The Definitive Influencer Marketing Guide

Brands are enthusiastically embracing the use of influencers as a part of their promotional strategy. The practice of influencer marketing is gaining momentum, with a 2018 ANA survey of 158 client-side marketers finding that between 75 percent and 86 percent of brands use influencer marketing, with 65 percent of brands planning to increase their spending by 2020. Brands are launching influencer marketing campaigns because they work, and they work because this approach reflects how consumers make brand purchases, turning to friends and other trusted sources to get input and validation on purchase decisions. Influencer marketing is driving growth for many brands, and is no longer a trend but a mainstream marketing strategy.

Influencer marketing has experienced some growing pains, with fraud the most serious among them. Some influencers have purchased fake followers to inflate the size of their sphere of influence, misrepresenting their value to advertisers. Unilever CMO Keith Weed took a bold stand during the 2018 Cannes Lions festival, announcing that the brand won’t work with influencers who buy followers. Furthermore, the brand announced plans to inspect influencers and their followers to sever ties with those who had fake followers, bots, or used other fraudulent practices. Weed became the voice of the industry on the matter of fraud, recognizing that when news of fraud becomes public, the influencers take a reputation hit, but so do the brands that trusted those influencers.

Fortunately, taking the right steps to vet influencers can mitigate fraud concerns, allowing brands to leverage influencers to great effect. This guide will share with readers the important things to know about influencer marketing. It will review the current state of influencer marketing, sharing definitions, practices, and steps that advertisers should follow to ensure that what they do is built on trust and true influence, not fake followers. Two examples of brand influencer marketing campaigns will provide useful templates for success with influencer marketing.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• What is Influencer Marketing?
• Influencer Marketing = Big Business
• Influencer Marketing Objectives & Engagement
• Building an Influencer Marketing Strategy
  • Compliance & Transparency
  • Selecting Influencers
  • Working with Influencers
  • Influencer Marketing Campaign Activation
  • Measuring Influencer Marketing Campaigns
• Fraudulent Influencer Marketing
  • ​​Types of Fraud
  • How to Spot Fraud
  • Preventing Fraud
• Influencer Marketing Action Plan
  • ​​The Starting Point: Influencer Marketing Strategy
  • Creating, Launching, and Running Influencer Marketing Campaigns
• The Future of Influencer Marketing
• APPENDIX Case Study: Olay
• APPENDIX Case Study: AT&T "Later Haters"​