I know that’s not the crystal-clear answer you hoped for, but I promise it’s not a bad thing. Brands of pretty much any size and budget can run a successful influencer marketing campaign with the right strategy. Of course, the DIY approach will run you a much smaller bill than working with a full-service influencer marketing agency like The Shelf.

Like most things, you’ll get out of your influencer marketing campaign what you’re willing to put in. A monetary investment like hiring an agency can yield big returns, but so can scraping together a kick-butt strategy entirely with your in-house team.

Invest in Strategy First

Before you spend a dime on hiring influencers or partnering up with an agency, first you need to define your goals. There are plenty of cost-effective options for each type of influencer campaign. 

If you’re hoping to increase brand awareness, maybe you can rake in some UGC with a contest or giveaway. Hoping to increase sales instead? Affiliate marketing with the help of smaller influencers can really move the needle. Get specific about your goals and you’ll find plenty of resources that will break down the cost to achieve them.

Show Me the Money

According to Statista, the influencer marketing industry is worth over $21 billion in 2023. And brands small and large are bringing home a piece of that pie. The average ROI of an influencer marketing campaign today is $5.20 for every $1 spent. So whatever you have to spend on your next campaign, it’s likely to be a worthwhile investment. 

So what can you expect to pay when working with influencers? Take these numbers with a grain of salt. Influencers often set their own rates, sometimes without the help of an agency that knows the industry standard, so prices may vary. 

According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the industry standard for influencer posts is around $100 per 10,000 followers per post. This is absolutely not always the case. And it’s important to remember, number of followers is rarely the most important factor when selecting influencers to work with.

Influencer Marketing Cost in Conclusion

Influencer marketing can be done on almost any budget. Fortunately for you, that means it doesn’t have to cost your brand an arm and a leg for good quality content. Unfortunately for us, that means we can’t give you a one-size-fits-all answer for how much a successful influencer marketing campaign costs. 

The truth is, it varies. It all depends on your budget, the scope of your campaign, and the goals you hope to achieve. This can be a lot to parse out on your own but don’t worry. That’s where we come in.

If you’d like a more in-depth look at what your next influencer marketing campaign might cost, don’t hesitate to reach out. You can book a strategy call with one of our experts and we’ll walk you through the offerings that fit your budget. 

About This Author

Ariana Newhouse | B2B Writer

I am a freelance writer and comedian based in Los Angeles, and while making people laugh is my jam, it’s not always the company brand. So, I strive to make people feel something. My writing philosophy is collaborative, empathetic, and humanistic. At the end of the day, no matter the message, there are real people on both ends of the process.

The post How Much Does Influencer Marketing Cost? appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

One of the highest-level choices marketers make these days is how to advertise. Do you go the traditional route and spend millions on commercials? Or do you target social media instead of traditional TV, out-of-home, or print ads? Should you hire commercial actors or influencers to be the face of your campaign? These are all great questions, and luckily for you, we have answers. 

In this article, we’ll break down the differences between influencer marketing and traditional marketing, so you can make an informed decision on where to spend precious ad dollars for your next campaign. While here at The Shelf we’re partial to the influencer marketing buzz, we promise to give both types a fair shake, so you can choose which is best for you. Don’t be surprised if, by the end of this article, you’d like to use both! 

Let’s dive in. 

What’s the Difference Between Influencer Marketing and Traditional Marketing?

First, let’s define our terms. In the broadest strokes, influencer marketing is online and traditional marketing is offline. But it’s not that simple anymore. Traditional marketing techniques can be used across brands’ social media channels. And influencers can be cast in TV commercials, billboards, and other “traditional” ads. In 2023, there are plenty of ways to meld influencer and traditional marketing. But before we get into the potential of an influencer and traditional marketing swirl, let’s talk about the contrast between the two.

WHAT IS TRADITIONAL MARKETING?

Traditional marketing is, well traditionally, old methods of advertising like print ads, billboards, TV commercials, and radio spots. Think of traditional marketing as outbound. It takes consumers out of their regularly scheduled programming. Traditional marketing, whether online or off, is an interruption or an add-on to what the audience is already consuming. 

For instance, say you’re watching your favorite sitcom only to be interrupted by a car commercial right at the most climactic scene! The commercial, an example of traditional marketing, takes you out of your activity and disrupts your show-watching experience. This might be annoying when you desperately want to know whether the protagonist gets the girl or gets fired or catches her sister stealing from the family safe. But it’s not necessarily a bad thing. By inserting the ad into a media experience you’re highly engaged in, you’re more likely to stick it out and watch the entire car commercial rather than changing the channel, so you can be sure you don’t miss it when your show comes back on. 

Another distinct feature of traditional marketing is its breadth. While you can choose the channel or timeslot of your TV commercial to align with a show that reaches your target demographic, you’re casting a wide net. Therefore the content you’re creating isn’t as tailored or as bespoke. 

Traditional marketing online can look like banner ads on the margins or in pop-ups of websites other than the brand’s home site. These essentially function as the print ads we see in newspapers in magazines. Another example could be commercial-like video ads that play before YouTube videos. The tactics, budgets, and intent of ads like these mirror the strategies of old-guard traditional marketing in the social media sphere — and of course, they don’t typically cast influencers.

WHAT IS INFLUENCER MARKETING?

Influencer marketing, on the other hand, is fresh, new, and digitally native. This tactic refers to social media marketing that leverages the followings of influencers. It takes word-of-mouth advertising to a whole new level. Influencers develop trust with their niche audiences by creating engaging and entertaining content that audiences find authentic and reliable. 

Influencer followings come in a range of sizes and niches, so you can get very specific with who exactly you’re targeting and how much you want to spend. You have the option to cast a wide net with mega influencers, whose followings rival the reach of traditional advertising methods, but you can also go much more granular and focused if you choose. 

Influencer marketing is considered inbound because instead of interrupting your consumers’ experience with another form of media, the best influencer marketing creates an entertaining and valuable experience for the consumer — that the consumers actually want. Instead of taking you out of your element, it adds to it. 

Another distinct difference is that influencer marketing puts consumers in the driver’s seat. Your target audience chooses which influencers they follow, and therefore the type of products they’ll be advertised. As most influencer marketing is consumed on social media sites accessed via mobile devices, each influencer ad can be skipped with a simple swipe of the thumb. Because it’s easier for consumers to skip or provide negative feedback to influencer marketing, the influencer ads themselves must be highly engaging and entertaining to encourage the audience to stick around and watch. 

Influencer marketing includes any social posts made by an influencer. This spans all the different social media networks and post types. Think everything from a trendy, transition-heavy TikTok video to a highly professional text-heavy LinkedIn post. There are influencers for every niche, platform, and brand desire. 

Traditional Marketing Pros

Traditional marketing is a tale as old as time. It’s tried and true and has worked for decades. And even with the booming social media presence in our daily lives, traditional marketing isn’t going anywhere any time soon. It allows you to cast a wide net and reach a large variety of demographics within your audience in a single campaign. This means you can reach a more diverse audience with fewer assets. Traditional marketing strategies also allow you to retain full control of the creative at every step of the process. And they can be great for targeting hyper-local audiences. 

There is a long, impressive history of traditional marketing full of crazy, cool, creative, and groundbreaking campaigns. If you want to live your Mad Men fantasy, traditional advertising can definitely deliver. 

Traditional Marketing Cons

If the bulk of your target audience is younger — think millennial and gen z — traditional marketing may not be the most effective use of your budget. And speaking of budget, traditional marketing can be much more costly than its influencer counterpart. Traditional marketing generally has much longer lead times than digital alternatives, as print and TV spots require months of notice and approvals before publication. This, of course, expands your marketing timelines and likely decreases the number of campaigns you can run per fiscal year. 

Additionally, it can be hard to track ROI on traditional marketing efforts. You can’t exactly track clicks on a radio commercial or determine how many people bought your product because they saw it on a billboard, so it can be harder to know just how effective your campaigns really are. 

Influencer Marketing Pros

One of the greatest benefits of influencer marketing is that it doesn’t feel like marketing. Influencers promote products in ways that feel seamless to their audiences. Imagine a friend telling you about their favorite new lip balm. It’s not going to feel like a commercial for lip balm. This is your BFF we’re talking about! They have chapped lips that need balming just like yours, and you trust their opinion! The best influencer marketing feels like a conversation with a trusted pal. 

Basically, influencers create high-quality, engaging, and often highly topical (re: trendy) content that provides social proof for a product. This is great for engaging your audience in a way that feels more organic than traditional methods. 

Influencer marketing can also be highly targeted. Choose the influencers that align exactly with your target audience, and you’ll be able to find new consumers in any niche. Plus, because influencer marketing lead times are so much shorter, your campaigns can be much more iterative. Social posts allow you to try out different tactics and adapt on the fly based on real-time results. If you’re a big believer in chasing those ROI numbers, influencer marketing can deliver those data points. 

Influencer Marketing Cons

Of course, all that glitters isn’t always gold. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows on the influencer marketing front. With the flexibility and affordability of influencer marketing comes a big relinquishment of control. The best influencer campaigns allow influencers to put their own spin on the promotion. That means you probably won’t be providing an exact script or slide-by-slide storyboard for your influencer to follow. And finding influencers you trust to accurately represent your brand can be difficult. 

