The Future of Influencer Marketing

The Future
of Influencer
Marketing
6 Predictions Your Brand or
Agency Can Bank On

Table of
Contents
1
4
Introduction
Prediction 1:
Brands will “get” what consumers already know:
That traditional digital ad tactics suck
11
Prediction 2:
Brands and agencies will falter before mastering
the new, trusted web
15
21
Prediction 3:
Brands will deepen customer relationships
through influencer marketing
Prediction 4:
Content distribution will drive content creation
26
31
Prediction 5:
Influencer marketing automation will bring new
efficiencies to marketers
Prediction 6:
Influencer marketing automation will change
how you influence
34
Learn More

Introduction
Hi. Welcome to The Future of Influencer
Marketing: 6 Predictions Your Brand or
Agency Can Bank On, a report on what’s
coming in the world of influencer marketing.
Although this ebook isn’t an introductory
primer, marketers new to the space will gain
plenty of useful information that will serve in
campaigns to come.
We’re skipping over the basics because we
assume you already know a little something
about influencer marketing.
1

2 Introduction
The Future of Influencer Marketing will not
only help you figure out how to ramp up and
optimize your influencer marketing efforts; it will
also dispel some of the myths circulating about
influencer marketing and preview what’s on the
horizon. Our predictions come from industry
research and our own proprietary data—
data we’ve been gathering from our clients’
programs over the past six years.

Influencer marketing
is catching fire.
It’s an exciting time,
and we’re glad to be a part of it.
When you see what’s coming, we think
you’ll be glad to be part of it, too.
3 Introduction

Prediction 1
Brands will “get”
what consumers
already know: that
traditional digital ad
tactics suck
Pop-up videos. Pop-under ads. Autoplay
videos. Banner ads.
As marketers, why did we ever think that
“disrupt and distract” methods of reaching
consumers were a good idea?
You know: Radio. TV. Print. Direct mail.
Then came the Internet. And we considered it
just another channel.
So we digitized our brochures and put
them on our shiny, new websites. And we
surrounded those brochures and loaded up
those websites with banner ads to monetize
the new medium.
Next came email, video, mobile, and social ….
Digital advertising quickly got out of hand
from there.
Here’s why: Because until social media came
along, all we’d ever known were the oneway
communication methods we’ve been
practicing since the dawn of advertising.
4

With the advent of
social, consumers
found their voice
online, and all hell
broke loose.
Consumers were fed up with being “talked at”
and interrupted by brands online.
The sudden rise of social gave them a
newfound voice in what was, essentially, our
game. And they wasted no time making their
opinions known.
Adblockers
are one of the chief
killers of our digital ad
efforts today.
After “X”ing and “deleting” and complaining
to whomever would listen, these ticked-off
consumers drove the birth of the adblocker.
5
Prediction 1

Adblockers: digital
advertising’s public
enemy #1
Did you know? Adblock technology is
expected to reach full saturation in just a
few years.
NPR just reported that adblock usage is up
70 percent from 2014 2 .
Even Apple is getting into the adblock game,
allowing developers to create ad blockers for
Safari 3 .
What’s your brand doing
about it?
47%
of consumers
are using
adblockers 1
-Reuters
1
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Reuters%20Institute%20Digital%20News%20Report%202015_Full%20Report.pdf
2
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/07/20/424630545/with-ad-blocking-use-on-the-rise-what-happens-to-online-publishers
3
http://9to5mac.com/2015/06/10/block-ads-ios-9-safari-iphone/
6
Prediction 1

Bots: another reason
to shift budget
away from digital
advertising
If adblockers are bad, then bots—automated
web crawlers that mimic human behavior and
create false engagement data wherever they
go—are downright evil.
Bot software, simple to create and deploy,
has become a multi-billion dollar problem for
the digital advertising industry, accounting for
two-thirds or more of all digital engagement.
Recent studies place that figure at as high as
98 percent 4 .
metrics. This year, that amount could be as
high as $29 billion 5 .
To learn more about bots and how to
protect yourself, check out The Bot Baseline:
Fraud in Digital Advertising, a report by the
Association of National Advertisers and White
Ops, a pioneer in the detection of bots and
malware on the web.
Know what this means? It means that all
those clicks you see registering on your paid
advertisements are not from humans. They’re
from bots, which are duping brands out of
billions of dollars through false engagement
4
http://oxford-biochron.com/downloads/OxfordBioChron_Quantifying-Online-Advertising-Fraud_Report.pdf
4 http://oxford-biochron.com/downloads/OxfordBioChron_Quantifying-Online-Advertising-Fraud_Report.pdf
5
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/infographics/5-factors-of-viewability.html
7 Prediction 1

