The Value of Influence: The Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing

The Ultimate Guide to
Inﬂuence Marketing

Foreword................................................................................................ 1

Introduction to Influence Marketing .......................................................... 3
Influence Marketing Defined ............................................................... 4

Business Benefits of Influence Marketing .................................................. 5

Developing an Influence Marketing Strategy .............................................. 7

Top Metrics for Reviewing Progress ........................................................... 8

Common Challenges of Influence Marketing ............................................ 10

Getting Started with Influence Marketing ................................................ 12
Influence Marketing Checklist for the CEO/Executive Team ................. 13
Influence Marketing Checklist for the Senior Sponsor ......................... 14
Influence Marketing Checklist for the Influencer Relations Specialist ...... 15

Additional Resources ............................................................................ 16

Quickstart Guide for the Senior Sponsor.................................................. 17

Quickstart Guide for the Influencer Relations Specialist ........................... 30

“We need to understand how the prospects
we do have make their decisions.”
If there’s one type of marketing that senior executives intuitively understand, it’s influence marketing. It’s just never had a
name before. Most senior executives have spent a lifetime in front of prospects and customers, and they intrinsically know the
importance of influencers. They also listen to their salespeople, who routinely tell them about the people behind the scenes
who are continually shaping and reshaping the purchase decision.

Yet these people have always been beyond the reach of sales forces, which in turn often leads to frustration with the marketing
department for not having access to them either. As a result, the chasm between the sales and marketing teams is reinforced.

It’s ironic then that marketers have often been the most resistant to adopting influence marketing. They’re already over-
stretched, they’re concentrating on their prospect databases, and these days they’re trying to figure out whether online or offline
outreach will provide the greatest return on investment each quarter. They don’t need another set of shadowy figures with dis-
parate job titles to try to target — especially since those figures won’t likely ever buy anything directly. That’s why until recently,
influencers have been too “fuzzy” to concentrate on.

But there’s good news here. As marketing departments need to deliver more and more (often for less spend), more innovative
thinking is being introduced. We often hear about the search for greater “sales and marketing alignment.” There’s widespread
skepticism around simply buying more and more lists of database names to e-mail. Public relations and accounts receivable
teams are increasingly expected to show the impact of their work on the company’s bottom line, and that too is leading them
to broaden their reach. Yet time and again, the executive-level conversation comes down not to “We need to reach out to even
more people,” but instead to “We need to better understand how the prospects we do have make their decisions.”

The Value of Influence: The Ultimate Guide to Influence Marketing | 1

It’s astonishing that so little knowledge has been acquired to address this question. We’ve always said that if those in marketing
departments would spend more time understanding how their prospects’ purchasing decisions are made, they would immedi-
ately change more than 50 percent of the marketing they currently initiate. All too often, vendors speak a different language
than their prospects. They fail to explain how their products solve the prospects’ pain points, and those vendors who are short-
listed then misunderstand who’s important in the presentation room (and who’s not).

We talk about marketing to, through, and with our selected influencers. They can most likely offer a level of credibility, trust,
and expertise to prospects that are currently missing from your outreach activities. They can also offer your company new routes
to market. Critically, they can act as a guiding hand throughout the purchase decision process. For that alone, they are worth
identifying and engaging with.

Practice influence marketing throughout your company’s outreach process, and the results will be obvious (and very persuasive).
You’ll have no problem securing the support of your executive sales function.

If you truly want sales and marketing alignment, it’s hard to beat influence marketing. This eBook offers a useful step-by-step
checklist for getting started. I wish you luck.

Nick Hayes
Principal, Influencer50 Inc.
Co-author, Influencer Marketing: Who Really Influences Your Customers?


Introduction to Influence Marketing

Influence plays an important role in business. Entrepreneurs are often influ-
enced by the mentors they’ve learned from. Employees are influenced by the
culture they work in. And buyers are influenced by the ones they trust when
it comes down to making critical purchasing decisions.

Building that kind of trust takes time, of course. Fortunately, chances are that
there’s already a group of people out there who have earned the respect of
many of your potential customers. Whether they’re speakers, authors, entre-
preneurs, or regular Joes who blog in their spare time, their words carry weight
with your target market. That’s where influence marketing comes into play.

