Is this the end of Influencer Marketing as we know it?
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the influencer marketing industry was projected to grow to approximately $9.7B in 2020. In addition, the number of influencer marketing-focused platforms and agencies has gone from under 200 in 2015 to over 1,100 in 2019.
And then the world changed.
Stories abound across the web about influencers who were, until recently, actively generating tens of thousands of dollars in revenue from major brand sponsorships and partnerships, all of which have gone stone-cold silent. The vast majority of influencer connected events and campaigns have been postponed long term or canceled outright as brands turn their focus to survival, cost-cutting, and government subsidies.
Many influencers have adapted in order to remain engaged with their audiences. Travel bloggers are posting recipes, fashion YouTubers now offer social distancing tips and food Instagrammers have pivoted to sharing insights on how to keep your kids entertained at home.
But this is just the beginning of what may well be a paradigm shift in influencer marketing as we know it.
What’s doing well right now? Live streaming services like Twitch and some interactive fitness influencers offering live workout sessions. TikTok has also seen a significant rise in downloads and engagement is up across all social platforms, which makes perfect sense since everyone is home. Essentially, anything that helps pass the time at home and keep the kids occupied is doing well from an engagement perspective but does that mean people are buying? And does it indicate that influencers are making a living?
The Impact on Influencers
Large scale influencers are being relied upon for PSA’s. Finland has become the first country to deem influencers as essential workers in order to help the dissemination of critical information during the pandemic. The thinking is that influencers are just as important as mainstream media when it comes to getting highly important messages in front of a public audience.
Overall, you can start to see a trend developing here. Influencers are sharing information of public interest or content that is entertaining in order to help people stay engaged but, under the circumstances, the vast majority of influencers aren’t generating income right now nor is there any expectation that this will change in the near future. For some, it may never go back to what was ‘normal’ and if it does, many influencers such as those specializing in hospitality, travel, and events may be forced to consider finding other ways to generate revenue streams.
All in all, staying relevant and top of mind through any form of content sharing may be important for influencers in the short term but eventually, the bills need to be paid.
Time to Reinvent?
The reinvention of oneself as an influencer may be easier said than done. For many who are involved in the industry, blogging and influencer marketing is all they know. This is their livelihood. This is still a relatively new industry that until a few years ago did not exist. It is comprised of hard-working people who have known no other career or in the case of certain verticals such as travel, we have seen hobby bloggers successfully turn a passion into a career of influencer marketing.
If you’re a food blogger who has been setting off to destinations as part of your everyday work, you are now asking yourself what comes next?
If there is an opportunity here, it lies in your ability as an influencer to evaluate the current situation in order to determine whether or not the steps you are taking today are going to create long term viability and sustainability for your personal brand. And perhaps the question you need to start by asking is whether you are actually a brand in the traditional sense or you are running an influencer business. That question may help influencers determine if they truly have staying power once this all passes.
Brands sustain themselves throughout difficult times because they have recognition and history. They deliver value, address problems or satisfy needs. Influencer marketing has created a different inflection for the term ‘brand’. The moment a writer launches a journey to become an influencer they talk about their ‘brand’. But are you really a brand to your clients or are you a service provider at a specific point in time?
There is only one Coke, one McDonald’s, One Disney. Yes, there are alternatives to these product brands but when it comes to influencers, there are many fashion, beauty and wellness bloggers. As things return to normal, many influencers will find out if they are truly an indispensable brand in the eyes of their partners.
The Impact on the Industry
There are dozens of influencer marketing platforms ranging from free models with limited search capabilities to enterprise offerings with extensive search, outreach and program management capabilities.
During the last economic downturn in 2008, a large number of martech platforms ceased to exist or were forced to enter into mergers with competitors in order to survive. A repeat of these events will likely be expedited in the influencer martech space given the speed and magnitude with which the industry has been devastated.
The numbers tell the story. If, for example, there were 10,000 ongoing influencer campaigns spread across 1,000 agencies and platforms and now there are 1,000 or, to be generous, even 3,000 campaigns, some agencies and platforms will be left behind. Which ones survive will be dictated by a combination of factors such as the strength of their management team, cash reserves and access to capital (maintaining and managing tech platforms requires personnel and resources), the size of their influencer database (a valued asset for potential suitors assuming these same influencers can weather the storm), the nature of their clients (to what degree have they impacted by the shutdown and how fast can they recover), the speed with which theses agencies and platforms can adapt to the current environment (if at all possible), and the ability to identify alternative sources of revenues and service offerings during this period.
