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Valeria Morris, the author of We’re All Ears, is joining me in this podcast as we dig in the topic of what influencer marketing is all about. Keep listening and learn how Valerie defines influencer marketing, what makes an influencer, and why this has become the trend in today’s marketing industry.
Welcome back. Today we’re talking about influencer marketing. I’ve got Valerie Morris here. Why do I have Valerie? She is the author of Influence. You wrote this book. And when I saw this book, instantly I knew I had a good friend. We’re going to talk about influencer marketing and what it is. So, I’m just going to start out throwing that question at you because I have my own definition. But how would you define influencer marketing? -Well, gosh. So, influencer marketing. It has really become this explosive concept in digital marketing. It really wasn’t a thing 10-15 years ago. And it’s become a really big thing. In fact, law makers are starting to actually start paying attention because influencers have so much power. And really it all stems around real people influencing their network to buy or do or invest their time and money in certain things. And it’s all because they have built this relationship around a certain type of niche topic or industry. And they all feel like they’re this tribe and they’re following the influencer. And so when the influencer says, “Hey, I love these shoes. You might too.” They get a huge influx of people who want to buy those shoes just because this one person did. So influencer marketing really has exploded and it’s all because of social media. Prior social media, it was very hard for people to have that kind of influence. And something that they built themselves. -When you mentioned the word power, you talked about influencer really as a power there. It’s been around for a while but the term influencer marketing hasn’t. -Right. -Well, I mean there’s been celebrity endorsements or something. Maybe is what we called it in the past. So, you brought that the key today is social media. So, what’s the biggest difference today than you know in in the past this celebrity promotion. -Yes. So, in the past, prior to social media, it really was on if you had those deals, if you had the the popularity, if you had the contracts, if you had made the team. You know, Michael Jordan was a great spokesperson for Nike but he had the Athletic ability to get on the team first for people to even know who he was. Today, anyone can set up shop on social media. Build their prep platform, build their influence and build this audience around them. And then from there, you have the ability to influence a ton of different people. So, influencer marketing really from my perspective has only been around because of social media. Because of the ability for anyone to build up their network regardless of if someone decides to give them a book deal or sign them to a team or to make them some famous actor. Really is open to anyone that wants to do the work, build the authority, build the audience and go out there and make a difference. -Okay. So, a question I’ve got on I’m sure question then viewers have is how big you have to be then? How many followers… Let’s say we’re talking about YouTube. So you want to be a YouTube influencer. Do influencer marketing… Where does that start? -You know, so there’s different terms in influencer marketing. One of the big terms is micro influencer. And that really… I mean you can be… You can have just a few thousand followers as long as they are hyper targeted and interested in your specific topic. So, even if your network is smaller and you don’t have tens of thousands of followers or even hundreds of thousands of followers, you can get that influence, you can get that influencer status. And get different promotions for sponsorships or advertising deals. Different ways to earn an income, you know, you’re the expert on YouTube. You know, you might have some impact on what does it take to get to that point on YouTube to be able to monetize it as an influencer. But really, as an influencer, you can build your network to be whatever it needs to be as long as you’re being strategic about how you’re building the system for people to actually plug their credit card and do something about it. So, I’ve seen people that have brand new channels, brand-new platforms that are being very targeted with who they’re reaching and they have influence over those people. And they are out making some great deals getting promotions, getting sponsorships for their podcasts. There’s so many different angles you can go at. The number to me isn’t nearly as important as it is the quality of who is in that number. You know, you really need to have people who care about your topic if you’re really going to want them to to take some action. -One great advantage that I see to influencer marketing today compared to… I’ll just use your example of Michael Jordan. Michael Michael Jordan is a big name. Nike is a big brand. Well now you can have smaller name with a smaller brand. -Yes. -And so smaller brands couldn’t do this type of marketing in the past because they can’t… They couldn’t reach celebrities like Michael Jordan. But if you’ve got somebody say like a mommy blogger or vlogger. -Yeah. -And they feature their dog, let’s say in a lot of their episodes. Well, a local dog food company might be able to approach them and say, “Hey, I’ve got a few hundred bucks. Would you mind showcasing this dog food? Or this doggy sweater or something like that?”Iit’s pretty cool. -It is really cool. And you know, it’s interesting because a lot of smaller and more local based businesses haven’t really brought on the concept. They haven’t embraced the concept of influencer marketing just yet because it is such a new way to think. It was unattainable in the past to do this kind of thing. But now, yeah you’re right. You can get in from the right people, in the right location if you’re willing to think that way. And I’ve seen it do some amazing things just with local businesses. And again, a lot of people that are just starting off and wanting to make money doing influencer marketing on the blogger side. They can reach out to those smaller businesses who are much more likely to take that first leap of faith. Because it’s not tens of thousands of dollars that they’re putting their faith into some new bloggers on. So, as far as like audience size, you really can make a difference. It just depends on who you’re playing with as far as those kinds of