Author Archives for Kirsty Sharman

Online Influencer feature: Kobus Galloway

September 30, 2015 1:20 pm Published by Kirsty Sharman

We pride ourselves on having influencers as part of Webfluential that go the extra mile. All influencers are not the same, and we love it when our influencers create great content for a job. Kobus Galloway was recently part of a Showmax campaign and he created some awesome content for the job, that speaks to his audience. Kobus has built up a very unique style with his illustrations at Idees Vol Vrees. His unique one liner jokes get an added dimension with his illustrations that goes with each joke. For the Showmax job Kobus went the extra mile by creating content that sticks to his style, but works well with the Showmax brand. We asked Kobus a few questions around his experience of creating sponsored content and the working on the Showmax campaign. You can read the full interview below, but here is a key takeaway that stood out:

At the end of the day, content is king. Keep it fresh and original. Give the people something worth sharing.

See more of Kobus Galloway's work on his Idees Vol Vrees Facebook page.

You create great content for your audience. How does your audience feel about sponsored content?

I feel sponsored content is needed, because at the end of the day you're still delivering a service and need to cover costs of drawing equipment etc. Idees Vol Vrees fans don't really mind. It's like watching your favourite TV show. You don't really mind ad breaks, and it makes the show possible.

We know it takes considerable time to create good content, how long did the process take you from concept to sharing it on your channels?

An Idees Vol Vrees illustration from concept phase to finished product takes me about 2 hours. Obviously depending on the concept, punchlines, amount of characters and so forth.

How did your audience respond to the Showmax content?

My audience did not know anything about Showmax before the campaign, but they loved the Showmax content on Idees Vol Vrees. Thousands of likes and shares.

Can you give us some tips for brands when creating content with influencers?

At the end of the day, content is king. Keep it fresh and original. Give the people something worth sharing.

Nobody knows your audience better than you

The reason marketers want to work with influencers is because influencers have a very unique type of relationship with their audience. Influencers know their audience better than anyone else, and thus they can create great content that works specifically for their audience. By working with influencers that create great content that is specifically for their audience, an Influencer Marketing campaign can be one of the most powerful marketing channels at a brand’s disposal. Are you an influencer that know his audience better than anyone else? Do you create awesome content for your audience? Hit the button below and apply to become a Webfluential Influencer right now.

11 Influencer Marketing tips from online influencers

September 25, 2015 10:18 am Published by Kirsty Sharman

This blog post was originally written by Ruan Fourie. An effective Influencer Marketing campaign is advantageous to both to the influencer and the brand. But Influencer Marketing as we know it now is relatively new, there are no rules set in stone to guide us. It's important to understand how the relationship between marketer and influencer can be effectively maintained to help both parties. Webfluential greatly simplifies the Influencer Marketing process with our intuitive tech platform that connects brands and the right influencers for a campaign. We have also managed a lot of campaigns and worked with a vast variety of influencers. Influencers that we are proud of. The Webfluential Influencer Marketing platform is a great tool to help you with your own campaign. We decided to speak to two of our influencers and ask them for some tips on working with influencers. These tips have helped our account managers so much, that we have decided to share these tips with you too. Influencer Marketing UK Bloggers Sarah Bailey co-founded Uk-Bloggers.co.uk in 2013 as a place for bloggers to share, discuss and help one another. Since then UK-Bloggers have become more than just an information hub for bloggers, but now PRs and SEOs are also a part of the community. Here is what Sarah had to say about working with online influencers:

Be personal

It's always much nicer to receive an email from someone who has taken the time to look at your blog, than someone who is obviously just messaging as many people as possible. With Webfluential you can easily see all the influencers social channels and familiarise yourself with what type of content the influencer shares.

Know a bloggers worth

Blogs have long gone past the days of just being a personal online journal. Blogs have become a legitimate media channel, and just like other media channels getting your brand to the audience has a cost. Webfluential helps make sure that you are not paying more than you should be, but also makes sure that influencers get paid, and thus do a professional job.

Know local rules

Make sure you are up are up to date with local rules/laws around disclosure and make sure that your influencers are also aware of rules and guidelines around sponsored content and native advertising. This is not just for your own protection, but also to protect influencers from any penaties. Added bonus is that it's always best to be open and honest about the brand-influencer relationship, so that the influencer's audience does not feel like there is an attempt to mislead them.

Don't expect us to work miracles

While many of us can write quickly, we often need more than an hours notice to pull something out of the bag. Give influencers a decent amount of time to respond, and then produce the content. Briefing influencers in a timely fashion will ensure that you get the best content for your Influencer Marketing campaign.

Build a relationship with the influencer

If you are looking to work with bloggers again, treat the relationship like you would any other professional or business relationship. Maintaining relationships with multiple influencers can be a very time consuming process. Webfluential has campaign managers that are experts at doing exactly that, with every influencer that forms part of your campaign.

Feel free to give us constructive criticism

Notice a typo, or a grammar error? Let the influencer know, we don't mind. Also if you have any constructive criticism, send it our way. Influencers are always looking for ways to create better content. Constructive criticism is a great way to learn and improve. This will also help strengthen relationships for future Influencer Marketing campaigns the influecner could be involved in.