In the weeks and months ahead, look for platforms to disappear and merge. Mergers will ultimately lead to even better technologies and an evolution of the industry.
The Takeaway
If there’s one thing right now that’s certain about the influencer industry it’s that the future is uncertain. The road ahead will be very rocky and the short term will be painful in the best of scenarios.
For influencers who understand that the industry may be forever changed, you can start to plan for the pending landscape and reevaluate the services you offer your clients and the ways in which you offer those services. Consider partnering with other influencers to mitigate challenges and risks and start thinking outside your comfort zone if you want to reinvent yourself and evolve beyond your traditional expertise.
For those operating on the tech side of the industry, be prepared to challenge for a smaller piece of real estate. With fewer opportunities expected in the vertical, now may be the time to also consider strategic partnerships and a more thorough vetting of your influencer database in order to provide industry-leading quality to your customers.
The industry has changed. Be prepared to do likewise.
The Importance of Data – Now More Than Ever
/by Stephen PadveenCollecting Customer Data Can Significantly Improve Sales and Marketing Performance
As economies begin to reopen, it has become crystal clear that in the new landscape, business as we know it will look nothing like it did mere weeks ago.
Restaurants at 30% capacity. No fans at sporting events. Retail stores with limited foot traffic. Near empty shopping malls. A new set of consumer priorities and shopping patterns… The list goes on.
Faced with this new reality, there is one very significant action item that all businesses can and should enact which will help them build a foundation for growth and sustainability in the months and years ahead: Strategic Data Collection.
The Value of Data
Dun & Bradstreet’s 7th annual B2B Marketing Data Report (an excellent read, available at dnb.com) surveyed 500 businesses and uncovered some very interesting information that can be applied to virtually any business, of any size, in any industry.
The survey, conducted in November 2019, which means that the results are pre-COVID-19 but highly valuable nonetheless, found that 73% of companies are increasing their investment in quality data. It took seven years to get to this number but most mainstream businesses now realize the value of data and justification for expanded investment in data collection.
The study found that for companies that increased their investment in quality data, 100% experienced overall performance gains and 94% saw an improvement in sales and marketing performance. Of those that decreased their investment in data, 100% saw no improvement in sales and marketing, and 75% actually saw a decline in the performance of their sales and marketing initiatives.
Small Business or Enterprise – Put Data to Work
Quality data can contribute to corporate growth regardless of whether you manage a single retail location or an international consumer brand. However, activation of the data is where the actual monetization occurs and if the data you gather is sub-quality, your ability to trigger a positive impact on your businesses is hindered.
A business that gathers basic customer information such as an email address or a mobile number can be effective in the use of that data but expanding that data collection where possible into areas like customer interests, hobbies, travel patterns, and more, can lead to more informed and superior marketing initiatives when it comes to the targeting and timing of customized messaging to your audience. Data alone is important but the quality of the data you collect and its relevance to your business will play a key role in the effectiveness of making that data actionable.
What We Have Learned From eCommerce
Early on, eCommerce platforms understood the need to collect data at every conceivable touchpoint in the customer journey, a benefit of online business that traditional businesses and physical locations have been unable to match. Perhaps one of the best examples of this is the abandoned cart feature found on most e-cart platforms today.
An abandoned cart saver lets the retailer reconnect with the consumer pursuant to an incomplete transaction, in real-time. This action may occur through a pop up that says, “Hey, stick around and we’ll give you a 2 for 1 deal…” or a follow-up email that says, “Come back and we’ll give you an extra 20% off.“ According to Baymard.com, abandoned cart rates range from 60% to 80%. Online stores have the benefit of recovering 5% – 12% of these sales all through the use of abandoned cart technology. If physical retailers could do likewise and convert an extra 5% – 12% of every customer that walked into their stores it would have a huge impact on the bottom line.
However, physical retailers don’t typically have someone standing at the door with a 20% discount offer designed to keep a potential customer from leaving the store or as an incentive for the customer to provide them with personal data such as their name, phone number or email address. When you are about to walk out of a physical store without completing a transaction, the best you might hope to hear is ‘have a nice day’. Every customer that walks out is a data opportunity lost.
