[VIDEO] Influencer Marketing & Micro-Influencers: Biggest Mistake Marketing Teams Are Making

In this episode, Jasmeet Sawhney talks about the biggest mistake marketing teams are making in Influencer Marketing. Specifically, when marketing is trying to discover and engage with micro-influencers. Most marketing teams fail to leverage an invested group of people who are already talking about your brand, products, and services. Jasmeet also provides another tip on discovering outside influencers. Watch the video for more..

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Hey Guys! So, today we are going to talk about micro-influencers, and what is the biggest mistake marketing teams are making in engaging with micro-influencers? So, here’s a typical scenario – a marketing team is tasked with finding micro-influencers to spread the message of the brand, to promote its products and services. And, what do they do? They would start looking outside immediately. They would look for thought leaders on social media, people who have big following, people who are influential bloggers, who are speaking at conferences, analysts. So, they start looking outside immediately. And, they would ignore a committed set of people who are already either invested in the company, or, are already talking about your company on web and social media.

And, who’s that committed group? It could be your employees – a lot of B2B companies, specifically, have highly influential employees, and marketing teams simply fail to leverage these employees. You may have partners, distributors, who are, influencers in your industry. You have clients who have a say in your industry, and they are already committed to your company, they are already using your products and services, they already believe in you. Then you have an audience. You have followers on social media, whether it’s on Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook. These are the people who are already talking about your products, your services, they already believe in your company. They are sharing your messages, they like your messages, and some percentage of this audience is probably influential. Maybe just 5%. But, guys, you have to first find these people who are already invested in your company, who already believe in your company, whether it’s your employees, clients, followers, who are already influential, and leverage them in your marketing, in your micro-influencer programs.

Build a strong relationship first, and provide them the right assets and tools, and messages that you want your customers to hear from them. Because they are already promoting your content, they are already talking about you, so why not provide them with the right messages. Right. So, guys, stop making the mistake of ignoring this invested group of people, and stop looking outside immediately when you start your micro-influencer program.

Now, here’s another tip – since, we are talking about discovering micro-influencers. Most of the people would start creating a list. They would go on the web with keywords, they’ll do searches on Google and Twitter, and come up with a list of let’s say top 50 influencers in their industry. And, let’s say you are focusing on Data Analytics. But, really, you are not really focusing on Data Analytics, you are probably focusing on a niche. And, you create a list of 50 influencers in Data Analytics – that’s not going to be useful. Because if you are focusing on a niche area, which you likely are, whether it’s one area or five areas, let’s say you are focusing on, maybe, Marketing Mix Optimization, or Cloud Analytics, you are finding influencers in a broad area, and your customers are probably not listening to them.

So, you have to start with your customers, see who they are engaging with, what kind of content they find interesting, who are the bloggers they follow, who are the people they find influential, and start creating a list from there. And, once you start creating that list, you would notice a pattern. Because across multiple customers, there is a high chance you’ll find they are following same influencers, and that’s the best outside list to start with.

So, guys, those are my two cents on some of the mistakes marketing teams are making when they are looking for micro-influencers. I would love to hear your thoughts, please share them in the comments, and thanks for watching!