Influencer marketing is about identifying the people who shape your customers views by validating and qualifying your marketing messages. Engaging with these influencers is now more important than ever. In this information age, our ability to control the messages about our brands and set the agenda is being constantly eroded. Consumer trust in ‘official’ sources of information such as brand owners and the press is on the decline while trust in peer reviews is on the increase.

The significance of this can be easily demonstrated by looking at sites such as www.currys.co.uk which are one of several sites to incorporate user reviews of products into their site. Why are they doing this? Because they know that 81% of people use consumer reviews* in their purchase decisions and they don’t want them leaving their site to find them.

Whilst online retail is an easy example, the power of influencers is just as important offline and by no means limited to the general public. In fact your influencers are likely to be from a range of sectors and use a range of media to publish their opinions. Likewise, their followers will share those opinions on and offline. Social media and user generated content will play a significant role in communicating opinions, but concentrating on these areas alone will give you a skewed or incomplete picture.

How do you harness the power of influencer marketing?

The first step in influencer marketing is identifying who the key influencers are for your brands. Identifying the top 10 or so influencers will allow you to concentrate your efforts and budgets on engaging with those who will  make a real difference. As always, a scatter gun approach sending generic messages to anyone who might be important is unlikely to deliver results.

Influencers love to influence but won’t want to simply parrot your marketing messages. So having identified a manageable group of key influencers you need to talk to them about what they are interested in and give them the tools and information to help them do what they do best – influence!

But don’t make the mistake that this process is about ‘getting influencers on message’. This is about engagement which means listening more than talking. Engaging influencers can also present you with a great opportunity to discover new ways to improve your products and services.

Of course, nothing stays the same. One of the speakers at the IDM event, Duncan Brown, Managing Director of Influencer50 Ltd, commented that typically they see a 20% churn in influencers a year, and at times of economic upheaval such as we are experiencing now, this can be much higher.

Find out more about influencer marketing

If you would like to know more about how you can benefit from influencer marketing, or if the explosion of new online marketing channels has left you feeling uncertain about their role in the marketing mix - or even their value – then talk to Gillian Angel at Clarity In Marketing on 020 7520 9404. You can see me interviewed at the IDM Influencer Marketing event video below.

*Source: Nielsen Online via BizReport, February 2009

• nearly 70% said they could not live without the Internet (only 30% said the same about TV)
• 40% said they use the Internet for 22 hours every week, often for entertainment and socializing
• 60% said they notice online ads
• nearly half said they have purchased a product as a result of an online ad

Highlighting the current economic slowdown as the key influencing factor:

• 68% of shoppers said that they are more likely to shop online for Christmas presents this year,
• 77% of shoppers are planning to carry out about half or more of their Christmas shopping online (a fifth more than in 2007) because of the competitive prices available online.

Our presentation focused on the UK consumers' point of view and identified trends and opportunities for Turkish food and drink brands in the UK. For the presentation we undertook an online survey to gauge the awareness and perception of Turkish food and drink amongst  UK consumers. You can view a copy of the presentation given at the TBCCI seminar by Clarity's Gillian Angel and a copy of the survey results below. Both should provide very interesting reading for anyone looking to establish ethnic food or drink brands in the UK. 

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• [Turkish Version] What do UK Consumers Want?
• Turkish food and drink awareness survey results

If you'd like find out more about establishing brands in the UK market or would like to understand the UK perceptions of and opportunities for your brand please contact Gillian Angel at Clarity In Marketing.

If you are a member of the Turkish British Chamber of Commerce and Industry we offer a UK Consumer and Marketing Benchmark service at a specially reduced rate. Please contact Burhan Aytac.

According to predictive analytics software provider SPSS, despite 82 per cent of firms claiming that social networking sites such as Facebook are a useful source of information, the majority do not use them to survey customer opinion.

Reported by Precision Marketing, the firm suggests that such portals provide a good opportunity for companies to collaborate market data, irrespective of language or distance. Colin Shearer, senior vice-president of market strategy at SPSS, explained that consumers are more open about their opinions towards products or services on social networking sites.

He also claimed that businesses will be "overwhelmed" by the wealth of information available from social network data. "While traditional contact channels are still applicable, businesses need to recognise and capitalise on the shift towards social networking or they are missing vital insight," he said.

Last year, it was revealed by comScore that Brits are the biggest users of social networking sites in Europe.

The mobile virtual network operator has been trialling a WAP advertising portal since May 2007, which Tesco said has displayed strong month-on-month growth, gaining 300,000 unique visitors in December.

Banner advertising served up on the portal delivered a click-through rate to tailored WAP campaign sites of between three and seven per cent, said Tesco. Brands advertising on the portal included Bee Movie, ITV, Nivea and Teletext.

Tesco said the user-base of the portal has a strong segment of female household budget owners with an average age of 36 - a demographic it said is particularly valuable for fast-moving consumer goods such as toiletries and cleaning products.

According to a survey commissioned by Tesco, more than half (60 per cent) of portal users are female and the same percentage said they visit the portal at least once a month, while 69 per cent claimed they would click on a relevant advert.

Ashley Schofield, head of customer management at Tesco Mobile, said in a statement: "Our customers are showing a real appetite for more products and services through the mobile internet. Delivering more great experiences and value through our portal is a priority for this year."