When you think about the people capable of influencing your customers and prospects, take a good long look at your sales channel partners. A channel partner’s sphere of influence can extend far beyond their own customers and territory. Put their influence to work for you by incorporating them into your influencer program. Success depends largely on choosing the right channel … Read More
Aiming influencers at sales objections
An influencer program can be a powerful asset in countering sales objections. Here are a few well-proven tips from our collection of case studies: 1. Compile and prioritize specific sales objections. Don’t accept generalities at the outset. You can generalize later. Start with clear, articulate objections. Get a good sense of frequency, too. 2. Identify external influencers who have both … Read More
A-listers, heroes and influencers
“My heroes have always been cowboys. And they still are, it seems. Sadly, in search of, but one step in back of, Themselves and their slow-movin’ dreams.” – Willie Nelson Promise yourself and your company that your 2009 influencer program will be much more accountable for results, and much less susceptible to A-listers and marketing heroes. Achieving greater accountability requires … Read More
Recessionary marketing: prepare for cuts in spend, jobs
The tech outlook keeps sliding in the wrong direction — IDC revising forecasts downward, NPD forecasting lighter holiday spend on consumer electronics, etc. — and sooner or later that means cuts in marketing spend and marketing jobs. In terms of marketing spend, adopting influencer relations should be a priority. Influencer identification and engagement can improve measurable results from marketing, despite … Read More
Defrag – a gathering of influencers
Everybody seems to have their own ideas about which events are best for influencer relations — meeting and engaging with influencers, becoming an influencer. This is especially true right now in the Web 2.0 / social software realm. One event that’s earned my respect over the last year is Defrag. Let me tell you why. Defrag has 4 of the … Read More
Influencer marketing – get the basic ideas
You can ramp up quickly on some basic influencer marketing concepts and strategies thanks to webmasterradio.fm. Co-hosts Brandy Shapiro-Babin and Jiyan Wei conducted a lively interview with Influencer50 founder and president Nick Hayes last week. They covered good ground — who is an influencer, how influence works, why it’s important, plus some basic influencer marketing strategies. The podcast is part … Read More
Does influence equal online popularity?
Today I saw 2 more threads in the ongoing debate over whether social media popularity is a good way to measure influence. First, my colleague Duncan Brown writes that Google is launching an AdWords-style SEM program across big social networks. As an online publisher, I can see how this Google program makes perfect sense for media buyers. It will play … Read More
Social media driving competition for purchase influence
Tom Smith’s guest post at Mashable makes the point that we now trust the opinions of strangers as much as we trust our close friends, thanks to social media. He’s highlighting findings from the Universal McCann study, “When did we start trusting strangers”. Don’t let yourself get lulled into thinking this phenomenon is taking place only in consumer markets. Social … Read More
Many ways to touch influencers
You would think that Chris Brogan, an impossibly wise and kind thought leader in social media circles, would never run into difficulties in engaging with influencers. Yet, he does. He shares a personal story about it, and how he succeeded, on this beautiful autumn morning. His story highlights one of the tenets of influencer marketing: human beings respond differently to … Read More
WOMMA invites comment on Influencer Marketing Handbook
Tarah Remington was in touch with Influencer50 today, with a heads up that the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) has released a draft of the WOMMA Influencer Handbook for public comment. The handbook is about best practices in the use of influencer marketing: “WOMMA believes influencer marketing is real and here to stay. It is not a myth, or … Read More