relationships go. -So, do you have any tips for either small business owners or for smaller channels as far as how to get started? Let’s start with the business owners. How could small business owners start and reach out to these smaller influencers? -Well, I think one of the biggest things that small local businesses need to do is be paying attention to who the voices are in the market. They need to do their own research to find out who they should be targeting. And it’s not something that you take a look at just over one weekend. You really want to take a look and see over time, is this person consistent? What are they doing? And sometimes, if they aren’t doing influencer marketing already, they might be really open to it but they might have been nervous to take that first step. So sometimes, if you are the business reaching out, you can get some really great deals by reaching out to someone that isn’t even aware that they have so much influence over the local network and make a big impact. From the bloggers side, the biggest piece of advice I can give people is to provide value. Like give way more than you are ever planning on initially. Just give, give, give. The more you’re offering up to a business, the more beneficial it’s going to be for them. And it’s okay to keep your rates low at the beginning as far as influencer marketing goes. That’s okay. Especially if it’s your first couple of deals. Because you’re going to get a feel for how much is involved on your end, how much they’re getting. If they provided that, if they felt like they got value. And if they feel like they’ve got value from the experience, they’re likely to continue doing it in the future. Plus, they are going to be a great reference for you if you go out to get other sponsorships. And so, you can always increase your rates later. Those first few don’t worry about the price so much as getting the experience. -So, I like that. So, if you go a low fee, then you you over-deliver. So they’re really happy. They’re going to return to you and they’re going to be a case study. You could show, “Hey, look what we did for this.” I like that. -Yeah. Always be thinking through like it’s not… The stuff that you get from the experience is not always money in your paycheck or money in your bank. It’s your… You can get a lot more out of the experience than just those dollar signs. And it can be really beneficial for your influencer marketing strategy at large. -So, can I share a bonus with you? -Sure. -And for you guys. So, maybe you’ve heard of this website. But this would be for business owners that a lot of business owners probably don’t even know this exists. There’s a website… I’ll bring it up. The website I’m bringing up is called channelcrawler.com. Have you heard of this? -I’ve heard some things about it. I’ve never really used it though. -So, I’m going tO come over here to keywords and let’s type in dog food. Or just dogs. I’ll type in dog food. And for subscribers, I’m going to say a minimum of 1000, maximum 10,000. So, I’m not going after a huge, huge channels. Let’s just see what we find. Okay, so we’ve got 64 channels here that have between 1,000 and 10,000 subscribers. So a business owner could comb through these. Some of them are going to be relevant. Some are not going to be relevant at all. -Right. -But you’ll find ones that they… Actually, you know, why did these come up for dog food? I have no idea. But it’s a tool that can help. Because a lot of times as a business owner, like well yeah. I’d love to be able to find a channel that’s maybe at 5,000 subscribers and see if they’ll take $100 or $500. You know?Just… But… Right. So, you know… Anyway, that’s a tool that I have found to be helpful for things like that. -That’s great. -Now, in the notes, you had mentioned something about brand ambassadors in relation to influencer marketing. What’s a brand ambassador? -So, brand ambassador is really just someone who is kind of… They’re kind of like a spokesperson. I mean you can think about it kind of like Michael Jordan with Nike, He is a brand ambassador for Nike and he is really… You know, representative and really pushing that brand strategically. And when it comes to influencer marketing, when you’re a brand spokesperson, you or brand ambassador, you are being strategic about how do I bring this brand into the normal Instagram footage that I’m making? The normal video vlogging that I’m doing? How do I bring this brand into it where it’s going to be natural but it’s also going to be strategically focused around that content? And so, influencer marketing is all about throwing that brand in there, right? So, you’re not going to be… You’re not going to get money from a brand for talking about their dog food when you never even mention the dog food. You have to put it in there strategically. So, a lot of times you’re doing things specifically and you’re doing things intentionally to highlight and feature that brand. -Well, it’s in my mind, when you talk about that, it makes me think that I’m not just doing a sponsorship or some brand deal. But I want to be a brand ambassador because that’s going to be a long term relationship. -Yeah. -I can think of a lot. And all the ones that stand out is like really good. Like well… Maybe I’ll rephrase it the other way. That’s the… That are not salesy because I would never want to come across that way. -Yeah. -But I can think of somebody that represents Tesla. I think of somebody that represents Taco Bell. And it’s like… That’s not a part of their brand. They’ve written that guy really eats a Taco Bell like every day. -Yeah. -You know? So, that’s awesome. -Well and it’s got to be in line with your personality. If you really don’t care about you know, earth-friendly sustainably sourced dog food that’s going to be healthy for a dog, you don’t really care about animals that much. It’s just not who you are, being a dog food brand ambassador is probably not the best option for you. -They’re probably not one for me then. -Yeah. You got to find… Like, you got to find the dog lovers who just love their dog so much so they would you know, run in front of a car to save their dog. Those are the kinds of people that really do the best on influencer marketing because you can see the authenticity come through. -Well thanks so much. I really appreciate you sharing your expertise. For those who haven’t heard of this book yet, we’re all ears. Definitely check it out. Where can they find it? -It’s all on Amazon. Go on Amazon ebook and print. -Be sure you’re a subscriber and we’ll see you tomorrow.