marketing can help with three of those micro-yeses: Yes, I will pay attention – influencers can help bring their audience’s attention to your brand Yes, I will engage deeper – influencers can create content or position your brand in other ways to engage their audience Yes, I believe – influencers have credibility with their audience, and that credibility can help their audiences believe in your products and services The success (and failures) of influencers Influencer marketing can be successful for brands, and wildly successful for the most popular influencers. In TikTok Stars’ Earnings Rival CEOs’ As They Build Their Own Empires , Joseph Pisani and Theo Francis compared influencer earnings to CEO salaries, with some of the most popular influencers on TikTok outearning CEOs of Fortune 500 companies like Exxon Mobil, Starbucks, and Delta Air Lines. It should be noted that while influencer income came from brand promotions, it also came from creating their own product lines and signing media deals with traditional publishers. But as with any tactic, results will vary and social media following is not the same as revenue and sales. BHCosmetics Holdings, LLC filed for bankruptcy protection two weeks ago despite having 3.6 million Instagram followers and 1.8 million Facebook followers thanks to its influencer marketing campaigns. “BHCosmetics pinned its hopes last year on product launches promoted by newly signed celebrity influencers Doja Cat and Iggy Azalea, Mr. [Chief Restructuring Officer Spencer] Ware said. The influencer campaigns failed to drive the expected sales, exacerbating the company’s liquidity crunch and forcing it to look at restructuring alternatives, according to papers in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware,” Andrew Scrurria report in The Wall Street Journal article Beauty Brand Fails as Influencers Fall Short . Transparency in influencer marketing When influencer marketing works, it is because these paid promotions are very similar to organic product recommendations from a trusted friend. The difference is these recommendations aren’t being made only because the influencer likes the product. These recommendations are made because influencers are paid by brands (or given something of value). Its important to be transparent and open about these relationships – not only because you don’t want to alienate your customers, but also because there are Federal Trade Commission regulations. (Editor’s note: obviously this is not specific legal advice and if you have any questions, you should consult an attorney). Here’s a quick example of the importance of transparency in your influencer marketing, from Kelly Keenan’s book Everyone Is An “Influencer” (Full Disclosure: the publishers sent me a free copy of this book): “In 2018, the agency [FTC] issued a formal admonition to detox tea company Teami. The FTC warning clearly advised the Florida-based tea company that all connections between endorsers and advertisers much be disclosed and viewable. Teami, like many other brands, refused to take the warning seriously. In 2020, Teami was charged with making false claims about the benefits of their teas. They were also breaking rules: Burying sponsored post descriptions on Instagram from well-known entertainers and influencers who were endorsing these fallacies. The FTC bluntly indicated that they had seen enough of Teami’s deceptive practices and handed down a $15 million judgement. However, based on the company’s financial condition, the $15 million find was partially suspended upon the payment of $1 million.” Protecting influencer’s reputations Transparency is important to protect your brand’s relationship with its customers and influencers relationship with their followers, and so is coming through for customers by delivering on your company’s value proposition and promises. As mentioned, influencers can help customers reach the conclusion “Yes, I believe.” They are vouching for your brand. They are putting their reputation on the line. So, make sure your company delivers on whatever they are promising. Here’s an example. “We had an Instagram influencer new product/holiday promotion scheduled to run from December 11th – 19th [in 2020] during Covid,” said Karin Shoup, Founder, Sportchic . The vegan leather tote bag and backpack company received 107 orders – 37 were fulfilled directly but 70 of the orders were for products that were stuck on a cargo ship from China and hadn’t arrived yet. The team personally emailed each of the 70 customers letting them know that they did not have the inventory in stock yet and could not promise delivery before Christmas. They offered to immediately reimburse their purchase if the customer chose to do so and wished them happy holidays. There were only four order cancellations. When the company finally received the shipment on December 21st, they notified each customer that their package would ship on the following day. “We were so surprised to see consistent five-star product reviews appear on our website from those customers who praised the customer service as highly as they loved the product. So, setting expectations with timely personal communication is key to putting yourself in your customer’s shoes,” Shoup said. Putting the influencer in the customer’s shoes Putting yourself in the customer’s shoes is not only key for your marketing department, but also for the influencer as well. While it is up to your company to come through on its promises, the better influencers understand your brand’s value prop and its customers, the better they will be able to make the right (appealing and credible) promises. “While working with a snack company, I put myself in the brand’s (and their customers’) shoes by visiting their office and store location. It was enlightening to speak with actual customers and listen to their snack preferences, their brand discovery process, and how they came to love our client’s products,” said Amra Beganovich, Founder and CEO, Amra & Elma , an influencer with 671,000 followers on Instagram. By getting a better understanding of their target audience and crafting the campaign accordingly – highlighting what they learned while speaking to their customers – they received five million impressions and 212,000 clicks on the campaign. You can follow Daniel Burstein, Senior Director, Content & Marketing, MarketingSherpa and MECLABS Institute, on Twitter @DanielBurstein . If you are interested in influencer marketing, you might also like…

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Page Title: Marketing 101: What is PPC in marketing? | MarketingSherpa Blog