Choosing the wrong influencers can do a doozy on your brand’s reputation, but don’t fret! Influencer marketing agencies (like us!) can help you find the right influencers and drastically decrease the risk of hiring influencers you’ll regret working with. 

Traditional Marketing Examples

Let’s compare some traditional and influencer marketing efforts from a singular brand.

Companies like Don Julio Tequila are able to create cinematic masterpieces like the video below with their traditional marketing budgets and creative teams. This commercial ran both on social media and out-of-home channels (aka TV commercial spots). And it’s clearly an artful and creatively impressive piece. You’ll notice that it’s more of an endorsement for the brand itself rather than for a single product. This is likely due to the breadth of uses and audiences this traditional-style commercial served. 

Source: Don Julio Tequila on YouTube 

And Don Julio Tequila applies traditional marketing tactics to its social channels for more than repurposing out-of-home ads. They also create social-specific ads like the one below. You’ll notice this is more than just social-specific, it’s also product-specific and therefore more targeted to a subset of Don Julio’s wider audience. 

Source: @donjuliotequila on Instagram

You can see 5,870 people liked this Instagram ad for the brand’s Rosado. That’s a little less than 2 percent engagement when you consider the account’s 319k followers. 

Influencer Marketing Example

Don Julio Tequila advertised the same product with popular influencer, Tefi Pessoa. While Tefi has a bit smaller Instagram following, boasting 229k followers at the time of writing, her sponsored post for the same product received a much higher engagement. With 8,450 likes, Tefi’s post earned an engagement of 3.7 percent. And she was able to put her own spin on the campaign, which her followers loved because it was authentically her.

Source: @hellotefi on Instagram

Is Influencer Marketing or Traditional Marketing Better for My Campaign?

Here at The Shelf, we’re obviously partial to all things social media marketing. It’s our bread and butter. But as we’ve established, it’s totally possible (and often even preferable!) to mix your traditional and influencer marketing strategies in the digital space. 

However, there are some clear determining factors that can help if you truly need to choose either or. If you’re targeting a huge, diverse audience, you have a baller marketing budget, and you want to unleash your team with complete creative control, traditional marketing may be the way to go. 

On the flip side, if you’re targeting a mostly young (millennial or gen z) audience that falls into a specific niche, it may make more sense to find influencers your consumers trust to promote your brand. If your marketing budget is a little light on cash, and you’re really looking to get the most bang for your buck and show your leaders tangible results, influencer marketing is a great option!

Influencer Vs. Traditional Marketing: The Good, The Better, and The Best 

The truth is, there’s no one right way to market a product. Your specific campaign goals, budget, and brand identity make your marketing needs unique to your brand. And your target audience, where they fall in the marketing funnel, and how they most like to shop are all going to affect where and how you reach them. There’s a lot to consider, but the good news is whether you choose to go the traditional route or dive into the hip new world of influencer marketing, there are benefits to both. And you don’t have to choose just one! 

Influencer marketing and traditional marketing offer distinct benefits. They’re both good options. One might be better than the other for your specific needs, and we hope this article helped you determine which strategy will best help you achieve your goals. 

If you have any further questions, or you’d like help structuring your next campaign, schedule a strategy call with one of our experts. We can help point you in the right direction, especially if you think influencer marketing is the right move for your brand. 

About This Author

Ariana Newhouse | B2B Writer

I am a freelance writer and comedian based in Los Angeles, and while making people laugh is my jam, it’s not always the company brand. So, I strive to make people feel something. My writing philosophy is collaborative, empathetic, and humanistic. At the end of the day, no matter the message, there are real people on both ends of the process.

The post Influencer Marketing vs Traditional Marketing: Which is Best for You? appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

Both strategies allow your customers to also become your advertisers. Capitalize on word-of-mouth referrals and product testimonials by determining which social media marketing strategy is right for you. Heck, maybe your brand would benefit from both! 

We’ll break down the differences between affiliate marketing and influencer marketing plus the benefits of each. And we’ll walk you through which strategy might be right for your next campaign in the paragraphs below. The world of social media marketing is your oyster. We hope this article will be your pearl.

Let’s start by defining our terms.

What is Affiliate Marketing? 

Affiliate marketing is the process by which an individual outside a company, or an affiliate, markets the company’s products and gets paid on commission for the sales they drive. Similar to influencer marketing, this practice is most common on social media. Affiliates identify a product they enjoy and share an ad or link to the product on their personal social channels or website. From there, their followers can click on the link and purchase the product. Those conversions are tracked through the affiliate’s bespoke link. The affiliate is then paid a portion of the sales they drive.

Because all parties benefit, affiliate marketing represents an attractive symbiotic relationship for both affiliates and brands. The market for affiliate advertising is growing rapidly. Affiliate marketing spend in the United States crested $8.2 billion in 2022. That’s up from $5.4 billion in 2017. 

There are three different types of affiliate marketing: unattached, related, and involved. Let’s dive into a quick explainer of each so you can determine which type might be best for your brand. 

UNATTACHED

In the unattached model, the affiliate marketer has no attachment to the product, service, or brand they are promoting. This may mean that the product is outside of their niche and that they do not have authority in the industry. The affiliate marketer may not have ever even used the product. They simply post a link and hope people click on it.

These are low-risk, low-commitment partnerships in which the affiliate simply links to a product and does little to deep dive into the advertising or use of the product. Unattached campaigns are generally run on a pay-per-click (PPC) model. While all three models can be beneficial in the right use case, the unattached strategy is the least involved.

RELATED

Related affiliate marketing is a step up from the unattached model. Affiliates may not actually use the product they are promoting, but it does align with their niche, meaning they can speak with authority on the product. This type of affiliate marketing is common among influencers. (I know. This is the affiliate marketing section, but there’s some overlap!) Expertise in a certain niche often leads to garnering a following that trusts the affiliate’s taste and input. This authority + the following = influence. 

Because the affiliate actually has some authority in the space of the product, this can lead to more targeted and successful conversion campaigns. However, there is always the risk of an affiliate recommending a less-than-stellar product since in this model they likely aren’t actually using it outside the marketing effort. While this can still result in sales for the brand, it can lead to backlash from the affiliate’s following which can damage both the affiliate and brand’s reputations. 

INVOLVED

This model of affiliate marketing is the most involved, duh. In involved affiliate campaigns, the affiliate has used the product and can vouch for it from their personal experience. Like the related model, they often have established a niche and following within the vertical of the product. This means they have authority in the space and the added oomph of using and loving the product themself. 

This model can deliver the most bang for your buck, but it does require added investment on the part of the affiliate and likely the brand. The affiliate must build credibility and trust with their audience within the niche, and know the product well enough to convey a genuine interest and appreciation for the product. There is less risk of customer backlash in this model since affiliates must be picky about which products they advertise. And it can lead to higher sales since affiliates can leverage their personal experience of the product rather than relying on PPC.

What is Influencer Marketing?

If you’re a regular here at The Shelf, you know influencer marketing is our bread and butter. If you’d like an in-depth explainer of all things influencer marketing, you can check out our deep dive here. All you need to know for this article is that influencer marketing is an alternative to traditional advertising that leverages influential creators on social media to speak to niche audiences. It’s a form of word-of-mouth advertising that relies on trust and strong relationships between influencers and their followers. 

Basically, influencers publicize their authentic, positive experiences with products and brands and provide recommendations to their followers. It’s like going to a trusted friend for advice on what lipstick to buy, except the trusted friend is a creator whose job it is to feel like every one of their followers’ bestie. It’s taking the parasocial relationships formed over social media and applying word-of-mouth advertising tactics to them. 

In summary, creators with influence (big followings) post about things they like (products, brands, services, etc.) and because they have authority within specific niches and earned trust with their audiences, these posts move the needle for the brands they partner with. 

What are the Benefits of Affiliate Marketing?

For well-established brands, affiliate marketing is super easy to implement. Once you have a mechanism for creating and tracking unique affiliate links, it’s simple to track the conversions from each sale. This ease of use and the scalability it enables are huge benefits of affiliate marketing. 

Increased conversions can also lead to increased site traffic. While beefing web traffic isn’t the primary goal of affiliate marketing, increased sales can lead to more website clicks. More eyeballs on your site are a benefit as well. 

Another noteworthy benefit of affiliate marketing is its affordability. You only pay for tangible results. That means you only pay for conversions, not clicks or impressions. This can be a cost-effective and risk-free alternative to typical influencer marketing. 

What are the Benefits of Influencer Marketing?

Working with influencers can help you build brand trust, awareness, and credibility within your niche audience. Because influencers are highly regarded authority figures within their niches, getting their vote of confidence can make a big difference for your brand. 

Additionally, you have more control over the content created when working within influencer marketing. While we always advocate giving creators the creative freedom the need to make some content magic, your brand does have a Fsay and final approval on the creative they produce. You can (and should) provide influencers with a brief identifying your key takeaways and creative vision for the ad, so they can get creative within the bounds you’ve identified for your campaign. This level of targeting and control is an appealing benefit to many. 

Plus, the average ROI for influencer marketing is $5.20 earned for every $1 spent. Talk about a worthwhile investment. It may be more expensive to use influencer marketing than a purely affiliate approach, but if you have the budget, it can be worth every penny. 

Which is Better for My Campaign?

When deciding between affiliate and influencer marketing, it’s not always a question of either or. Often the two strategies are used in combination. This is especially true in campaigns where the primary goal is to drive sales. The name of the game in affiliate marketing is conversions. You know who is great at driving conversions? Influencers. 

