The Influencer Code

When you think “influencer marketing”, what do you picture? For many of you, the answer mightin be a pseudo-celebrity with a big social media following—someone who functions as a walking, talking billboard.

You know the drill: high-pressure product placement selfies, breathless testimonials, all-caps coupon codes, three-line affiliate links, and all manner of scammy, spammy, and interruptive calls-to-action.

Some of these posts might seem pretty slick at first glance—it takes effort to look this good—but how do the brands or influencers find out if they’ve had any real impact on their business goals?

Are all of those followers real, engaged people who actually want what you have? Or just a faceless army of bots? Even if the audience is real humans does the ‘influencer’ actually exert influence over them? And if so, does that influence translate to the action you are trying to reach with your brand?

Add to this, the increasing number of negative headlines…“The influencer marketing bubble is set to burst”
“Influencer Fraud Is Costing Brands BIG $$$”

“Influencer Marketing: A Phony Industry Based on False Premises”

No wonder there’s so much skepticism! But here’s the thing: all of these thoughts are based on false stereotypes.

The world is largely confusing attention with influence. Don’t get me wrong—as marketers, you absolutely need the attention of your target demographic. But by suggesting that we simply need to get in front of our audience with a great message, a great story, or an incredible product, we’re misled.

Simply put, attention is currency; attention is not success.

In believing that attention is all we need, we overlook the most important part—the source of the attention. In marketing, we thrive on attention, but attention without trust is simply noise.

Imagine the following. Notice how both scenarios have achieved your attention, yet with completely different results:


Scenario 1: I recently looked at baby jogging strollers for a friend's baby shower, and now I'm bombarded by all things baby. From my Instagram feed, to my emails—everywhere I look, I see something for an expecting parent or an infant… and every company claims theirs is the very best.

I've seen and even clicked on several of the ads or links, but did not end of buying any of the aforementioned in ads.


Scenario 2: My sister-in-law, who is also an active mom of two, highly recommended a specific baby jogger. I Googled the name, and bought the stroller she recommended.


Result: While many of the ads got my attention, my ultimate behavior (to buy) was a result of the trust I had in my sister-in-law’s recommendation.

But why? It’s not that complex: people trust people. A brand ALWAYS say their product/service/idea is great.

Advertisements are a notorious turn-off, and if we don’t end up just ignoring them, we take them in with skepticism. However, the exact opposite is true when that same list of benefits comes from someone else’s lips—especially someone we trust to give us the real scoop.
Influencer marketing is one of the biggest buzzwords in business, and Fortune 500 brands are increasing their investment year over year. The influencer marketing industry is on track to be worth up to $15 billion by 2022, up from as much as $8 billion in 2019, according to Business Insider Intelligence estimates, based on Mediakix data, and that was before the exponential growth of TikTok and content creation under quarantine during the 2020 global coronavirus pandemic. So, it’s safe to say, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Seems like a simple solution to success, right? The core concept is simple, but simple does not mean easy.

In the modern market, if attention is currency, influence is wealth. Everyone wants to have the kind of impact it takes to drive action, but a failure to recognize that influence is king when it comes to building a business, leaves you very vulnerable to failure.

In order to leverage the magic of influencer marketing, we must first understand influence.

It’s staggering to watch some of the biggest brands, for all the millions they’re investing, fail at one or all of these three key things, which also happen to be the three biggest problems marketers face when it comes to influencer marketing:
·         Selecting the right influencer (‘right’ being the key word)
·         Engaging and connecting with the right influencer
·         Measuring success of their influencer marketing efforts

Put another way, if you think that garnering a certain number of likes or followers on the platform ‘du jour’ is going to help you grow your business, you’re leaving yourself very vulnerable to the incredible speed at which the market is changing. If Instagram shut down tomorrow, the true influencers wouldn’t lose their influence.  
So why do so many brands get influencer marketing so wrong? And what can be done to turn their efforts around?
 
This book was born to answer those questions. Influencer marketing is much more than just another a strategy or a tactic. It's a new way to think, and a framework with the potential to transform your efforts… if you get it right.
 
Here’s the good news: If you’re willing to invest a little more time, effort, and intention in your efforts to harness the power of influence, you’ll see a far greater response.
 
Influencer marketing can’t be a short game, because relationships are the key. Real relationships take time.
 
The bottom line is that to be successful in influencer marketing, you need:
   • The confidence to invest and collaborate with others, without focusing on competition or popularity
   • The common sense to realize that people buy from brands they trust, not just the noisiest brand out there
   • The openness and generosity to share your own resources and audience with others
 
In short, influencer marketing is more than just paying someone with an audience to promote your brand. Influencer marketing requires understanding true influence and who has that influence over your target audience. It’s not about one-off transactions but rather must be built on genuine relationships. It’s not a quick fix, it’s a long-term investment.
 
I’ve built my career—and helped others build theirs—by understanding the need for this type of relationship and how to create them. And I’ve put everything together here in The Influencer Code, creating a roadmap for healthy, efficient—and above all, effective—relationships between brands and influencers.
 
The good news is I’m not teaching you anything you don’t already know; rather, I’m giving you a structured guide for creating long-term, win-win, always-on strategic influencer alliances, including:
   • What influencer marketing is and is not…and why the difference matters
   • The biggest myths and misconceptions about influencer marketing that get in the way of achieving success
   • The four types of influence and how you can put them to work for your brand
   • The many roles influencers can play across your business
   • Defining the right business goals for your marketing efforts
   • Identifying, and assessing the right influencers for your brand and goals
   • Selecting the right metrics to track success
   • Cultivating a long-term relationship with influencers that moves beyond transaction to shared value
   • Facilitating, strategizing and collaborating with influencers to produce high-impact content
 
You will walk away from this book with a 360-degree understanding of influencer marketing, with all the framework and knowledge necessary to help you devise strategies, accomplish real results, and build a reputation as an expert in the process.
 
Throughout my research, I reached out to over 150 colleagues and experts who have run or are currently running successful influencer marketing programs or who are partnered with brands as influencers. I asked them for their insights, case studies, and examples of how companies, brands, leaders, and influencers are successfully using influence—and when they’re doing just the opposite.
 
I’ve filled these pages with stories, examples of influence at work (both good and bad), and key marketing lessons. In school, we’re taught to answer questions; but as leaders in the marketing space, we need to know how to ask the right questions and question the answers—especially when no one else is.

Ready to get started? Let’s do this!


—Excerpt from the "Why We Need This Book" Introduction by Amanda Russell