Page Description: If you’re a new marketer, you might have heard the words pay-per-click slurred together pretty quickly by experienced marketers, and not quite understood what

Page Keywords: advertising,cpc,marketing 101,onboarding,paid search,pay-per-click,ppc,search marketing,seo,serp,split testing

Page Text: Marketing has a language all its own. This is our latest in a series of posts aimed at helping new marketers learn that language . What term do you find yourself explaining most often to new hires during onboarding? Let us know . This article was originally published in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter . PPC stands for pay-per-click. The abbreviation is usually used in front of the words “marketing” or “advertising” to describe digital ads for which the company pays a fee to the website where the ads are displayed (or the advertising network that is running the ads across many websites) every time a potential customer clicks on the ads. If you’re a new marketer, you might have heard the words pay-per-click slurred together pretty quickly by experienced marketers, and not quite understood what they are saying. My favorite anecdote, sometimes I would get a transcript from a recorded interview back, and the transcriptionist (not familiar with the marketing industry) would transcribe “pay-per-click” as “paper click.” Here’s an example of the look and feel of some PPC ads: This example is from PPC Marketing: 3 steps to improve performance . Words like “condition” and “part” are called out in brackets because those words would change to address different medical conditions faced by the ideal customer using different keywords (more on keywords in the PPC vs. SEO section of this blog post). The URL is simply listed as “company.com” because we’re protecting the identity of the MECLABS Conversion Marketing Services Research Partner that engaged in this PPC experimentation (MECLABS is the parent organization of MarketingSherpa). Performance advertising versus impressions-based advertising Traditionally, advertising was sold based on how many people would see the ad — also known as impressions, exposure or reach. The cost is calculated as cost per thousand and abbreviated as CPM (“m” stands for “mille,” Latin for “one thousand.”) The rise of advertising on the internet has brought with it a shift to performance-based advertising. While marketers can still buy adds based on their reach, many choose to buy based on an action like a click. An example in the case study Small Business Social Media Advertising: Local shop conducts value proposition testing with Facebook ads shows a few of the different ways marketers can buy ads online. Consultant Metodi Iliev ran three tests with Facebook ads. For each test, he chose the Facebook ad delivery aimed at a different metric — optimized for post engagement, optimized for impressions, and finally, optimized for link clicks. How PPC advertising is sold PPC advertising is sold on a cost-per-click, or CPC, basis. PPC ads are often aimed at specific keywords, and the CPC for the keyword is determined by potential advertisers bidding on those keywords. Because of this demand-based approach to pricing, the cost of a click can vary greatly based on the keyword and the industry. For example, the article Long-Tail Keywords Dead? We Answer This Question and 14 Others on SEO reports that in May 2008 the average CPC in the insurance industry was $10.63 while the average CPC for retailers was $0.45. PPC versus SEO PPC is most frequently associated with search engine marketing because many PPC ads are displayed on a search engine results (SERP) page. For this reason, PPC can also be referred to as paid search or simply SEM (search engine marketing). Paid search is usually contrasted against organic search, PPC and SEM are contrasted against the abbreviation SEO (search engine optimization). Organic search/SEO is the practice of creating something of value on a website so that it will place high in the search engine results. By placing high on a search engine results page (SERP), the webpage is likely to get more visits from people who have searched for information on that topic. SEO usually combines the skills of content creation and writing along with the technical skills to make the site attractive to search engines by, for example, making the website easy to read by a search engine or ensuring a fast page load and good rendering on mobile devices. Marketers do not pay the search engine companies for these results; they must earn high search rankings. However, just because they don’t pay money doesn’t mean there isn’t a cost. In this case, it’s the creative and technical costs of having a search-optimized website. For example, a research chemicals company conducted a website overhaul to improve its SEO. As a result, it was able to increase organic traffic 33% and organic traffic-based revenue 25% . Optimizing PPC marketing When trying to improve the performance of their PPC advertising, some marketers make the mistake of optimizing the wrong part of the funnel . The marketer’s goal should not be to get more clicks. For an extreme example, you could probably entice many, many clicks on your PPC ads if you could credibly communicate that you are giving a free Tesla to everyone who clicks on the ad. However, if people who click on the ad then get to a landing page for expensive private jets, and only then learn that they must buy a jet in order to get the free Tesla, you will probably not get an ROI (return on investment) from your campaign. Many will click, few will choose to (or even be able to) buy. Remember, since you are paying for each click, you are not trying to get just anyone to click, your ad should focus on getting the ideal customer to click. And you want to be clear enough in the ad about what you are offering on the landing page so that people who click are likely to take the desired conversion action. That doesn’t mean your PPC ads should sell the conversion action (like product purchase or lead form fill). That is what the landing page is for. Your PPC ads should have a process-level value proposition so the right people (your ideal customers) see the value in clicking on your ad for the right reasons — to engage in whatever conversion action you have on your landing page. Sometimes it’s not the ad copy or landing page that is necessarily wrong, it is just targeting the wrong keyword or keywords. The keywords might be so expensive that the company can’t generate a positive return on investment. Or the keywords may be bringing in the wrong kind of audience. For this reason, it’s a good idea to track the ROI of keywords and/or keyword groupings to understand which are profitable for your business and eliminate unprofitable keywords that drain your marketing budget . Paying for clicks you don’t actually get It’s one thing to pay for clicks from the wrong customer because your ads weren’t focused on the ideal customer. It’s even worse when those clicks you’re paying for aren’t because of the copy in your ad — they may be from bots or other nefarious means. This is click fraud, a threat to be aware of if you buy PPC advertising. Click fraud is nothing new; in fact, MarketingSherpa’s sister publication wrote about the topic back in 2005 — Click Fraud: Our research indicates that as much as 30% of paid search traffic may be fraudulent . Testing and optimizing PPC ads If you want to improve your PPC advertising, you can engage in split testing to see which messages perform the best. Remember, for true success you should often measure beyond which ad gets more clicks to which ad gets more conversions. One challenge with split testing is getting a sufficient sample size to ensure you are running a valid test that accurately tells you which ad performed better, to ensure the results you see aren’t just coming from random chance. PPC advertising can help you get a big enough sample size because most PPC ad networks can show your ad to a large number of potential customers (assuming you have the budget to afford it). For this reason, PPC ads can be used to test more than just the ad copy; they can help you get enough traffic to validly test other things as well. For example, you can test your value proposition using PPC ads . You can follow Daniel Burstein, Senior Director, Content & Marketing, MarketingSherpa and MECLABS Institute, on Twitter @DanielBurstein . If you are interested in PPC marketing, you might find these articles helpful …