Spillly Brent Spilkin has spent the last 20 years becoming an authority in the digital marketing space. Brent is no stranger to online influence as he himself has used his online persona to flourish in the public arena and work with international brands in the media space. "Spillly" is not just an online influencer, he is also Brent Spilkin the Founder of the Growing Pains business consulting. Here are Brent's tips for working with influencers:

Give influencers the creative freedom to drive your campaign goals

Conversations can’t be faked, so don’t force your influencer to use your copy or tone. Allow them to speak in their own voice only giving them guidelines on your message.

It’s not just about follower numbers

Reach is important but the number of followers an influencer has is only part of the reason you want to use them in your campaign. Check that each influencer also has a high level of engagement and that historically their engagement is positive. Webfluential’s platform can give you insight into the engagement that an influencer’s content gets.

Make influencer campaign goals clear from the start

Clearly define what you hope to achieve for your campaign with the influencer at the briefing stage. Knowing that you want general awareness, test-drives, likes or leads, greatly changes the way an influencer will interact with his followers and how the campaign messaging will come across.

Turn influencers into brand ambassadors

Reward and treat your influencers with respect and they will become loyal brand ambassadors to your business that will speak highly of you long after the campaigns they were involved with are completed.

Give influencers the opportunity to work together

Inform each influencer who the other influencers are on the same campaign. Actively engage with more than one influencer in conversations to allow more engagement around your brand and ultimately reaching the primary audience.

Start your successful Influencer Marketing campaign today

At Webfluential we work hard at creating and maintaining healthy working relationships with influencers, so that every Influencer Marketing campaign is successful. Sign up as a marketer now if you are planning on making Influencer Marketing part of your future marketing strategy.

How remarketing gives you another chance to close the deal

September 16, 2015 9:59 am Published by Kirsty Sharman

Have you ever browsed the web and felt that whatever website you visit; you see ads from the online store you visited the day before? Whether you are catching up on news on CNN or browsing Facebook pics of a friend’s holiday, ads keep popping up (like magic) with the shoes you decided were not essential. However, this is not the act of your Fairy Godmother waving her wand to ensure you have this seasons latest kicks, but it is rather part of a strategic remarketing campaign. One of the most crucial questions for any business is “How do I attract more customers?” The corner store wants to increase foot traffic, a steakhouse wants more reservations and the online shoe shop wants to have less abandoned shopping carts. However, in the over-competitive online world, discovering a website may be easy, but leaving it is as simple as clicking a button. The more important business question in this case is “How do I get them to come back?” Remarketing is used to reach past website visitors or app users. It is a smart way to reach out to people who may not have made an immediate purchase or taken up your call to action on first visit. It gives you the opportunity to reconnect with potential customers by positioning targeted ads in front them when they are browsing elsewhere on the web. Put simply, one uses marketing to bring a visitor to your website, and when they do not make a purchase, you then use remarketing tactics to bring them back to your website and convert them into paying customers. Remarketing is a great tool to add to your Influencer Marketing campaign. Lets find out why.

Using dynamic remarketing to customise ads

Dynamic remarketing takes things a step further by including products or services that people viewed on your website within the ads. This delivers a customised and more relevant ad to the potential customer. They are more likely to take note of the ad as they recognise the product displayed from their previous browsing or abandoned shopping carts. This connection makes them more likely to buy. Linking back to the shoe example, this would be viewing ads for the green Nike trainers you left abandoned in your shopping cart, whilst browsing other websites.

How does remarketing work?

Remarketing ads can be delivered to a defined audience in both text and image display formats. The ads are managed by Google AdWords and are displayed on web pages visited by your target audience that accept Google advertising placements. The technology behind remarketing works by placing *cookies that are stored on the visitor’s computer when browsing. Their cookie ID is added to your remarketing list to serve relevant and customised ads.

How successful is remarketing?

The central principle of remarketing is to retain the attention of people that have already expressed an interest in your business. Therefore, for remarketing to be successful you need to ensure that your ad is highly relevant to what your visitors are looking for and that there is some enticement for them to return to your website. For example, perhaps I decide to buy the green Nike trainers as the remarketing ads show me a 10% discount code or offer me a gift certificate on my first purchase. When used correctly, remarketing is a powerful tool for repeat website traffic, sales conversions or creating brand awareness. This is why remarketing is sometimes referred to as ‘conversion marketing’ and is a great tool for driving return on investment (ROI). A Google case study, of Loews Hotel Group, showcases how they shifted 70 percent of their offline ad spend to online last year. The hotel group started using remarketing and the overall results were very favourable. Revenue increased 10 percent, bookings went up 9 percent and unique site visitors increased by 5 percent. However, the most impressive number was the $60,000 in sales that the $800 remarketing campaign produced. Remarketing is believed to be the ultimate tool to address the problem of abandoned shopping carts and increase sales conversions. A study showcased on Selligent found that the return rate of customers that abandon shopping carts without remarketing is 8 percent, but with remarketing the return rate increases to 26 percent.

In an era where our time is continually diverted to something new and we are bombarded with messaging, it is important to remain relevant and at the forefront of a potential customer’s mind. Remarketing allows marketers to strategically target people that have already expressed interest in their business and remind them to purchase the green Nike sneakers they abandoned in their shopping cart. With a little added enticement from a remarketing campaign, 26 percent of those customers will return to purchase the shoes. *A cookie is a small bit of code that helps a web browser store data about websites.

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