Latest / Influencer Confidential / "Is It an Influencer’s Job to Drive Sales?" Two Sides of the Coin #227

Transcript

"Is It an Influencer’s Job to Drive Sales?" Two Sides of the Coin #227 · Influencer Confidential

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Influencer Confidential by Sidewalker Daily. My name is
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Nina Zeta and I will be your host. I love
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: working with brands and influencers on all things business strategy.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Are you ready to learn what it takes to.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Work in this influencer industry and see behind the current Well,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: let's jump in.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: As someone who works on the brand side and has
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: managed hundreds of thousands of dollars of influencer budgets paying influencers,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: content creators, u GC creators. I have a lot of
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: intel and insight on the brand side right and I
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: think that's what makes us so different and special here
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: at Sidewalker Daily. I come to you all my community
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: of creators with a wealth of knowledge sharing how brands
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: really feel. At the same time, I've also built a
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: community of creators. Hundreds of thousands of creators come to
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: me to learn, whether it's on my podcasts, my YouTube,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: my newsletter, and I'm on your team too. But being
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: in the middle has always been an interesting place for
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: me because I truly want to foster win win partnership.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: I want brands to be happy and I want the
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: creators to be happy. I want brands to trust creators,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: and I want creators to trust brands, and having this
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: perspective of both sides has really created a really wonderful
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: space for us to share and help both y'all, both
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: brand and creator do better, do better. I hate seeing
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: brands take advantage of creators. Y'all have seen my articles
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: on CNN and NBC and all the places that you've
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: seen me on on media advocating for creators to not
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: get taken advantage of. At the same time, I've gotten
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: frustrated with creators who have bought fake followers and have
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: done fraudulent things to brands as well. Right, we say,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: there's always people on both sides that aren't always honest
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: or doing what's right, But there are topics in our
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: industry that are always up for debate. They're not always
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: a clear answer around said topics, but there are opinions.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: And what I want to do is bring to you
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: a controversial topic and I want to debate it with you,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: and I want to share both sides of the coin.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to be sharing my opinion because I
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: am Switzerland baby, but I am going to be sharing
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: with you both sides so that you can hear and
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: see from the other side. Now, what is said? Topic?
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Said topic is all about? Is it an influencer's job
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: to drive sales? Now you may have not expected that,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: but being on the brand side, I've heard so many
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: people tell me, well, if we're going to pay four
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars for this campaign, we want to see positive ROI.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: And I'm always asking, okay, well what does that mean?
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: What is ROI? What are the goals of the campaign?
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Are they always sales based campaigns where we're seeing conversions
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: and sales. If you're selling a ten thousand dollars holiday,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: you're working with the tears and board or a hotel.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: People don't just buy things because they see it. And
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I always try to get that expectation right on my brands,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: and I try to help them understand what type of
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: content are they creating and where does it lie on
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: the purchase funnel, Because if you're working with creators who
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: are making very inspirational types of content, then those creators
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: happily be expected to sell, right if it's all very inspirational,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: versus if you're creating very purchase led content that has
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: more of a way to sell. Alternatively, I've seen creators
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: kind of come to the table and be like, well,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: it's not my job to sell. I am not your salesperson.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: My job is to get you views, traffic, clicks. It's
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: your job to convert. And I've heard that opinion as well,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: to which I also see is very valid because these
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: are not people that are part of your sales team.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Especially when you've seen brands only wanting to pay for
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: one post, it changes a little bit when the brand says, Okay,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: I want to pay you for ten posts for the year.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Now you're kind of getting into those territories where you
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: are kind of part of their team. You're getting ten
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: sponsored posts a year from this company, right, So this
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: is what I want to talk about. I want to
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: share both sides, and then I want you, the viewer
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: or the listener, to share with me your opinion. What
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: side up today's debate do you li on? Do you
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: think that influencers are responsible to drive sales or do
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: you think that they're not. Let's start with the side
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: of how influencers are not responsible to drive sales. So
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: when you're working with a big influencer or small one,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: someone that has influenced many times, the goals lie in
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: traffic and awareness. Right. Their job is to let people
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: know you exist and to bring considerable traffic, almost like
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: an alternative to doing a Facebook ad. Right, you're paying
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: for traffic when you're doing Facebook aids. You're paying for
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: traffic when you're doing Google ads. The difference is when
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: you pay an influencer, you're paying for people who are
