First, Tim noted these upcoming events of note:

• The first  will be in Cincinnati on Saturday, May 13th. It’s free! Register, and consider running a session
• The Market Research Exchange Conference in Columbus on April 7th.

Then, for March’s presentation we took a dive into influencer marketing, lead by a triumvirate of influencer marketing gurus from SEEN. Brian Zuercher got the standing ovation part of the session out of the way early, so we could focus on learning what influencer marketing is and how real practitioners (Alex Ditty and Ami Murphy Iannone) get it done.

Influencer marketing poses an interesting conundrum for us analysts: because while there are certainly metrics to be had and plenty that can be measured, the true value of this kind of marketing sits early in the customer sales cycle where meaningful hard numbers do not abound. Metrics like “reach” or the unfortunately named “potential impressions” can easily lead one down the wrong path and should mostly be ignored. Engagement metrics can be valuable, but they don’t tell the whole story.

The most important message was that a marketing strategy based solely on metrics optimization will lead towards increasing just those metrics themselves. In other words, focusing on increasing clicks and impressions can lead myopically towards just looking at marketing channels that directly affect those channels like PPC. This approach ignores the huge strategic benefits of increasing other (harder to measure) factors like brand awareness and affinity.

https://www.facebook.com/cbusdaw/videos/vb.116860515330921/425172657833037/?type=3

Join us back at Rev1 again next month when Sara Kear and and Dave Boroi from Adept Marketing will talk about Conversion Optimization!