Why You Need to Get on the Influencer Marketing Bandwagon Now

Traditional PR is dead.

That's one of the key learnings from my Inbound PR talk at INBOUND16.

The old way of mass mailing press releases to journalists to write good things about your brand and getting some positive coverage is gone. It's outbound and it doesn't work. (Although it still happens. Sad face.)

I'm not saying that PR isn't relevant anymore. Far from it. It's become even more important in a digital economy where basically everybody can have a massive voice and influence other people's decisions.

So you still need Earned media but getting it today is different than some 10-20 years ago.

Here's where influencer marketing comes in - it's the latest buzzword and for me, it's just modern PR done right with influencers that are not just journalists but bloggers, YouTubers, Instagrammers etc.

But is it right for you? I'd say yes.

Influencer marketing is right for any business that wants to generate WOM and have others share positive experiences with the brand, products or services.

How do you figure out if that's for you? I have a really nice infographic from Shane Barker to help here.

People always love data and need benchmarks. They need to know it works for others before they try it and they often come up with excuses like "well, we are in another industry, it's different." You are dead wrong if you say this. You are missing out on too much opportunity if you are stuck behind old beliefs and scared of trying new things out.

Still, the infographic below will give you some stats to at least get you to consider this whole influencer marketing thing if you are critical. Take a look at these three examples and here's an even fuller list of stats on influencer marketing:

69% of marketers consider influencer marketing effective.
93% say it's effective for brand awareness.
73% say it's effective for lead generation.

Moving forward from the stats, here's why else you should be investing in influencer marketing:

It's authentic, far more than an ad. It comes from a real person having experienced your brand!
It's much more cost-effective - think about the millions you spend on traditional advertising you can't even measure.
It can go viral - exponentially your audience is much bigger because experiences spread.

Now, what's interesting are the channels used for influencer marketing. No wonder Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat are at the top. If you are shying away from them, review your 2017 budget now and plan these in. There's no running away anymore. Your B2B and your B2C customers are on them, of any age. Seriously.

There's a lot more in the infographic like platforms to find influencers, challenges to be aware of etc. so I urge you to take a closer look and plan accordingly as you are setting your 2017 goals.