{"id":71839,"date":"2020-04-28T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/uncategorized\/influencer-outreach-vs-brand-advocacy-how-to-divide-investment\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T05:08:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:08:38","slug":"influencer-outreach-vs-brand-advocacy-how-to-divide-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/content-marketing\/influencer-outreach-vs-brand-advocacy-how-to-divide-investment\/","title":{"rendered":"Influencer Outreach versus Brand Advocacy: How to Divide Your Investment"},"content":{"rendered":"

I believe that influencer marketing<\/a>, when executed correctly, is a seriously powerful tool. That’s why we published 10 strategies for getting influencer marketing right<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Working with an influencer in your industry can allow you to tap into huge, new, and relevant audiences that are more than willing to engage with your brand. This is because they trust, often implicitly, the judgment of the person recommending you.<\/p>\n

But influencers<\/a> aren\u2019t the only people that can be entrusted to promote your brand. Brand advocates can be pretty powerful too.<\/p>\n

These are your customers, your employees<\/a>, and other stakeholders in your business that choose to publicly endorse your company. They\u2019re natural campaigners for your brand because they genuinely love what you do.<\/p>\n

Sound good?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because it is.<\/p>\n

Both influencers and brand advocates<\/a> can serve as powerful representatives for your brand, but who\u2019s going to serve you best<\/em>? And if you\u2019re going in invest in both, how should you divide your time?<\/p>\n

Influencers vs. Brand Advocates<\/h2>\n

Jay Baer explored the differences between influencers and brand advocates \u2013 namely, how effective they are at promoting a brand \u2013 in an infographic titled \u201cInfluencers vs. Brand Advocates<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"pic1\"<\/p>\n

Before this infographic, Jay Baer and Cara Fuggetta of Zuberance had already published posts claiming influencer outreach to be overrated.<\/p>\n

Baer thinks part of the problem is saturation. He says:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs influencer outreach programs<\/a> like this become more rampant, especially in hot verticals like Mom and Dad and tech blogs, readers and followers start to turn a jaundiced eye toward the endorsement itself.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I completely agree with him here. There are so many bloggers<\/em> that start up for no other reason than to get freebies, that consumers are understandably becoming cynical and increasingly resistant to their messages. They\u2019re not authorities<\/strong>. They\u2019re paid reviewers.<\/p>\n

Fuggetta\u2019s concern is that influencers are out to help themselves; that they\u2019ll only be interested in helping you if it helps them. As she explains:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge of an Influencer outreach strategy is that Influencers have their own agenda. Out of the all of the companies throwing free trials or perks at them, they\u2019ll choose to promote a company\/product if it aligns with their goal: to build their personal brand.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I can\u2019t disagree here, either. If anything separates influencers and brand advocates, this is it.<\/p>\n

Influencers will promote you so long as there\u2019s something in it for them. Advocates will promote you because they want to<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

But who cares what somebody\u2019s motive is for promoting your brand so long as it does the trick, right?<\/p>\n

I think so.<\/p>\n

But unfortunately, it\u2019s not that simple.<\/p>\n

According to research cited in \u201cInfluencers vs. Brand Advocates,\u201d only 18% of consumers trust influencers, while 92% trust brand advocates:<\/p>\n

\"pic2\"<\/p>\n

They also point out how you can expect the length of your relationships with influencers and advocates to differ:<\/p>\n

\"pic3\"<\/p>\n

Followed by something we already kind of know\u2026<\/p>\n

\"pic4\"<\/p>\n

All that said, is influencer marketing worth investing in? I still think so, as long as you know what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

Making influencer marketing work<\/h2>\n

By and large, influencers are defined by the size of their audience: how many Twitter followers they\u2019ve accumulated, how many YouTube subscribers they have, how many monthly visitors they get to their blog\u2026<\/p>\n

\"pic5\"<\/p>\n

The bigger their audience, the more influential they are deemed to be.<\/p>\n

Of course, things are rarely so black and white.<\/p>\n

To be a true influencer, you need more than subscribers: you need authority. You need your audience to trust you. You need to be able to say, \u201cHey, this product is amazing\u201d and have people go out and buy it, without hesitation.<\/p>\n

When someone has that kind of power \u2013 in your<\/strong> industry \u2013 that\u2019s when you know you want to be working with them. But you want to make sure you have an influencer marketing strategy that works<\/a>!<\/p>\n

