USE SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS TO ENDORSE AND PROMOTE YOUR BRAND

EPISODE 02 HIGHLIGHTS

Has your business tried influencer marketing? Utilizing social media influencers to endorse and promote products is on the rise, and if you don’t jump on board, you risk being left behind. Beth Stephens, President of Soapbox Influence, recently guested on the Press Play Podcast to discuss this very subject.

Soapbox Influence is an influencer marketing agency with a network of over 7,000 influencers across the country. They also specialize in social media management and shopper and consumer insights.

As the leader of the team, Beth is well connected and incredibly knowledgeable in the world of influencer marketing. On the podcast, she talked about why influencer marketing is beneficial, how she keeps things fresh, which myths about influencers need to be busted, and the importance of finding your niche. Check it out!

Don’t Sleep on Influencer Marketing!

Many businesses have been hesitant to accept that social media influencers are the next wave in marketing. Whether it’s because of a few myths that need to be busted – more on this below – or a general fear of adopting new trends, brands that refuse to jump on the influencer bandwagon risk falling behind.

With influencers, you have a brand new avenue that takes you directly to your ideal customer, no matter how niche your market is. Influencers also offer more authenticity than traditional marketing strategies. They show their audience what’s going on in their lives while they promote products they actually care about and enjoy.

“If you think about all of these use-case scenarios for a product, and when you use an influencer, they can tell their audience, ‘Hey, you’ve got to try this with sushi,’ or ‘Hey, check out this cocktail that I made using Mike’s Hot Honey.’ So they start to get the wheels turning, and start to use all of these different scenarios that maybe a traditional marketer agency would never come up with.” (6:41)

ABP – Always Be Prospecting

As the world constantly changes and creating online content becomes even more prevalent, getting lost in a sea of content is getting easier and easier. Every new idea and trend is an opportunity to grow and become inspired, but how can you possibly find time for it all?

“I think sometimes we’re prone to just do the same things we do and be very formulaic in our approach to the day. And that’s not going to yield fresh ideas and thought processes if we’re around the same people and the same ways of thinking every day.” (12:06)

Beth learned early in her career that skimming was her best friend. She needed to know everything going on in the newspaper, but she had a fraction of the time it took to read it all. Now, while her husband watches sports in the evening, she canvases the television for brands that are advertising on the courts and in the arenas.

“I think, to your point, you can constantly be on, and you can be learning, and you can be thinking and observing and kind of gleaning information that affects and propels your business forward anytime.” (15:15) 

Influencer Marketing – Myth Busting

Let’s break down a few common misconceptions about influencer marketing.

Myth: Influencer marketing is merely girls gallivanting around doing fashion photoshoots and being shallow.

Let’s Bust It: While you might see this at times, Soapbox is working with a completely different type of influencer – the everyday influencer. These are people making a living in their living room. They are only promoting products they genuinely love and care about, and they do it in an authentic, relatable way.

Myth: Influencer marketing has no real correlation to an increase in sales.

Let’s Bust It: This myth exists because it is difficult to measure exact statistics on influencer marketing campaigns. We don’t yet have a foolproof way to track whether someone buys a product after seeing a post from an influencer, but this doesn’t mean we can’t bust this myth! Influencers have the name for a reason. People love to follow in the footsteps of people they admire, and that’s precisely what influencers are. They have influence over their audience, and when they truly, authentically endorse a product, their audience is likely to buy-in.

“So I think the myth being, does this stuff work? Yes, it does. But like any other form of marketing, it really comes back to the call to action and a clear strategy.” (18:43)

Myth: Influencers aren’t effective in the B2B space.

Let’s Bust It: Influencers aren’t confined to the retail space. While they are most commonly there, there are influencers for even the smallest niches. Soapbox Influence calls on its consumer insights to narrow down the field and market directly to your ideal customer, whether it’s a business or a consumer.

How are you going to include influencers in your brand’s marketing strategy?