The new norm:
consumer behavior ...
sans trust
That brief history lesson brings us to the
state of affairs today.
We as marketers are tired of throwing dollars
at ad methods that no longer work.
We’re scratching our collective head,
wondering where to turn.
As consumers, we now have a voice. We now
have a choice. And we love to use both.
As marketers, we have no choice but to follow
this shift—to move away from traditional
tactics and towards what has become the
new, trusted web.
What media do
consumers trust if
not banner
and video ads?
According to Nielsen, 92 percent of people
trust strangers over brands 6 . And, by the
way, “brand” includes any content a brand
produces.
You see this perception playing out through
the rise and popularity of online reviews.
How many times has a review from Yelp,
TripAdvisor, or Amazon swayed where you
spent your dollars?
6
http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-room/2012/nielsen-global-consumers-trust-in-earned-advertising-grows.html
8
Prediction 1

Where do consumers
turn if not to digital
brochures or selfpromoting
websites?
According to another study, 74 percent of
people turn to social networks for guidance
on purchase decisions 7 .
And given the GlobalWebIndex finding 8 that
people spend one in every four minutes
online on a social media site, that stat
makes sense.
How many times have you followed a link to
check out a cool t-shirt, the next new-new
gadget, or what might be the perfect gift for
your great Aunt Gertrude, who has everything?
7
http://www.adweek.com/prnewser/ogilvy-cannes-study-be
hold-the-power-of-word-of-mouth/95190?red=pr
8
http://insight.globalwebindex.net/social-q1-2015
9
Prediction 1

“Word of mouth is the primary
factor behind 20 percent to
50 percent of all purchasing
decisions.”
Jonah Berger, Contagious: Why Things Catch On
10 Prediction 4

Prediction 2
Brands and
agencies will
falter before
mastering
the new,
trusted web
On the new, trusted web, consumers respond
to disruptive communications in one of three
ways:
1. Block ‘em
2. Close, dismiss, or otherwise exit ‘em as
quickly as possible
3. Treat ‘em like background wallpaper —
there, but not worth paying attention to
On the new trusted web, consumers want
communications on their terms. They
want trusted messages from people like
themselves, even people they don’t know
personally.
11

In Influencers
We Trust
Even though she’s a marketer by trade,
Rachael Cihlar, Tap’s resident Influencer
Marketing Strategist, surfs the new, trusted
web the way most of us do—as a consumer.
“Instagram is my favorite social network,”
she says. “I follow lifestyle and fashion
influencers on there, so when I’m looking
for, say, Fall’s new trends, I go straight to a
few key influencers for inspiration for my Fall
wardrobe. Those influencers tell me what’s
hot, what’s not, and, for example, how to style
a new pair of boots. Before you know it, I’ve
made a decision to buy those boots, and
I haven’t even thought about going to the
brand’s site.”
Rachael
Cihlar
Even more surprising to Rachael is that
she doesn’t really know the people who
influenced her decision. “Sure, I’ve been
following them for a while, so I trust what
they say and post. But still, in a sense,
I’m relying on the word of strangers, and
then using social networks to do the bulk
of my research.”
12
Prediction 2

Ready to take the
new, trusted web
by storm?
Ahhh. How wonderful is this new web for our
brands and agencies!
Now, we marketers need only to share our
content and communicate our messages, and
voilà! Consumers buy, and success is had.
Right?
Not so fast.
Remember those intrusive, disruptive
digital ads? The ones that continue to drive
consumers crazy? Those ads combined with
excessive email marketing have shredded the
trust of consumers.
That’s why 92 percent of people trust
strangers over brands today 9 .
And trust is where the brand challenge
lies, because brands now have to rebuild
broken trust.
92%
of people trust
strangers
over brands 9
9
http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-room/2012/nielsen-global-consumers-trust-in-earned-advertising-grows.html
13
Prediction 2

