If it wasn’t already apparent that the battles in digital marketing are won and lost based on the thoroughness and the scale of company strategy, then you weren’t paying close enough attention. The reality is, as marketing has become more and more of an internet-first, and even internet-only, discipline for businesses, the small details are what makes the big difference.
Whether you’re marketing a sports event, new gadget, or running an SEO strategy for your SaaS company, strategizing your campaigns requires a lot more data and a lot more attention than it would’ve done a decade ago.
One of the most useful phenomena to emerge in that time has been influencers. Influencer marketing is hardly a new concept. Leveraging these modern resources in areas outside of simply content creation, though, is something that an increasing number of marketers are finding benefit in.
Influencers: A growing tool
Influencer marketing budgets have skyrocketed lately. Business Insider reported that, this year, brands will spend an eye-watering $15bn on this area of their marketing mix, nearly double what was being spent in 2019. For something to have gained that amount of traction over such a short period of time, to the extent that influencer programs now exist, suggests that there is more than enough substance to back up the obvious style that influencers bring with them.
In 2019, it was reported that influencer marketing achieved an ROI equal to or better than equivalent marketing concepts, according to nearly 90 percent of those marketers asked. If that consensus has been maintained or even grown, as the aforementioned budgets have increased, then to ignore this opportunity is to back yourself into a corner.
So, how, when it comes to SEO campaign strategy, can you use the wondrous and often glamorous world of influencers and influencer marketing? Well, allow us to demonstrate a few great ways to leverage influencers for this very purpose.
1. Mentions
Just because we’re advising you on something doesn’t mean the answers we give are going to be rocket science. In fact, if you’ve spent any time at all around influencer marketing, or SEO marketing, the chances are that you’ll at least be aware of some of these tips. Rest assured, though, SEO link building is something we trust you can do already.
However, there’s a difference between knowing something in theory and knowing how to execute it. When it comes to leveraging influencers for an SEO Campaign Strategy, simply knowing that mentions work isn’t enough.
Being tactical about when, how, and why you’re mentioning an influencer in relation to a campaign can make all the difference. In a world in which people’s favorability can turn on a dime, reaching out or highlighting a collaboration with an influencer who’s recently been shunned in the court of public opinion can have disastrous effects on your strategy as a whole.
2. Blogging
For a lot of influencers, the format of content where they’ve established their presence will be video. It’s the content that works best on practically every social media site out there and the one that, if we think of ourselves as consumers for a second, more likely than not, we engage with most.
However, as far as SEO goes, words are the thing. And, whilst video can still have a role to play here, as it could for any outbound lead generation strategies you’re running, using influencers to write blogs or even guest blogs can be a useful way to leverage them for your SEO campaign.
Their knowledge of producing content that gains traction online, combined with the online social media presence they likely have, is a recipe for success. As long as you make sure that their writing style works within the parameters of your brand’s tone of voice, you should be all set.
3. Interviews
Influencers are, unsurprisingly given what we’ve discussed so far, very busy people. And as such, getting them to write something from scratch may not be the most attractive proposal to them – it’s still worth asking, mind you.
If they seem hesitant to contribute to your SEO campaign strategy in that way, propose an interview instead. This allows them the freedom to be a collaborator on a piece rather than its sole creative force. It gives them the opportunity to offer insight, much like a survey of professionals in a given space would, while also giving you the ability to take more control of the finished product.
It’s a more sellable idea for all involved and is something that fans of the influencer are more likely to engage with.
Conclusion
Over the course of this article, we’ve explored how you can leverage influencers for your SEO campaign strategy. We’ve done this by explaining the trajectory that the industry is on, the role that influencer marketing has to play in this, and the different ways in which you can bring influencers in and affect content.
With the direction of digital marketing never entirely certain, it’s difficult to say that these tips are a recipe for guaranteed success or that your growth strategy is completely sound. So many things – getting the right influencer, posting something at just the right time, ensuring the content is hyper-relevant to the audience it’s aimed at – have to go right as well in order to make your campaign a success.
But as the industry prepares to double its influencer marketing spend in three years, it’s becoming difficult to justify the reasons for not exploring this. Failure to do so for too much longer could see you and your company permanently left behind as your competitors progress.
