Influencer marketing was one of the top social trends last year, and it’s expected to pick up even more steam in 2018. It’s no surprise—research shows that influencer marketing can generate up to a 960% return on investment. But of course, that all depends on how well your influencer campaign is executed.
Schifino Lee has experienced great success working with influencers. For example, we leverage the power of well-respected recipe bloggers for Alessi Foods, a top consumer food brand. But before we break down our strategy, let’s take a step back to examine what exactly influencer marketing is, and why it’s such a powerful sales tool.
What is influencer marketing
As social media becomes saturated with advertising, platforms like Facebook and Instagram have recently restructured their algorithms to decrease brand visibility and increase person-to-person interactions. Influencer marketing is a strategy that circumvents these algorithm updates, utilizing key leaders to share a brand’s message with a larger audience. Consumers typically respond better to social media influencers because it’s like receiving a recommendation from a friend, rather than being targeted for an ad.
Influencer marketing case study: Alessi Foods
Last year, social media ad spends broke records with bidding wars driving up the costs on every single platform. To boost Alessi’s visibility without increasing the budget, we looked outside the box at an emerging trend with great potential: influencer marketing.
Our social experts carefully vetted food/cooking influencers from all over the United States, eventually settling on 30 well-respected bloggers to produce unique content for Alessi. By cultivating these relationships, we’ve been able to reach new followers and provide benefits to our brand’s loyal customer base as well. Each influencer puts their own spin on cooking with Alessi products; the influencer’s followers are enticed to make room for Alessi products in their pantries; plus, current Alessi fans are inspired to cook with their favorite products in a mouthwatering new way.
These tactics are really paying off for Alessi. Our latest influencer campaigns generated over 20 million impressions, nearly 120,000 reads, 14,627 likes and 23,183 shares.
Want to learn more about influencer marketing and whether it’s right for your brand? Reach out to alecia@schifinolee.com, or pop in our office to discuss it over a beer. Our Social Media Team looks forward to sharing proven strategies for expanding your brand’s reach and maximizing ROI.
