I’ve known Martin Jones casually through marketing conferences for several years. Martin occupies that unique position of being someone who manages influencer marketing programs for his brand and is also an influencer himself.
In fact, it is through an influencer engagement for IBM that both Martin and I were involved with that I had a chance to get to know him in earnest. His climb at Cox Communications is a classic American success story and at the same time, Martin is incredibly humble and one of the nicest people in the industry.
In this interview, Martin shares his journey into working with influencers, tips on identifying, recruiting and managing relationships with influencers as well as insights on measurement and his thoughts towards the future.
What brought you to the world of Influencer Marketing?
It happened a bit by accident. I was part of a new product launch in Phoenix, Arizona. We thought it would be fun to have a tweetup, get a few people together at an event we were having at a Diamondbacks baseball game, and have everyone share the experience via Twitter.
I connected with Aaron Kilby who started and runs 工作职能邮件数据库 MediaChat, and things took off from there. He helped get the word out, and between us, we invited 45 local people who were all active on Twitter and social media. As it turns out, almost everyone showed up, and we could not have picked a better city or group of people.
We knew that night that this was a special group, but I didn’t realize at the time, what an amazing pool of talent and influence we had gathered. I just knew that everything clicked and to this day, it is still probably my favorite event. Included that night were
Brian Fanzo @iSocialFanz
Heather Dopson @heatherdopson
Aaron Kilby @kilby76
Vincent Orleck @VincentOrleck
Melany Berger @Melanyb12
Caitlin Waters @Cait_Waters
And many others. The day after the event we looked at the results, and I was hooked.
How is influencer marketing different for B2B than B2C?
I some ways, I don’t know that it is different. At its core, influencer marketing is neither B2B or B2C, it’s personal. It’s about the personal connection an influencer has with each member of their audience or network. No one arrives to work as a consumer and then takes on the buyer persona or characteristics of a brand. They’re still a consumer, and they are influenced and make purchase decisions much as they would as a consumer.
Technically speaking, however; there are clear differences. For example; B2B or B2C will play an essential role in determining where to focus the efforts of influencers. For B2C, I may be all in on Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook. But for a B2B campaign, I will want to focus more on LinkedIn, online industry or trade articles, or contributions to influential business blogs.
B2C marketers look for influencers based on popularity and reach, whereas B2B marketers focus more on experts, authority and thought leadership. @martinjonesaz
Additionally, there are many instances where a B2C marketer will look for an influencer based on popularity and reach, whereas a B2B marketer will tend to focus more on experts, authority and thought leadership in a specific niche or industry.
What are 2-3 of the main benefits of collaborating with influencers for B2B companies?
A few of the primary benefits of collaborating with influencers is to overcome evolving shifts in marketing that is making it increasingly difficult for brands to reach consumers.
For example, adoption of ad blockers is soaring and traditional banner ads have become ineffective. Organic reach for brands on social media hovers around 1-2%, and consumers trust in brand advertising is at an all-time low.