Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. And welcome back to another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Today we're talking about influencer marketing from a consumer point of view. But first, here's a word from our sponsor.
Melanie
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Esther
Right. So what is influencer marketing?
Melanie
Well, when I think of influencer marketing, it conjures up somebody wearing really high fashion clothing in a beautiful location and makes me think that it's something that I would love to have but can't. And they're just flaunting it. Thanks.
Esther
And funny, most of the stuff that comes up on my feed for influencer marketing, they're either doing their face like they're doing a get ready with me or they're standing there in a tile trying to sell the clothes that they're about to put on rather than standing in a fancy location. But yeah, it's, it's the people who have been hired by the companies to influence or change our mind about the product that they're trying to sell. So these can be micro or nano influencers with, you know, a thousand followers. There's then Mac Mega, I think the next one's mega influencers with up to a million followers and then macro influencers with over a million followers. So, you know, Melanie and I combined with all our social medias combined, we might be nano micro influencer, but on our own, we're nanos. You know, we're down, we're. But the point is that even with such a small audience, you have a voice and you have people that will listen to you. So this is why companies are reaching out to even the smallest of small influencers that they sort of see a potential in to ask them to promote their products. Now, a lot of times it's done in a very, what I would consider as a consumer, I would consider a very forceful way. As in, you need to buy this, you need to buy this. This is wonderful. This is the best thing ever. It's the best thing since sliced bread. And it's a very over the top way of them explaining what the product is and stuff. In my opinion, as a consumer, that's too much. And I just scroll on when people are rambling on about how brilliant it is and you're like, love, it's a bottle of water. It does what any other bottle of water does. You know, you drink water, you're done. What do you think, Melanie? Whenever you see an influencer trying to market to you.
Melanie
Yeah, it's interesting because I don't feel I see that much influencer marketing myself. It doesn't ordinarily show up on my feed and let's face it, I'm online all the time. I'm looking at LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X. And you think I'd feel a little more influenced if this is such a large market now, it could be that I'm not their ideal demographic or maybe over time I've changed my algorithm so that I don't see these things as much. Maybe I just, I'm so immune to it now because I'm, I've kind, I'm kind of switching off. But I think influencer marketing isn't just through in person, get ready with me. I mean, I do see them. I, I do makeup tutorials and I do, but that could just be some 19 year old that I've seen on TikTok showing me how they do their eye makeup. Because it's one thing I can't do is eye makeup, completely oblivious to it. So in my mind they, they could be genuinely an influencer, even though, you know, I would not be their ideal demographic. When we're influencers, you know-.
Esther
We are, but we're not.
Melanie
Thanks to Feedalpha, you know, they've seen that we've got a market that they want us to share and we talk about Feedalpha and you know, how their product serves, you know, a marketer better and that sort of thing. So it's just weird how I think some people are using influencer marketing now.
Esther
Okay, so you probably. Okay, I'll start that train of thought again. So I have found that a lot, there's a lot more influencer marketing going on in the videos. So we're talking TikTok, we're talking Instagram reels, we're talking Facebook stories. There's a lot more of that going on because it's short, sharp, to the point, you know, they can see the product and we have been influenced by them because that's why the hashtag TikTok made me buy it exists. Okay. Because you see something, you're like, oh, that looks cool and it may be someone that you already follow. So I follow a lot of people that tell you how to cook on a budget, and then all of a sudden they've got these kitchen gadgets that they're promoting and. But they're using it in a normal way of. Well, while I'm cooking, I use this. And it's. Obviously, they have to have the ad or the sponsored, you know, tag on it, but it's not the same as boosting a post on Facebook or paying for advertising on any of the other platforms. It is more organic and it's more. Yes, it's a sponsored post, as in the person has been paid to do it, but they haven't paid TikTok, in this case, to promote the post. So it's not like they're not targeting you through advertising spend. They're targeting people through. These people already follow us because we started from zero followers and built up our page or built up our. Our following through whatever we're talking about. And now these companies are reaching out and saying, promote this. For me, you know, there's lots of different things that I've seen, and some things work well with the person that's doing it and other things. You're just thinking that was too much of a stretch to get your storyline or to get it into your brand that, you know, to make us think that you're actually doing this naturally and that you would always use this product.
Melanie
So how do you think we can encourage our listeners to approach influencer marketing? You know, how do they prepare themselves for it? How can they make the jump from what they're currently doing to maybe doing influencer marketing of their own?
Esther
You mean for hiring influencer marketing to.
Melanie
Be the hired gun?
Esther
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think, first of all, it has to be something that resonates or fits in with your brand. So, for example, Feedalpha fits in perfectly with our brand because we talk about marketing and they help marketers, we schedule content to social media, and that's what Feedalpha helps people to do. So that is a good combination. If we were to be approached by, I don't know, the Halifax bank or HSBC bank, that has nothing to do. We're not financers. You know, if they're going to give us free money, go ahead. But it has nothing to do with the brand of the Monday Morning Marketing podcast. If we were talking accounting or finances or things like that, that would be a better fit. If we were going to be approached by, you know, Deep River Rock or Evian water. That's not a great fit for us either. I mean, yes, we should be drinking water all the time, but how do we get that into our audio podcasts? I mean, it's not as if we're recording these on video and showing the bottle. You know, there's. It has to be a good fit. It has to be something that works.