So, if you’re looking to get products flying off the shelves, a combination of influencer and affiliate strategies may be best. However, influencers don’t always come cheap. A worthwhile partnership with an established influencer in your niche will likely cost a healthy chunk of change. Affiliate marketing with lesser-known nano influencers or affiliates without influencing power can be a more cost-effective option. 

If you’re looking to run a different type of campaign, for example brand awareness or user-generated content, it may make sense to forgo the affiliate marketing and opt for a typical influencer campaign instead. 

How Can I Use Affiliate and Influencer Marketing Together?

Contrary to the title of this post, it’s not always affiliate vs. influencer marketing. Sometimes, they make a great team! As we discussed in the first section, related and involved affiliate marketing campaigns are often run using influencers as the affiliates. If your goal is conversions, your campaign could benefit from using influencers as affiliate marketers. Because influencers often have an established niche and curated followings, they can be great authority figures for advertising certain products. And the affiliate model ensures they are compensated for the conversions they drive. 

An affiliate and influencer marketing combo strategy will be best suited to conversion campaigns. If your goal is to increase brand awareness, industry credibility, or web traffic, you may want to go the typical influencer marketing route and leave out the affiliate strategies. Remember, affiliates only get paid for the conversions they drive, so they should be used for conversion campaigns. 

However, not all influencers may be interested in affiliate marketing. It’s important to be upfront about your partnership expectations and compensation when establishing the initial relationship with your influencers and affiliate marketers. Trust is the name of the game when it comes to social media marketing, and it’s as fundamental in your partnerships as it is in your audience. 

How Can I Measure the Success of My Affiliate or Influencer Marketing Campaign?

To measure the success of any marketing campaign, you first need to establish your goals. Once you’ve set your goalposts, it’s important to track your metrics throughout and after the campaign to determine your ROI. In most affiliate campaigns, you’ll be tracking conversions. In influencer marketing campaigns, you may be tracking engagement, brand awareness, website traffic, and more. 

When tracking the success of an affiliate marketing campaign, it’s essential to have a reliable way to generate and track your affiliate links. These links will be used to track the individual success of each affiliate and the overall success of the campaign. Reliable links are also essential to make sure your affiliates get paid. Remember, tracking is the name of the game. 

Kick-Butt Examples of Both Approaches

Check out these examples of affiliate and influencer marketing posts driving engagement out in the wild. Will you use posts like these in your next campaign?

AFFILIATE MARKETING EXAMPLE 

You won’t be surprised that we’re using an affiliate marketing example posted by an influencer. We’re The Shelf! It’s what we do! Fashion and lifestyle influencer  Frankie Bridge is the queen of the affiliate marketing post. Here she models a gorgeous orange dress with the brand Warehouse UK tagged and #affiliate in the post caption. Her followers can go to the link in her bio, buy this exact dress, and Frankie will earn a commission on the sale. 

There’s not a ton of finesse or creativity needed for the content itself. All she has to do is model the dress and her followers can decide if they’d like to purchase it. You’ll notice this was a carousel post, too. She wore several different outfits from different brands, each with an affiliate link followers can shop in her bio. There’s no need to feign brand loyalty. Frankie simply posts what she likes (or frankly, what she thinks will sell) and the rest is up to her followers. Of course, her sense of style and aspirational lifestyle probably help drive sales. 

INFLUENCER MARKETING EXAMPLE

In contrast, this influencer post is just that, only an influencer post. There is no affiliate link in bio here. Fashion lover and my constant inspo Cole Habersham sports a Topicals shopping bag in this post and shouts them out with a tag in the caption as well. 

Because we know Cole wants to get his bag and keep up the trust he’s earned with his following, we can assume he was compensated in some way for this post. Because it’s not an affiliate post, he wasn’t cut into any sales the image drove. He was likely compensated with an upfront fee, free products, or a combination of the two. 

The post is a little more lived-in, a little more creative, and a little more Cole than the generic affiliate post we saw above. This is because influencers have to be more discerning with what brands they partner with for posts like these. The brands Cole posts to his grid have to align with his personal brand and offer products he actually believes in.

Get Help with All Things Affiliate and Influencer Marketing

So, which is better: affiliate marketing or influencer marketing? It depends. If your goal is conversions and you have a decent budget, it may be best to go with a combination of the two. If you’re looking to drive sales with the least amount of investment, affiliate marketing may be better. For campaigns with goals outside driving conversions, influencer marketing is likely the safer bet. The beauty of social media marketing is that there’s a lot of overlap when it comes to these tried and true strategies. 

If you’d like some help determining which marketing strategy is the best for your campaign, our experts would be happy to help. Schedule a strategy call with The Shelf today and we’ll help you build the campaign of your dreams. If you have any other questions on the difference between affiliate and influencer marketing strategies and what will work best for your brand, please let us know in the comments below. We’ll get back to you with all the deets. 

About This Author

Ariana Newhouse | B2B Writer

I am a freelance writer and comedian based in Los Angeles, and while making people laugh is my jam, it’s not always the company brand. So, I strive to make people feel something. My writing philosophy is collaborative, empathetic, and humanistic. At the end of the day, no matter the message, there are real people on both ends of the process.

The post Affiliate Marketing vs. Influencer Marketing: Which is Better? appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

What is Discord?

Discord is a communication and social networking app that allows users to create and join servers (online communities) where they can communicate via text, voice, or video. The software allows users to share files and media and stream video and music. You can access the communication tool via the Discord app on mobile or desktop or through your browser.

When it comes to social networks, Discord is more like Slack than Instagram or Facebook. As CNBC put it, if Slack is a conference room, Discord is a bar. Discord allows more customization for its users, and the vibe leans more cocktail than corporate.

Discord is free to use. There are no messaging limits, and the free version allows unlimited access to up to 100 communities. Plus, it’s free to start your own servers. And, it’s a completely ad-free platform.

There are options for paid tiers, called Discord Nitro where base packages start at $9.99 and include upgrades such as server enhancements, access to 200 communities, animated avatars, and custom emojis. 

Now that you’ve got the basics, let’s break down who’s using the Discord app and why.

Drawing Back the Curtain on Discord Demographics

Discord currently boasts more than 150 million monthly active users. Users have to be over 13 years old to create an account, so Discord is populated by both teens and adults. Although, many servers require that users be 18+ to join due to sensitive content. 

The average user falls between 16 and 20 years old, and 65 percent of people on the app are men. Discord is popular among Gen Z, with 5 percent of US teens saying Discord is their favorite social network. 

The software is most popular in the United States, with 30 percent of global traffic originating stateside. Canada is next in line, with 5 percent of the global traffic coming from our neighbors to the North. The UK is next on the list, with 4 percent of the global traffic. 

Discord is a niche paradise. More than 90 percent of servers on the platform have fewer than 15 users. So it makes sense that the platform fosters small, close-knit, and engaged communities.

Believe it or not, most Discord users are not gamers. The software started as a tool for gamers to communicate, but in recent years it has expanded to a more general online population. More on that in a bit. 

Distinguishing Discord by the Numbers

There are 19 million servers active on the app per week. The average American Discord user gets on the app for 9 minutes per day. And most of those minutes are used replying to comments or joining video and voice calls, not searching for new servers to join. 

Voice communication is heavily favored on the platform, with 4 billion minutes of conversation logged on the servers daily. The 530 million written messages sent on the platform daily pale in comparison.

Because Discord is free of ads, the paid version, Discord Nitro, is the app’s main source of revenue. In 2021, Discord raised $500 million in funding and was valued at $15 billion. When Discord wanted to go public last year, Microsoft was the only company to make a serious offer. But Discord rejected the $12 billion purchase offer to focus on its own growth. 

How to Use Discord

Discord is incredibly simple to use. The first step is to download the Discord app either to your desktop or mobile advice. If you’d like to skip this step, no worries. You can use the software directly in your browser. 

You’ll start by creating a username and password. Most Discord users choose a username that is different from their legal name. These nicknames serve as an added level of security, so your identity is not immediately revealed to other Discord users.

All you need to sign up is a username, password, and verified email address. You’ll also be asked to confirm you are a human and over 13 years old. From there, you’ll be prompted to join or create a server based on general server categories. 

If you’d like to find servers that cater to your interests, you can search tags on Disboard to discover Discord servers you might like. 

From there, you’ll receive and accept invitations to join servers. You’ll likely have to acknowledge and agree to server rules for each community you join. Once in a server, you’ll have access to text channels and voice channels on the left side of your screen. Text channels allow you to communicate via messenger, and voice channels give you space to hang out over voice or video.

There are plenty of ways to customize your Discord experience. At its core, the software is a communication tool, so it makes sense to get started on the app by learning how to navigate these communication channels. 

Dynamite Discord Features

Discord has so many cool features, we could fill an entire article with all the bells and whistles. We’ll highlight a few here that particularly piqued our interest. 

You can host a Spotify listening party and enjoy music in real-time with your friends. When on your desktop, you can indulge in video backgrounds for your video chats, so there’s no need to clean up before hopping online. Discord offers features to help you find your friends more easily, so you’re always connected. Plus, you can integrate messages from other platforms using Webhooks, so your group chat is up-to-date across sites. And of course, you can also stream, screenshare when you go live, spellcheck your text messages, and more!

