Influencer Marketing - Part I

Understanding Influencers

Even before the rise of digital media, marketers have used celebrities to promote their brands. For example, Nike has used superstar athletes like Michael Jordan and others for decades to promote its shoes. Typically, these celebrities are the best in their field, be it sports, music, film, or theater. And even though they may be users of some of the sponsor's products, they often are not experts on them.

For example, world-renowned tennis player Serena Williams has promoted Beats headphones, even though she is better known for her tennis prowess than her expertise in audio technology. But in the digital world, a new type of celebrity has emerged, who's more knowledgeable about products and how best to use them. These celebrities may not have the same level of international stardom as Michael Jordan or Serena Williams.

In fact, some of them may have a very small fan base, but they have a commonality in that they have amassed their followers on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, followers who look to them for advice on products and services. These social media experts are the influencers that drive engagement on nearly every major social media platform. These influencers are the new celebrity endorsers in the digital era.

For example, in China, Austen Lee is considered the king of lipstick. In 2021, he had forty-four million followers on TikTok. He tries thousands of lipsticks every year to offer valuable advice to his followers. In general, influencers have a significant following on social media and have the power to influence purchase decisions of their followers.

Some research studies show that 82% of people are highly likely to act upon the recommendation of an influencer. And 92% of consumers trust the recommendations of people they follow on social media more than they trust commercial messages from companies. The ubiquity of influencers has thus made influencer marketing an increasingly significant part of digital marketing strategy for companies.

We will learn more about influencer marketing from Maggie Malek and David Huang. As a brief reminder, we first met before; he is the founder and CEO of Perfect Diary, a beauty products company. David and Maggie will discuss several different types of influencers.

David explains Perfect Diary’s strategy behind partnering with influencers—or as the company refers to them, key opinion leaders (KOLs).

The fans are also getting more and more mature. They can identify and easily tell the difference between a professional KOL versus grassroots or what they believe are the nonprofessional KOLs. Right now, the market is getting even more and more fragmented.

There are some, what we call, the super-tier KOLs, who have over a hundred million followers on social media. Then we have the top tiers, like between fifteen to one hundred million, ten to fifteen million, below ten million, and below one million. So there are different layers of the KOL pyramid.

The way we work with them is for different tiers of KOLs—they play different roles. For the super top tiers, normally, they are like television. When you have a new product, you want to make everybody aware of it. They are quite efficient at capturing mass attention.

However, if we want to target a very specific group of consumers with a higher intent to try this product, we typically choose what we call vertical-focus KOLs. For example, beauty vertical-focus KOLs, who are experts in this industry, have tried many products and are very selective about the beauty products they promote in the market.

But the thing is, if you have ten thousand followers, you will have very high influential power for that specific ten thousand. For that group of people, they know you so well and probably have more interaction with you. That’s why grassroots KOLs, even with a very small fan base, have higher influential power.

If you look at super top-tier KOLs, even though they have tens of millions of fans, those fans are often following other KOLs as well. So the influence power decreases for those top-tier KOLs. That’s why we need to have a mix—reaching the top KOLs for mass coverage while leveraging vertical-focus KOLs to amplify their influence power.

The balance between the different layers is what makes the whole model work.

Here is Maggie on her strategy for using different tiers of influencers. Some of Maggie’s terminology differs from David’s but notice how they both aim to use differently tiered influencers strategically to target certain funnel stages.

We really push brands hard to think about strategy before influencers, before tools because that allows us to pick the right people for our campaign to truly drive awareness, consideration, or even sales.

If we're focusing on an engagement-driving or consideration-driving campaign, we lean more on micro or mid-tier influencers. We call them "the influencers next door." These are people who aren’t so famous that they lose credibility by doing brand deals with every brand out there. Instead, they’re earning a living for their family and often started by talking about topics they were genuinely passionate about, naturally building a loyal following.

Think about influencers as news sites. People go to them to learn about things they’re interested in. Micro and mid-tier influencers are particularly effective because they drive consideration for brands rather than just blasting out content to gain a lot of eyeballs that might not translate into action.

For a brand launch, our typical strategy is straightforward. We allocate 20% of the influencers to be macro-level for mass exposure and high visibility. Then, 50% of the influencers are mid-tier to engage a broader but still relatable audience. The remaining 30% is reserved for micro-influencers to bring authenticity and grassroots buzz to the campaign.

This approach mirrors traditional media strategies, where hearts and minds are changed through a multi-layered narrative. For instance, your neighbor might talk about a brand, then you see a commercial, followed by a news story. Influencer marketing works similarly.

If you see your favorite celebrity promoting a hair care product, then hear about it from an influencer in your neighborhood, see a Super Bowl commercial, and read a news story, you're more likely to trust that the product is legitimate. However, if you only see countless micro-influencers promoting it, you might question whether it’s a real product or if the brand simply paid a lot of small influencers to talk about it.

To truly break through, you need a surround-sound effect with credentialing at both the top and bottom of the funnel.

