The vast majority of marketing these days pertains to influence. The way brands and marketers engage with a target audience heavily relies on influence. Consumers make purchasing decisions based on influence from a brand. Now more than ever, influencer marketing plays a huge role in the digital marketing mix. Something that every company should be putting a strong emphasis on to help gain traction on their sales and marketing endeavors.

Names such as Gary Vaynerchuk, Seth Godin, Jay Baer, Chris Brogan, Brian Solis, Joe Pulizzi might ring a bell to you. Especially if you are in the marketing industry. These guys are phenomenal storytellers, content marketers, and dynamic influencers. They have a loyal following of users due to one simple reason – Influence. Their influence impacts individuals on an emotional and psychological level. Therefore attributing to development of a stronger authority as a go-to or though leader in the business marketplace. Checkout the recent article I wrote on The Emotional Era. That should give you a baseline perspective on how emotional engagement plays be a huge part in influencer marketing.

What Is Influencer Marketing?

In the early days of influencer marketing it was all about making friends. Not just any friends though but also befriending the very authoritative individuals in your respective industry, vertical, or business space. Simple enough, right? Well yes and no. Before long quite a few companies caught onto the developing trend and jumped on the bandwagon. The idea here was to establish likability with those authority figures in return of possibly having them talk about you in a positive way. Influencing them, right? Interestingly enough the concept of influence dates way back to 2,000 years ago in the days of great Rome. Basic fundamentals of human interaction and establishment of likability.

Modern day influencer marketing is a little bit different yet same. It’s about engaging with authoritative individuals or brands in the business marketplace place through conversations, developmental trends, and conveying a clear perception of your brand.

Digital marketing particularly revolves heavily around influencer marketing. Sure, there are various digital channels to explore for consumer engagement. However at the basis of it all it’s imperative to intertwine an influencer marketing tactic. Influencer marketing is in essence a lot broader and can be applied through various scenarios.

Good Ol’ Face-To-Face Interaction

A huge part of influencer marketing entails in the ability to interact with individuals face-to-face. Perception is reality and that reality can be established through an in-person greeting. There is nothing like one-on-one interaction with other influencers, prospects, or brands for that matter. This is precisely why conferences for can be a great avenue for influencer marketing. There is a huge quality component in that that can attribute to business success. Personal interactions are irreplaceable. It is more or less the foundation for development of new relationships. Conference can act as a primer platform to spark new relationships, become, and generate new business potential.

Consider the following next time you are at a conference or a networking event.

• Interact with other industry professionals.
• Get on the radar of influential business experts. Ones that have marketing recognition, following, and authority in the marketplace.
• Network as much as you can. Get your name out there. Tell others how you infuse value and can help them.
• Connect on a personal level by stepping outside of your comfort zone.
• Consider participation in top industry events where experts will reside.

These are just some basics anyone can follow in face-to-face scenarios that can help boost influencer marketing. It all eventually comes together that can help you become a more influential entity in the marketplace.

Curate Influential Content

In the earlier days of influencer marketing you could get by with basic content. Many brands for that matter squeezed through the cracks by offering basic information. Those were the earlier days of influencer marketing. Nowadays the average consumer is far more intelligent. They can detect bullshit in content, emptiness and inflated messaging. Any brand that provides content with real substance, value, and in-depth insight will reap major rewards. That very content will have merit and influence your prospects.

On the other hand of things, establishment as an influencer can also be accomplished through good content. For instance, sharing content about top industry influencers might get you some much needed exposure. Using this approach can help you get their radar. It’s important to surround yourself with other authoritative influencers. These individuals or brands typically have an avid following. This is something that you can piggyback on and use to your advantage.

So, use good content to gain recognition through other authoritative influencers. Use valuable and insightful content to create influence in the eyes of your prospects.

Your Influencer Marketing Needs Strategy!

When it comes to influencer marketing you should strongly consider a strategy. A game plan. You must have a tactical approach alike anything else that you do in digital marketing.

It is quite evident that you should definitely employ an influencer marketing approach. However, some of the big questions to answer here pertain to the ability to penetrate strategically. There is no cookie-cutter approach to development of an influencer marketing strategy.

Consider some of the following questions to help you prepare with your strategy:

• Why do you need an influencer marketing strategy?
• How will it help your business? Sell more stuff, establish marketing awareness, increase interest?
• Who will you need to influence in order to accomplish your goals? What specific individuals or brands?
• What methods will you employ to invoke authoritative conversations?

Consider Playing The Generosity Card

Generosity goes a long way when it comes to influencer marketing. In actuality it’s quite logical from a human perspective. Same principle is applicable in the business world. If you are generous to someone chances are that gesture will reciprocate at one point or another. I am not suggesting that you should develop certain expectations by being generous to your potential customers. Generosity is about having a certain mindset. Rationalizing things in a certain logical sense.

Especially in this day and age of social media. Everyone knows someone and probably interconnected with others within your very own network. Using generosity as an influencer marketing tactic can be extremely fruitful to any brand. Think about it for a second. Generosity can be utilized in many different ways. For instance, me sharing insight on influencer marketing in this article might be advantageous to someone else who happens to reads this article. I am certainly writing this article out of pure passion towards content and digital marketing with no particular exception. Similarly if you take on an act of generosity towards a potential prospects than I can tell you that they will be utmost appreciative of the gesture.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing will continue to become ever more integral within the digital marketing mix. Regardless of what marketing channel you explore for marketing of your products or services, influence will always be at the epicenter of it all. Always consider your influence on others. Both emotional and psychological aspects of it. This is an area that can provide some serious business winning. Focus on being influential by impacting other people’s emotions. Ultimately the way they decide to engage with purchasing behavior of other products and services.

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Ivan Temelkov

A digital marketing practitioner bringing nearly two decades of seasonality to the table with emphasis on Search, Social, & Content. I'm enthused about helping small businesses increase their digital footprint by utilizing the power of technology, web, strategic thinking, and targeted execution for maximum market penetration. CEO of @RazorSharpDigit, a human-centric digital brand but can be found @ivan_temelkov on Twitter as well.

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