The Marketing Millennials: Influencer Marketing Trends to Pay Attention to
So how can you ensure you’re on the path to building the most successful influencer relationships possible?
Summary (Generated with Bash)
In an enlightening discussion with Dikla Benjo from Artlist on the Marketing Millennials podcast, the evolving landscape of influencer marketing was dissected, offering a refreshing take on how brands can effectively leverage influencer partnerships for more authentic and impactful marketing strategies.
Key Insights and Trends
In the realm of influencer marketing, authenticity, and creative freedom reign supreme. Benjo underscores the importance of a symbiotic relationship between brands and influencers, emphasizing how creative autonomy and a deep understanding of the audience can fuel authentic promotions. Notable trends and strategies include:
Focusing on micro and nano influencers for their credibility and highly engaged follower bases.
Utilizing localization strategies to tailor content to specific cultures, enhancing relevance and impact.
Establishing long-term partnerships with influencers to maintain consistent brand presence and authenticity.
Cultivating Effective Partnerships
The dialogue shed light on the necessity of granting influencers creative control to ensure content's genuineness and its resonance with audiences. The conversation also ventured into the practicality of incorporating influencers into product development for a more profound brand association.
Conclusion: The Road to Success
The interview encapsulated the essence of influencer marketing's evolution - highlighting how marketers can achieve a more genuine connection with their target demographics by investing in heartfelt relationships with influencers who genuinely resonate with their brand, supported by the creative freedom to engage their audience.
Embracing these insights can illuminate a path towards more authentic, influential, and effective marketing strategies, aligning with the core values of both brands and their respective audiences.
Read the full discussion in the transcript below 👇
231 - Influencer Marketing Trends to Pay Attention to, with Dikla Bengio
Welcome to the Marketing Millennials, the No BS Marketing Podcast. I'm Daniel Murray, and join me for unfiltered conversations with the brains behind marketing's coolest companies. The one request I tell our guests, stories or it didn't happen. Get ready to turn the f**k up. At the end of the day, I always tell the creators that influencer marketing is not a campaign and a sponsor. That is not a traditional ad, okay? So obviously it's important, of course, every brand has their goals. Every brand has a message. Every brand has a brief that they want delivered, but they have to give the influencer the creative freedom to do it in their own unique, organic way that will be engaging to their audience. Tideform, forms that break the norm. Get more data like signups, feedback, and anything else with forms that are designed to be refreshingly different. Learn more and get started for free at Tideform.com. What's up everybody? Welcome back to the Marketing Millennials podcast. Today we have a special guest today, all the way from Israel. So welcome to the podcast. I want you to explain how you got into marketing, who you are, and then we can go into some more details on influencer marketing. Yes. Thank you. First of all, thank you for having me. It's a great pleasure. I'll introduce, first of all, my name. So my name is Dikla Benjo. Actually I didn't come from the marketing world before my current role. I have a bachelor's in law and I practiced toward law for several years before my current role and it was great at first, but then I just completely lost passion for it. And at the same time, I found myself fascinated by the tech world and by the marketing and engrossed in the direction, especially of influencer marketing. And as a natural sociable and people oriented person, I discovered true correlation between my interpersonal skills and the demands of influencer marketing. And so I applied for the role of partnerships manager. And since my transition, I just never looked back. And today I'm working for four and a half years as a partnerships team leader at Artlist. Would you like to, for everybody who doesn't know, could you explain what Artlist does? Because I think it gives pretty good information of where the conversation is going to go. Yes, of course, for sure. So first of all, Artlist is a creative technology company that creates digital assets for content creators and brands. We have above 2 million assets that include music and sound effects and footage and motion graphics. Basically, Artlist has all the essential tools to inspire and empower content creators and brands to just create without limits. I love it. And you recently getting into, so you've been in the B2C space. Now you're moving into the B2B space, which is amazing because B2B creators need some love. So thank you for moving into the B2B space. But I want to go into some trends you're seeing in influencer marketing. What are some things you are seeing that are relevant for marketers to know right now? Yes. So I think, first of all, in regards to trends, I think that as today, AI technologies have become so increasingly sophisticated. There is a huge risk of misinformation and manipulation and impersonalized messaging, which can erode and destroy customer trust and credibility. Therefore, I would say that the first trend that people should invest in in 2024 would be investing in micro and nano influencers for more credibility because they are niche oriented, they're dedicated, they have a focused follower