What’s your #1
job, your first
priority? Rebuild
consumer trust
How can you, on behalf of your brand, rebuild
trust? By understanding:
Who the consumer is
What she needs
What she wants
Where she lives online
Who she follows
Who she trusts
You’ll be poised to choose the right channels;
ready to create and distribute targeted
influencer content.
It won’t be easy. And it won’t happen
overnight.
But it will happen.
As consumers repeatedly see your content
and messages coming from
trusted influencers, you will, over time,
develop meaningful relationships and build
engagement.
Then, armed with that knowledge, you’ll be in
a position to choose the right influencers.
14
Prediction 2

Prediction 3
Brands will
deepen customer
relationships
through
influencer
marketing
If you get it right … if you take the time to
understand your customers … if you choose the
right influencers who get the right messages
out to the right audiences in the right channels
at the right time … then influencer marketing
becomes a potent source of revenue and
customer love.
15

Influencer marketing will also take a primo place
in your marketing mix:
73 percent of marketers say they have budget for
influencer marketing 10
59 percent plan to increase the influencer
marketing budget in the next year 11
The spend on influencer marketing is expected to
hit $336 million in 2015 12
10
https://www.forrester.com/The+Forrester+Wave+Social+Relationship+Platforms+Q2+2015/fulltext/-/E-res120645
11
http://technorati.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/tm2013DIR1.pdf
12
Based on 2013 Technorati estimate, applying CAGR of 18.18% consistent with Forrester expectations of the social media market
http://technorati.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/tm2013DIR1.pdf
16
Prediction 3

It’s no wonder why marketers and brands are
catching on:
70 percent of consumers trust the word of family
and friends first, online reviews second 13
47 percent of US readers consult blogs to spot
new trends and get new ideas
35 percent of US readers look to blogs to discover
new products
13 http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/4/prweb8300514.htm
17
Prediction 3

Plus, influencer marketing in the mix pays off:
51 percent of marketers say that influencer
marketing produces better customers 14
One Tap CPG customer found that influencerdriven
brand advocates spend 35 percent more—
and they keep on buying, increasing the lifetime
value of those customers
But hey, we get it. Stats are one thing …
stories, another.
14 http://blog.tomoson.com/influencer-marketing-study/
18
Prediction 3

In battles between
brand- and
influencer-owned
content … there is no
battle
Battle 1:
Maybelline-owned
vs. influencer content
Influencer content wins for the Maybelline
brand. The company’s own YouTube channel
drives 11,000 views per video. Not bad. But
influencer videos generate an average of 1.4
million views per video — a clear indication
that influencers win the battle against
Maybelline’s own brand channel 15 .
15
http://www.slideshare.net/BDMIFund/bdmi-influencer-marketing-overview-august-2014
19
Prediction 3

Battle 2:
Vlogger vs. brand
“celebrity” content
The winner? L2 reports that vloggers in the
digital beauty space trounce mainstream
celebrities, with vloggers drawing more than
700 million views per month and attracting
50 times more views and 108 times more
subscribers than celebrity content for an
underlying brand.
Need more proof? L2 also reports that, in a
Google search for brand terms, two-thirds
of the first-page results is content from
influencers, whereas only eight percent of
results point to brand pages. That’s less than
one result for a brand on each page 16 .
Knockout.
Battle 3:
Black Box-owned vs.
influencer content
In one corner: The old Black Box Wines site.
In the other: An updated site with a new
social media hub featuring the content from
50 new influencer-created blog posts. The
new hub prevailed 17 , generating:
An increase of 31 percent in website views
An increase of 56 percent in time on site
An increase of 44 percent in social mentions
The original campaign packed a punch,
too. Those 50 authentic blog posts about
influencers’ first tastes of Black Box Wine?
They delivered:
73,000+ views
5,000+ engagements
A total media value of $250,000
16
http://www.l2inc.com/vloggers-outshine-celebrities
17
http://www.tapinfluence.com/customers/black-box-wines-success-story/
20
Prediction 3

Prediction 4
Content
distribution will
drive content
creation
If you think about it, prediction four sounds a
little backwards:
“Content distribution will drive content
creation.”
Don’t you create—and then distribute? Don’t
you create so that you can distribute?
And don’t customer needs—and your need to
sell—drive content creation?
Yes, yes, and yes.
In influencer marketing, as with all content
marketing, you work backwards from the
customer to create content. But in influencer
marketing, you don’t look only at the
WHAT—the consumer pains, challenges, and
opportunities—but also at the WHERE—the
places your consumers work and play online.
Then, with the WHERE in mind, you—and
your influencers—are ready to create
content to maximize reach and engagement
on those channels.
21