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Page Title: Marketing 101: What is a point-first headline? | MarketingSherpa Blog

Page Description: Here’s a simple concept that can improve the performance of your headlines – where you put the main value to the customer within your headline can affect that

Page Keywords: copywriting,landing page

Page Text: Marketing has a language all its own. This is our latest in a series of posts aimed at helping new marketers learn that language . What term do you find yourself explaining most often to new hires during onboarding? Let us know . This article was originally published in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter . A point-first headline is a headline that begins with the main point you are trying to make to the reader. There are three types of sentences: point first, point middle, and point last. Creative Sample #1: Illustration of point-sequenced grammar Essentially, when you write a point-first headline, you are leading with the information that is most appealing and relevant to the reader. So placing the main point of value for the customer in the front of the sentence increases the probability it will be read and understood by potential customers. For this reason, the best-performing headlines are typically point first. Writing a point-first headline is the equivalent of the inverted pyramid in journalism. Writing a story this way encourages the reporter to put the most newsworthy info first. Another journalistic saying that is very applicable to a point-first headline is “Don’t bury the lede.” In other words, make sure the most newsworthy part of the story is front and center. For marketing, “most newsworthy” translates to “main point of value to the customer .” A headline experiment MECLABS Institute worked with a survey company to research which headlines would be most effective to recruit panelists to take surveys (MECLABS is the parent organization of MarketingSherpa). The experiment tested a series of point-first and point-last headlines. Below you can see each headline along with its conversion rate and relative difference compared to the control (original) headline. We’ve also underlined the main point in each headline. Point-first headlines Get Paid to Take FREE Surveys: 28.76% conversion rate, 10.44% relative difference Here’s Your First Survey, and an Invitation to Join Our Research Community: 28.35% conversion rate, 8.97% relative difference Get Paid to Fill Out Online Surveys: 27.98% conversion rate, 7.46% relative difference Get Rewarded for Your Opinion: 27.92% conversion rate, 7.23% relative difference Surveys – Quick, Easy and FREE: 27.52% conversion rate, 5.67% relative difference Win Cash & Prizes for Online Surveys: 27.37% conversion rate, 5.12% relative difference Point-last headlines Set Up Your FREE Account Today and Start Earning Money!: 27.35% conversion rate, 5.03% relative difference You’re Invited to Join the [Company Name] Community and to Earn Rewards For Your Opinions: 27.14% conversion rate, 4.24% relative difference Join the [Company Name] Community and Have Your Opinions Count: 26.92% conversion rate, 3.36% relative difference Take Online Surveys From Home and Win Cash & Prizes: 26.81% conversion rate, 2.95% relative difference As you can see, point-first headlines tended to outperform point-last headlines. While no point-middle headlines were included in this experiment since they tend to underperform both point-first and point-last headlines, here are a few examples of what point-middle headlines for this landing page might look like. Point-middle headlines Sign up today and get paid to take free surveys Take free surveys and get rewarded for your opinion Share your opinions and win cash with online surveys As these examples show, the main value to the customer is easier to overlook in a point-middle headline. Page Templates That Work The tendency for point-first headlines to outperform point-last and especially point-middle headlines (all else being equal) led MECLABS to recommend to marketers that you should test point-first headlines on your landing pages . In the free resource Page Templates That Work: Improve conversions with these scientifically proven webpage templates , the templates advise marketers to use a “Point-first headline that clearly communicates the value of the page objective.” Creative Sample #2: Excerpt from Page Templates That Work You can follow Daniel Burstein, Senior Director, Content & Marketing, MarketingSherpa and MECLABS Institute, on Twitter @DanielBurstein .

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