Anyone Can Be an Influencer, But Not Everyone Can Work With One

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The power of influencers can’t be overstated.

Last Friday we saw a number of big names on Twitter update their bios to “#bitcoin”, causing the price of BTC to shoot up by about 13%. These accounts from industries spanning space travel, finance, social networks, and gaming sectors, exposed their combined audiences of over 55 million people to the world’s most popular digital currency. Cool.

In the words of Elon Musk:

The crypto community is not new to influential voices driving market price movements through social media. Posting on Twitter for the sole purpose of pumping bags is unfortunately pretty common. But not all influencers in the digital currency community have had such nefarious intentions.

CashApp is one of the best in the biz at promoting Bitcoin by leveraging influencers. A great example of this is their campaign with Megan Thee Stallion, the rapper, singer, and most listened-to artist on TikTok in 2020.

The popular payments and investing app launched a new campaign with Meg to give away $1 MILLION in bitcoin. Quickly after launch, the hashtag #BITCOINMEG was trending and CashApp users were being sent 50,000~ sats from her on the app.

This was likely the most viral BTC giveaway to-date and probably in the top 3 most visible social media events ever for Bitcoin. To date, the post above has over 74K Likes, 187K Replies, and well over 5 million impressions. Wow.

And this is just one example.

Influencer marketing is a tricky channel, particularly in our space. For marketers, there is a surprising amount of work that needs to go into negotiating, planning, and executing a successful influencer campaign.

Here’s a quick run-down of the things you should do when planning an influencer marketing campaign for your brand.

1. Pick the Right Partners

This sounds obvious but making sure that you work with the right influencers is everything. Not every large-audience account on Twitter actually treats their handle as a job. As a result, some influencers won’t treat your partnership like a job, either. It’s important to make sure that the personalities you work with treat their engagement with your brand as seriously as you do, particularly if you’re working with tight budgets.

When you’re evaluating potential partners, make sure to ask some direct questions. Things I like to focus on with influencers are:

• How would you describe your audience?

• What kinds of content does your audience best engage with?

• How do you think you would apply that info in an ad campaign to drive the best results for my brand?

This will give you a bit of an idea what to expect from your potential partnership.

2. Be Deliberate in Your Planning

Just like when you’re partnering with a consultant or an agency, influencers will perform best the more insights and direction you provide them. Communication is key, but your strategic pre-planning is even more important.

When I’m working with an influencer, I like to start with the following:

• Have an objective in mind: sign-ups, funded accounts, impressions, social media mentions, new followers, whatever.

• Set a baseline expectation for that objective: establish the minimum quantifiable result you expect from this campaign.

• Choose your subject: what product, feature, or value proposition do you want promoted?

• Collaborate on content: work with the influencer to take your business objectives and create content that their audience will engage with.

That last one is key -- make sure that you are reviewing and approving each piece of content that the influencer is putting out on behalf of your brand. This is particularly important if your company has compliance or legal requirements.

Oh, and don’t forget to disclose that the post is an #ad. A lot of influencers in our space forgo this step, but I highly recommend not taking that risk.

3. Track Everything

Ok this sounds dumb, but make sure you have a way to track the performance of your campaign. The method for tracking is based on your objectives for the campaign. Let me spell this out a bit for you:

• Going for Twitter impressions? Get screenshots from the influencer’s account analytics. Also check your account’s analytics for a lift in impressions, engagements, and followers.

• Going for on-site conversions? This can be a bit different for everyone but at minimum you should be tagging all your website URLs the influencer is posting.

One way to do this is with UTM tracking parameters. If done right, you should be able to review traffic and conversion sources on Google Analytics. Another method is by creating a dedicated landing page with a lead form that can attribute any new accounts to that page. Your CRM should be set up to record the source of your registrations, including that form. I also highly recommend using a simple vanity URL (e.g. website.com/influencer) for the activation.

There is no one-size-fits-all for tracking. Every company’s martech stack is different But before you start any campaign, it’s important for you to know how to track your performance in order to show off the results.

4. Incentives Win

This is kind of a bonus insight, and it might seem obvious, but including an incentive for new customers in an influencer campaign is a serious growth hack.

Think of it this way -- would you rather pay Facebook and Google to get you more customers or would you rather pay a user to be a new customer? Yeah.

Here’s a recent example for you: At eToro, we launched a “Trade $5,000, Get $500” incentive campaign this past December. We promoted this campaign through media deals, newsletter sponsorships, paid social ads, affiliates, and various other channels. Over the following weeks we not only saw a significant jump in new funded accounts, but also a significant increase in customer lifetime value (LTV) for that cohort.

Plus, Bloomberg wrote it up, which is more of a humble brag than anything else.

What I’m trying to say here is that influencer marketing is a fantastic medium for getting your message across and reaching new audiences. Influencer followings are dedicated groups of people who look to these thought leaders as trusted sources of information. The better you can integrate an influencer into your marketing strategies, the better your results will be.

I’d love to hear from you guys about your best and worst influencer marketing experiences. Tweet at us at @MarketMix_ on Twitter and I’ll share your stories with the rest of our readers.

Who’s Hiring in Crypto?

• Email Marketing Lead @ eToro US [APPLY]

• Marketing Manager @ Bitwise [APPLY]

• Manager of PR & Communications @ CoinDesk [APPLY]

• US Crypto Community Manager @ Crypto.com [APPLY]

• Community Manager @ Uniswap [APPLY]

• Growth Marketing Intern @ Lolli [APPLY]

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