Case in point: how content distribution drives
content creation
Is your target audience (and are their influencers) on
Facebook? If so, you need to know that the photo post is now
the worst-performing type of brand content on Facebook,
and that video reigns supreme 18 . And you need to know this
before you or your influencers create content.
Is your audience on Twitter? There, the opposite is true:
Images far surpass videos, garnering 128 percent more
retweets 19 .
The moral? To reach your audience, let content distribution
drive content creation.
18 http://marketingland.com/want-maximum-reach-facebook-dont-post-photos-118536; accessed August 5, 2015.
19 http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/03/05/what-type-of-content-gets-shared-the-most-on-twitter/; accessed August 5, 2015.
22
Prediction 4

A Digital Marketing
Puzzle
Question:
If 65 percent of marketers say that targeting
precision is the top attribute of a content
marketing campaign 20 …
and if 47 percent of marketers aren’t satisfied
with their ability to distribute content to the
right audiences 17 …
Then why do 87 percent of marketers
continue to take the path of least resistance
and use the company website as the number
one method of distribution for content
marketing programs 17 ?
Answer:
Old habits die hard.
When content
distribution works …
and when it doesn’t
You can tell when content distribution isn’t
driving content creation.
The proof will be in the engagement, or
lack thereof. If you don’t understand your
distribution channels, you may wind up
wasting your effort and budget, creating
content your audience doesn’t want and
won’t engage with.
On the other hand, when distribution is
driving content creation, you’ll reach your
audience—and their audiences and networks
as well.
In fact, sharing content through influencers in
your industry can triple conversions, in some
cases increasing conversions by a factor of
10 21 .
It’s the magic of amplification.
20 http://www.itbusinessnet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=3415100
17 http://www.tapinfluence.com/customers/black-box-wines-success-story/
21 http://branderati.com/the-age-of-advocacy-and-influence-26-statsmarketers-should-know/
23
Prediction 4

24 Prediction 4
Sharing content through
influencers in your industry
can triple conversions

What kind of content
amplifies well?
Content that amplifies ... content that spreads
… content that consumers willingly distribute
… is content that’s real. By real, we mean:
Authentic
Fun
Creative
Useful
It’s content that, like influencer content,
provides Youtility.
“Youtility is marketing upside down. Instead
of marketing that’s needed by companies,
Youtility is marketing that’s wanted by
customers. It’s massively useful, FREE
information that creates long-term trust
and kinship between a company and its
customers.” —Jay Baer, Youtility
Amplification in
action: an example
This YouTube video represents one of
our favorite examples of amplification.
It tells the story of a student in a social
media class unexpectedly using the power
of amplification to generate a flurry of
testimonials for Columbia Business School—
with nothing more than a simple tweet and
hashtag.
How might you use
influencers and the
power of amplification
for your brand?
25
Prediction 4

Prediction 5
Influencer
marketing
automation
will bring new
efficiencies to
marketers
Did you know that the number of
professionals citing influencer marketing as
a skillset grew by 27 percent in less than two
months 22 ?
That’s right.
Influencer marketing is happening now. It’s
happening everywhere.
As your digital marketing portfolio expands
to accommodate influencer marketing, you’ll
need a way to scale and measure to create
predictability, a need that, of necessity, will
spawn efficiency.
How so?
Imagine that you want to launch an influencer
campaign involving 20 influencers.
We know that influencer campaigns are
typically executed by senior people, someone
like a Senior Digital Communications
Manager.
We also know that such a person earns, on
average, $80,000 annually, or $38.50 hourly.
Let’s take a look at what the work involved in,
and cost of, such a campaign might be.
22
This data is from a TapInfluence study of LinkedIn profiles conducted in July 2015.
26

A hypothetical: manually running an influencer
campaign with 20 influencers
Task Total number of hours Average task cost
@ $38.50 per hour
Identify 200 influencers to hit
an end target of 20
40 hours
(for scouring the Internet and social sites to find influencers that match your
chosen categories; verify their reach and content aesthetic)
$1,540 23
Recruit by sending emails to
those 200 influencers
Negotiate with your chosen
20 influencers
Manage the content creation
process
Measure and report on the
campaign
40 hours
(for writing emails; responding to queries;
discussing content strategy)
20 hours
(for back-and-forth emails that outline tasks and rates;
tracking rates toward your budget)
80 hours
(for gathering content, reminding influencers of requirements; approving
posts before they go live)
40 hours
(for tracking down content; capturing view /
engagement details; tying performance to KPIs)
$1,540
$770
$3,080
$1,540
Cost of Your time 220 hours $8,470
23 http://innetwork.net/2015/05/6-basic-steps-manage-influencer-outreach-campaigns/
Yes.
It’s a lot of work, calling for in excess of 200 people-hours
from a senior staff member. Sounds like a siren call for efficiency, no?
Enter influencer marketing automation.
27
Prediction 5

