74% of customers trust social networks to guide purchasing decisions. In 2021, when trust is at peak importance, is your influencer marketing strategy delivering the results you need?

Yet again social media is shaking up your marketing mix for 2021. The latest research shows 86% of marketers used influencer marketing in the last 12 months. But with the changing habits and ever-evolving platform diversification we've seen this year in particular, it's more important than ever to consider your influencer marketing strategy.

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Want to plan your influencer marketing strategy for more customer conversions? Segmenting influencers into different types will help you prioritize types of influencers to monitor and interact with. It should be a core approach to support your content marketing, SEO and social media marketing. [si_learning_path_module_shortcode_block id=144502] If you're new to influencer segmentation, take a look at the below practical infographic from Traackr: The Many Faces of Influence -…

As more competitors on the landscape compete for keywords and "airspace", it’s now more important than ever to explore new ways to engage and communicate with your target demographic and community

Marketing has come a long way since those smoky days in the Mad Men-style advertising board rooms. It has, at one point or another, revolved around each medium that has engaged us as humans, from newspapers and radio to television, and now, the internet and social media. What we used to call "traditional marketing" (the direct mail and radio/TV advertising) has now morphed into "digital marketing," a way to reach people where they are: online. Digital marketing these days covers a wide swath of channels: search engines, social media, and email, among others. [si_guide_block id="5676" title="Download our Free Resource – Free digital marketing plan template" description="This popular digital marketing strategy template will give you a structure for applying the Smart Insights RACE…

Recent news stories have shown influencers in a bad light, which could impact their effectiveness when it comes to brand partnerships

You can’t scroll through Instagram nowadays without seeing a perfectly posed photo posted by an “influencer” either selling something or themselves. This hugely popular form of marketing has really taken off, creating a new breed of celebrity and opening up now opportunities for marketers. However, you have to question whether influencers take things a little bit too far and whether they are actually influential in the first place. It’s all well and good working with a brand that you believe in and want to recommend to followers, but the influencer world now seems to be more about freebies than authentic recommendations. [si_guide_block id="82119" title="Download our Free Resource – 10 common social media marketing mistakes" description="Avoid the pitfalls that limit engagement with your target audience. As with any marketing or e-commerce activity, you…

Now is the time to consider 2020's key digital marketing trends and how you can apply them to your marketing strategy

Whatever marketing results you achieved in 2019, you want to improve on them in 2020. To do this, you need to create a digital marketing strategy that will guide your marketing efforts this year. As you already know, marketing trends get outdated fast. Effective marketing strategies five years ago might be recipes for failure today. Therefore, you need to consider the key trends in 2020 and apply them to your digital marketing strategy. This way, you can stay ahead of your competitors and capture more leads and customers. [si_guide_block id="148741" title="Download our Free Resource – Future of marketing report" description="This report highlights five core drivers of future marketing success needed in the omnichannel marketing world."/] Without further ado, here are six key trends in 2020 and how you can apply them…

51% of marketers believe that influencer marketing helps with quality customer acquisition but how else could it benefit your digital marketing strategy?

While many social media users and consumers are growing tired of influencers, they are still an incredibly effective marketing tactic for brands. In an increasingly digital world that has seen people become immune to more traditional forms of advertising, influencers do exactly what they say on the tin – they influence purchase behaviour. Influencers are trusted to give honest reviews, recommendations and tips to their followers, which means they can make a difference to which product or brands consumers ultimately buy from. The ultimate form of social proof, influencers have a degree of credibility in their niches, which makes them a go-to source for information. Beyond this, influencers do something that many brands still struggle to do – they build relationships with their customers. A large part…

Take a look at what we believe are the key social media marketing trends for 2020 that marketers need to be aware of in order to ensure their marketing strategy is up-to-date and as effective as possible.

Social media has now become synonymous with digital marketing, going hand-in-hand with most – if not all – digital campaigns. However, social media is far from static and what worked a few months ago may not get you the same good results now. Habits change, platforms evolve, and new platforms come into existence. All of this influences how people use and react to social media marketing, as well as how marketers are able to reach their audience.

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It is more important than ever before for marketers to understand and stay ahead of the curve when it comes to social media. Doing so ensures you have the right tools at your disposal, an up-to-date strategy,…

Chart of the Week: 71% of consumers in the UK and US will unfollow an influencer if it was revealed that they had bought followers, showing how easy it is to lose trust in the industry.

Influencers can help to make or break a brand. When you work well with influencers, they can raise brand awareness, get more people engaging with your company and increase conversion. However, if your campaign isn’t handled properly, it could result in a lack of trust and your audience going elsewhere. This is why it is vital to understand what you should and shouldn’t do when dealing with influencers. After all, one wrong move could cause damage that takes years to repair. According to Takumi’s latest research into the realities of influencer marketing, there are a lot of aspects of influencer marketing that can turn consumers off. [si_guide_block id="27934" title="Download our Individual Member Resource…

Why would you want to reach a smaller audience? Why not go from the big guns from the start?

Are you looking for a more efficient way of promoting your business online and reaching your target audience in a meaningful way? In my Quick Win for Smart Insights, I teach you everything you need to know about working with micro-influencers, including creating an influencer marketing strategy and tips for finding the right influencers for your campaigns. If you’re interested in learning more about how to create a micro-influencer marketing strategy, check out the Quick Win here.  You’ll get to learn: Why micro-influencers can be more effective than hugely popular influencers How to set up goals for your influencer marketing campaign and establish the right KPIs to help you measure your results How to build a plan for your campaign from start to finish What to look for in…

These influencer marketing predictions will help you make more informed choices this year

With 2019 already roaring to a start, we want to give brands and influencers a leg up on the competition. So we've compiled a list of the top influencer marketing predictions that will rule 2019. Let's take a look.

1. Brands will be focussing more and more on video content in 2019

Why is video still the king? Because videos are more engaging and authentic than all other forms of content. [si_guide_block id="27934" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Influencer outreach guide for marketing professionals" description="This practical guide shows you how to use tools to find and interact with influencers on the best social media platforms for outreach, that’s Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and more."/] Authenticity has, undoubtedly, been one of the key drivers of the success and popularity of influencer marketing. It’s the predominant reason why people do not trust traditional advertising…

Travel brands must select the right influencers to work with in order to see the best results and create effective stories

Working with influencers can propel a travel campaign forward and help your company reach its audience more effectively. But when you pick an influencer to work with, you are aligning their brand with your own, this is why it's incredibly important to choose the right individuals to work with. This can mean selecting influencers is a daunting prospect, especially if you have little or no experience of working in this way. One of the biggest mistakes that first-timers make is not doing enough research into influencers before choosing who to work with. [si_guide_block id="35932" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Smarter Instagram marketing guide" description="Our Smarter Instagram marketing guide will help you tap into the consumer activity on Instagram to use it to grow your business."/] It’s simply not enough to select the…