Influence Marketing: Global Survey of Marketers and PR Professionals 2013
Contributor
Danny Brown
Contributor
- Aug 1, 2013 9:47 PM
During a three week period starting February 1st, 2013, ArCompany and Sensei Marketing conducted a global survey on the topic of influence marketing. Marketing and public relation professionals that manage both business-to-business and business-to-consumer campaigns were invited to participate. Over 1300 professionals responded representing North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.
The full results, shared here, include the following highlights:
- Where social scoring stands today
- How social influence and influence marketing are viewed
- How budgets are being increasingly allocated to the space
- Why it's not just B2C thats using influence marketing
- The preferred platforms of choice
And much more. I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to share your thoughts either on here, or across the social web using the #influencemktg hashtag.
Thank you.
10 Responses
Thanks for posting Danny! Influence Marketing is such an interesting topic, and so relevant in today’s world of digital marketing. That being said, the results of the survey show that companies are still skeptical when it comes to “social influence scoring platforms” or identifying who the online influencers are.
Last year, I attended an interesting presentation by Cossette on this topic. The speaker talked about how companies used to hold the power with a one-way conversation to the consumer; an ad on TV telling the consumer why their product is great and that they should buy it, but the conversation has now changed. Companies still provide consumers with their message, but it doesn’t stop there. Instead of a one-way linear flow, the message now branches out from the consumer to other consumers and keeps going.
I managed to dig up a blog post related to the presentation called “The Rise of the Reference Consumer.” It talks about how consumers today have so many resources at their disposal to help them make purchase decisions; smartphones that give you instant access to customer reviews, feedback and number of Facebook ‘likes’ on a specific product or service.
It seems like two factors are at play when it comes to influence marketing: the individual influencer, and the instant access to resources that influence the decision to buy.
Consumers now hold the power. Companies don’t have it that easy anymore.
With that amount of power in the hands of consumers how are companies supposed to keep up?
“It has become less about what we say about our brands, and more about how consumers’ peers speak of the brand.”
What’s a good starting point to help company’s position their brand within this new space?
For influence marketing to be effective the brand must first identify who the key influencers are in each of the social community and work to turn those influencers into brand advocates. It's not about pushing the brand at them but helping them fall in love with the brand. Hate to say it because it is the most overused example in the world, but Apple under Steve Jobs is still our best example of this. Another one is Lexus. I would also hold Dawn up as an example of this kind of marketing -- used to clean wildlife in Oil spills. What other examples are there?
@Lauren - The studies I've conducted, along with research for the Influence Marketing book, show that we need to flip influence marketing on its head. Instead of placing the "influencer" at the heart of the marketing circle, we need to place the customer there. By doing that, we can identify who impacts their decision making process at various points of the purchase life cycle - Awareness, Research, Intent, Buy and After Purchase. Doing that enables the brand to send highly targeted and relevant messaging and be much more effective at using this space, particularly when it comes to customer acquisition and lead generation.
@Clare - Completely agree. As I mention in my reply to Lauren, it's all about "reverse engineering" influence and starting with the customer at the heart of the marketing circle, and then working back from there to see what tips when it comes to making a decision. More importantly, who - or what - causes that tip?
You can grab a free download of Chapter 5 of the Influence Marketing book I co-authored, which delves into the need for Situational Influence and rethinking how we approach this space today.
@Clare - PS, sorry, I forgot to share some examples of brands doing well. MV-1 Canada, who used advocacy, outreach and smart tactics - connecting with direct influencers versus going the splattershot approach of a Klout - and earned 20% market share of mobility access vehicle market in Canada in just 12 months. Also, some great examples here of influence marketing done right with accompanying results.
Thanks Danny, for the chapter outline and for the examples. This is an important area of research for all cutting edge marketers.
Agreed, Clare, and good to see the conversation moving beyond social scores and selling impressions. Be happy to send you a unique download code for the complete book from our publisher, if you wish? Likewise, Laurne - just let me know!
Hi Danny - I would love the code! Thank you both for contributing to a great discussion.
Just sent an email your way, Lauren, cheers!
Got it - thanks Danny! Looking forward to it!