At the same time, that applies to every customer who actually completes a purchase in a physical location. Has the business collected relevant, quality data from the customer, or have they simply walked out the door after completing the transaction leaving the business with no way to reconnect with that customer?
Clearly, online businesses have a decided advantage when it comes to retaining the customer or gathering information through direct incentivization and it explains why in the current environment we can expect to see eCommerce stores look for ways to collect even more customer data.
What Can We Do As Marketers?
Marketers need to help retail (and online) clients create programs that incentivize customers to provide data that will help the business thrive. Obvious ones such as discounts, free services, contests, giveaways, and gift cards will all help customers provide the most basic of data that can help local businesses retain and attract new clients. But deeper, individual customization will become even more important as a tool to create loyalty among customers and visitors.
Inherent actions like emails offering standard discounts are a good first step. But to truly activate a higher rate of return on a basic email or similar outreach, a business wants to dive deeper into the offer customization process by collecting microdata such as customer preferences, interests, shopping habits, brand choices, and so on.
Personalizing the customer engagement with content that addresses the consumer experience at an individual level will become a much more critical component of the one-to-one marketing journey that customers are demanding, whether that be through a manual process or one driven by AI technologies.
Planning For the Road Ahead
Collecting data requires an additional commitment of resources at a time when most companies are simply focused on re-establishing a sense of normalcy.
Regardless of size, however, as businesses get back on their feet they need to start taking a much closer look at preparing and implementing a Strategic Data Collection plan that helps them better understand and connect with their clients at the most micro of levels.
The return will be well worth the time invested.
Daily Minute Master Series – May 28, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Facebook’s Zuckerberg says Government Censoring Social Media Not the ‘Right Reflex’
Facebook Inc’s Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, commenting on U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats against social media companies, said on Wednesday censoring a platform would not be the “right reflex” for a government worried about censorship. “I’ll have to understand what they actually would intend to do, but in general I think a government choosing to censor a platform because they’re worried about censorship doesn’t exactly strike me as the right reflex there,” Zuckerberg said in an interview with Fox News Channel.
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IGTV Announces Monetization for Creators
IGTV has finally made a strong move into wooing content creators by announcing monetization partnerships. These are the details they’ve released. As the influencer and creator world continues to heat up with platforms wooing content creators, IGTV has jumped into the fray.
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Facebook Marketplace is Open for Businesses Selling New Products
There is an old misconception that Facebook Marketplace is still only a C2C platform similar to Craigslist. That is no longer true. In its initial stages, Facebook Marketplace was only offering individual users the opportunity to list and purchase items locally. As the Marketplace grew in popularity, Facebook added new features, like the ability to process a transaction through checkout, and the option to offer shipping. Now, Facebook Marketplace is open to US-based businesses selling new products. According to Facebook’s internal data from 2019, one out of three Facebook users also utilize Facebook Marketplace, which means there is a major B2C opportunity for US retailers. Here are four reasons why sellers should get a jump on Facebook Marketplace.
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Facebook Adds New AR Tools for Creators, Including Music-Activated Effects
Facebook has announced some new AR tools for its Spark AR Studio, in which creators can build their own digital effects for use in Facebook and Instagram Stories. First off, Facebook’s adding new music responsive functionality for Instagram effects, which enables the creation of digital overlays that change in time with audio cues.
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Marketing
Google Adds New Tools to Help Businesses Call for Support and Promote Online Options During COVID-19
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Google is Coming for Facebook Budgets with Discovery Ads, Now Available Globally
Google introduced two big image-driven ad tests at its Google Marketing Live event last year. Gallery ads for Search campaigns didn’t make it and are set to shuffle off this summer, but Discovery ads have emerged from testing and are now available to all advertisers globally. Discovery campaigns quietly rolled out last month, and Google made the news official Wednesday. Discovery ads are eligible to serve across the YouTube Home and Watch Next feeds, Discover feed on the Google Search app and in Gmail Promotion and Social tabs and open up new avenues for both Google and advertisers.
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How Marketing Can Adapt To A World Without Cookies: 15 Strategies From Experts
Very recently (and much to many webmasters’ disappointment), Google announced that it would cease to use cookies. Marketers around the world reeled from this announcement. In essence, it meant that several marketing strategies needed to change, some more drastically than others. Some methodologies would require an entire overhaul to deal with this “new normal” that looms on the horizon. However, how these techniques will evolve is still a matter of hot debate. We asked 15 experts from Forbes Agency Council how they envisioned marketing mechanics developing to deal with the new state of normal. This is what they had to say.