Is Discord Safe?

Discord is a simple communication platform with a low barrier to entry. This is great news for the average user. Unfortunately, the ease of use is also attractive to scammers. There are ways for those with ill-intent to spam servers with inappropriate or adult content, spam, or even launch cyberattacks. 

Complaints of harassment make up 32 percent of Discord’s incident reports, and 13 percent are due to spam. Each server has a set of server rules you must agree to before entering the community. These rules are enforced by the server’s moderators.

It’s important to note that Discord cannot track you. No one, not even server admins, can access your IP address. While it can’t track your location, it can access your communications. Because the platform doesn’t have end-to-end encryption, Discord — and anyone who hacks into the Discord system — can view your communications. Messages are only encrypted in transit.

There are ways to use the platform safely and to significantly lower your risks of such incidents. Discord recommends adjusting your privacy settings to “keep me safe” mode, and limiting your friend requests to server members or friends of friends. Public servers are a hotspot for phishing and scams, so it’s best to avoid those. Stick with private servers and those of people you know. 

It’s also a good idea to use a nickname when using the Discord app, rather than your legal name. The less private information you can make public, the better.

Discord is aware of these issues and working to keep its users safe. In the second half of 2021 alone, it removed some 1.7 million users due to community guideline violations. 

The Discord App is for More than Gaming

When Discord first hit the market in 2015, it was primarily used by gamers. Creators Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevsky wanted to find a way to play video games with friends while being able to communicate with them in real-time. Thus, Discord was born. It was originally branded as the “chat for gamers.”

When COVID-19 hit the scene in March of 2020, Discord responded to the lockdowns by pivoting its goal to become the “chat for communities and friends.” Their new tagline became, “Your Place to Talk.” The software allowed friends, families, and communities to keep in touch online despite physical isolation. And the tide turned. Today, Discord is for everyone.

As of 2020, 78 percent of Discord users claim to use the app for non-gaming purposes, or as a mixture of gaming and non-gaming. Before the pandemic, only 30 percent of users were on the Discord app for non-gaming purposes.

How Brands are Leveraging Discord

Discord grew during the pandemic because of social isolation and the boom in content creators. While average users turned to the web for connection, artists and entertainers turned to sites like Discord to continue their creations.

Because Discord is so community-focused, influencers use the platform for community building. The Discord app is especially popular with YouTubers, podcasters, and live streamers, who use the platform to grow and strengthen their communities. 

Discord Promo Tweet from CoinDogs

Discord is best used by brands and influencers in conjunction with other social networks, like TikTok or Youtube. Here’s a conversation on the CoinDogs Discord server about influencers boosting their content. 

As of this writing, there are 58 Discord servers tagged with “influencer” according to Disboard (a site for listing and finding servers). Because many servers house incredibly niche communities, it can be a great place for brands — and influencers — to get specific in their audience targeting. 

Patreon has integrated services with Discord, so those who subscribe to an influencer’s Patreon can be invited to a private Discord server for VIP fans. These servers give users exclusive access to their favorite creators, strengthening the influencer’s core community.

And That’s How You Demystify Discord 

All in all, Discord provides a wealth of resources for individuals looking to connect with their communities and brands hoping to resonate more with niche audiences. Online connection is a powerful tool, and the booming Discord community is proof audiences are still hungry for it. 

We hope this article answered all your burning questions. Next time somebody asks you, what is Discord? you’ll have a wealth of information to share with them. And if you’d rather save your breath, send them our way. Here at The Shelf, we’re in the business of making your social network navigation easier. We’ve got your back. 

If you’d like to learn more about how to incorporate Discord, or other platforms, into your influencer marketing strategy, give us a ring. Set up a discovery call with one of our experts below. And if you’d like to stay up to date on all things influencer marketing, subscribe to our weekly newsletter. 

Catch you on the Discord servers! 

The post The Marketer’s Guide to Discord for Community Building appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

What is gamification?

The basic idea behind gamification is very simple:

What if we took game dynamics – like competition, leveling up, or rewards – and applied them to non-game situations?

Or, to put it another way: What if you could turn your social media profiles into an interactive experience, where people “play” by engaging with you and earn rewards?

We’re all a little bit competitive. Everyone loves to see their name on a leaderboard or get the dopamine rush from successfully completing a game level. As online games and video games become even more popular, your followers are primed for gamification on social media. And it’s easier than ever to add quizzes, games, and contests to your online posts.

So far, so fun. But what does gamification marketing do for you? Sure, it’ll entertain your followers,  but what do you actually get out of it?

How Gamification Marketing Helps to Grow Social Engagement

Gamification is great for social media engagement because it fulfills several goals at once. And what could be better than that, right?

Gamification can:

• Encourage people to spend more time on your profile
• Increase brand exposure and brand awareness
• Keep people coming back for more
• Create a sense of community and competition for your followers
• Give you a simple, fair way to choose winners for giveaways
• Tap into your follower’s hobbies, interests, or nostalgia

That’s a lot of benefits. Let’s break them down, one by one:

#1 ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO SPEND MORE TIME ON YOUR PROFILE

You can add gamification to your social media profile by posting simple challenges, using in-app tools (like Story quizzes), or linking to more sophisticated games. All of those strategies encourage people to spend longer interacting with your posts. Result: social media algorithms will show that people love your work.

#2 INCREASE BRAND EXPOSURE AND BRAND AWARENESS

Gamification marketing is helpful for branding because you can customize your content with extra branding. Whether you’re growing a personal brand or boosting a sponsor, this is a great way to increase brand exposure and awareness.

For example, this hotel group made a quick Halloween card game for their followers. They only added one branded detail: the name and logo of the group, printed on the back of each card in the game. 

It was subtle, but it meant that players saw the hotel group’s name again and again. That’s brand exposure and pretty genius!

#3 KEEP PEOPLE COMING BACK FOR MORE

Imagine you’re playing a quick jigsaw online. You just miss out on completing the puzzle – by five seconds!

Do you quit, or do you play again?

Most people will choose to play again. And that’s one of the reasons that gamification is so powerful. Followers will come back to interactive, gamified content again and again.

And if you can set up a series of games, or pick a weekly winner… even better!

#4 CREATE A SENSE OF COMMUNITY AND COMPETITION

A lot of people don’t follow influencers just for the influencer themselves. They’re also there for the community. And if you’ve spent time building your personal brand, you’ll know that an online community is one of the most rewarding things about being an influencer.

Gamification can help you strengthen that community. For example, you could run a weekly leaderboard where the highest-ranking “players” get featured.

Over time, your followers will get to recognize each other, swap gameplay tips, and share a healthy sense of competition. You could even bring followers together from different social networks, uniting them all with the game.

Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen people demanding more transparency from influencer giveaways. They want to know how you picked a winner and whether it was fair. 

Gamification makes that whole process simpler. Instead of trying to pick a random person, you can let the game do the work for you. Give prizes to the first person to complete a game or the highest scorer over time. If you still want to pick a random winner, game apps can help you filter out duplicate entries and previous winners.

#6 TAP INTO YOUR FOLLOWER’S HOBBIES, INTERESTS, OR NOSTALGIA

Do your followers love quizzes? Then challenge them to a battle of wits.

Do they love games of chance? Then set up a prize wheel and invite them to spin.

Do they remember the good ol’ days of Snake and Minesweeper? Then build a classic game with your own branding.

You can connect with your followers by sharing their hobbies, interests, and even their nostalgia. And when you add gamification into the mix, that connection is even more powerful. 

In 2020, we’ve seen nostalgia trending – for old fashions, games, and designs. Look out for influencers and brands running old-school promotions and contests.

How to Use Gamification Marketing on Social Media

We’ve talked a lot about the benefits of social media. But by now, you’re probably wondering:

How do I make all of this work? Don’t I need a web developer, a designer, or even my own game studio to make this happen?

Well… actually, no. Gamification is more accessible than it’s ever been before.

To start with, there are built-in tools on many social networks. We’re talking quizzes, hashtag challenges, and polls. That’s gamification for beginners.

But you can do more. There’s a whole world of apps out there, which will help you build smart quizzes, spin-the-wheel games, puzzles, word searches, minesweeper, and more. All you have to do is pick a game dynamic, add your branding, and share the game on your social profiles.

The key is to choose a game that appeals to your followers and is easy to play. Once your followers are hooked on having fun, you’ll reap the rewards of increased engagement, interaction, and brand awareness.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Corinna Keefe is a freelance writer. She specializes in topics around digital marketing, social media, and organic engagement.

• Website: www.easypromosapp.com
• Twitter: twitter.com/corinna_keefe
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/corinnakeefe

The post 6 Smart Ways Gamification Marketing Can Power Your Influencer Strategy appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

It’s all well and good saying that social media marketing is an indispensable branch of any marketing campaign, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to ask yourself why you’re developing a social media marketing strategy. Any kind of marketing can be used for any number of business goals, and social media marketing is no different, so it helps to know exactly what you hope to achieve with your social media strategy.

What’s Your Why?

Buffer highlights 9 goals you can achieve with social media, so it might help to start with one of those. Are you looking to increase awareness of your brand, generate leads and revenue and increase website traffic? Have you already got some growth and are instead looking to increase engagement, or create a customer community (note: the two areas are not mutually exclusive). 

You may well have more than one of these goals in mind, but it still helps to figure out which are your top priorities.