base. So it's a lot more effective in terms of credibility and authenticity. And regardless of that, it just drives a lot of conversion, a lot of engagement, more than the general macro influencers. And here, what I see is I see that there is a huge misconception with brands that think there is a direct correlation between the amount of subscribers to the amount of conversions because the fact that a channel has a huge amount of subscribers does not mean that their audience is primed to buy your product. So literally, for big channels, you'll be spending a huge amount for views that are just not relevant. And I can tell you that at Artlist, we have influencers with less than 10K followers that bring us a lot more conversions than the huge macro or mega influencers. That I think is the first trend. And the second trend I would go for is localization. I just think that global brands can localize their message more easily by using local niche oriented and nano influencers who have a deep knowledge on their own unique culture and trends, local preferences, and they can just convey the product's value in a way that's adopted to their market. And at Artlist, I can tell you that localization has proven to be an important part of taking our platforms across borders. And as a brand, we take it and we leverage it not only to their organic channels, but we create for the MewGC content that afterwards we run in our paid channels to the target audience that we're trying to seek. Yeah, I think these are two great trends. I think one with nano and localization, the theme that I get out of it is, one, these people want to have depth with their audience, so they actually deeply understand the audience. The audience actually deeply are following them. If you have a thousand raving fans versus someone who has just a million, I kind of a fan of you. It's harder to convert those type of people. And also what I know with niche people is just they are experts in that niche, so they can convey the message how you want it to that audience in such a way that that audience will understand. Just like localization, you don't want someone speaking the wrong slang in the wrong country because then they'll know that this is a fake message. It's the same thing with niche influences. You want that personal message to relate with the audience. So I like those two. And I think it mainly depends, especially with the micro and nano influencers, I think it mainly depends on your KPIs and on your brand objectives. But if your KPI is performance, is direct acquisition and conversions. So if you want to see engagement straight away, it's with the nano and the micro influencers. I want to ask you to go a little deeper on that. What are some ways you suggest brands work with influencers? What are some partnership tactics to get the most success out of working with these type of influencers? I think, first of all, one of the most important things and that I emphasize the most is the creative freedom that is given to content creators. At the end of the day, I always tell the creators that influencer marketing is not a campaign and a sponsor. That is not a traditional ad. So obviously it's important, of course, every brand has their goals. Every brand has a message. Every brand has a brief that they want delivered, but they have to give the influencer the creative freedom to do it in their own unique, organic way that will be engaging to their audience. Because at the end of the day, they are the ones that know their audience the best with nothing scripted, with nothing commercial. And so for me, that is a rule of thumb and it comes from practice and experience rather than theory, because it's just more authentic. It's just more credible when you let them do what they want, rather than just having like a commercial and then giving talking points of the brand. That just doesn't work. And a lot of times what I tell creators, I tell them, and that's super important, I tell them don't sell anything. Show the product, show how the product elevates, specifically in our case, elevates your creative process. Show how the product takes your creative process from being good to being great. Show how easy it is to just download a song, drag and drop it into the timeline, and then that's it. Boom. You have it all there. You don't just say things, you have to show them. And I think that's one of the main strong points with influencer marketing, that they have the power to drill down into and to display all the features that a traditional ad just doesn't have the option to do. I think that's a hundred percent. 100% right. And I also think the other point that I will add on to that is just in a world where the trust of companies, institutions, outlets, news has become lower and lower. So these type of people are the trusted resources when it comes to displaying knowledge to their audience, whether it's a beauty influencer telling someone this is the product they use to do x, y, and z, or a B2B influencer telling them that outdated my day-to-day is better because I use this video software that helps me do x, y, and z. It just is more trustworthy because they're actually in it, doing it, and not just reporting on it and saying that I know this, I know this. And it's a face that you can trust that you followed through the journey as a person, which I love those two. I think the creative freedom and also the depth of the audience is two things that I think are totally, I am 100% agree in on with creators. I think the fact that they show the product and how it elevates any aspect of their life, I think that sells just without selling. So we went to nano influencers. We've talked about