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: obsessed and trust this person and come to them for recommendations.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: According to Nielsen, ninety two percent of consumers trust and
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: influencers recommendations more than a traditional ad, and influencers know this.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: They spend day in and day out, you know, whether
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: they're sick, whether they have their kid's birthday, whether whatever,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: posting content to build that relationship with their audience. So
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: the years that they have built to build that trust
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: is what the brand is purchasing. They're basically purchasing their
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: stamp of a they create emotional connections with their audience,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: not immediate purchases, because when it comes to sales, there's
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: so much that goes into it, right, like a promo
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: code or something to get people to act fast, And
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: the influencer is like, listen, that's not my job. My
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: job is to bring brand awareness again for said product
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: to even show my audience that it exists, and then
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: it's the brand's responsibility to then take the traffic I
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: bring them and to convert on that. Take beauty influencers,
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: for example, they may post something it goes virall. Does
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: that mean everyone's buying it in that day, that minute,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: that hour. No, Sometimes it takes weeks for content to hit.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: You're seeing the effects afterward. A lot of time. When
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: we think of an influencer's power, we think of the
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: recall sort of purchase. So what do I mean? Perfect example,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: this was me. I remember seing an influencer talk about
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: a humidifier for the night table for their kid. My
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: kid was not sick at the moment. I did not
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: need a humidifier. I was not going to buy that
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: piece of content. I remember I was traveling and I
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: got sick myself and I was like, oh my god,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: I need a humidifier in this room. I was like
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: in Boston, it was so dry the room, and I
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: was like, I need a humidifier. I went to Target.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: I literally went back to that girl's post. I was
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: scrolling in the feet to be like which one was it?
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Until I found it and purchased it. I'm talking a
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: month to two months later, so that sale is not trackable.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: But she told me, hey, this is a great commidifier.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Did I need it in the moment?
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: No?
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Did I buy it three months later? Yes? Is it
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: because of her? Yes? So it is not because there's
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: short term sales that are trackable that you're able to measure.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: You know the ROI of what that creator was able
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: to do for me. This side of the argument says
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: that influencers are not just one off sales reps. They're
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: here to build a sustained presence for you, and that's
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: why when you work with an influencer, we often say,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: don't do the one night stand approach where you're just
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: buying one video and expecting it to do wonders. It's
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: better to work with someone and over time having a
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: set of videos to build that long sustained presence. Influencers
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: can help this brand nurture a brand loyalty as well
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: as trust. Right, it's the best testimonial of them all.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Here on my notes, I have that research from McKinsey
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: shows that repeated exposure to a brand through influencers can
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: increase purchase intent by thirty percent, even if the initial
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: influencer campaign does a result in immediate sales. That was
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: exactly the humanifier example that I lives through. How many
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: of us have and tell me, I'm sure you've bought
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: in stuff that you didn't need in that moment, but
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: that your remembered an influencer shared with you days or
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: weeks later. The idea for this side of the debate
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: is that influencers are meant to bring you the eyeballs,
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: bring you the traffic, and then brand it's on you
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: to set it up and do the home run. It's
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: on you to convert. You know, I had an influencer
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: tell me the other day, Listen, I could bring you
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of abuse to your website. If your
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: website is garbage, if it is trash, there's no call
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: to actions. It's not properly made from a development standpoint.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: She's like, there's nothing I can do to bring you conversions.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: So it is a two folded effort. Also, a lot
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: of brands that I am working with now are using
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: the influencers to supplement their Facebook ads. So what I
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: mean the influencer brings traffic up. A certain type of
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: individual they go on the landing page, the pixel then
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: the Facebook pixels then activated and follows that person for days, weeks,
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: months until the purchase is made. Right. So there's this
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: beautiful combined effort of where the influencer is bringing traffic
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: and the Facebook ad is following said traffic to help
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: close the sale. And I think those are obviously great
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: ways of where we can see traditional advertising like Facebook
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: merge with influencer marketing. Now this is team influencers don't
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: need to be direct salespeople. Let's jump in to the
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: other side and hear what brands have had to say
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: on that end. If you look at that data out there,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: the biggest frustration of why influencer marketing is not doing