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Daily Minute Master Series – May 27, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
New Report Suggests Facebook Ignored Research Which Indicated That it Contributed to Societal Division
Has Facebook made use more divided, and more likely to ‘take sides’ in political debate? It certainly seems that way, with ‘us against them’ tribalism now a part of almost every major discussion – even medical advice has seemingly become a point of political contention in the modern age. Of course, such division has always existed, at least to some degree – but has Facebook, and social media more broadly, made it worse than ever before? Could our minds really be changed by the content displayed in our News Feeds?
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Facebook Messenger Rooms Can Now Be Created From Instagram
Facebook Messenger Rooms, a new video chat option for up to 50 people, can now be launched from the Instagram Direct inbox. Messenger Rooms were just launched last month as part of Facebook’s rapid expansion of video capabilities. Designed for spontaneous web-based hangouts, Messenger Rooms can be created and shared for anyone to join. Unlike regular video calls, which require a direct invite, Messenger Rooms can be joined by clicking a shared link. That’s what makes them more casual than other video chat options. Up to 50 users can join a Messenger Room at the same time. Users can drop in and out as the call goes on, which means a Room could potentially have hundreds of people go through it.
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A CEO’s Responsibility To Join The World Of Social Media
Even though social media can and should be part of a strategic marketing plan, often social media is left out of strategic discussions or left untied to business goals. Additionally, in some organizations, what little strategy they have created is relegated to an intern, a nephew of the business owner or a recent college graduate with little experience.
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Marketing
Google Assistant’s ‘Confirm with Voice Match’ Gives New Meaning to ‘Contactless Payments’
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Working From Home’s Impact On Marketing Strategy And Messaging
This year, a large number of people have had to adapt to, what is for many, an entirely new work atmosphere: working from home. A lot of articles have been written about the impacts sudden remote work is having on individuals, the companies they work for and our society in general. However, I haven’t seen as many discussions about how this changing work environment is affecting consumer behavior and how marketers should adapt their strategies and messaging to compensate in both the near and long term. While we don’t know how much longer many of us will continue working from home, even after restrictions are lifted, it is safe to assume that some companies may adopt a more open-minded approach to having people work from home in the future. So, for some people, this may indeed be the new normal for the long term. Here are a few work-from-home impacts for marketers to consider when thinking about strategy and messaging now and in the future.
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The Future of Movie Theaters Might Look a Lot Like an Apple Store
It’s no big secret that the movie theater industry is facing an existential crisis, with serious challenges coming from streaming platforms developed by technology giants like Apple, Netflix, and Amazon, and now a pandemic that’s forced cinemas to shutter around the globe. Weighing the future of movie theaters has become a favorite guessing game for media analysts. Last Friday, the New York Times asked: “Movie Theaters Are on the Brink. Can Wine and Cheese Save Them?” Maybe not. But there’s reason to believe that the very tech companies threatening the industry could breathe new life into movie theaters.
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t2 Releases Communications Toolkit for Healthcare Providers for Covid-19 and Beyond
/by Susan Rakitat2 Launches New Healthcare Communications Toolkit
t2Marketing International (www.t2marketinginternational.com) has developed a free communications toolkit for healthcare providers designed to respond to communications challenges during the current healthcare crisis, and serve as a foundation for more effective, streamlined communications moving forward.
For many healthcare providers, particularly long-term care facilities, digital communication has not been considered a priority. Current circumstances, however, have put a spotlight on communication weaknesses, which have created a crisis within a crisis. Many of these facilities are missing the most fundamental of communications touchpoints, and families have been struggling to get even the most basic updates on the condition of their loved ones.
Many large healthcare institutions that have robust communications departments have faced challenges as well. In some cases, marketing personnel have been furloughed, laid off, or re-assigned, with communications tasks re-allocated to people with little or no experience in best practices. The results, in some instances, have been disastrous.
This eBook was created from years of experience working with hospitals, long term care facilities, healthcare organizations, and associations, many of whom have found managing communications overwhelming at this time. It provides a step-by-step guide for structuring, implementing, and troubleshooting key communications initiatives and programs to better serve their communities during this crisis and beyond.
To download our new eBook, you can visit this page.
