Going into the second quarter of 2018, external communications strategies looking to make strides in the reputational economy can find useful insights in ZINE’s new marketing technology. The London-based social media marketing company has recently completed research involving almost 1,000 influencers and 1,300 consumers on social media to develop its marketing technology.

Integrating influencers into an official communications plan can be nerve-wracking. ZINE has found that 84% of influencers don’t want guidance from the brands they partner with when creating sponsored content. Having their own communications strategies, influencers straddle the line between marketers and PR tastemakers but can be worth investing in. Approximately 78% of consumers will buy a product promoted by an influencer they know.

Empowering the correct influencers to speak for brands and having the analytics to know which markets they reach is key to an influencer’s effectiveness. ZINE’s audience insights find that despite 39% of marketers and agencies upping their influencer budgets in 2018, only 20% are gathering this key influencer data – as ZINE says, “throwing your hard fought budget at the wall in an effort to see what sticks.” Knowing more about influencers than their follower counts is essential to increasing a brand’s return on investment in such partnerships.

Echoing We Are Social and Hootsuite’s Digital in 2018 report, integrating influencers into communications frameworks is the type of brand transparency consumers are eager for. Influencers are third-party ambassadors who help build community and loyalty through organic, if strategic means.

As an outward facing communications strategy, obtaining the comprehensive analytics of prospective influencers will make it easier to pitch such partnerships to brands and target key consumer markets. ZINE’s marketing technology is a welcome additional resource for brand managers who should, as a standard practice, be using such insights in their influencer campaigns.

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