In their own ways, both David’s and Maggie’s comments emphasize that top-tier influencers are very good for getting lots of views, but micro- and mid-tier influencers help drive consideration and conversion further down the funnel.

As we’ve done previously, let’s apply this knowledge to OOFOS.

OOFOS has already made use of its mOOvers, which are high-profile public figures who have organically reached out to OOFOS to promote its shoes. The question remains: Does the company want to also recruit paid influencers who are not as high-profile? We will turn to this topic next.

OOFOS and Influencer Marketing

OOFOS has found success leveraging its mOOvers as influencers. Recall that these mOOvers were not sought out by OOFOS to promote the brand, but rather chose to endorse the brand themselves. Darren Brown and Kate Laliberte have stressed that this authenticity makes their endorsement especially compelling. In other instances, however, it may make sense for a company to actively seek out influencers to promote its brand and entice them through paid partnerships. We will now explore various approaches to working with influencers.

Here is Kate Laliberte on OOFOS’s strategy with regards to influencers.

We've talked about using influencers, but we are very conscious of who that influencer is and how we would use them. We’ve moved very slowly on this and haven’t fully embraced it yet because we feel like the mOOvers are more authentic. If we do decide to use an influencer, we have to make sure they share that same authenticity.

It’s crucial that the influencer isn’t someone who’s promoting four other shoe brands at the same time. That’s something very important to us—ensuring that anyone promoting our product is authentic. For example, when I look at podcasts today, almost every podcast features someone just reading a generic story about a product, and it feels like it’s just been handed to them.

We’ve been very conscious of making sure our stories feel authentic. That’s why we’re not launching ten new mOOvers a week. We’ve been bringing them on very intentionally, gradually, and authentically. These are people who have reached out to us saying, “I love your shoe. This is why I wear your shoe. I’m happy to tell others about it.”

If you look at the way the campaign was presented, recorded, and how the advertisements came out, it genuinely feels more authentic. It doesn’t feel like someone is just reading product copy for a brand their agent handed to them.

OOFOS has decided not to recruit paid influencers. Imagine you aim to convince the company to change its mind. Which type of influencer do you think OOFOS could use to increase its efficacy at each point in the marketing funnel? Consider what you learned from Maggie Malek and David Huang regarding the value of using different types and tiers of influencers at different funnel stages.

OOFOS has goals for awareness, consideration, and conversion, and influencer marketing can help at all stages.

To increase its awareness, OOFOS could recruit high-profile celebrity athlete influencers to get a lot of impressions, like what it’s already done with its mOOvers.

To increase its engagement, OOFOS could target specific mid-tier athlete influencers with dedicated followers, encouraging them to consider its product as followers share their reactions and experiences. Of course, OOFOS has already set excellent groundwork in this area through its mOOvers campaign.

For conversion, the company could work with micro influencers—perhaps local sports teams, podiatrists, or physical therapists. OOFOS could also solicit positive reviews from these influencers that would improve conversion and encourage people to buy its product.

If OOFOS were to change approach, how should it—or any business—go about building effective influencer partnerships? We will turn to this question next.

Effective Influencer Partnerships

Maggie Malek will explain the importance of choosing an influencer that aligns with your goals and who is suited to your brand’s audience.

So at MMI, we are very much social influencer and social network agnostic. When brands come to MMI wanting to do an influencer campaign, we start first with their goals. What are they trying to accomplish? From there, we ask the brand a lot of questions about their audience.

We also push the brand to really think critically about their audience. Many brands think they know everything about their consumers and believe they understand their audience completely. But is that truly the right audience? I'll use haircare as an example. Some of the brands we work with think that anyone who has hair is their target audience. However, when you take a step back, how shampoo interacts with fine hair, curly hair, or coarse hair is an important consideration when selecting influencers.

For instance, you can’t assume that any influencer with hair is the right one to talk about your shampoo product. If you have a heavy shampoo, an influencer with really curly hair wouldn’t be the right fit because it might weigh their hair down. These are the considerations we think about when picking influencers. We identify exactly who the audience is for the brand and mirror that in our influencer selection criteria.

We also dive deeply into the data behind influencers. If it’s a U.S. brand, we ensure the influencers live in the United States. In 2021, we did a lot of work for Braun Germany. The interesting thing about influencers in the U.K. is that while some may live in a specific country, their audience can be spread across the entire U.K. For campaigns where a product is only available in Germany, we make sure that at least 70% of the influencer’s audience is based in Germany before selecting them.

The fascinating thing about social media and influencers at its core is how often brands come to us wanting to do influencer campaigns simply because it’s the cool, trendy thing to do.

Along with audience-brand match, the productivity and authenticity of influencers is very important, as Maggie explains.

One of the things that we really look for when we hire social influencers is whether they create a significant amount of content on their own, outside of just branded content. We use a variety of tools and analyze data to evaluate how influencers perform.