Content that boosts engagement may not divert to your website and vice versa, so it will naturally affect the content you put out. Also, knowing what to track will mean you know how well you’re doing, and can figure out how to tweak your strategy to better approach those goals. 

Related Post

How to Build a Brand Awareness Campaign Step-by-Step

1. Keep A Consistent Content Tone

The biggest question around social media marketing is what you’re going to post. This question has a hundred answers, and none of them are necessarily right or wrong, so I want to narrow in on tone for this first point.

The tone of your content should be your brand vision in a nutshell. Everything that you post should be in line with how you want to come across as a company, and it’ll be informed by who you want to market to. It could be professional, jokey, family-friendly or adult, but what matters is that it’s consistent.

Rebecca Lain, a writer at Australia2Write and NextCoursework, reminds us that “screenwriters say the best judge of a well-formed character is that no other character could speak their lines; each word is unique to them. Bring that wisdom into your marketing, and make your content irrefutably yours.

Sleep sofa brand Burrow has opted for a personal, jokey tone in much of their branding, based on their market appeal to younger buyers. They share memes interspersed throughout their product posts, which help to break up their content but stay on brand.

2. Listen To Target Audiences

This is THE most important tip in this entire list because while states are relaxing restrictions, there are states where the pandemic is on the decline and other states that are a few days or even weeks away from the worst. COVID-19 cases may be resurging in some parts of the world. So, listening is everything right now. You won’t know what messages to create until you know what your audience is dealing with right now.

So, inherent in generating the appropriate tone is knowing exactly who your audience is. This is where social media marketing really comes into its own: not only does it give you an opportunity to speak directly to your customers, it allows them to feedback directly to you.

Encourage engagement from your audiences throughout your social media marketing to get a sense of how your campaigns are going. Center posts around polls, hashtags, or user-generated content (more on that later) to get your audience involved and learn as much as you can about what content they like.

However, be careful to do this in a self-aware way when possible. British grocery brand Waitrose ran into trouble a few years ago when it’s hashtag campaign ended in ridicule rather than praise. Don’t jump right in with a new content format or idea, do your research first to make sure it’s the right choice for your company.

3. Theme Your Content

Once you have a consistent tone and a clear idea of your target audience, you can start to develop themes for your marketing. Every major company has at least one — and often more than one — theme to their marketing that allows them to stay consistent with their tone and brand vision without becoming repetitive in their marketing.

Take Burrow, for instance. One of their themes is the meme format, trying to bridge the gap between joke account and sales, while they also post product reviews, announcements, competitions; a wide variety of content. As long as you can relate your content back to your theme you can be as creative as you want with the content you share.

One easy way to implement themes into your content is through seasonal promotions. Even for products that don’t have a seasonal appeal, develop stages of your marketing that go with the seasons to stay relevant to consumer needs without abandoning your content tone. Here’s an example from blender brand Vitamix with some holiday content designed to drive engagement.

Related Post

How to Develop a Cohesive Instagram Brand Look

4. Vary Your Content

It’s important to develop multiple themes as you don’t want to be stuck in a rut with one type of content. Even if one tactic seems to generate great leads to begin with, relying too heavily on it will soon grow stale and those leads will disappear in search of the next new thing. Social media is fickle like that.

How do you counteract this inevitable depreciation? Change things up wherever you can with new ideas. Alfonso Rivera, a social media expert at Write My X and Britstudent, summarises variety thusly: “You might want to think about organizing your themes around types of content: video explainers might fit better in one while blog content could fit better in another. Keep an eye on your audience engagement and keyword research to see what’s popular and keep your content plan flexible to deal with these changes.”

5. Capitalize On User-Generated Content

If you’re looking for new ideas to fill your quota of content variety, try using some user-generated content. Not only is this a really easy way of generating new content, it shows your customers you are engaged with and interested in them and their views.

This could be as simple as sharing a tweet from a happy customer to organizing a competition of submission drive. Here’s an easy example from GoodOnYou on how to turn user reviews into shareable content.

6. Think Where You Share

Part of developing your content plan is figuring out which social media platforms you’ll focus on. Each network is designed with specific content in mind, and different formats fare better on different networks, so tailoring your content to your platform is an integral part of social media marketing success.

While it’s always good practice to have a good spread of social media accounts, don’t feel the need to cover all the bases. There are social network trends emerging all the time, and trying to keep on top of all of them may just be a waste of your time.

It all comes back to your audience research: does it look like your target market is well-represented amongst the users of the app or service? If so, it might deserve a look-in, but otherwise, it’s not necessary. As long as you have a good representation on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Linkedin — the main four that show up in first-page search results — you’re off to a good start.

7. Using Influencers

Influencer marketing is a great example of a potent tool that will be determined by your choice of platform. Influencers are a great way to drive customer engagement and come in all shapes and sizes (and price tags). If you’re looking to generate a closer connection with customers, knowing about what influencer marketing is and how it works could be a huge help.

Influencer marketing goes hand in hand with content tone. For some brands, micro-influencers with personal delivery and casual tone is the perfect medium for their brand message, while others prefer the exclusivity of more large-scale influencers. Fitness brand Gymshark appreciates the value of having influencers sport their gear on social media and share their content in-line with their tone of excellence and style.

8. When You Share

In a 24-hour internet economy, there are endless opportunities to engage customers on social media. That doesn’t mean, however, that you should be posting all the time: picking your moment is a huge part of a successful social media strategy.

Again, this goes back to your audience and product research. Different customers use social platforms at different times of the day or week, and knowing when you’re most likely to catch the most eyeballs is the difference between a winning post and an under-the-radar flop.

For example, if your brand is aimed at sports fans, schedule your posts to fall just before or after a major sports event, or even better during halftime. Mothers, on the other hand, have wildly varying schedules due to baby care and may be most receptive in the middle of the night. There are some general rules of thumb for all audiences of course: evenings and weekends are high engagement, along with weekday mornings.

Final Note

As much as all of these tips will help you develop a strong social media presence, they aren’t a checklist that will result in definite growth. Social media marketing is hard, and it requires consistent creative work. But keep at it, stay true to your brand, and develop a strong strategy and you’ll be on the right track.

 

Beatrice is a professional copywriter at Case Study Help and AcademicBrits. She specializes in all kinds of topics related to social media, marketing and brand management and is always open to sharing her personal experience at PhD Kingdom. 

The post 8 Tips to Rebuild Your Social Media Marketing Strategy appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

When was the last time you bought something without reading customer reviews before? Or maybe you asked a friend who previously purchased that product or service to share with you their experience with the brand. Either way, most brands will instantly become more credible the moment they’re value gets validated by others. 

That’s referral marketing in a nutshell. 

Harnessing the power of word-of-mouth can drive measurable impact to your marketing efforts. In fact, 84 percent of people cite word-of-mouth as the MOST trustworthy form of advertising. 

While you can’t always control what’s being said about your brand, you can incentivize your happiest customers to share their positive experiences with their friends and family. That’s called a referral program. If executed correctly, a strong referral program can be a marketer’s secret weapon for continuously attracting new customers (and keeping them) at a very low cost.

How Referral Programs Work

Across many different industries, both B2B and B2C brands are taking advantage of the benefits of word-of-mouth marketing via structured referral programs. It doesn’t matter if you’re a clothing company or an ecommerce platform.  If you’re offering a stellar product or service, it’s likely that your customers have already started telling their networks about your brand. 

To capitalize on this, it’s important to come up with a referral strategy that is straightforward, measurable, and easy-to-implement. Many marketers rely on customer advocacy software to help guide their efforts and automate some of the manual labor required to implement and manage a referral program.

Although every brand is unique, most referral programs follow a similar model: 

1. Identify a group of exceptionally happy customers
2. Ask them for a referral
3. Offer an incentive in return

What this model ends up looking like for your brand will vary based on your business model, industry, and customer base. 

For example, if you work with a subscription box service, giving your loyal customers a code to send a free box to their friends in exchange for 10 percent off their next purchase could be an enticing offer. If, on the other hand, your company sells a B2B service, your referral offering might look very different. Do research to learn what types of incentives your target market finds most appealing to set the program up for success. Your marketing automation tool can help you launch your program and get the referrals rolling in.

If you’re going to start a referral program, you want to do it right. There’s no better way to learn than by looking at real-life examples of brands that have already implemented this type of marketing strategy successfully.

10 Examples of Brands with Killer Referral programs

#1 Casper

Casper is an e-commerce company that sells mattresses and other sleep-related products. Its referral program offers customers a $75 Amazon Gift Card for any referral that buys a Casper mattress using their personal code. As an added bonus, their referral gets 10 percent off.

WHY IT WORKS

Casper’s program is exceptional because it’s simple and offers a killer incentive. Their created landing page is easy-to-read, has a cheeky headline, and makes it incredibly easy for Casper’s customers to generate a personal link and send it to their friends.

#2 Zenefits

Zenefits is a cloud-based SaaS platform for managing core human resources-related functions including benefits administration, payroll, and compliance. As part of its referral program, Zenefits sends customers company swag, followed by a digital gift card for an amount that will vary based on the size of the business that they refer.

WHY IT WORKS

Zenefits referral program is unique in that it incentivizes customers to refer bigger companies to get more money. Additionally, many referral programs give prizes that require the customer to purchase from the brand again, but Zenefits gives away cash that their customers can redeem “just about anywhere.” After all, who doesn’t want up to $1000 of extra spending cash? 