The key here is having influence in the right places<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter how<\/em> influential someone is, if their audience doesn\u2019t align with yours.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s illustrate just how important this is with a quick example.<\/p>\n

In Jay Baer\u2019s post quoted above, he references a misjudged venture into influencer marketing.<\/p>\n

Business advisor (and super-influencer) Chris Brogan posted a video review of a jacket sent to him by Wilson\u2019s Leather.<\/p>\n

The video is short, and as enthusiastic as he is, it\u2019s clear that Chris isn\u2019t an authority on jackets \u2013 leather or otherwise.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t doubt that Wilson\u2019s was thrilled with the result \u2013 but what did they really get out of this?<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know if anyone actually bought a jacket as a result of the video. What we do know is that it led to around 250% less<\/strong> engagement than Chris usually gets on his posts.<\/p>\n

Chris has well over 300,000 Twitter followers. That\u2019s huge<\/em>. He\u2019s an influencer all right, just not on men\u2019s clothing. The fit (pun not intended) just wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n

\"pic6\"<\/p>\n

An influencer is only an influencer (to you) if they have the trust and authority to affect how your<\/strong> target market spends their money.<\/p>\n

Now that it\u2019s clear where brands sometimes go wrong with influencer marketing, let\u2019s talk about something slightly different.<\/p>\n

Getting influencers on your side<\/h3>\n

By and large, getting an influencer on your side involves good old outreach.<\/p>\n

Occasionally, you might be lucky enough to be introduced to someone influential through a mutual connection, or to bump into someone and get chatting at an event, but most of the time, the onus will be on you to reach out to people you\u2019d like to work with and get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n

Email is the easiest way to do this; however, it pays to start building a relationship before<\/em> you hit send.<\/p>\n

In an article for Buzzsumo<\/a>, Craig Cherlet of Marketing Stream described what his team does before emailing an influencer:<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore outreach activities even start, we develop influencer personas so when we\u2019re doing research, we know who we\u2019re looking for. We perform our research online using various magazines, media, and articles within our target industry to find the people that match our persona.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe then usually reach out using Twitter, follow them, analyze their published content and try to understand them and their needs, challenges, and goals. If it looks like they\u2019re a good fit, we then start to invest time in engaging them, building the relationship, and then ask if they would be interested in our project.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Follow a similar strategy, and by the time you actually send an outreach email, your name will already be familiar to the recipient. This greatly increases the chance they will actually open your email, read it, and respond.<\/p>\n

So what do you say in an outreach email to an influencer?<\/p>\n

To find out in detail, have a look at my guide to crafting the perfect outreach email.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d rather hear the short version, stick with me right here.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Respect the influencer\u2019s time<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Influencers tend to be very busy people. The bigger (i.e. more influential) they are, the busier you can assume they will be.<\/p>\n

    This means they don\u2019t have time for marketers who beat around the bush in their pitches. They want to know what you have to offer them, and why it will benefit them<\/strong> (not<\/em> why it will benefit you).<\/p>\n

    Get to the point quickly, then clearly and concisely outline the RTR (reasons to respond).<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Personalize<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      We\u2019ve established that influencers are busy. This doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t demonstrate that you have a genuine interest in them and what they do.<\/p>\n

      Showing that you know the person you\u2019re contacting is key to capturing their attention. Use their name. Reference something they\u2019ve done recently. Mention a mutual contact.<\/p>\n

      Just be careful of trying to flatter them \u2013 it can very easily come off as insincere.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Be clear about what you want<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Don\u2019t assume anyone you contact can read your mind (instead, assume they can\u2019t). If you want an influencer to respect you and respond, you need to be crystal clear about what you\u2019d like them to do as a result of your email.<\/p>\n

        Making advocate marketing work<\/h2>\n

        With all this talk about the downside to influencer marketing, you could be forgiven for thinking that you can forget about advocate marketing and it will take care of itself.<\/p>\n

        I\u2019ll give you that. It certainly has looked like the easy \u2013 and preferable \u2013 option so far.<\/p>\n

        But it\u2019s not necessarily a walk in the park.<\/p>\n

        Not every brand has customers that are ready and willing to fill the role of brand advocate. Often, you\u2019ll need to find one or more \u201cpotential advocates\u201d and take steps to turn them from customer into advocate.<\/p>\n

        Where to find advocates and potential advocates<\/h3>\n

        This is by no means an exhaustive list, but great places to start include looking for people that have\u2026<\/p>\n