7 Key Trends To Point Marketers in the Right Direction for Realizing True ROI and Business Impact in 2017
Here are some of the research insights as assembled by Lee Odden:
1. 71% of marketers say their influencer marketing programs are strategic or highly strategic.
At the same time, on average, enterprise companies are allocating only a 10% share of marketing budget to influencer marketing. In fact, 50% of the CMOs we surveyed allocate less than $100,000 annually.
Clearly, enterprise companies need to put their money where their strategy is.
The good news is that 55% of marketers surveyed plan to spend more on influencer marketing in the coming year and for those that spend more than $250,000 annually, that number jumps to 67% and even higher to 77% for those brands using influencer marketing technology.
2. 67% of marketers want to drive lead generation through the use of influencer marketing.
Beyond improving brand advocacy, awareness and reaching new audiences, the majority of marketers are also focused on improving leads and sales conversion (74%) as a result of working with industry influencers. Thinking holistically, influence plays a role throughout the customer lifecycle and in all relationship-drive brand communications. The movement towards brands incorporating influencers in content beyond marketing to sales, customer service, recruiting and PR is gaining momentum.
3. 80% of marketers rate content marketing as most impacted by influencer marketing.
In discussions about the ROI of brand relationships with influencers, there’s simply no better match than content collaboration for creating measurable, impactful business outcomes. The research supports this with content being rated highest in impact from influencer marketing along with social media marketing and media relations.
4. 43% of marketers are experimenting with influencer marketing.
It is still early days for influencer marketing within companies with such a large number still experimenting. 28% of marketers rate the maturity of their influencer marketing program as campaign driven and 24% are implementing ongoing programs. As brands mature their ability and relationships with influencer marketing, I think the trend will change significantly towards the majority of companies implementing always on, ongoing programs.
5. 48% of B2C influencer marketing programs are ongoing.
This is in contrast to only 11% of B2B companies running ongoing influencer marketing programs. With 80% of marketers rating content so important in terms of influencer marketing impact and the importance of content for longer B2B sales journeys, I think we’ll see explosive growth of ongoing programs in the B2B space.
6. Marketing owns influencer marketing (70%) but PR engages with influencers most often (70%).
There is, what seems, an eternal battle between who owns influencer marketing and rather than a turf war, I think what we’ll see more of is convergence between marketing and PR. The same influencers could be engaged by multiple departments within an organization beyond marketing and PR, so a more holistic and strategic view along with the right technology for management of those influencer relationships will be essential.
7. 57% of marketers say influencer marketing will be integrated in all marketing activities in the next 3 years.
Currently, only 5% of marketers rate the maturity of their influencer marketing program as integrated, so the forward-looking optimism for the next 3 years towards integration should be a strong signal for the direction influencer marketing is going.
In the Influence 2.0 model, influencers can play a role in each moment of truth during the customer journey through content, engagement, and community. A strategic and always on approach to influence enables true customer centricity by placing customer experience at the center of an enterprise business strategy. It is by engaging influencers in authentic, long-term relationships and creating value within the relationships between influencers and their communities, that CMOs can impact sales, satisfaction, retention and overall customer experience.
