Ryan Schram, IZEA President and Director We talk about the changing scope of influencer marketing.
__________
Welcome to this MarTech Series Chat, Ryan, tell us more about yourself and your time at IZEA. We would love to hear from him about IZEA’s growth over the years and his recent expansion plans.
I celebrated my 11th anniversary at IZEA. It’s been an incredible journey to see the entire arc of the Global Creator Economy evolve and rise to where it is today.
The company was founded in the early days of MySpace in 2006. Since then, many platforms have come and gone, but our purpose remains the same. That means structuring the influencer sector to reduce fragmentation and better serve brands, agencies and creators.
Altogether, we facilitate nearly 4 million collaborations between influencers and brands, execute influencer marketing campaigns, and create custom content for Fortune 500 companies and some of the world’s largest agencies in our home market of North America. is created.
It expanded into China earlier this year and more recently into the UK. Like other markets, the UK influencer industry has great growth potential but lacks the expertise and innovation that top his marketers need. We are committed to changing that and want to help the market mature.
How has influencer marketing changed over the years, and what are the salient trends that marketers should pay attention to today?
Today, influencer marketing is a cloth, not a thread. Consists of modern day creators creating great content on multiple platforms. Being able to embrace the creator’s mindset and approach it with perhaps dozens of works is modern influencer marketing for marketers.
The types of creators who can engage in supporting brands have also changed dramatically. This category has expanded to include micro and nano influencers. It could be your passionate foodie neighbors, or your DIY-obsessed family. The fact that they can work with brands in the same way traditional celebrities do is a powerful testament to the scalability of the Creator Economy.
Moreover, extensibility as a concept is becoming more and more important. When all budgets are tight, the ability to repurpose the incredible amount of content you get from your influencer marketing investment and leverage all of your current and future customer engagements to your brand’s advantage. is very powerful. Influencer marketing is more valuable than ever and will continue to take hold.
Given today’s market dynamics, what do you think the future holds for this segment?
Its cost-effectiveness and overall ability to deliver measurable results are two key changes.
First, industry interest in vanity metrics will be scrutinized. The changing economy is forcing marketers to accept the fact that influencer marketing can be measured all the way to conversion, and that it is no different than calculating media in the digital realm.
Second, there is a transitive impact on how large brands allocate their budgets to make investments that impact many parts of their brand house. I’ve considered it one of the few strategies that affects multiple parts of the brand house. It can convey media weight, drive awareness and engagement, promote the PR part of the house, and even increase her SEO value on long-form social platforms. This is very important when SEM costs are reaching all-time highs.
Marketing Technology News: Consumer expectations are rapidly evolving across industries…even when it comes to ordering food
What are the five basic guiding principles you share with brands still considering exploring this route?
Have a good understanding of what space is. When you start influencer marketing, it becomes strategy-based, not “me too.”
It affects how you think about the space. Avoid silo thinking and understand that modern creators’ adoption of multiple platforms is an advantage, not a disadvantage. Influencers who are famous on TikTok may also be doing great things on Instagram and Pinterest.As marketers, you should adopt that layered approach as well.
This is making CMOs around the world question whether their marketing organizations can act. Is it set up in a cohesive and integrated way for profit, or is it still siloed as is often the case with large companies?
Don’t overlook the fact that consumers are becoming increasingly unresponsive to digital clutter. Instead, consumers are focused on content. Influencer marketing blends advertising and content creation in a way that programmatic methods cannot fully cover. There’s no better place than a timeline where you’re not only confused, but part of the content.
Next, make sure your organization not only thinks about things with an integrated mindset, but also understands how to measure all the by-products that come from your influencer marketing campaigns and can put them into different funnels. I’m willing to bet that investing in influencer marketing will be the most effective medium in 2022-2023, regardless of climate. But if there are more storm clouds ahead, it becomes even more important empirically.
Especially for B2B marketing teams, how can marketers get more out of the influencer trend?
B2B will be a real growth area for the creator economy. In part, it’s because LinkedIn has emerged as a true social platform rather than just an online resume hub. It can also be combined with his B2B company, which has embraced YouTube as a medium for true positioning and marketing.
There is a huge opportunity for B2B brands to draw from the pool of influencers who create content tailored to the subject matter that their audience lives and is relevant to their category. IT security is a good example. Very much he is B2B and there are many creators who are actively engaged with their audience such as CIO, CTO and CSO. Most B2B marketers can lean into these areas as well.
A final thought on the future of digital marketing and how (how/why) channels like influencer marketing will play a more important role.
Change is constant in life and in the marketing industry, and it benefits both marketers and creators. Other parts of the marketing house weren’t as innovative as the creator economy. This forces marketers to look inward and reassess their impact and that of other activities. Why are brands still spending on these traditional and corny approaches as opposed to getting closer to their customers?
Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview with Satisfi Labs CEO and Co-Founder Don White
What are your five predictions for the online marketing industry in 2023 and beyond?
First, return of value exchange. Just a year ago, it was unthinkable that Netflix would offer an ad-supported layer to cut the monthly fee. Still, research shows that consumers are willing to accept subscriptions not only to save money, but also as a “generous advertising” viewing experience. It shows that you are becoming more and more savvy.
Second, the data suggests that ad spending may decline overall in a difficult economic climate in 2023, but it reflects where consumers are, so influencers We believe marketing spending will increase on a share basis.
Third, the continued shift to mobile puts easy-to-share content at the forefront. Brands face the short attention span of consumers and the scrolling speed of people watching TikTok and Instagram. So experienced marketers need to figure out how to break through and get noticed.
Fourth, Apple will continue to position itself as a security company for consumer permission rather than attractive, well-designed mobile devices. This will continue to plague social platforms that were previously able to utilize all tracking and location data to advance their programmatic efforts.
And finally, for balance, it’s worth acknowledging that Apple has very quietly, but largely, built its own advertising team to be the antidote to the problems it created for marketers. It remains to be seen what it will look like in 2023, but the widespread use of iOS on a national and global scale points the way forward.
About Isea Worldwide