Influence marketing is a practice geared toward targeting and building rela-
tionships with key individuals who have influence over your target segment
— and ideally your target buyers. Inﬂuence marketing
That might include writers for major publications, industry analysts, indus- can be a valuable
try thought leaders, and senior managers of key organizations. In such
instances, contact is made by phone or in person, requiring significant
& cost-effective
senior management time. Contact with other target influencers (e.g., blog-
way to:
gers and trade journal writers) can often take place through e-mail and
» Increase brand awareness
social media channels, requiring less senior management time.
» Establish and/or enhance your
Influence marketing is typically the responsibility of a senior sponsor — thought leadership position
often the senior most person in the organization responsible for market-
ing, such as the marketing VP. For earlier stage companies, this role is » Drive more traffic to your website
frequently filled by the CEO. The senior sponsor then appoints one or more » Generate more sales leads
people to serve as influencer relations specialist to develop the program and
manage the daily and weekly activities. In many cases, the influencer rela- » Increase your deal close rate and
tions specialist can be a part-time role or part of another employee’s overall reduce sales cycle time
responsibilities. » Ultimately impact the bottom line


To get started with influence » Develops a list of influencers A Quick Example: Exinda Networks
marketing, the specialist: » Develops influencer personas to identify the best
Problem Exinda was an expansion-stage company
Develops ways to communicate with influencer segments
» Prioritizes the names into a narrow set of targets
with a great product offering and very little brand

& Adjusts
awareness in its target market. CEO Michael
» Begins reaching out to build relationships, deliver Sharma said it was a little like trying to shout from
your messages, and get insights from the influencers the mountaintop without a voice.
» Adjusts and improves the program over time
Solution OpenView proposed an influence market-
Most of the activities are free, requiring little more than time. The invest- ing program. Rather than blow its budget on a
ment is small compared to the reach that can be achieved through the massive advertising or PR campaign that might not
influencers’ “influence.” affect its target markets anyway, Exinda would go
for the word-of-mouth approach and try to develop
The overarching goal for the program is to get people who influence your relationships with key influencers in its target
target buyers to write and talk about you in a way that generates buyer markets. OpenView and Exinda worked together to
interest and enthusiasm for your products and services. increase the company’s brand awareness within the
market by identifying the target influencers, and
then contacted each influencer to begin building
Influence Marketing Defined
relationships.
Influence marketing is an updated approach to marketing and public relations
Results Exinda is getting more traffic to its website,
where you target the people your prospects turn to for information. These influ-
and more keywords are driving traffic to the site
encers help generate awareness and sway the purchasing decisions of those from search engines. The result has been inbound
who seek out and value their expertise, read their blogs, converse with them in leads that are more likely to turn into sales.
discussion forums, attend their presentations at industry events, and so on.
“ The influence marketing program was highly
Marketing to influencers essentially means building relationships and pitch- targeted in the education sector, and the results
ing your stories to the influencers in a proactive, outbound fashion. Many speak for themselves. We can track the results and
influencers are eager for ideas and content to speak or write about. we’ve seen a measurable increase
in sales in this sector, and I think
If they’re interested in your message, they will begin talking about your we’ll continue to see that.”
company, its leaders, and/or products and services. Influence marketing
builds credibility for you in the eyes of your prospects because influencers Kevin Suitor
VP of Customer Advocacy, Exinda
are often trusted resources.


Business Benefits of Influence Marketing

Influence marketing offers significant benefits to your customer development efforts. Specifically, it enables you to:

Raise awareness of your brand within your industry/space.
When you build relationships with key influencers, sooner or later you will probably benefit from getting some kind
of “ink.” Perhaps they will share one of your customer success stories, review one of your products, mention your
company in a case study, or write a company overview. These mentions essentially create another mark of your com-
pany on the Internet, acting as free advertising for your business. Your prospects will see this information and become
introduced to or reacquainted with your company’s brand.

Increase your Web traffic.
When an influencer mentions your company, it may cause his or her audience to seek out more information, usually by
going to your website.

Test your messaging and value proposition.
More often than not, your influencers are on the pulse of trends within your industry. If you can’t sell them on your
company’s competitive advantage and offerings, you may experience the same friction when selling to your prospects.
Influence marketing provides a feedback loop with people who live and breathe within your space.

Generate inbound leads or inquiries about your company.
Influence marketing gives you the opportunity to communicate your value proposition, offerings, and company back-
ground to prospects you may not otherwise have engaged with. Doing so will result in more people visiting your website,
participating in webinars, reading your blog, etc. — some of whom will eventually turn into qualified leads.