Daily Minute Master Series – May 26, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Yamaha Debuts New Social Media Remote Cheering System In Japan
Yamaha tested a new way for sports fans to win the game against COVID-19 recently — unveiling a remote cheering system that could make stadium and arena seats sound alive even when they’re empty due to social distancing rules. The world knew the COVID-19 crisis was very real and unavoidable when the multi-billion dollar realm of professional sports shut down. Soon, fans saw a spring without the NBA or Major League Baseball. Today, they still face an autumn without football or the World Series.
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Facebook Launches 15 New Blueprint Courses to Help Businesses Maximize Their Online Opportunities
With more businesses looking to maximize their online opportunities amid the COVID-19 lockdowns, Facebook has this week released fifteen new, free Blueprint courses, covering a range of key elements. As explained by Facebook:
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Facebook Launches New App Called ‘CatchUp’ to Facilitate Group Phone Chats
Facebook’s experimental NPE team has released its sixth new app, this time focused on facilitating phone calls between friends who are up for a chat. Called CatchUp, the new app is essentially Messenger Rooms for voice calls, providing the capacity to see when your friends are online and up for a voice call, as well as in-progress group chats that you can join.
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Marketing
Rising Product Search Trends Amid COVID-19 [Infographic]
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How Ecommerce Businesses Can Do More with Less Shopping Ad Budget
Are you running Google Ads campaigns for your ecommerce store? Online retailers spend a full 76% of paid search budget on Shopping Ads. Yet, studies have shown that nearly half that spend is wasted. One simple change may be all it takes to eliminate ad spend wastage in your Google Shopping campaigns.
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How Yamaha Changed Its Tune with Its Digital Transformation Strategy
Yamaha Corp., the music side of the Yamaha brand, has been through more change during the last year and a half than it has experienced its entire 138 year history, according to the company’s marketing technology strategy manager Athan Billias. Billias has played an integral role in ushering in Yamaha’s digital transformation efforts during the last 18 months. He says digital transformation is really about changing your mindset to be truly customer-centric — changing how you think about marketing in a very fundamental way.
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Daily Minute Master Series – May 22, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Pinterest Publishes New Guide to Standout Video Techniques
This may be my favorite digital content overview of 2020 thus far. This week, Pinterest has published a new guide to creating standout video content in Pins, which includes a range of tips and examples, and will definitely help to get you thinking about your visual presentation options. The guide, which you can download here, provides an overview of 10 video techniques to consider, then digs into each with specific pointers on how to make them work.
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Facebook Adds Post Creation Capacity to Creator Studio App
Hey, remember how, back in February, Facebook launched a new Creator Studio app which was designed to make it easier to manage your Facebook and Instagram posts on the go, and get more insights on content performance? It’s probably hard to forget, given that if you schedule anything through your Facebook Page on desktop, you now have to do so through Creator Studio.
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Twitter to Let Users Choose Who Can Reply to Tweets
Twitter is officially testing a new feature that allows users to prohibit entire groups of people from replying to individual tweets. Unlike some test features that are rolled out unannounced, Twitter is actively encouraging people to try this one.
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Reddit Launches New, 12-Week Online Advertising School Program
Reddit is hosting a new, online advertising school program, which will enable participants to learn from industry professionals, and submit work for assessment by the broader Reddit advertising community. Reddit’s Ad School will cover a range of key elements, including copywriting, PR and social media marketing.
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Marketing
Google Launches New Podcast Promising Undocumented Information
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Marketers Still Struggle to Build a Unified Source of Data
Marketing organizations are being tested like never before. Many businesses are being forced to reconsider every aspect of their business model, pushing marketers to realign their strategies while in motion. All the while, marketing organizations, and the marketing operations teams who support them, are trying to get a handle on their data to avoid making disastrous moves. “We know that our world oscillates from periods of certainty to periods of uncertainty — marketers need to be able to navigate both sides of this coin,” said Emily Hoffman, product marketing manager for Datorama. She and Datorama client Josh Alvernia, CEO of the marketing services company Clue, joined up for a presentation during Discover MarTech last month to dig into the challenges marketers face when it comes to managing and implementing data — and the need, especially now, to tie together your data with so much uncertainty around business strategies.