#3 Ritual

Ritual is an app that makes pre-ordering food easy and fun by allowing users to skip the line, 

make a group order with their coworkers or friends, and earn rewards along the way. Everytime a user places an order through the app, they earn points, which ultimately lead to rewards such as $1 lunch or early access to local restaurants. Ritual’s referral program is pretty straightforward: for every referral, the user gets 1000 rewards points. The person they referred to sign up will also receive a bonus on their first order.

WHY IT WORKS

Ritual’s referral program is ridiculously simple and caters to its audience.  Not many people have time to read through a text-heavy referral page in the middle of a busy workday. The landing page has minimal copy and the design makes it easy to send the referral link instantaneously.

#4 Sling TV

Sling TV is an internet television service that allows subscribers to stream live television without having to go through a traditional cable provider. Through Sling’s referral program, existing customers can get $5 off their next three months of streaming if they refer a friend. New users that subscribe through a referral link get the same deal.

WHY IT WORKS

Talk about an effective landing page. Sling’s referral program makes it super easy for customers to share their referral link on social media or through email. The headline is bold and immediately catches the reader’s attention. Plus, offering $5 off over the course of three months incentivizes users to stay subscribed since the deal stretches out over a longer period of time.

#5 TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit is an online marketplace that connects freelance workers with people in their local community who need assistance with general handyman work such as repairs, furniture building, or moving. As part of TaskRabbit’s referral program, users get a $10 credit for each referral and give their referral the same credit towards their first transaction.

WHY IT WORKS

TaskRabbit’s referral program is simple but effective. The interface has limited copy, making it easy to read and understand. The “free credit” call-to-action at the top of the web page is enticing and clickable..

#6 Lyft

Lyft is a popular ride-sharing company based in San Francisco, California. On the mobile app, riders can earn $5 in ride credit by referring their friends to sign up to ride or $500 for referring a driver.

WHY IT WORKS

Lyft’s referral program is incredibly intuitive and easy to navigate. The app seamlessly guides the user from one screen to the next, where it then asks for access to their contacts list so they can send their invite code with just a click. Plus, since Lyft is always looking for more drivers, offering a whopping $500 in ride credits for a driver referral is a surefire way to get people’s attention.

#7 HelloFresh

HelloFresh is a meal kit service provider that sends customers pre-packaged ingredients and recipes right to their homes. Subscribers have two referral options to choose from: sending a free HelloFresh box to a friend or the option to give a friend $40 off their first box and receive a $20 credit in return.

WHY IT WORKS

Having multiple referral options gives the customer even more incentive to participate because they can choose what’s most convenient for them. HelloFresh has the “free box” option for a limited time, which further entices users to use it before it’s gone.

#8 Airbnb

Airbnb is a popular virtual marketplace that connects travelers with hosts looking to offer up their home for lodging. As part of its referral program, Airbnb offers customers the chance to refer friends and redeem a $30 travel credit. The person they referred will get $55 off their first trip.

WHY IT WORKS

Airbnb makes it easy for customers to invite friends by keeping a log of their available travel credit and providing suggestions if they choose to sync their contacts through email.

#9 Evernote

Evernote is a freemium note taking app that allows users to create detailed notes consisting of text, images, or drawings. For every referral, users earn points to use toward the paid version. On the flip side, the person who was referred will receive one month free of Evernote premium.

WHY IT WORKS

Evernote’s referral program is effective because it gives customers a glimpse at all of the features available on the premium version. The idea behind this strategy is that both new and existing users will be enticed to buy the paid version once they have a chance to try it out for free.

#10 Tesla

Tesla is a vehicle manufacturing and technology company known for its electric cars and solar panels. Its referral program gives customers a chance to earn 1000 miles of free Supercharging or a $100 reward. Additionally, for each referral, customers have a shot at winning a Tesla Model Y or Roadster supercar.

WHY IT WORKS

Tesla’s referral program goes without all the bells and whistles and in this case, less is more. The company’s foundational values are based on sustainability and safety, which is highlighted in the copy of this landing page. Tesla is encouraging their existing customers to spread these values while picking up some free perks along the way.

So, Spread the Word

Marketing is all about building trust with your audience. Spoiler alert: your happiest customers already trust you. Don’t miss out on the chance to turn them into your brand’s strongest advocates. If you empower them to share their positive experience with others in their network through a referral program, all that’s left for you to do is watch the new customers start rolling in.

The post 10 SPOT-ON EXAMPLES OF BRANDS THAT HAVE BUILT EXCEPTIONAL REFERRAL PROGRAMS appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

So, Here’s the Deal with Brand Lift

What is brand lift? Brand lift is the increase in the interactions customers have with your brand after you run a campaign. Specifically, brand lift measures the direct impact your campaign has on the typical metrics you want to know about with a social media or digital marketing campaign – likes, follows, shares, saves, replies, comments, new subscribers, opt-ins… that sort of thing.

Beyond that, brand lift is also looking at other important metrics, like these provided by Think with Google:

• Ad recall
• Brand awareness
• Consideration
• Cost per
• Favorable perceptions
• Purchase intent
• Overall interest
• Changes in organic search organic search activity

Brand lift is made up of a group of metrics that we monitor for every infleuncer campaign.

Brand Lift: A 7-Day Plan to Get Big Results with a Few Small Changes

To set the stage for a decade of butt-kicking #socialmedia campaigns that’ll have people clamoring about your brand, we thought it would be cool to put together a seven-day plan of small things you can do in a few minutes a day that will drive huge brand lift. This isn’t the rock star strategy you installed that’s got your whole marketing team in #hustle mode. And they’re certainly not the full-on brand awareness campaign we wrote about a few weeks ago.

These are small adjustments that may not seem like much but they’re the little things you can do on the train or while you’re waiting for takeout, or during the commercial breaks that will move the needle. After all, understanding what’s driving brand lift in your company will help to make your campaigns better targeted and more effective.

Day 1: Collect Your Data. No Judgments.

Quoting Monique Heart, “facts are facts,” and we can’t do anything if we don’t know where we stand. What’s amazing about marketing is that you can measure everything. Like, seriously… everything. Visibility, engagement, consideration, abandoned carts, completed purchases, the one guy who opened your last email 20 times… for some reason.

So, on Day 1, the only thing to do is to look at the data – all of it. Without making it a big deal, keep a few questions in mind that your data should be able to answer, like:

• What worked
• What didn’t work
• What can be improved upon
• What worked last year that can be repeated this year
• What gave the best results

For solo service providers and small businesses where everybody’s wearing multiple hats, I know you’re probably thinking there are about a million other more important (and urgent) things that need your attention BESIDES getting tangled in those Google Analytics threads. Touché, do it while you watch football… or binge-watch a Netflix show.

If the thought of looking at your analytics has you less than thrilled, think of it a different way. Right now, you’re just gathering information that you can think about and act on later. The point is you have to have that info to even know what to do.

If you don’t have the data for the past year (or you flatline everytime you try to gather the data), it may make more sense to start fresh by identifying the metrics you want to track that are most meaningful to your business, and the end of the first quarter, check out your numbers to make sure your on track to meet your goals.

Day 2: Set and Accomplish an Ultra-Small Goal

Keeping in mind what you learned by looking at your data yesterday, set at least one meaningful goal. This shouldn’t be a “big deal” goal. Yes, it can be a weekly, monthly, or yearly goal. it could also be as simple as using a tool like Lumen5 to turn your most popular listicle into 60-second video instead of taking a lunch today.

Or updating the CTAs across a couple of your social media profiles.

Or updating the team pictures on your about page or social media account.

This is stuff you’ve been meaning to do, or things that would be cool to do, but no one owns the task because it’s only gotten as far as being a cool idea. Try to think of things that directly impact how (and if) people engage with your brand.

You could really blow this one out by writing down a few of those goals (like turning every listicle into a video) and assigning an owner to the task to make sure they go from being ideas to actual processes. But make sure the task is tied to a larger goal. So, yeah… repurpose your listicles, but do it so you can get 100 more site visitors a day, a week, or a month. Remember, it’s easy to lose motivation if you don’t have a goal in mind!

Day 3: Update (and Unify) Your Brand’s Online Info

This really is something you can do during the commercial breaks. Update your company information so your brand looks consistent across platforms. This is easy to do, but also easy to miss.

For instance, when The Shelf first started, we worked a lot more with bloggers than brands. Then we landed more and more clients who were using The Shelf’s influencer platform to find influencers and manage their campaigns. Then we found our larger clients just wanted fully-managed campaigns that we could run for them.

Well, with every addition to our core offering, we needed to change our profiles to reflect those changes. Today, we run a ton of fully-managed campaigns. So, over the years, our social media content, bios and descriptions have evolved to reflect not only what we do, but the culture we’ve created over the years.

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Interestingly, we also had to change the CTAs on our site from Schedule a Demo (which worked when we were handling fewer full-service clients) to Schedule a Strategy Session… because our sales team can help clients determine which is a better solution – influencer platform or managed influencer campaigns – to help them reach their goals.

This step is easy, right? And it’s SO HELPFUL for your business and the people who follow you. Go to every place where your business has information online – Google Places, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, your website, Yelp, wherever. Check that every one of your profiles has an updated branding and correct contact info, as well as spot-on info about your business.

