Ah, the nostalgic memories of making new friends on the first day of class, the thrill of getting a new Trapper Keeper notebook and finding your place amongst your peers likely take most of us back to our school days.
Once you’re out of school, you realize that you don’t always have teachers by your side to help you plan for how to approach strategies like content marketing. There’s no lesson plan, pre-test or extra credit to help you figure everything out. And the true test comes from how much your audience likes (or doesn’t like) the content assets that you create. Which presents an opportunity to innovate your approach.
Influencer marketing is a fairly new concept that many marketers are buzzing about, but few actually know how to approach successfully. For those that are successful at incorproating influencer marketing into their content mix, they are earning an average of $6.85 in media value for every $1 that they spend on paid media.
To help you pass the influencer marketing test, TopRank Marketing has tapped into the minds of 10 marketing executives at major brands to bring you a new eBook that provides five essential lessons for embarking on a co-created content initiative. This project was sponsored by GroupHigh, a software-as-a-service marketing application that allows marketing teams to build, evaluate, and manage one-to-one-to-many marketing relationships.
Along with the lessons and corresponding “homework” for success, these marketing executives provide cheat sheets on their biggest piece of influencer marketing advice. Here’s a preview of what you’ll find inside:
Jason Miller – Group Manager, Global Content Marketing – LinkedIn
“Successful content co-creation requires you have a plan in place before you do anything else.” @JasonMillerCA tweet this
Celia Brown – Senior Director of Content Marketing – SAP
“Influencers are worth their weight in gold as they already have credibility with your audience.” @ceilabrown tweet this
Matt Gentile – Director of Social Media – Century 21
“Offer multiple flavors in your content campaign to appeal to more people’s tastes and sharability.” @MattGentile tweet this
Lee Odden – CEO – TopRank Marketing
“Co-Create content with industry experts that are already influential to grow brand influence.” @leeodden tweet this
Jeannine Rossignol – Vice President of Marketing – Xerox
“Buyers are people and they turn to other people who they follow and trust for help.” @j9rossignol tweet this
Laura Fitton – Inbound Marketing Evangelist – HubSpot
“Pay attention to what influencers are sharing & leave some of your best content for them to find.” @Pistachio tweet this
Michael Brenner – Head of Strategy – NewsCred
“To inspire influencers: share their content, comment on their blogs & cover their presentations.” @BrennerMichael tweet this
Amy Higgins – Senior Social Media Manager – Zendesk
“Influencer marketing is a 2 way street. The activity has to work for influencers & their audience.” @amywhiggins tweet this
Justin Levy – Director, Social Marketing – Citrix
“Search for and share the best content in your community from employees, customers & partners.” @justinlevy tweet this
Mark Wilson – Senior Vice President of Marketing – BlackBerry
“Recruit brand fans that are already participating in forums & engage them as brand advocates.” @BlackBerry tweet this
Are You Ready to Rule the School?
Get ready for an intense course on influencer marketing that includes 5 essential lessons, cheat sheets from today’s top brands and homework for each lesson to help you put everything you learn into action. Test your knowledge by downloading the FREE eBook today!