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Navigate Uncertainty With An Effective Marketing Measurement Strategy
During these times of uncertainty, marketers need to clearly understand their changing business circumstances and the evolving needs and preferences of their customers. As marketers, we can navigate through these times by creating a marketing measurement strategy based on a strong foundation of data. At Datorama, a Salesforce company, for instance, our marketing intelligence platform is built to give marketers a single system of record to connect, analyze and visualize all of their marketing data, but that’s only half of the equation. With marketing intelligence at the forefront, marketers need to create an effective marketing measurement strategy to inform data-driven decisions to benefit the company and its customers.
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What Does This All Mean for Influencer Marketing?
/by Corey PadveenIs this the end of Influencer Marketing as we know it?
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the influencer marketing industry was projected to grow to approximately $9.7B in 2020. In addition, the number of influencer marketing-focused platforms and agencies has gone from under 200 in 2015 to over 1,100 in 2019.
And then the world changed.
Stories abound across the web about influencers who were, until recently, actively generating tens of thousands of dollars in revenue from major brand sponsorships and partnerships, all of which have gone stone-cold silent. The vast majority of influencer connected events and campaigns have been postponed long term or canceled outright as brands turn their focus to survival, cost-cutting, and government subsidies.
Many influencers have adapted in order to remain engaged with their audiences. Travel bloggers are posting recipes, fashion YouTubers now offer social distancing tips and food Instagrammers have pivoted to sharing insights on how to keep your kids entertained at home.
But this is just the beginning of what may well be a paradigm shift in influencer marketing as we know it.
What’s doing well right now? Live streaming services like Twitch and some interactive fitness influencers offering live workout sessions. TikTok has also seen a significant rise in downloads and engagement is up across all social platforms, which makes perfect sense since everyone is home. Essentially, anything that helps pass the time at home and keep the kids occupied is doing well from an engagement perspective but does that mean people are buying? And does it indicate that influencers are making a living?
The Impact on Influencers
Large scale influencers are being relied upon for PSA’s. Finland has become the first country to deem influencers as essential workers in order to help the dissemination of critical information during the pandemic. The thinking is that influencers are just as important as mainstream media when it comes to getting highly important messages in front of a public audience.
Overall, you can start to see a trend developing here. Influencers are sharing information of public interest or content that is entertaining in order to help people stay engaged but, under the circumstances, the vast majority of influencers aren’t generating income right now nor is there any expectation that this will change in the near future. For some, it may never go back to what was ‘normal’ and if it does, many influencers such as those specializing in hospitality, travel, and events may be forced to consider finding other ways to generate revenue streams.
All in all, staying relevant and top of mind through any form of content sharing may be important for influencers in the short term but eventually, the bills need to be paid.
Time to Reinvent?
The reinvention of oneself as an influencer may be easier said than done. For many who are involved in the industry, blogging and influencer marketing is all they know. This is their livelihood. This is still a relatively new industry that until a few years ago did not exist. It is comprised of hard-working people who have known no other career or in the case of certain verticals such as travel, we have seen hobby bloggers successfully turn a passion into a career of influencer marketing.
If you’re a food blogger who has been setting off to destinations as part of your everyday work, you are now asking yourself what comes next?
If there is an opportunity here, it lies in your ability as an influencer to evaluate the current situation in order to determine whether or not the steps you are taking today are going to create long term viability and sustainability for your personal brand. And perhaps the question you need to start by asking is whether you are actually a brand in the traditional sense or you are running an influencer business. That question may help influencers determine if they truly have staying power once this all passes.
Brands sustain themselves throughout difficult times because they have recognition and history. They deliver value, address problems or satisfy needs. Influencer marketing has created a different inflection for the term ‘brand’. The moment a writer launches a journey to become an influencer they talk about their ‘brand’. But are you really a brand to your clients or are you a service provider at a specific point in time?
There is only one Coke, one McDonald’s, One Disney. Yes, there are alternatives to these product brands but when it comes to influencers, there are many fashion, beauty and wellness bloggers. As things return to normal, many influencers will find out if they are truly an indispensable brand in the eyes of their partners.
The Impact on the Industry
There are dozens of influencer marketing platforms ranging from free models with limited search capabilities to enterprise offerings with extensive search, outreach and program management capabilities.
During the last economic downturn in 2008, a large number of martech platforms ceased to exist or were forced to enter into mergers with competitors in order to survive. A repeat of these events will likely be expedited in the influencer martech space given the speed and magnitude with which the industry has been devastated.