I remember when I started working some time ago with a nutritionist and her main pain point was that customers found it hard to get to her place. The problem was that the address on her Facebook page and on Google Maps was not correct. I literally fixed it in 5 minutes and saved us a lot of time in the future!

Don’t know where to start or too overwhelmed to even do it?

1. Make a list of all the places where your information is available for your audience. Profiles that you don’t use still count for this list. Think about ALL the places… Googling can also help!
2. Go to each one and check the information. Also, this can be an opportunity to update your profile descriptions if it’s necessary
3. If there’s an account you don’t have access to, this is a good opportunity to regain that access
4. For those accounts or profiles that you don’t use too much, be sure to link to other profiles where people can find updated information about your business

Easy-peasy!

Day 4: Repurpose (or Just Design) Something

It’s true that different people consume content in different ways. The more mediums you can use to share information and relay messages, the greater your chances of being seen and remembered.

This doesn’t have to be a whole big thing with ring lights and a mic that clamps onto your lapel. It can be something easy like having a designer make 600 x 900 graphics to pin to your own branded Pinterest boards.

Or, as I mentioned a little earlier, turning your listicles into short videos that you can share on different platforms.

Or make something a gif, like this one promoting our 5-article CBD series on how to market to different CBD buyers. Clever, huhn?

Day 5: Leverage the Power of Memes and Quotes

A meme? That’s silly… when my business is serious. Well, we all have serious businesses, doll. But people do business with other people… who work at serious businesses. So, let the people part of your business come out and play sometimes. Heck, that’s what social media is for.

Using social media like a person instead of a business helps to humanize your brand and make it more relatable. The meme above is something everyone who works in construction can relate to… as well as anyone who has ever had their roof done.

One thing you really need to remember is that you’re talking to your peers and colleagues a lot of the time, even as you create content specifically designed to compel your customers to take a certain action.

Day 6: Re-Engage Customers by Becoming Relavant

Reconnect with your customers. People that are already your customers should stay within your reach. Try any one of these methods for re-engaging them.

• Interact with individual customers on social media. This is easier on platforms like Twitter or Instagram. Like their photos when appropriate and drop comments now and then. You can even tag a handful of customers in posts you think they would like. The key here is to make sure it’s just a few customers – maybe five or six – and that you have a real reason to believe they would be interested in the post (based on their previous interactions with your brand). A little bit of interest goes a long way!
• Send a survey to your past customers. Easier if you have their e-mail addresses. Create a quick form on Google Forms with questions about your service. You’ll be again in the mind of your customers and their feedback will help you improve your business
• Ask for testimonials. Reach out to people and ask them to send some nice words about your business. Depending on the form you get these testimonials, you can use them to create content on social media, for example
• Share user-generated content. It doesn’t matter if it’s old. If you still sell the same product or simply want to make a #TBT, you can use content your customers have already shared. Besides, reaching out to them to ask for permission to use their content is a good way to keep your business top of mind. We’ve actually written quite extensively on the benefits of UGC, getting great UGC, leveraging UGC to drive sales, and content rights.
• Remind people it’s time for a new appointment: a lot of products have to be bought from time to time. The same with services, you have to take your car to the mechanic, you have to cut your hair, etc. Remind your customers about this… if it looks too difficult to do now, create a plan to make it happen

Set a specific time of the week or the day to use re-engaging customers… and don’t forget to have data and set goals for anything you do!

Day 7: Get Team Participation

One challenge a lot of teams experience is actually success. Haha. Definitely not a bad thing, but when departments are hustling and getting things done, they often don’t really know what’s going on in the other departments. Believe it or not, that can actually slow down company-wide success.

Here’s a simple example. Our team has seen pretty rapid growth on LinkedIn just by letting everyone on the team know when our company page posts something new and providing our own team an opportunity to read, bookmark, and share the content coming out of the marketing department.

If you don’t make a real effort to keep everyone informed and engaged, silos will naturally occur as your team hustles to get things done. Take time to sit down with everybody and let them share with other departments what they’re working on. Getting buy-in from your team can quickly help you increase brand lift.

Conclusion

Although everything I’ve written is pretty easy to do, these steps carry enough impact to boost your brand lift across those key metrics we talked about. At the end of the day, marketing isn’t always about spending a ton of time and resources. It’s about using data to build and optimize your strategies. Welcome to the 2020s!

The post Small Adjustments You Can Make to Drive Huge Brand Lift appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

Fair warning: Getting a referral program off the ground isn’t the easiest thing. Even if you’re currently creating amazing customer experiences, that’s not going to make people automatically leave great reviews. You have to ask for them, and your ask will often come with an ample helping of an “incentive” (or bribe, whichever term you prefer).

Why Referral Marketing Matters

There was an interesting set of stats on Inc.com that said only about one in ten satisfied customers leave a review while unsatisfied customers are far more likely to leave a review. Troubling? Yeah. Well, there’s more. The article went on to say it takes four 5-star reviews to make up for a single 1-star review. If only one in ten happy customers are leaving reviews, that means you need 40 customers to have good experiences with your brand before you can round up the four customers who can leave positive reviews to balance out any negative reviews you may have.

That’s why you need a program that allows you to offer a compelling “ask” for positive word-of-mouth to build an army of happy customers.

So, what do you do? How do you make sure your chances of launching and running a referral program successfully improve day by day? We have some tips on how to start a referral program that really goes a long way toward strengthening your local marketing efforts.

How to Build a Referral Program That Takes Your Local Small Biz Global

Build an army of raving fans

Bad reviews happen, sometimes totally your fault and sometimes a bad review can be the result of a customer just having a bad day. But you know when it comes to converting new customers, trust is the key. You need loyal customers if you’re going to create a solid referral program, and obtaining loyalty doesn’t always come naturally.

So, it’s important that you invest time and other resources into nurturing your existing customer relationship. You need an ARMY of loyal customers. Yeah, three five-star reviews is a start, but to the searcher, it’s also going to look like you probably paid for all three reviews.

Let your team live up to their own hype

One thing to keep in mind about referrals is that customers often refer the people in their networks to other people they trust who have expertise in certain areas. Your brand just happens to be the place where your customers can find these trustworthy people. So, consider creating an employee influencer program and having incentives in place that give your team members room to be seen as trusted experts.

Create more touch points after the initial contact

Okay. So, you have a prospect’s attention. Now what? Now, you keep getting their attention, but you get their attention with things that you know interest them. Are they moving into a smaller apartment? Maybe send them an article you saw on the minimalist home decor trend. Every engagement doesn’t have to be an opportunity for you to sell to them. Depending on where they are in the buying journey, your best strategy may be giving them time and space to build trust in you and change their perspective of you from salesperson to trusted expert. Sending personalized emails that focus on the specific interests of a customer helps the customer… which helps your brand in the long-term.

Humanize your brand

Does anyone outside of your office know how hilarious and quick-witted your CEO is? They should. They totally should. Showing your customers what goes on “behind the scenes” can help you create a foundation for relationship-building. A pretty simple way to do this is to get employee buy-in. Have your individual team members (not your marketing department) created their own kind of user-generated content about your brand.

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Make the Referral Process (and its benefits) Super Clear

Now that you are in the process of building strong ongoing relationships with your client base, you may be able to get a better sense for which customers would be most likely to participate in the program by tracking which ones are engaging with your emails.

The next step is to tell your customers about the program. You can do this as the program launches or a few days before. The goal is to make sure they understand how valuable their business is to you, how important it is to you that they continue to have positive experiences with your brand, and how you’ve set up a program to make sure they can benefit from just showing love for you guys.

An simple way to do this is to create a landing page that teaches your customers (existing and prospective) everything they need to know about your referral program and how it works.

The screenshots below are of the Ibotta rebates app. Notice how different referral opportunities are listed along with the brands and other opportunities for shoppers to get rebates… and the incentive is money… totally on-point for a rebate app.

Ensure the rules of your program really easy for users to follow and implement. The screenshot on the right details the rules of the $15 Referral Bonus. Your landing page design and the messaging should flow well and be pretty straightforward. There aren’t any bells and whistles on the landing pages for this app because there’s a good chance most of its users are time-pressed shoppers who are really focused on hunting down good deals. So, a simple set of rules with instructions works for Ibotta’s user. No pictures. No scrolling. No clicking.

I think this part is pretty important, but also pretty easy to overlook.If you complicate things or make it seem like there are a bunch of ways for people to refer you and NOT get the reward, not only are your customers less likely to refer you, they’re also less likely to continue patronizing your business.

Minimize complicated phrasing and unclear requests. Clean up your page’s copy to make sure grammar and spelling errors are gone. I think that’s just a general request. Sloppy copy sucks. Spend the extra few minutes to proofread or perfect your messaging with the help of writing tools and services, such as Grammarly, Studicus, Hemingway Editor or BestEssay Education.

Launch Your Referral Program

It’s time to make your program fully functional and shareable on BOTH desktop computers and mobile devices. More importantly, your brands needs to do a concerted push to promote the referral program.

Individual team members should continually promote the referral program by sharing it with customers at the end of calls, adding it to their email signatures, sharing uses cases on social media. Onboarding the first few customers will be easy compared to getting them to incorporate your referral program as part of their shopping experience.

So, include social buttons that allow customers to easily share the program, and give them an easy solution to see the types of things other customers are saying about your brand. But you don’t need a fancy dashboard. Branded hashtags work, too.

