Influencer Marketing: Going Beyond Pretty Faces & Product Reviews

Oh, influencer marketing, you poor misunderstood creature. You’re everywhere – with 60 percent of marketers reporting an increase in their influencer marketing budget last year – but you’re often utilized in a less than ideal manner.

While many brands truly appreciate and understand the value of partnering with influencers and creating brand ambassadorships, some have a limited perspective of what influencers can accomplish when it comes to promoting their products or services. There’s also a misconception that the term “influencer” equates to celebrity status, but really, an influencer is anyone with an audience who cares about their perspective and insights.

When companies approach our agency to do influencer campaigns, to us, it puts into motion a careful process of establishing the campaign goals, the target audience, and how we can weave an authentic story that illustrates the real-life value of whatever it is that we’re promoting.

Some brands erroneously assume that working with influencers simply means providing free product or services in exchange for reviews or Instagram posts. Don’t get me wrong – there is absolutely a time and a place to utilize influencers in this way, but it’s not our preferred approach, and I’ll tell you why.

Whereas influencer marketing as it’s defined today is the new kid on the block, spokespeople have long been used to represent brands. As early as the 1700s, people have understood the value of a celebrity endorsement. After Queen Charlotte became a fan of his work, a man named Josiah Wedgwood fully capitalized on his title as “Potter to Her Majesty,” raising his prices and appeal. Later, fictional characters like the Marlboro Man were used to embody and emphasize brand characteristics.

Today, celebrity spokespeople are everywhere. I love Jennifer Aniston, and envy her Benjamin Button-like ability to somehow continue to look better with age, but I would be very surprised to learn that she only uses Aveeno products for skincare – if she uses them at all. I worship Beyoncé and want to be her when I grow up, but I doubt L’Oreal is truly her go-to cosmetic and hair coloring brand. Influencers function very similarly to celebrity spokespeople, only more attainable and believable.

When we develop campaigns for our clients, we work very hard to select the right influencers who truly have a connection to the product. When we choose an influencer for a brand, we work hard to find an influencer who either already uses that brand or would be a natural advocate. Then when we provide them with our story architecture – a creative brief that serves as a writing prompt to guide blog post and social share content – they are empowered to tell an authentic story about how the product naturally integrates into their lives. They tout all of its benefits, like they might in a product review, but it also allows their readers to literally picture how this brand fits into their own lives.

The exposure of a bona fide celebrity is great, but ultimately, seeing someone who you truly relate to in a real-life context leaves a much more compelling impression on consumers. In fact, according to Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust recommendations made by other people – even if they don’t know them personally.

At the end of the day, the most successful influencers are those who’ve created a community of like-minded people around them. While they might not have the same size fan base as Taylor Swift or LeBron James, they’re able to provide genuine insights about how a brand adds value to their lives.

Product reviews are good. Real stories about the impact a product has on someone’s life are better.

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