Build credibility/overcome objections/close more sales — faster.
When an influencer has given your company his or her “seal of approval,” the people who look to the influencer trust
that person’s word. Your salespeople won’t have to spend as much time selling your value proposition when the influ-
encer has already helped communicate your message.


Social Media Spurs Influence Marketing

Influence marketing is nothing new. Companies have targeted influencers for years in order to help get
their story told or get coverage in the media. The difference today is mainly twofold: 1) the influencers in
your target market include a whole new set of businesses and individuals, and 2) you have direct access to
these people through social media. To the first point, these “new” influencers are very important to a variety
of your marketing goals. To the second point, it’s not just the tools that matter — it’s what goes in them.

Making this happen takes a plan:

Become the leading expert. There is no better way to influence the influ- This eBook breaks down step-by-step
encers than by becoming a leading expert and voice in your industry. How how to identify and interact with influ-
do you do that? By being the “publisher” for your industry niche. If you encers, but the real key is to take the
create and curate the leading thinking in your area (i.e., solutions to prob- steps to become an influencer yourself.
lems that no one else is covering), then influencers will take notice. This Social media can get you there, but not
means that you need to develop a content strategy that focuses on true unless you’re incredibly interesting and
thought leadership and solving the problems of your customers and pros- helpful first. Think about a refrigerator
pects. From the beginning, integrate influencers into your content produc- with no food inside. Not good. Not in-
tion. They’ll be much more willing to share your information if you do. teresting. Let’s stockpile that fridge with
the best food your industry has to offer.
The Content Hub. Think “one-to-many” here. You need a home for all When that happens, everyone will want
your great content. That may be a blog or an article repository. American to come and partake at your house.
Express has AMEX OPEN Forum. OpenView has OpenView Labs. CMI has
ContentMarketingInstitute.com. Focus on a core area to begin the influ- Now that’s what I call influence
ence. marketing.
Joe Pulizzi
Your content must be shareable. Once you have the strategy and the Founder, Content Marketing
platform, make sure that sharing from your platform is incredibly easy. Institute, Junta 42; co-author,
Tweets, Facebook likes, and LinkedIn shares should all be seamless. It’s Managing Content Marketing

also social proof of your expertise. When an influencer goes to one of your
posts with over 100 tweets, that says something about how effective your
content (and your own influence) is.


Developing an Influence Marketing Strategy

As with any practice that requires resources and coordination across the company, influence marketing takes time, planning,
and established processes to be executed successfully. It also requires the CEO and executive team to:

» Buy in to the long-term value of the effort » Approve the target influencer list
as a marketing initiative
» Commit to participating in interviews and other activities
» Assign a senior sponsor that will likely transpire as a result of the influence marketing
program
» Approve the budget to put the necessary resources in place
» Participate in quarterly retrospective meetings to continually
» Develop long-term goals for the program
monitor the program

Generally, there are three main roles
for expansion-stage companies:

&
The CEO and executive team, who set the priorities and goals
for the effort, approve the appropriate resources for the practice,
CEO
approve the influencer target list, and commit to being available for Executive Team
interviews and other opportunities that the practice will generate.

The senior sponsor (generally the senior person in marketing),
who approves the plan, manages the influencer relations specialist,
reports on the goals, and supports the marketing efforts. Senior Sponsor

The influencer relations specialist, who builds and carries out
the plan, identifies and prioritizes the target list of influencers,
Influencer
develops relationships with the influencers, makes adjustments to Relations Specialist
improve the practice, and delivers tangible results from the program
(e.g., mentions in industry reports and articles, keynote presenta-
tions at your user conferences, case examples that include your
company in presentations, blog mentions, etc.).


Top Metrics for Reviewing Progress

Why Influencers Matter
Metrics are extremely helpful for keeping track of progress
and impact. They will help you gain insights into your Every quarter I present to my executive team on the impact
strategy, allowing for better planning as time goes on. of content marketing, which includes communications and
influencer relations. This process requires heavy analysis
The metrics for influence marketing fall under from premium tools like Vocus and Sysomos that visualize
three broad categories: data into pretty charts that executives like.