localization. Are there any other big trends that you should, that people should know about right now that are happening in influencer marketing that people should be aware of? So I think another trend is partner 360 with the creators. And what it means is I can give an example. So for example, at Artlist, when we wanted to share a story behind one of our most iconic footages created by two super talented filmmakers from Portugal, we decided to send one of our influencers in order to capture their story. So we emailed this influencer and he went and told the story in his own unique voice. So instead of us sending a whole production team to Portugal with a whole cast, we decided to send our influencer and it didn't have going organic on his channel. We literally evolved him in our whole production atmosphere. And we made him a part of Artlist because at the end of the day, our creators are influencers. They're the best storytellers. And even our catalog is made by creators. So who is better to promote creators other than other creators, which are our influencers. And so that was amazing. Or when we want to get exclusive, we have exclusive collections on our websites. For example, Peter McKinnon, he's a huge Artlist partners of ours, and he has a custom collection of songs that he uses on a regular basis inserted into Artlist. So take the creators and evolve them in your product, make exclusive packages with their name on it. Take their feedback when you're getting a new brand, when you're getting a new product, consult with them, take them into consideration. I think that will bring your brand and elevate your brand because at the end of the day, so for example, Artlist, they know the best. They're the creators. Everything we do is for them. So once we insert them into our creative process and into building the product, it just turns out differently. I think that's the way to do it because if you think about marketing in general, right, marketing is keeping someone top of mind, making sure that they feel part of the brand. One-off campaigns with one person just can hit and miss. And that person is not related to your brand anymore. If you have that in-depth partnership where that creator is part and integrated into your brand, they become a face of your brand. People know that when this person's here, they're related to this brand and they become a part of that, your universe, which is way better than when you just do a one-off thing, see what happens. One-off things are great. I believe in one-off things for testing purposes. If you want to test the creator before you bring them on a long-term partnership, but I don't believe once you believe in a creator, you should show that creator that you're in it for a long time. Otherwise, the creator is not going to give it that 110% as well. They won't believe in the brand because they don't show it. It's a two-sided coin. The brand has to show that they're 100% committed to their creator and the creator has to show they're 100% committed to their brand. It's not the brand or the creator on both sides. Yes. I'm 100% with you on this. I can tell you that specifically in Artlist, we're always looking to build strong, loyal, long-lasting partnerships with creators because we understand exactly what you said, that consistent exposure and ongoing touches make their channel and themselves strongly associated with the brand. It makes their content more authentic, adds credibility, and it just strengthens the brand ID within their fan base and within their community. I think that is a marketing hill that I would die on, by the way. Yes, that is totally long-term relationships. Of course, at first we have to have some kind of proof of concept that it works, but once it works, we want them 100% associated with the brand simply because it just works. They're a part of us. They become our face. Super important. Yes. And we have quite a few that we've been working with them long-lasting and they've become actually friends. So I think that's super, super important. And another thing I would say here for brands is with long-term partnerships, it's very, very important not to see creators as just business transactions. It doesn't work, won't work. You have to see them as long-term partnerships and long-life friends. That's what works for us. It's just how you would treat how a customer would want to be treated or another company that you're partnering with. Marketing is a relationship building thing. So you got to show that on your side that it's not only transaction. You like them as a person. You like their values. You're interested in their day, not only that they have an audience that you can reach, you're interested in them as a whole person, not just say object. Yes. Because at the end of the day, unlike traditional marketing, this is partnership marketing. It's me in front of him, in front of the partner. And we are building trust. We are building loyalty. He is the face of my brand. I chose him to be the face of my brand. And of course, this is because we think that this specific influencer creator has the creative flair that we want associated with our brand. I think that's another very, very important thing to look out for the quality of the content, to see that he has what it takes to present your brand. I want to go a little bit deeper into what is the checklist that you go down when partnering with an influencer? What are those qualities that brand should look for to be like, okay, they fit this, they fit this, they fit this. Okay. This is a great fit for my brand to partner with longer term. First of all, when searching for a creator, I tend to search for creators that have a curated