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: well within a certain company is because of exactly the ROI.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: They feel like, listen, we're paying you four thousand dollars,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: we want to make twelve thousand back at least eight thousand.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: We want to double up at least four thousand to
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: break even. But even if you think about it, let's
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: just say you work with me, you pay me four
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: thousand to help you get brands, and you don't see
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: that now, but you see it in a couple months.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: From now or six months from now, you two may
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: be disappointed. But if you work with me and you're like, wow,
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: I paid her four thousand, and a month later I
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: made eight thousand in brand deals, that was a good investment. Ray.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: So let's not fall on the brands for wanting to
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: see that return right away. Let's give them some grace here,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: even though we may know that those returns don't happen immediate.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: A lot of brands say, well, because influencers have this
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: trust with their audience, and because they've built this trust,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: therefore the purchase intent should be higher. It is actually
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: their job to make sure that they use the right copy,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: the right captions, the right words when they're creating content,
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: to make sure they drive the sale. Creators, if you
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: are going to be paid high amounts, you need to
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: do your research. You need to make sure you look
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: at this as a sales job and not as a
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: content job. You need to make sure that you're putting
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: content together that helps the brand's bottom line. Again, this
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: is their perspective that we're hearing. They're like, if I
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: pay any of this, you got this trust with your people,
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: all right? Where are your people at? We'll give you
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: a promo code, We'll give you a discount. Let's see it.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Let's see the trust in action, right, And I think
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: that's the side that we hear the brands that are
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: antsy to make their money back to get the influencer's
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: audience to react quickly. And that's why so many brands
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: want creators involved in affiliate marketing, because they're like, well,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: let's make it win win. Let's make it win. When
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: you sell, you get a cut. Now, off the record,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: I think the issue that we see with a lot
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: of affiliate marketing is that the affec abiliate commission is
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: so low that there's really no skin in the game
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: for creators to push twenty dollars sunglasses for ten cents
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: or whatever they're making off of it, right, Like, those
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: aren't the good types of affiliates. So if you're a
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: creator listening, you can always try to makee negotiate that
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: affiliate partnership. I think we're seeing so much data out
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: there that says, influencer marketing is it. This is why
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: brands should participate, and that's why we're seeing brands participate.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: But again, they're participating not because they want to just
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: give people money and like create videos. They want those
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: videos to eventually convert, and the conversion ultimately comes down
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: to sales. So that is why we are seeing a
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: whole flood of brands not only being frustrated with the
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: influencers they pay. They feel like they're putting money down
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: a payhole and they're not getting their money back. That's why, Well,
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: luckily for the brands that work with me, they know
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: that we have strategies to ensure that that does not
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: happen to them and that they're not their money away,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: and also making sure that they work with influencers that
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: have true, valid followings, that have case studies to show,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: because that would be unfortunate for our brands to be
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: paying five thousand dollars for a creator with fake followings.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: And let me tell y'all, I just had an influencer
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: and tell me this. The other day. She's a local creator,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: She just a small following. She said, Oh my gosh,
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: there's this guy. He has forty thousand followers. They're all fake.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: He is in my small town. He's going to all
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: the local businesses. They're all paying him. They're not getting results,
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: and it's hurting all of us. And again Now, all
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: brands are privy to tools or know how to track
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: and see if these creators have fake followings, so they
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: fall for it and then they get disappointed, and then
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: the good creators are stuck kind of on the other end,
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: being like, this is unfortunate that that guy who about
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: the fake followers is getting the business. But I'm being
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: honest and I'm not I actually made a video recently
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: all about the FTC cracking down on creators with fake followers.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: So if you're interested in watching that, go ahead and
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: watch that video next. And like I said, the FTC
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: is coming for you. So don't get get into the
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: fake follower route, y'all, because you will get penalized and
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: you will get fined for that. So the question becomes,
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: and I want to hear from you, our creators responsible
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: to drive sales? Is that their job or is their
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: job to bring traffic? And it's the brand's job to
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: create an amazing landing page, an amazing sales page, and
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: amazing everything. It's the brand's job to convert, not the creator.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you did, make
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: sure to rate, review, and subscribe to our show and
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: visit Sidewalkerdaily dot com for more resources on all things influencer,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: marketing and social media. Until next time,