You should also have a way of gently reminding them of the value of their referral, whether that’s as a PS in an email, an alert that comes through your app, or just being on the home page of your website or your app.

Leverage the power of influencers to boost brand awareness and make your referral marketing campaigns more effective

You can add influencers to the mix, too to boost brand awareness and get the word out about your brand, your product, AND your referral program, often in the same post. Take a look at this sponsored post by @prettylilthingss1 for Sqrrl.

Continually Optimize the Customer Experience

Even with excellent products and services available, 100% customer satisfaction requires great customer support as well. Use social media as another touch point for your customers and provide them with links to make referrals.

Social media is also a good place to create positive experiences with your customers. We pulled some interesting statistics about this topic from a recent post, 111 MORE Influencer Marketing Stats:

• Half of all social media users follow brands on social media
• 71 percent of those surveyed say they would buy from a brand with whom they had a positive interaction.
• Less than 10 percent of businesses that are on social media are leveraging the tool as a way to meaningfully engage with customers.

Consumers like to be heard and receive responses in a timely manner, so perfecting your customer service approach is a must.

To improve in the customer service department (and protect your brand’s reputation), you should:

• Maintain responsiveness to high levels – Don’t let a customer’s questions or a comment on social media, for example, go unanswered for a long time. Responsiveness is one of the most important factors in customer support
• Opt for sincerity – whatever issues your customers might have, be sincere. Choose a friendly tone, be as helpful as possible, and always choose transparency. Sincerity is appreciated by customers whatever the situation might be.
• Ensure consistency – provide all customer inquiries with equal attention. Great customer service needs to be consistent.

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Personalize Interactions

A personalized interaction will be viewed with much more appreciation by the average customer. Whether you’re emailing them a promotion that suits their preferences, reminding them of a sale, or showing them you’ve remembered something about them, personalization can go a long way.

When customers feel like you’ve taken an interest in their behavior, and you actually act on the data you have on them, their loyalty to your brand will increase, and they will be more persuaded to actually refer you to their friends, family and on review websites.

Give Rewards

At the base of any successful referral program stands a reward system. Going the extra mile for your customers, prospects, and subscribers can make a difference in how successful your marketing tactic actually becomes.

When you are providing rewards, people will take notice, and the word will spread more easily. This will function as an incentive, a little push to show people you are actually worth their time.

Think of options that could determine people to refer, whether it’s a store coupon, a discount, or a freebie. More customers will not only gladly review your business, but they will become fonder of your brand in general.

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Automate

Getting technical with your referral program can help you stay organized and monitor progress. Find a referral software that can help you fine-tune your marketing approach. Choose a software tool that has the following functionalities:

• Results measurements
• Tracking campaign results
• Rewards issuing
• Automation capabilities

If you work with a software product, you can automate your referral program, save time, stay on track and scale when necessary.

Ask

Don’t be afraid to go for the traditional ask. With a referral program intact, you can invite customers to join. However, because the key here is not to come off as pushy, asking for referrals should be done after positive customer interactions. You can establish and automate an invite process that appears on post-purchase pages, confirmation and thank you emails, or after they’ve talked directly with a customer service representative and solved a situation.

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Bottom Line

A referral program can help you perfect your marketing approach, allowing you to increase customer satisfaction. Adopting this tactic comes with high potential, but in order for the results obtained to rise up to your expectations, you should pursue the right course of action on the matter. If you’ve been looking for guidelines, these few pointers could put things into perspective for you. Keep in mind these suggestions and your efforts revolving around the start of your referral program will pay off.

Bio

Angela Baker is an educator and creative writer from Philadelphia. She graduated from Thomas Jefferson University and started her writing career quickly after. Now she works as an editor and specialist in academic writing at Trust My Paper. She also contributes regularly to websites, such as Huffington Post, GrabMyEssay, The Guardian, and others.

The post 8 Tips for Starting a Referral Program That Will Improve Local Marketing appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

Not only do brands today have to fight for visibility online (both for your company and your individual products), but you also face the challenge of monitoring what turns up in branded search results. Contrary to popular belief, what shows up in the search results about your brand aren’t always controlled by your brand — and bad reviews and other negative content can have a very HUGE impact on your company’s bottom line.

So, how can you protect your brand? Let’s take a look at three high-impact strategies to future-proof your company’s online reputation.

 

Expand Your Brand’s Online Presence

As a marketer, it’s pretty much on you to make that all-important concerted effort to establish your brand’s owned online properties This includes domains, as well as the platforms where you control the messaging – the places you publish owned media and promote paid and earned media. These assets act as a digital bulwark against bad press, comparison sites and other negative third-party brand mentions that can creep into your search results.

If your company’s search landscape is more of a vacuum than a vault (and you’d be surprised how often that’s the case), you’ll face serious headwinds in the event of a brand crisis.

Consider Boeing’s tone-deaf response to real customer and market concern over its benched 737 Max airplanes. Negative news can easily populate a branded search when you haven’t taken control of your brand’s narrative.

According to Jonas Sickler of ReputationManagement.com, “When the press gets ahold of a juicy story, they often publish it while it’s hot.” In the case of Boeing, response from officials and recent legal issues perpetuated the news cycle, injecting negative article after negative article into the airline’s branded search results.

Sickler continues, “Even if a story is eventually discredited, it could remain online indefinitely. And the damage is further amplified when false stories become syndicated hundreds or thousands of times.”

While most companies certainly can’t predict a PR blunder, they can be proactive about securing the first page of Google results with their own branded channels. So, it’s vital to your brand that you make the effort to claim all of your branded web properties and domains.

All of them? Yep. And all the variations, too. This may seem a bit gratuitous, but in addition to securing the core domain, you should also grab up the domain names with common variations or misspellings, a necessary step in order to avoid online trolls and spoofed accounts.

Companies should also branch out and establish branded blogs, social media channels, and publish on platforms like Medium, LinkedIn, and other thought leadership platforms. This way, a brand ensures its owned content has more traction in branded search results. Want an example of a brand with a Teflon reputation? Look no further than Starbucks. The results captured below came from the search term “Starbucks coffee”.

We talk about Starbucks a lot because of the amazing UGC machine that revolves around this brand. The company has endured more than its fair share of crises over the years. Yet, the brand’s search results are filled with positive content that ranges from influencer product promotions to company growth news.

Look at the sheer number of reviews that have been left about Starbucks products… and look at the overall scores! Four-star and five-star reviews across the board.

Be Proactive. Generate Positive Buzz.

Positive reviews and mentions of a brand are an invaluable way to combat negative content. 91 percent of consumers trust an online review as much as a personal recommendation and read an average of 10 reviews before establishing trust in a business. Review and comparison sites in branded search results make positive reviews a catalyst for future business. And don’t forget — not all press coverage has to be negative. If a brand has a positive online reputation, it makes sense they’d start to generate brand mentions, links, and shares.

There are many things a company can do to help increase positive coverage around their brand. Successful brands like Starbucks work extensively in corporate social responsibility (CSR), most notably with their pledge to hire 25,000 veterans by 2025 which they actually hit six years ahead of schedule.

CSR helps brands establish a bond of trust with consumers, and can generate just as much good press as the other side of the coin. Butcherbox.com is a brand that nutrition and fitness influencer, Thomas DeLauer talks about frequently. And listening to him, the one takeaway you may get without ever having to go to the Butcherbox website is that it’s responsibly sourced meat – grass-fed and grass-finished. That said, what do you notice about the search results for Butcherbox? Sourcing is a featured section on the brand’s website.

And a blog post or news article from a high-authority site lends authority and credibility to branded search results.

Focus on Brand Safety

Many marketers and ad agencies purchase ad-media based on specific demographics, rather than site theme or content. So, it can be a little tough to filter out sites whose content could damage a brand’s online reputation.

Brand safety refers to best practices aimed at keeping a brand’s reputation safe throughout an online ad campaign. As you can imagine, brand safety is one of the huge factors that kept certain brands – and entire industries – from leveraging influencer marketing.

For instance, we’ve talked in detail about the challenges luxury brands have faced as it relates to maintaining elite status when social media’s primary selling point is that it makes everything accessible, or at least social makes it seem that way.

Brands are marketers are always on the lookout for risky content placed alongside ad media, regardless of the platform. Brands have to define acceptable levels of risk, and develop a content verification process through blacklisting, whitelisting, and page-level scrutiny.

Vivoom CEO Katherine Hayes stated in a 2018 Forbes article that “Despite the amount of time and money companies devote to growing their brand, few are taking the same precautions to protect their brands. And the ones that do, aren’t doing it particularly well.”

Hayes went on to name JP Morgan Chase as a notable example — the banking giant went from advertising on 400,000 sites per month to just 5,000 after discovering their ads were running alongside extremist web content.

More brands than ever are investing in influencer marketing, programmatic advertising, and user-generated content (UGC). That means stringent brand safety and asset management protocols are gonna be super-important to ensure that brand reputation and brand trust don’t fall by the wayside.

Conclusion

The bottom line is, companies need to actively monitor their online reputations. For brands, it’s not vain to Google yourself, it’s smart business. Don’t miss the opportunity to take control of your brand’s own narrative because the content that shows up about your brand can create long-term issues that impact the way consumers perceive your company as they move further down the purchase funnel. Brands must commit to building out a healthy presence on their owned channels.

The post How to Future-Proof Your Brand’s Online Reputation appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.