and targeted audience that share the same similar habits and same interests as my ideal target audience. Because my main KPI is conversions. So obviously, his audience needs to be related to my target audience. Second thing, I look to see that again, at the size, we need to see, of course, the consistency of the videos being uploaded. We need to see that his audience is engaged. We look at the comments, we look at the views, we look at the likes. And as I said, we look to see that his content is that he's creative. He's enough to promote me in a way that I think will be authentic. And his content should be high quality. And again, at the end, he is the face of my brand at the end of the day when he promotes. I think that's great. And then what is some of those things you would give a creator? In a brief, I know we talked a little bit about creative freedom, but you have to have some sort of guardrails so the creator doesn't go too crazy on a brief. So what is an example of a brief I should give a creator as a partnerships person? First of all, you have to give a brief with the main message that you want to deliver. So if it's the high quality content, if it's the pricing, if it's the license that covers everything. But again, I think one of the most amazing things and one of the most inspiring things that I see today with our creators is they take the platform and they take the campaigns to creativity that I have never seen before. Every creator has his own way and his own creative way of showcasing the platform. And that's exactly what I'm saying. I give them a brief, but if they just give talking points, I disapprove it at the end of the day. They have to show the process. They have to show that music So the music is an essential part of your creative process at the end of the day. And you know what? The most important thing is their internalized interest in the actual product. I think that's one of the most important thing and that's why even when I can give it as a tip, even when searching for creators to promote your brand, I would start by searching for creators that have, that already use your brand, that already love your brand before you even reach out to them and ask them to promote them, it's influencers and creators that would promote you without you even reaching out to them. I think that's a super, super important tip simply because they want to share the passion. They want to share their passion with the audience and the enthusiasm when they are internalized, when they do have these internalized interest, the enthusiasm will come across in their content and it will remove any skepticism from followers. The audience can tell straight away, every audience can tell straight away if an influencer is apathetic to the product or towards the campaign. So for me, having an influencer emotionally connected to my brand, that will determine the success of my campaign. That is brand loyalty goals, winning the jackpot because you can see it straight away with the way he says things and the energy that he says things and the spark in his eyes when he talks about a product that means a lot to him, that he uses everything single day, that is essential to his day-to-day. You can just see it. And you know, in recent years, Danielle, influencer marketing has become such an essential part of every marketeer. I don't need to tell you, you know it even more than I do. And so as more brands joining in, consumers are growing more doubtful about influencers endorsing products. And that's why I think to overcome this challenge, you have to find the right influencers. And I'll go back and I say, they're ready to use your product. More ways to grow your business with Typeform. Collect more and better data with forms that embed where people see them. From web to email. Typeform can help you ask the right questions at the right time to reveal deeper insights about your customers and prospects. Learn more and get started for free at Typeform.com. I agree because the smartest brands that I've seen, I'll say on the consumer side, they're, for example, Charli D'Amelio was a big Dunkin' drinker before she was drinking Dunkin'. And then Dunkin' partners with Charli D'Amelio because, and makes a drink with Dunkin' because it's a natural partnership that she drinks Dunkin' on a daily basis. Dunkin' saw that, it's relevant to the audience, so it makes sense for that influencer to be partnered with Dunkin'. If, let's just say a tractor brand came up to her and said, hey, let's partner. That's not natural to her day to day. So it wouldn't be a natural fit for her as a audience. So you got to figure out what people that are authentically, even if they like love coffee or they love this, it's something that they are doing that is, they're actually passionate about the core of what your product is and the core that your product does, or the main benefit that your product does. Maybe they haven't even discovered it. For me, like my passion, I deeply love creators, creator marketing. I think B2B influencers are the next wave. I think personalities are the next wave. I think companies, B2B companies are way behind on this trend and they're going to be on this trend soon. So I deeply believe that. So I believe in products that support influencers and support creators and support, and I'm happy to, and I'm happy to always shout from the rooftop products that do that. So I think when it's core to your, when it's core to your audience, it makes sense for a creator to promote to their audience. Because, you know, you can sense it. You can sense when someone is doing something apathetic, you can sense when something is doing something effortless, when he's not