Melanie
Effects in the background sound like we're in a sort of watery cave or something.
Esther
Please don't. We'd have our audience running to the toilet all the time. But it has to be a good fit. It has to be something that if you're going to start to be an influencer, you have to be on board with the product. You. It has to fit with your ethics as well. You can't just go, oh, well, it's, you know, it's money. They're going to pay me money, and I'm just going to talk about the product. If it's a product you're never going to use or you wouldn't recommend, then don't do it. Have a bit of scruples and the same thing. If you're going to look for an influencer to help you with your marketing, make sure you're a good fit. Don't have, you know, clashing heads and don't have clashing personalities, because that's one thing. And I will add, know your audience, because I heard of. Heard recently of a brand that. Okay, I'm just going to name it. So the Coca Cola company was asking for people to promote Coca Cola Zero Sugar. Now, here in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, we all call it Coke Zero. But no, the company wanted to be called Coca Cola Zero Sugar. Coca Cola Zero Sugar. So it sounded stilted on the ad. It didn't sound natural. Nobody calls it that. Nobody's going to be looking for Coca Cola Zero Sugar. Everybody looks for Coke Zero. So I don't think they hit the mark with that because they were too strict in sticking to their brand guidelines.
Melanie
Yeah. So that's something else that you need to make sure that you put in place that a set of guidelines that you're going to stick between. I guess we've kind of done it ourselves, haven't we, Esther? Because bringing both of our powerhouses together to bring you the Monday Morning Marketing podcast, you know, so we've kind of already done it, because we've brought both of our audiences together and, you know, we do slightly different areas of marketing and we have different areas of knowledge and experience and. And we've already brought that partnership together as a couple of influencers because we're, we're both, you know, less, you know, over five minutes out the door of business.
Esther
Yeah.
Melanie
So I guess if you really want something and you can see that there's this gelling of personalities and customer and passion, you are basically an influencer as long as you've got sufficient clout to begin with in the first place. So I hope we've inspired some people who are listening today to take that jump and credit us with it. Thanks.
Esther
Yeah, no, definitely. And I don't think people should be afraid of influencers. They're not all standing in big fancy villas and, you know, flaunting, like, all the riches around them. Some of them are. Well, majority of the ones that I see are so down to earth and so relatable. That's what makes people buy from them. Or people click on the, you know, the button in the TikTok shop and then end up buying stuff that they might not really need.
Melanie
You know, I had this one client recently who came in and she was saying, oh, I'm having this issue. I'm getting people contacting me, asking me to sort of mention stuff or hold stuff. So I'm not entirely comfortable about it. And she seemed so normal. And so I met her in person. Yeah. Completely un unobvious at all about what sort of power and influence she has in her niche. And then I looked at her Instagram account, she had 12,000 followers and she got them in three years. And I'm like-.
Esther
Yeah.
Melanie
How did you do that? She's so unassuming. And.
Esther
Yeah.
Melanie
And she was saying, I'm being approached and I don't really know what to do about it. And. And I was like, well, you need to speak to a professional, because when it comes to paid influencer marketing, there are platforms that you can go to. And we've had Sinead O'Carroll here before from the Blogger agency, so quite a while back, but. So I sent her over to, to her. But, you know, it's. Sometimes people don't even realise what power they have. And I bet you there are some listeners there who are going, seriously, you only need a thousand. I've got like eight.
Esther
Yeah, yeah. And the other thing that's very important to put in place is a contract.
Melanie
Yeah.
Esther
What is expected of you? What do you expect of the company? Is it a case of they'll send you a product, you take one video, send the product back, do you get to keep the product? Do you have to do three or four videos over what space of time is it? Stories, reels, you know, how long do they have to be? How many times in the one story or the one video do you have to mention the product or the brand? All of these things should be decided beforehand. So if you're looking to hire an influencer, make sure that you know what it is you're expecting and I would even go as far as to set up a separate link for them to be using so that you can see how much, how many, how much traffic has been generated by them or through them.
Melanie
Yeah UTM or through that basically a UTM so that you can see exactly how people are coming from, directly from their videos or posts because otherwise you can't really track it.
Esther
Exactly, exactly. But like Melanie says, don't be afraid to do it to start it to even you know, if you're being approached by companies, take a look into it contact. There's Sinead of the blogger agency. There's VAVA Influence in Northern Ireland who is also an influencer marketing company that will help you to be connected with the correct brands for you and for your audience.
Melanie
No, we're not affiliates. The neither of these people know that we, we were going to mention them today so kudos to you, you got mentioned anyway and wherever you're listening, anywhere in the world and we know we've got a good dose of people from all over Europe and over in the US and Canada. So there will be an influencer agency that will be highly recommended in your locale. Just look around, get advice and if there's anything that myself and Esther can help with, we've got, I'd say a sizeable connections of network that we can tap between us. So if there's anything we can help with in that respect, then don't be afraid to approach us.
Esther
Yes.
Melanie
Well that's all the time we have for now. But you know, this has been a great conversation. I hope it's really inspired people to take that leap. Be brave, understand the power and the influence you have and start helping others with it. We'll be back next week, so say goodbye Esther.
Esther
Goodbye Esther.
Melanie
And it's goodbye from you.
Esther
We've just aged ourselves horribly there.
Melanie
Oh my God, we really have.