The numbers tell the story. If, for example, there were 10,000 ongoing influencer campaigns spread across 1,000 agencies and platforms and now there are 1,000 or, to be generous, even 3,000 campaigns, some agencies and platforms will be left behind. Which ones survive will be dictated by a combination of factors such as the strength of their management team, cash reserves and access to capital (maintaining and managing tech platforms requires personnel and resources), the size of their influencer database (a valued asset for potential suitors assuming these same influencers can weather the storm), the nature of their clients (to what degree have they impacted by the shutdown and how fast can they recover), the speed with which theses agencies and platforms can adapt to the current environment (if at all possible), and the ability to identify alternative sources of revenues and service offerings during this period.
In the weeks and months ahead, look for platforms to disappear and merge. Mergers will ultimately lead to even better technologies and an evolution of the industry.
The Takeaway
If there’s one thing right now that’s certain about the influencer industry it’s that the future is uncertain. The road ahead will be very rocky and the short term will be painful in the best of scenarios.
For influencers who understand that the industry may be forever changed, you can start to plan for the pending landscape and reevaluate the services you offer your clients and the ways in which you offer those services. Consider partnering with other influencers to mitigate challenges and risks and start thinking outside your comfort zone if you want to reinvent yourself and evolve beyond your traditional expertise.
For those operating on the tech side of the industry, be prepared to challenge for a smaller piece of real estate. With fewer opportunities expected in the vertical, now may be the time to also consider strategic partnerships and a more thorough vetting of your influencer database in order to provide industry-leading quality to your customers.
The industry has changed. Be prepared to do likewise.
Daily Minute Master Series – May 21, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
Americans Use Social Media for COVID-19 Info, Connection
Social media platforms have become saturated with coronavirus-related news, with 46% of social media users saying “almost all” or “most” of what they see is about the coronavirus situation and an additional 37% saying “about half” is. These results are from an April 14-20 Gallup/Knight Foundation survey focused on the coronavirus situation, part of Knight Foundation’s Trust, Media and Democracy initiative. Over two-thirds of social media users say coronavirus-related posts that they see from public officials (70%) and news organizations (68%) are “very” or “moderately” helpful. Fifty-seven percent say the same about posts from family members and friends, while fewer say so about posts from neighbors (43%).
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Facebook Announces ‘Shops’ for Facebook and Instagram
After years of working around the edges, and trying to find ways to make a bigger dip into eCommerce, the COVID-19 pandemic has finally given Facebook the push is needs to take the next major step. Today, Facebook has launched ‘Shops‘ on both Facebook and Instagram.
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Facebook Clarifies Guidelines Around Music Usage in Video Posts
Facebook is looking to clarify its rules around how creators are allowed to use music in their content, while it’s also adding a new indicator in Facebook and Instagram live-streams to help people avoid potential copyright issues. As explained by Facebook:
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Marketing
How Businesses Embrace Digital Marketing to Survive the Pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses are using digital technology and marketing to survive these “interesting times.” Here’s how.
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How to Build a Digital Foundation to Transform Your Customer Experience
Before COVID-19, many organizations prioritized short-term digital projects instead of a comprehensive investment in digital transformation. But the pandemic revealed how critical long-term strategies are and why business leaders have an imperative to invest in the future. Within the current environment, organizations must establish a digital foundation to quickly pivot when needed. The B2B business unit responsible for servicing restaurants at Tyson Foods followed Lima Consulting Group’s Digital Transformation Model to gain the consensus they needed to align the enterprise just in time to support the dramatic pivot caused by COVID-19.
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McKinsey On Marketing In The Age Of COVID-19
Talk with the people at McKinsey about what marketers should be doing right now and you’ll hear about what they call a “three-horizon approach.”
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Daily Minute Master Series – May 20, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
YouTube Select: YouTube’s New Premium Advertising Program Adds Connected TV Targeting
YouTube has relaunched its premium advertising program, now called YouTube Select. The company made the announcement ahead of its Brandcast upfront presentation to advertisers next month. YouTube Select rolls up the program formerly known as Google Preferred and connected TV viewing into a global offering. Google Preferred allowed advertisers in select markets to target the top 5% of video content in certain categories and was largely focused on the U.S., though it was also available in Canada, the UK and Australia.
