How to Build an Influencer Marketing Strategy That Works

A few weeks ago, I started a new job as the Marketing Manager at Talview. I’ve been working on several plans to build brand awareness, generate leads, and support sales. You know, marketing.

As I’m thinking about what goes into a good marketing plan, I can’t help but incorporate programs I love building like customer marketing and peer review sites programs and, of course, Influencer Relations.

If you’re wondering how I build my HR Influencer Marketing programs (and the top mistakes I see most companies make), these tips are for you.

Define “Influencer” and Let Your PR Firm Know

Influencer Marketing shouldn’t exist in a silo. It should be considered as part of a larger marketing agenda in conjunction with PR and corporate communications, direct marketing, events, digital, and more.

With that in mind, it’s important to consider who will be managing the relations, programs, and campaigns. Simultaneously, it’s important to define what you mean by “Influencer.”

Most companies hire PR firms to manage communications with media and press. If you haven’t hired a PR firm that knows your industry – like really, really, really KNOWS your industry – you run the risk of duplicating efforts and pissing off key industry contacts in the process. Many Influencers have their own blogs, but they may also write a column for a larger publication like Forbes. When you’re running your Influencer Relations program internally, you’ll reach out to the person as an Influencer. And, the PR firm will reach out to the same person on your behalf thinking they are press. This literally happens all the time and it makes everyone look bad.

Diversity and Influencer Marketing

Like in candidate and talent pipelines, or in company leadership, diversity doesn’t just happen in Influencer Marketing. It needs to be planned ahead and strategized. That’s why it’s important to look at what you’re trying to accomplish, who is available to help you accomplish those goals, and then choose a mix of diverse Influencers to help you achieve your goals.

This is one of the biggest mistakes I see people make. Vendors look at each influencer or each campaign in part of a silo instead of planning ahead and working to build a holistic, diverse program. They say, “well [Influencer] has the largest blog on [topic],” and then that book the largest Influencer for each topic. That’s how you end up with an all white, mostly male program. And that’s how/when you get called out. It’s not that hard to think ahead.

Additionally, when you take that “who is the biggest person on this topic” approach, you miss something. Typically, the largest blogs, at least in the HR industry, were start at the same time by people who almost definitely all know each other. And, unless the topics are different – think compliance v. recruiting, they most likely have similar audiences. Working with diverse Influencers allows you to reach diverse audiences. Thus, by partnering with a diverse group of Influencers, even if they individually have smaller audiences, you may end up reaching more people.

Work With Influencers on a Variety of Topics

This may sound stupid, but it needs to be said. If you’re a business who wants to attract prospective customers, saying the same thing over and over again can make you lose your mind. Sometimes, you need to find something new to say.

What I mean is all vendors in a product category solve the same issues. However, they market themselves differently to differentiate themselves from other vendors in the space. Different people are attracted to different things and sometimes people need resources on a variety of different topics. If you only talk about one topic, you could be missing out on attracting a huge amount of prospective customers who have the problem you can solve but may be looking for other kinds of resources or topics at the moment.

Take this blog – that’s why you’ll see everything from Influencer Lists, to strategy posts like this one, to trends, to sponsored content, to even industry collaborations. All of these posts talk about different things in different ways to help different people with different aspects of their Influencer programs. There’s something for everybody.

If I just created a bunch of content saying the same thing, eventually people would stop reading. And, if I was saying the same thing as everyone else, again, people would stop reading.

It’s important to mix it up.

Building Influencer Marketing programs can be challenging. It can be difficult to navigate different Influencer cliques, personalities, brands and topics, and costs. However, if you treat this like any other program – build a strategy and spend some time researching and considering best practices – you’ll find your way.