committed to the campaign, because he just doesn't use it or he's just doing it for the sake of the sponsored fee, or you could just feel it. And at the end of the day, what works with influencer marketing is the authenticity, is the credibility, is the proximity. And if that doesn't go by, then it just won't work. And when an influencer has this internalized interest, again, when he shows that he's emotionally attached to a product and he uses it and the effect it has on his day to day, that just sells without selling. He doesn't need to sell anything. That just goes by. And then the consumer says, oh, I want that too. Will it change my creative process so much? Oh my God, look at the before and after. Look at my face. Look at how it's glowing. You know, that's how it works. Going back to the point we made earlier and you made earlier, this is why long-term relationships are getting more and more important because the consumer needs to see multiple touch points that that person is part of the brand, that actually cares about the brand. If it's just one-off, that's where it becomes a natural partnership. That long-term relationship that they're part of that brand, they're integrated in their brand, they're in their campaigns, they're in their content, they're on their face on the website, they're naturally integrated into their product. That's how it makes it more organic. And it actually becomes more organic because the creator is happy to be a part of that brand and happy to do that. One-off stuff, as you know, as a partnership, is hard on both sides. For the partnership person, you have to get a brief out, you have to find that one person, it's a one-off, you have to do all the metrics. But on the creator side too, it's just if you have a bunch of one-off things, you have to do invoicing for one person, you have to do this for one person, you have to do a brief for one person. It's hard on both sides and it's just a hard partnership to give 100% to because there's so many steps that go involved in a one-off partnership. I think it's completely true and it's what I said before, but I think that it's super, super important for creators when they start working with brands, they have to prove themselves. They have to go the extra mile because otherwise the company won't brand, won't close with them more deals. If the first time it looks effortless, and I know that sometimes it takes time to bring conversions and that's fine, but we have to see from the beginning that they are dedicated, that they are motivated, that they're doing the maximum in order to deliver the message in a way that will please the brand. And yeah, I think that's just super important because a brand won't just close with you straight away for a whole year or for a long term. But when they see that you're there to be associated with a brand, to give everything you have, and not only that, that you are interested in the metrics and you want to know the performance and the KPIs of the brand, it interests you because you want to optimize the next campaign. That means you're associated with a brand. That means you care about the goals of the brand. That means you're in all the way and brands see it and it's what will make a brand go all the way and continue partnering with you for a long run. It has to come both ways. I think we've covered a lot of good trends in this podcast. I know you all have a influence and marketing guy that you launched that people could learn more about influence and marketing. So where if someone wanted to dive deeper into the subject, because I know we can't cover all of this on the podcast, where would they go to get more information on that? So first of all, we launched not long ago, we launched a blog on Artlist that talks about influencer marketing. So obviously you could just log into artlist.io, go to the blog and see more information about it. So I think there, at the end of the day, we're not an influencer company or brand, but we do a lot of influencer marketing because we work a lot with creators. Influencers and creators are our ideal target audience, and that's why everything we do is with them. Yeah, that's it. I mean, obviously, when your target audience is a creator, it helps you build something, a report that is interesting, too, because I read it and I got a lot, but I don't want to share everything on this podcast. I think people should read it. But I think there's so many things, especially in the B2B realm. It's just such a new thing. Influencer marketing has been around for years. I mean, it started with celebrities and then it went to people on social media, and now it's becoming niche experts in B2B who deeply understand subject matter, expertise, thought leadership, have original thoughts, entertaining a B2B audience, which is a total new B2B. People have been around, but they've never been seen as creators or influencers. They've just been seen as experts who just put out content. But now it's becoming an actual thing where it's becoming a whole industry and it's growing. And I'm glad that you all are seeing that and are committed to growing in that space. And it's awesome to see. Yeah. And I think just to add to that, which is something that we at Artlist do a lot, we We are always on the lookout for new creators, regardless of the solid partnerships that we have with creators that are strong creators that we're working with them. But we're always on the lookout for new ones, simply because we have many young creators that we supported from day one, and they have become with time, a lot more successful, huge successful channels. And today they have become loyal partners to Artlist. You know, now that