Meet the next
generation of
influencer marketing
Influencer marketing automation (IMA) is
a new category of marketing automation
that brings the power of data matching,
algorithms, and SaaS technology to brands
and agencies wanting to reach and engage
consumers wherever they are—authentically,
efficiently, and at scale.
In other words, IMA is technology that makes
it simple to run any number of influencer
campaigns at the same time—without having
to add headcount. It gives us the ability to:
Connect the right influencers to the right
content in the right channels at the right
times
Use baked-in best practices and methods to
generate predictable, measurable results
Drive engagement through authentic social
conversations with known and unknown
audiences
Eliminate our dependence on broken
broadcast and ad-based distribution models
Engineer a new era of intimacy between our
brand and consumers
Harness the consumer’s solid trust in
influencers—and in the meaningful content
influencers create and
exchange online
Influencer marketing automation is also going
to save us a lot of time and money.
How much?
Glad you asked.
28
Prediction 5

A comparison: running the same influencer
campaign with and without automation
Let’s return to our earlier example to compare the work of running an influencer marketing
campaign manually to the work of running the same campaign with automation.
The Manual Way
The Automated Way
Task
Total number of hours
Average
task cost
@ $38.50 per hour
Total number of hours
Average
task cost
@ $38.50 per hour
Identify 200
influencers to hit
an end target of 20
40 hours
(for scouring the Internet and social sites to find
influencers that match your chosen categories;
verify their reach and content aesthetic)
$1,540 23
5 hours
(for using the platform to search for and
review target influencers)
$192.50
Recruit by sending
emails to
those 200 influencers
40 hours
(for writing emails; responding to queries;
discussing content strategy)
$1,540
None (influencers have opted in) -
Negotiate with your
chosen
20 influencers
20 hours
(for back-and-forth emails that outline tasks
and rates; tracking rates toward your budget)
$770
1 hour
(for minimal work; you already know rates for
each piece of content)
$38.50
Manage the content
creation process
80 hours
(for gathering content, reminding influencers of
requirements; approving posts before they go live)
$3,080
8 hours
(for reviewing and approving content
submitted through the system)
$3,080
Measure and report
on the campaign
40 hours
(for tracking down content; capturing view /
engagement details; tying performance to KPIs)
$1,540
5 hours
(for choosing, viewing, and
distributing reports)
$192.50
Cost of
Your time
220 hours $8,470
19 hours $731.50
29
Prediction 5

A comparison: dollars saved
The Manual Way
The Automated Way
Total number of hours
Task cost
@ $38.50 per hour
Total number of hours
Task cost
@ $38.50 per hour
220 $8470.00
19 $731.50
Amount Saved:
$7,738.50
30
Prediction 5

Prediction 6
Influencer marketing
automation will
change how you
influence
The rise of IMA will not only save us time
and money. It’s also going to change how—
and how much—we influence. For the first
time ever, we’ll be able to scale and grow
our influencer marketing efforts, predictably,
without adding headcount, and all the while
regaining the trust of consumers.
31

An agency with IMA will:
Pitch bigger, win more, and risk less
Offer influencer marketing as a core competency without
adding headcount
Build an influencer marketing practice that drives and
sustains rapid growth
Stay abreast of influencer best practices
Deliver margins and set pricing and comfort levels by
knowing your costs
Get campaign results in weeks, not months
32
Prediction 6

A brand with IMA will:
Deepen relationships with and generate more revenue from
existing consumers
Create connections with new consumers
Handle always-on influencer marketing efforts in house
Own relationships with influencers
Keep high-level staff focused on key programs and
initiatives
Stay abreast of influencer best practices
Deliver campaign results in weeks, not months
33
Prediction 6

Want to learn more?
Visit our Influencer Marketing resource center
for educational videos, webinars, ebooks, and
success stories.
To learn more about TapInfluence’s
influencer marketing platform:
Email: predictions@tapinfluence.com
Call: 720-726-4074
Visit: www.tapinfluence.com
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