A key factor in deciding whether to work with an influencer or not is determining if they are genuinely in it to be an influencer, using their audience for good, and creating authentic content. Or are they simply chasing brand deals? This distinction is crucial because it impacts the authenticity of their followers.

If you examine someone’s newsfeed and see that all of their content is branded, it’s likely they will have very few authentic followers. These influencers are just in it for the brand paycheck, which often results in poorer performance for your campaign.

Now let’s learn from Erica Ligenza—a blogger, podcaster, and social media influencer—about what her job entails. Erica will describe the approach she takes as an influencer. As you work through it, consider which of the traits Maggie described Erica embodies here, as well as your and your cohorts’ thoughts on influencer authenticity.

My name is Erica Ligenza, and I started my blog, Coming Up Roses, back in 2013 when I was a student at the Wharton School of Business. It began as a creative hobby amidst a rigorous academic curriculum, offering me a mental break. At the time, blogging was just becoming a thing, and being an influencer was not even on the radar. Instagram was barely a social media platform.

Initially, I created inspiring and fun content purely as a form of self-expression, with no intention of making it my full-time job. Over time, I fell in love with it and started monetizing through brand partnerships. By the time I approached graduation, I realized that with full-time effort, I could turn this passion into my career—and that’s exactly what I did.

When working with brands, I prioritize products I already know and use. If a brand approaches me with something I’m unfamiliar with, I go through a vetting period. I ask them to send the product so I can test it myself. I make it clear that I won’t sign a contract or promise to promote anything until I can 100% authentically recommend it to my audience.

During this testing period, if I find I genuinely like the product, I often start sharing it organically to familiarize my audience with it before any official ad appears. This way, when they see the ad, it feels natural and not like a sudden promotion. On the flip side, if the ad is the audience's first exposure, I intentionally plan organic shares afterward to maintain the conversation.

This approach ensures that my recommendations are not just one-off promotions but reflect my genuine love and use of the product, fostering trust and authenticity with my audience.

Erica says that as an influencer, she combines her branded content with her organic content. In this way, she gains trust from her audience and is also able to promote only products that she genuinely uses and endorses.

If you have been persuaded to purchase something because of an influencer’s endorsement, it’s likely that the influencer and the brand were a good match for each other. Let’s finish this lesson with a few more points on vetting influencers.

Here is Erica again on the important factors to consider in influencer vetting.

So when a brand is vetting you as an influencer, the process might involve several steps depending on the software they use on the back end. One of the initial steps often includes the brand asking for screenshots of your audience demographics. They want to see data such as where your audience is from, their age, gender, and other key details to ensure your audience aligns with their target demographic.

If the audience alignment looks promising, they may request additional screenshots, like your reach and impressions from the past month. They might also ask for page views or performance metrics from specific sponsored posts to gauge how similar campaigns might perform.

From a strategic standpoint, I always recommend brands consider the nature of algorithms. Every post performs differently, and replicating success across platforms is nearly impossible. It's crucial for brands to determine whether the data they’re requesting is truly relevant to the type of content and product they aim to promote. For instance, if they’re analyzing performance data from a campaign for body lotion but planning to sell wine, it’s important to recognize that these products target different audiences, and the results are unlikely to be comparable.

The vetting process, in my opinion, should be a two-way street. As an influencer, you should ask about their goals and offer insights that can help them. For example, if they aim to reach a specific demographic, you can confirm if your analytics align with that. Or, if their goal is long-term ROI, you might suggest they focus on evergreen content like a blog or YouTube video, which benefits from search engine optimization and remains impactful over time. This approach contrasts with shorter-lived campaigns, such as Instagram Stories, that only last for 24 hours and might not yield the same sustained results.

As you've now learned, there are many things to consider when selecting influencers—such as their credibility, brand alignment, authenticity, productivity, and the potential effectiveness of their promotion for your brand. In addition, as you consider whom to partner with, it is crucial to be aware of various risks.

Some influencers buy fake followers, views, or likes. This practice has become an industry in itself. For example, in 2017, vending machines appeared in Russia, allowing people to buy one hundred Instagram likes for less than $1. Other influencers post fake sponsored brand content to project a certain status to their followers. One case in France involved an influencer who posted an incredibly realistic-looking ad for Chanel beauty products on Instagram, even tagging the brand without receiving anything in exchange. These influencers post fake content in hopes of attracting relationships with brands or simply gaining more attention.

Clearly, partnering with influencers who have fake followers or post fake content will not be an effective customer acquisition strategy for your brand. Another potential risk is inconsistency between an influencer's personal behavior and the values of your brand. For instance, if your brand values environmental sustainability, you would not want to collaborate with an influencer who promotes products that are known to harm the environment.

To mitigate these risks, it is essential to ask the right questions when vetting influencers. You should know their statistics, including the number and type of followers, their engagement levels, the kind of content they have created in the past, and the ratio of organic versus paid content. By understanding these aspects, you can make informed decisions about partnering with the right influencers for your brand.