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Facebook Tests New ‘Engagement Alerts’ for Groups to Help Highlight Key Topics and Discussions
Facebook is testing out a new option that would enable group admins to set up specific alerts for posts that are seeing increased engagement within their communities.
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Pinterest Adds New ‘Shopping Spotlights’ to Highlight Product Recommendations from Fashion Influencers
Pinterest is rolling out a new product recommendation tool called Shopping Spotlights, which will showcase selections of Pin products as chosen by fashion influencers and publishers.
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LinkedIn Publishes its Latest ‘State of Sales’ Report, Looking at Emerging Sales and Consumer Trends
LinkedIn has today launched its fourth annual State of Sales report, which looks at key market trends and shifts, based on surveys of over buyers and sellers across the US. And based on the topline findings, it’s clear that COVID-19 has significantly altered the current sales landscape.
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Marketing
How Can I Recover My Lost SEO Keywords & Organic Traffic?
If your rankings dropped, or you cannot find the keywords driving traffic to your pages in Google Analytics, this post walks you through fixing both.
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Why Brands Should Consider Audio Marketing as Consumers Settle into Life at Home
While consumers are settling into their new routines of life at home, consumption habits are shifting dramatically across digital mediums. For the first time in history, we are seeing a decline in live TV viewership during a crisis. Typically, natural disasters or public crises are a driving force behind rising time spent with live TV, but not in this instance. In its place, consumers are turning to mobile now more than ever to stay connected and informed through social media, radio, and podcasts. Nielsen estimates that Americans are spending just shy of 12 hours each day with media platforms. With hundreds of millions sheltering at home, listening behaviors are beginning to change.
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5 Ways To Adapt Your Marketing During A Recession
Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room: we’re living in tough times. Some days, it feels hard to get out of bed, let alone think about your business. But now may also be a good time to rethink how you’re reaching your customers — and use one of today’s most underrated marketing channels: email. Yes, email still works. In fact, recent studies show that brands typically see an average return of $42 dollars for each dollar they spend on email marketing. With that mind, I recently went down a rabbit hole of research and spoke with an email marketing expert — Joshua Chin, founder and CEO of Chronos Agency — to learn more. He shared five tips to build an email list and help your business during these surreal times.
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Daily Minute Master Series – May 19, 2020
/by Corey PadveenSocial Media
New App AllSocial Looks To Restore The Promises Of Social Media Giants
The creators of a new, grassroots social media app want to remind users that the current big name platforms such as Facebook and Twitter often push less than 5% of their chosen content to friends and followers. That means, on the other end of the equation, that user is only seeing a fraction of the posts from the people and pages they follow. To return social media to a concept of friends, families and followers, the new app AllSocial is a platform promising to operate without algorithms limiting the reach of content. The service will not filter or highlight content based on any particular promotional deal, ideology or interest.
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Twitter Updates Tweet Embeds, Including New Presentation Style
This is a relatively small update, but relevant to note either way. Today, on the Twitter Developer Forums, Twitter has announced a change to the way tweet embeds will be displayed on websites, which could cause some presentation impacts.
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Facebook Publishes New Report on the Impact of COVID-19 on Small Businesses
Of all the sectors impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, SMBs look set to be among the hardest hit. Small to medium businesses generally operate at very tight margins as it is, and they don’t have the same safety nets that larger corporations are able to fall back on. As a result, predictions suggest that up to 7.5 million small businesses in America are at risk of shuttering permanently in the coming months unless they’re able to find a way to recoup costs, and get back to some level of regular operation.
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Marketing
Google Lists 5 Key Trends Shaping Consumer Behavior Amid COVID-19
Google has published a new set of research designed to help marketers respond to the changes brought on by COVID-19. Over four billion people are staying home worldwide as of this week, Google says, which has lead to significant shifts in online behavior.
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Google Ads Shortens Business Identity Verification Time
Google Ads has updated their policy on their identity verification program, shortening the time frame businesses have to submit documentation. Announced late last month, Google will be requiring verification of identity for all brands who advertise on their platform.
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Marketing’s New Challenge: Moving to the Next Normal
How do you market to both audiences without disenfranchising one of them? And, in this world where people take to social media within seconds of feeling offended, how do you avoid accusations that you’re pandering to one group or another? This is becoming more important now that businesses that shut down all or part of their operations are beginning to look at the best ways to reopen them. In communicating how you’re going to approach reopening or ramping up your business, you have to consider this deep polarization.
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