by When you think of influencer marketing, the first thing that comes to mind is probably B2C celebrity endorsements, in which a well-known individual is paid to promote a product. Sure, traditional commercial arrangements exist, but they only account for a small portion of influencer marketing’s real-world impact. Consider the supply chain: if a product is recommended by an industry expert like Sarah Barnes-Humphrey, are you more likely to investigate it?
According to the State of B2B Influencer Marketing Research Report, 63 percent of marketers feel that incorporating a B2B influencer marketing programme into their marketing strategy would improve results. The question then becomes: how do I create a programme like this and make it work for my company?
There are five steps to establishing an effective influencer marketing strategy, which I’ll go through in detail below. These procedures are applicable to any industry, but in this essay, we’ll focus on their impact on the supply chain industry. Because of its capacity to break through stagnation and help businesses move forward, I’ve nicknamed this technique the SMASH strategy.
#1. Set-up
The first step is to set up. Information is the bedrock of any successful marketing approach. This step involves obtaining information and organising it in a way that is both understandable and actionable. What are the questions you need to answer about your company before moving on to the next step? Let’s go over it again:
- What is the demographic of my target market?
- What are my major aches and pains?
- What are my current pain-relieving strategies?
- What are the themes that are most important to my particular industry?
- What are my primary rivals?
- What are the objectives of my company?
- What are the most significant key performance indicators (KPIs) for my company?
- What social media platforms do we now use?
These answers will provide you with a good foundation on which to create your influencer marketing plan. Knowing where you are as you begin your journey makes it much easier to get where you want to go. It reduces the chances of getting lost along the trip.
This setup data will aid you in determining two of the most crucial aspects of the SMASHing process: the supply chain influencers that are best aligned with your company’s niche and the creative approach you use to reach out to them.
#2. Organize
The next step is to organise the information you gathered during the setup phase. What’s next now that you’ve got your basic business data? The next step is to make sure you can put that information to good use. You’ve figured out where you’ve been; now it’s time to figure out where you’re heading next.
The manage element of the SMASH process is about planting the seeds that were collected during the set-up phase. You must first ensure that the soil is fertile before planting anything. Is your soil rich in nutrients? You can find out by asking yourself the following questions:
Are there any social media platforms that you’re not utilising that you should? If that’s the case, it’s time to create accounts. If you want to construct a successful influencer marketing strategy, you’ll need the social media presence to reach out and cultivate those important relationships.
What resources do you have available to you? I indicated in the introduction that there are two types of influencers: earned and paid. A genuine influencer is someone who promotes your product simply because they enjoy it. These take a lot of work and nurturing, but they’re less expensive up front. Earned influencers can be risky because you don’t have control over the narrative, but they’re still a viable option for any company with a limited upfront financial expenditure. Otherwise, you’ve paid influencers, which are people who you’ve compensated to promote your product or service.
What is the size of your order? If you want to create a SMASHing influencer marketing strategy, you’ll need to figure out how many influencers you want to collaborate with first. It’s easy to become overwhelmed if you establish a goal that’s too lofty, so start with a smaller, manageable goal that can work and develop with you.
Once you have these answers, it will be much easier to devise a strategy for contacting and cultivating your chosen influencers. With your analytical data in hand and your social accounts and expectations in place, the following step in your influencer marketing strategy will be outreach. Because it answers the question, “What do I need to do now to catch the interest of an influencer I want to work with?” I’ve termed this the answer portion of the SMASH process.
#3. Provide an answer
This is the point in the SMASH process that you start talking about reaching out to influencers more directly. After all, there is no influencer marketing without influencers, and we now want to answer questions and establish a strategy to achieve that goal. The effort you put in the previous two steps should have you feeling well-prepared for this section.
If set-up was gathering seeds and manage was planting them, this stage of the procedure is laying down the fertiliser to ensure those seeds flourish.
Source: influencer marketing Singapore
