The Wax Blog

I was honored to be asked to write an article for Communication Director, the premier publication for corporate communications and public relations in Europe and Asia. The following is an excerpt from that article, with a link to the entire piece for your convenience.  [caption id="attachment_13168" align="alignright"...

[caption id="attachment_13126" align="alignright" width="300"] Video marketing needs to be part of your integrated mix[/caption] Video marketing is becoming an increasingly important component of the integrated marketing experience. Visual assets are an indispensable tool towards creating a coherent and well-aligned integrated marketing campaign. There is a lot to keep track...

There is more and more integrated marketing happening between some messaging channels of campaigns today. But it's still a challenge for most marketers to create an integrated marketing campaign where integration is happening between ALL the messaging channels. We're seeing progress but campaigns are often missing one particular component that...

The secret weapon in any major brand’s arsenal tends to be their influencers and that makes an influencer marketing campaign critical.  These key members of their community are the catalyst for marketing efforts and act as liaisons between a brand and the vast majority of their audience. Establishing a strong connection with your influencers is tricky, but ultimately worth the effort.  Influencer marketing is the secret sauce that can turn a campaign around. The first step in this process, is making connections with the right people and doing it the right way. To help you can leverage this connection to maximize your campaign’s ROI, here are six tips you can apply to your influencer marketing campaign.

1. Define clear goals for your influencer marketing campaign

Before you start reaching out and connecting with influencers, establish measurable goals of your campaign.  Your influencer outreach campaign can contribute to several goals including:
  • Increasing brand awareness on social media
  • Generating leads and raise conversion rates
  • Targeting a new audience and engage them
  • Renewed interest with your current audience
  • Forging long-term relationships with your influencers
Starting with these in mind, you can properly curate and approach influencers that would be ideal for meeting these goals.

2. Choose the right influencers for your campaign needs

Choosing the correct influencer is far easier said than done. It involves a deep understanding of your audience, clear goals and a keen eye for people who hold sway in your niche or industry. Monitoring the activity on your social media profiles is a great way to see which people your audience engages with regularly. Tools like Buzzsumo can also help identify influencers in your industry and narrow down the candidate pool. Once you’ve found some options, take a careful look at their profiles. Make sure you review the ways in which they engage with their audience. Evaluate whether they truly do influence others' behavior.

3. Treat influencers like a brand

It’s important to treat influencers like a fellow brand, because that’s exactly what they are. They set about creating a blog and forging a memorable brand the same way your business did. It's important that you keep this in mind when you engage them. Like any strong brand, top-level influencers have a voice that carries across their audience. They work to create high-quality content in the same way that you do, and their influence is exactly why you’re reaching out. When you approach them, keep this in mind and talk candidly about your campaign’s objectives, your ideal voice and messaging, and everything else a partnership with another brand should know

4. Build the relationship first, before you go for the "ask."

[caption id="attachment_13061" align="alignright" width="300"] 6 great questions to ask about your e-commerce marketing.[/caption] Don’t get left behind. Make sure that you keep your e-commerce marketing agile and supple by adapting to the shifting sands of e-commerce and embracing change. As we move through the first quarter of 2017, here...