they've grown, they've become loyal partners to Artlist. And I think everything adds up to when reaching out to a creator in his early stages and supporting him without having any short term expectations. But in the long run, we see incredible results of loyalty and mutual growth. And I can tell you that I personally do a lot of creator scouting. And it's similar to sports scouts that are interested in younger players who may require further development by the acquiring team, of course, but are judged worthy of the effort and the expense for the potential future payoff that it would bring. And I think it's exactly the same with creators. So always be in the look for the young creators that will suddenly be Peter McKinnon or will suddenly be that specific in my niche. But I can tell you Sam Newton is a huge creator in the video industry. We started out with him. We picked him up when he was less than 5,000 creators. And today he is a successful channel and he is loyal to Artlist. He is our face. He is associated with us. So I think that's another very, very important thing to do when searching for creators to work with. Yeah. And it's also a lot of people are so creative and such good writers are such good on video and such good, so good on other channels. They just don't know how to put themselves out there in the right way or they don't know how to use platforms the right way or they don't know. But they have such knowledge and they know how to share it in such a simple, distinct, creative way that there's so many people like, I'll give a shout out to my wife, Ari. She came to Workweek, one of the best e-commerce marketers in the world. She is one of the best writers in the world, but nobody knew she was one of the best writers in the world because she wasn't a creator. And now she's putting out amazing content that shares how great of a writer she is and her knowledge and it comes together. She was zero followers and now her newsletter is like 47k, but she's the type of person that you want to find that would grow and has expertise and is interesting to listen to and writes well or talks well or speaks well that you want to invest in. At the end of the day, it's mutual growth. So sometimes what they need is, even if they're super great creators, sometimes what they need is financial support, financial support so they can create more content, financial support so they can travel and create more cinematic content. So I think that's fine as well. You should know, but who to invest in? If we can leave the listeners of one thing about partnering with creators or influence and marketing, what would one thing you tell everybody in this podcast? I would say long-term partnerships. I think it's giving them the creative freedom to just do their magic because it shows them who they are, what they do, let them do their thing, let them do their magic and emphasize to them that they just shouldn't sell anything. They should just show the product and how it elevates their life. That's it. I love that last point because I think if you just tell them, hey, create a normal video that just incorporates this. Create something that you would create on a day-to-day basis, but just incorporate the product, they'll do it so much more naturally than say, this is this product, I use it on a day-to-day basis. I love the partnership where it's like they're talking about everything, like even the beauty. I know because beauty influencers are really good at this. They'll be like, oh, in the morning I get up, I brush my teeth and then I go and my face is really dry so I use this thing and I put it on my face and oh my goodness, it feels so soft and I've been using it for a week. Do you see the difference in my face from last week to this week? It's just so natural, but they're not saying, but then they keep going on with their day after. Then they're like, oh, then I'll go eat breakfast and then I'll go do, and it's so natural to the integration of get ready with me or something like that. They're ready doing. Exactly. That's why I always tell them, integrate it in a way that's natural, organic and authentic to your audience. That's it. Lastly, where could people find you and also what Artlist is doing? If I wanted to start using Artlist today, where could people find that? First of all, Artlist.io. Log into Artlist.io and people can find me on LinkedIn, the Club NGO, and we could have a link at the bottom for Artlist direct if people are wanting to get into Artlist and check it out. Yeah, everybody go check it out, especially if you're interested in, if you're a creator, if you work with creators. And brands. Brands, yeah. Especially people who work with creators and brands who want to be creative. So all these type of people, creative brands, brands that want to take their brand to the next level. Brands that want to take their videos to the next level. Every single brand has commercials. Every single brand today has a marketing department that promotes videos. And if you want to take your videos and your commercials and your marketing to the next level, so Artlist is obviously the place for you. There we go. You heard it here first. Artlist, if you're, they're going to be taking over the US. So get ready for that. Not only the US, not only the US. We're crossing. Everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere. Artlist is going to be everywhere. So get on the train early. Get on the train early. Get on the train and use the best services. Yeah. Thank you so much for joining. I really appreciate it. And I really enjoyed speaking in this podcast. Thank you, Daniel. It was my pleasure. Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me.