1. Program goals and an approved target list of influencers. We’d just embarked on an influence marketing initiative,
so I was eager to dig into the data. I went right to the
2. Activity metrics, which measure the inputs to your
Social Media Mentions dashboard and generated the cov-
influence marketing efforts, such as:
eted graph. I admired the massive spike in buzz to start
» The number of activities taking place (e-mails, calls, the quarter. It was majestic. The Everest of awareness.
meetings, demos, etc.)
Then panic struck: the peak did not correspond to any mar-
» The number of daily and weekly conversations your keting, communications, or product campaign. Moreover, the
influencer relations specialist is having with your rogue spike happened during the Fourth of July holiday –
target influencers precisely the last time anyone would expect a surge in dis-
» The coverage level of your target influencers cussion about a business-to-business SaaS company. How
would I explain to my CEO that the quarter’s most success-
3. Result metrics, which measure the impact the practice ful communications program wasn’t a program at all?
is having, such as:
» The number of opportunities (e.g., interviews, speaking Eventually we solved the mystery.
engagements) the influencer relations specialist has What happened? Scott Monty happened, that’s what. Ford’s
set up head of social media cheered our content on his personal
» The number of mentions in blogs, feature articles, etc. blog, and the post started a groundswell of discussion that
rang louder than any concerted effort we’d orchestrated.
» Increased awareness and clearer perception in the
One guy, one blog post, and a holiday weekend. I’m always
market (if you are doing perception research)
reminded of this story when I think about
» Website traffic generated from the mentions the importance of influencer relations.
» Sales leads/sales generated from the mentions Joe Chernov
» Closed sales generated from the mentions Former VP of Content Marketing, Eloqua


Based on your goals for the practice, you may want to track traffic (number of unique visitors to your blog or website), audi-
ence engagement (number of pageviews and time on site), conversion metrics (number of click-throughs, webinar participation,
newsletter signups, etc.), or various social media metrics (number of followers, fans, etc.).

For example, an effort with increased Web traffic but low conversions may be considered a success if your goal is to increase
awareness. On the other hand, if you’re looking to increase your number of short-term leads, you’ll want to work to achieve a
higher conversation rate.

To be clear, many of the essential metrics of the practice depend heavily on the goals you set for the program. It’s up to you
to determine the appropriate measures of success.

“Influence marketing is a great strategy to incorporate into your overall
marketing mix. But how do you know your efforts are really paying off?
By setting SMART goals and tracking the key metrics, you’ll be able to
determine a return on objective for your influence marketing program.
Metrics can be tracked in a simple spreadsheet or complex database
such as Salesforce.com. Over time the metrics will help you determine
what’s working and what’s not, so that you can then determine where
to focus your efforts overall.”
Kevin Cain
Director of Content Strategy
OpenView Venture Partners


Common Challenges of Influence Marketing

Some of the issues you might face when initiating an influence marketing program include the following:

Lack of buy-in and/or commitment from your CEO or executive team.
Before initiating the practice, make sure all of the company’s top leaders are willing to participate in activities with
influencers.

Lack of clear, measurable goals.
Work as a team to identify and set the goals ahead of time. Adjust the goals as necessary over time.

Lack of valuable content.
Without quality content, it will be difficult to tell your company’s story to influencers. Make sure you have enough con-
tent to share before you make the initial contact. Make sure you also have a program in place for continuously develop-
ing content so that you can provide your influencers with fresh material on a regular basis.

Lack of customer participation.
Influencers don’t want to hear how great you are straight from the horse’s mouth — they want to hear from your cus-
tomers or end users. Before getting your influence marketing practice off the ground, make sure you have identified
a few customers who are willing to help tell your company’s story. You need to be able to share your customers’ suc-
cesses with influencers, who are often interested in learning how companies solve their problems.

Not focusing on the right influencers.
Influence marketing can have a great impact, but only if you are targeting the right people, at the right time, with the
right message. This is one of the areas where your influencer relations specialist will prove especially useful. Part of
his or her job is to make sure you’ve identified the right people to target; the influencer relations specialist does this by
spending time monitoring the influencers’ activities.

Delivering the same content, in the same fashion, across the board to all influencers.
It’s important to develop influencer personas, as different sets of influencers have different sets of needs, goals, and
preferred methods of communication. For example, you’ll probably have to approach technical bloggers differently than
you will industry analysts. Reporters will require yet another approach. Understanding your influencer personas will
help your team craft and deliver targeted, effective pitches based on each segment’s needs.


The Value of Influence: The Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing

The Value of Influence: The Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing

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The Value of Influence: The Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing