0:02 Hi, y'all. Thank you so much for joining us today. This webinar is part of Bizarvoice's brand builder series where we invite various subject matter experts to help with your marketing strategy. 0:15 And today, our topic is the power of the influencer first approach in your marketing campaign. Brands have embraced influencers and content creators as brand partners as their content resonates with consumers in an authentic and engaging manner. 0:29 I noticed a few of you in the chat have indicated you can't hear. So if I could just get a quick thumbs up to let me know that you are able to hear me okay. Awesome. Thank you so much, Andrea. 0:44 Alright. Let's get started with some introductions. I'll go first. My name is Amy King, and I am delighted to be leading this webinar today. 0:53 I am vice president of client success at Bazaarvoice specializing in content and creators. I'm a passionate client advocate, and my favorite part of my job is the ability to have an impact on shaping the future of social shopping, leveraging the bizarre voice social commerce and creator solutions. 1:09 Next, I'll turn it over to Meredith. Hi, everyone. Good morning, and thank you so much for being with us today. I'm, Meredith. 1:17 I am a mid size and curvy content creator, and I create content basically to help inspire women, love the skin they're in, love their curves, help inspire them in their lives, in their body, and help them dress their bodies in the curves at the same time. 1:33 Thanks, Meredith. Chelsea, tell us a little bit about yourself. Hi. I am Chelsea. I am a mom and a wife. 1:41 I am a content creator, and I basically do lifestyle, a lot of home decor, kids and parenting items, just sharing my life, you know, and things that people would, resonate with on my social medias. 1:58 Amazing. Thank you so much. As you can tell, we've got some fantastic folks participating in the webinar today. And today, we are going to be covering four main topics. 2:08 What makes great content, common influencer marketing mistakes, we're going to get the creator's perspective, talk about effective collaboration, and at the end, of course, we'll save some time for q and a. 2:21 As a bit of a housekeeping call out, we aim to wrap up this webinar within thirty minutes, and we hope that you'll be able to stay with us throughout the duration. But if you must drop, don't worry. 2:30 We've got a recording that will be shared with you after the webinar. And if you have any questions throughout the webinar, feel free to leverage the chat functionality, and we will get as many of them answered as possible during our q and a portion. 2:42 And last but certainly not least, be sure to follow Bazaarvoice on LinkedIn to get the latest updates on the upcoming brand builder series. Let's kick it off by getting a little interactive. 2:54 Go ahead and drop your responses in the chat. True or false? Content creators are not influencers. Give you guys a few minutes to add the your responses into the chat there. 3:07 And while you guys are starting that process, I would love to ask you, Meredith, and kinda get your thoughts. What do you think? Are content creators influencers? 3:17 So I have a personal perspective on this. I think the words can be interchangeable to some extent. However, I do think that if you are a content creator, you have to have a little bit of skill. 3:29 Right? You have to have good equipment. You have to have the knowledge about, you know, lighting and things of that nature to create really high quality content, but I think the words can be interchangeable. 3:41 It's a really great point. Chelsea, how about you? What are your thoughts? Can you hear me? Okay. We can hear you. Yes. 3:50 Okay. So I definitely think that everyone is an influencer in their own way. I think if you are talking with your friends that and you're talking about your favorite products, you're also influencing others. 4:03 You know? Everyone in their own aspect can be an influencer. So I I definitely think that's true. Amazing. Thank you guys so much for that. 4:13 And it looks like we're actually kinda split in the chat with what folks are thinking. But the reality is the whole notion of content creators and influencers continues to evolve. 4:22 And the truth is creators can be influencers. Here's how we look at them at Bazaarvoice. Creators are individuals who produce original content in various formats. 4:33 This can be video, blogs, podcasts, and social media posts. Their primary focus is on creating engaging, informative, or entertaining material for their audience. 4:44 Their main goal is to provide value through their content regardless of whether it leads to influencing their audience's purchasing decision, but they clearly have a knack for video editing, photography, design, and all creators are great at storytelling. 4:57 Just as Meredith had kind of talked through, they have to have those skills. Influencers are individuals who have the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of their authority, their knowledge, their position, and their relationship with their audience, they often collaborate with brands to promote products or services. 5:14 And while they do create content, their primary value lies in their ability to influence their followers' opinions and behaviors. So the truth is many content creators are also influencers, especially when they gain a substantial following and start working with brands to promote products or services. 5:34 According to Bazaarvoice's shopper experience index, fifty eight percent of shoppers say that they often discover a product or service through social media. 5:43 Personally speaking, almost every purchase I make is through social media. I guess you could say I'm a bit of a marketer's dream. In fact, my entire outfit that I'm wearing, including my shoes, were all purchased based on the influence of Instagram stories. 5:58 And thanks to TikTok shop, I was able to successfully conceal the dark circles under my eyes today thanks to the viral BK beauty concealer brush. But enough about me. 6:07 The Bizarvoice Shopper Experience Index also found that seventy three percent of eighteen to twenty four year olds are more likely to discover a product through social media than any other way. 6:18 Does this data surprise you guys at all? Chelsea, how about you? As a shopper yourself, would you say that you're part of the majority of shoppers who discover products through social media? 6:29 I absolutely find almost everything on social media. I'm a very, I look at reviews a lot online, but it's easier when you're seeing people, like, in real time talking about it, especially people you follow who you have a lot in common with. 6:45 You feel like you have that connection and you're like, it works for them, and I have interests that are similar or skin that's similar. You know, it definitely makes me wanna purchase it and, you know, use it. 6:58 Absolutely. Chelsea, I I couldn't agree with you more. And I actually think of my own, interactions in social media. And so often, I think now I think of, the folks that I follow on social media as my as my friends. 7:13 As as as a little anecdote, I actually the person who I get my haircut from, I discovered, via, an influencer based here in Austin. 7:23 And I actually was at the salon about a couple of weeks ago getting my haircut, and all of a sudden I saw Amanda, the influencer who had originally recommended my hairdresser to me. 7:33 I don't know Amanda personally. I have never had a conversation with her outside of, messages on Instagram. And here I was sitting in the salon chair waving like a crazy person, and I and she waved right back at me. 7:46 Couldn't have been friendlier. Couldn't have been more friendly, but I'm sure she thought, I don't know that girl. But then I was sitting here thinking, oh, look. There's my friend Amanda. 7:54 Then, if Amanda only knew how many different things she's actually influenced me, the hairdresser being just one, but she's also often recommending restaurants to try or anything like that. 8:05 So, I am with you, Chelsea, that, you know, when I find someone who who has similar interest to me, I really connect with them. 8:14 And social media has broken down those barriers where you don't have to actually be friends that talk every day to actually become, you know, influenced by those friends that you follow on social media. 8:25 I love that. Alright. And I see some questions coming in, so don't worry. We are gonna get to those questions here at the end in the q and a section. 8:33 I see those pop popping in in the chat. But here's we're thinking about it. Shoppers no longer follow a linear path. Just like Chelsea shared, we can all complete any portion of the purchase directly on social media, which results in the collapse of the traditional buying funnel. 8:48 And when brands and retailers engage and activate creators, you can drive efficiency by producing and curating effective content at every funnel stage from discovery and consideration to decision making and loyalty. 9:02 When done right, creator and influencer campaigns will help you with brand awareness, conversion, and loyalty. But we wanted to take the time to share some common mistakes that we're seeing to help you avoid these in the future. 9:15 For those tuning into the webinar, what do you think is a common mistake? Go ahead and drop that in the chat. And, Meredith, I would love to get your perspective on this. 9:23 What have you seen from a brand that could have gone better from your perspective? I think, from my personal perspective, having a contract upfront, having all of the details lined out of the collaboration of the assets that the brand is requesting, the rate, which I think is super important to talk about, all those things upfront. 9:46 And I think, you know, there was a time where I was working with a brand who turned around and wanted, like, five or six edits from me, and that wasn't discussed. 9:54 And if you're paying me a certain rate, you really only are allowed to get a certain amount of my time. Right? So if a brand is now coming back to me five or six more times for different edits, I think those types of things need to be talked about upfront. 10:10 That's such a good call out. And, actually, that tees us up really nicely because that's included here in some of the common mistakes that we see in the market. 10:19 The the biggest common mistake that we see is actually, brands not doing thorough research on the influencers and creators that they're working with, and we get it. 10:27 It's hard. But finding the right creator for your campaign is going to be critical for campaign success. And to find a good match, brands have to do their job of outlining the goal in a project brief, and that's the second mistake that we see. 10:41 Before you engage a creator, be sure to clarify whether your goals are for awareness, conversion, or anything in between, and list out what's critical versus what's a nice to have to help you form your brief. 10:53 And number three is so common, which is skipping over nano or micro influencers because there's a it's perceived that they may have a smaller following. 11:02 Just for context, nano influencers are creators with more than twenty five hundred followers but less than ten thousand followers. And micro influencers are folks with, anywhere from ten to fifty thousand followers. 11:15 Chelsea and Meredith, you both fall in the nano and micro influencer category. Chelsea, what's your take on that? So I definitely agree. 11:24 I think that we have a closer relationship with our small group because they feel like we're friends like you said earlier. 11:32 They resonate with us. They have similar you know, maybe they have kids like I do. They love home decor like I do. So they definitely listen to us and take what we think and our opinions and, you know, all the products we show and trust that we know what we're talking about, and we're not just sharing things that we wouldn't really use or things that we we wouldn't think they would want to use, you know, quality products. 11:58 Absolutely. That is that is so true. Thank you so much for that. And then you're looking at number four, which is not allowing creators or influencers to have full creative freedom. 12:10 Meredith, you talked about the importance of having that contract in place where we're really outlining, the details and the agreement between the creators and the brand. 12:20 But we'd love to get your perspective on why it's important to also allow creators or influencers to have creative freedom. Yeah. I think, having the creative freedom geared towards what my audience knows that I create is really important because if a brand is asking me to create something that I normally don't share with my community, they're gonna know, and they're gonna not trust me. 12:43 And trust in my community is huge. I am authentic, and I want them to trust what I'm saying. So if a brand is asking me to create something, you know, some sort of content or have some sort of, you know, rigid sort of outline of what I need to say, my my community is gonna pick up on that, and I don't think the conversion is gonna be great for that type of stuff. 13:05 Totally agree. We, here at Bizzare Voice, are big advocates and champions of trust and authenticity, and I think that's such an important perspective and consideration to keep in mind. 13:14 Thank you so much for that, Meredith. Yeah. And number five is measuring success solely through sales. I would agree creator and influencer campaigns cannot only be measured by sales. 13:24 Brand awareness is also a huge benefit that may not result in an immediate sale, but can absolutely influence a purchase in the future. You guys have already heard from Meredith and Chelsea today, and we're so lucky to have creators with us. 13:38 But I would love to take a moment to hear directly from them on what it take on what makes it or breaks it from a creator's perspective when they work with brands. 13:46 Meredith, we'll start with you. Yeah. So, basically, I think what makes it or breaks it is really being able to have the authenticity and having the creativity to share with my community. 14:06 There's obviously been some good brand collaborations that I've had and some not so great ones. And I think, again, just being upfront and, with the brand and the collaboration and what the expectations are, I think that is really going to make a great, collaboration. 14:24 I love that. Meredith, tell us a little bit. How did you even get started as a creator? Yeah. So I actually started a blog, believe it or not, back in twenty eleven when blogs were sort of still a thing. 14:35 And I struggled finding my niche. I've always been into fashion, but I didn't know what my niche was going to be, and I was really scared. 14:45 And I think having a niche is really important because, you know, people wanna feel like they can relate to you. So, I ended up taking a huge chance and sharing my body, and it was really scary. 14:55 Right? Because my body has always been hypersexualized. So, to be able to create content specifically for my girls who see themselves represented in me, who might have never seen themselves represented before in mainstream media, in advertisements, things of that nature. 15:12 And so it was scary, but it was really, really, really worth it because my community is so full of women who are just so desperate to see the type of content that I create. 15:25 And then, you know, I've worked with a a really big brand that sort of catapulted my my, career, if you will. 15:34 And I was able to get eyes on a lot of my content from women specifically. Yeah. So that's basically how I got started. 15:44 Love that. How about do you have any examples, Meredith, of a of a campaign or anything that you worked with where maybe it wasn't a successful campaign, but there were some learnings that came out of it? 15:54 Yeah. So, one specifically that I have in mind basically is a a brand that reached out to me. And I requested the product that I saw on their website. 16:06 They from what I understood, they were allowing me to choose the products. So I ended up getting the package of products that I was not expecting nor were they really products that I would have sort of included in my everyday content. 16:19 So I was a little bit taken back by that because the brand was not upfront about what they were sending, and they didn't send the the products that I requested. 16:28 So it made it really challenging to create that content because, a, it wasn't product that I wanted, b, it wasn't really product that I used, c, it was hard to integrate it into my everyday content. 16:39 And so when I did create the content because, you know, I signed a contract and I had to, you know, follow through, basically, my community didn't really pick up on it. 16:50 They were not thrilled about it. I think that they could sense that I didn't like it. I didn't really wanna be sharing it. It kinda just felt icky. And going back to what I had said earlier, like, the authenticity, like, I want to be authentic always. 17:05 So it was a little bit challenging for me in that aspect, and I think my community definitely picked up on it. They were like, she is not we could tell that she doesn't like this product. 17:15 Yeah. I think that authentic voice and when it comes from a place that, your community can trust it, I think the conversion is going to follow there. Right? 17:23 Because they, they they see it and can believe it and and see the product in use by someone who's like them. So thank you so much for sharing that. 17:31 Now let's hear a little bit from Chelsea. Chelsea, would you mind telling us a little bit about how you got your start and then also maybe sharing a a success story or maybe a a challenge that you faced in in working with the brand. 17:45 Yes. So I got my start after I had my son. It kinda just fell into my lap. I wasn't able to go back to work, so I kinda was just, you know, hanging out around my house, being a new mom, and I would slowly start sharing different things about being a new mom and the different things I use, the products that I loved, and it kind of just, like, became a thing, like, a job for me. 18:09 You know, I started out small, just getting free products and testing them out. My community grew because they saw she's, you know, just like me. 18:17 She just had a baby. She has a family. You know? She's trying to find these products that really resonate with her and she loves and, she thinks are the best for her family and her for her child. 18:27 So it kind of just grew and grew, and now I've thankfully been able to make this something that I love doing. I'm very creative and, like, you know, home decor and, you know, styling things, sharing things that my son loves, he loves just, you know, joining in. 18:44 He's like, oh, look at this. Mommy, take a picture of me. You know? He loves it too, and, I like that, you know, he gets to share what he loves as well. 18:53 And, my community really likes finding new things like I do, so I think I have that connection with a lot of women that are very similar to me, in common, and they can trust that. 19:06 As far as things that maybe, didn't work out or, like, issues that, like, you know, are common with brands working together, there are sometimes where there's maybe too much I think, you know, Meredith kinda spoke about this a little bit, too much of a guideline where they want you to almost script what you're saying. 19:27 And, you know, your audience can tell when it's not your true words, how you're speaking, you know, how you normally are. So if they catch on to that, you know, they're gonna click, you know, next or, you know, not really think that that's something you're really interested in. 19:43 It's just, you know, something you're trying to pitch to them, and they want something that's like, this is what I love, not this is what I'm trying to show you to buy. You know? Sell, sell, sell. 19:52 So I think that that's a big thing is having creativity and letting the brands give us, a way of sharing that's very genuine and how we think our audience would take that and how they would feel about us, you know, showing them. 20:09 I love that. Thank you so much. And, you guys, I was just talking with Chelsea a little bit earlier today. I had a friend who had a baby overnight, and I was telling her that I had sent my friend Chelsea's profile because I said you've gotta follow her. 20:20 And, the baby came earlier than expected, so she wasn't quite ready for it. And I was like, you've gotta see Chelsea. It's all of these great tips. She's got all these great products. 20:28 I mentioned the Evenflo mattress, and I can tell you how authentic it is. Chelsea immediately went into all the reasons why we needed this Evenflo mattress, which I wish I don't know if even pulls on the call, but if they were, man, they need to go see your post because that was absolutely incredible. 20:43 And it convinced me that I needed to gift it to, my sweet friend that just had a baby. So thank you so much, for sharing sharing your stories. 20:53 And the good news is the secret sauce to success is actually pretty simple. A detailed project brief, it sets the foundation. 21:01 Do your research. Look for creators whose audience, style, and values align with your brand. Have open and ongoing communication. It's key for a successful collaboration. 21:11 And just as Meredith mentioned, you know, have clearly defined contracts. That is going to ensure that both you and the creator are aligned on the project terms and the success measures. 21:21 And while it's important to provide guidelines, allowing creators the freedom to express their creativity can and will lead to more authentic and engaging content. 21:31 I mentioned in my introduction at the start of the webinar that my favorite part of my job is the ability to have an impact on shopping on shaping the future of social shopping, leveraging the bizarre voice social commerce and creator solutions. 21:43 Appable is one of our industry leading technology and automation platforms that helps you find creators, manage collaborations, and track campaigns, and measure ROI. 21:53 You can scan the QR code on the screen to learn more. Additionally, did you know that Bazaarvoice's influencer community consists of over nine million everyday shoppers? 22:04 Scan the QR code on the screen and learn more about how you can leverage this community of everyday shoppers to try products and share UGC in any format, social, video, photo, text, ratings and reviews. 22:16 You name it, that community can do it. There are three things that we believe are core to the success of any creator campaign. 22:27 It's to prioritize brand creator alignment in your values, style, and target audience, and to be flexible with each other for both of your collective audience, and lastly, to let creators do what they do best, which is create content for their audience. 22:43 And when those three pillars come together, you can expect the following. When there's a great fit between a brand and the creator and you allow creativity, you'll get engaging content. 22:54 And when there's a great fit between brand and creator and you both remain flexible, it can lead to cocreation opportunities, opportunities, which means long term partnerships that is not exclusive to the creator's platform. 23:05 When there's flexibility on both parties with room for creative freedom, it leads to a relationship that's built on trust. And when all of those things work in harmony, it will lead to authentic content that your audiences will find engaging, relevant, helpful, and that will lead to trust, loyalty for both brands and the creators. 23:23 We hope that you found our session helpful. Now let's move into the q and a portion of the chat today. Please make sure that you're leveraging the chat functionality to share your questions. 23:32 And I see that we already have some that have already been submitted, so thank you guys so much for engaging so much. I'm gonna hop over to the chat. 23:40 I'm gonna try and scroll to the top, and we will make sure if I miss any questions, please accept my apologies. But I see we have one here. 23:50 Sandy asked, which social platform do you shop on the most? I think that question actually came in when I was talking a little bit about the shopper experience index and the Bazaarvoice research that we have found. 24:02 So I'll go ahead and share my age. I'm forty five. So I'm on the older side of, these folks that are using social media to inform their their purchasing decisions. 24:12 I can tell you personally, I'm using Instagram, and I have now I don't even want to admit to the time that I'm spending on TikTok. Every Sunday when I get my iPhone update that tells me how much time I spend on my phone, I'm like, oh gosh. 24:25 It's for work. I work in socials, so don't blame me. But the reality is I actually now consume social media more than I do actually Netflix or the TV. 24:36 And so I spend a lot of time but I would say that I spend most of my time on Instagram, and now it's leaning towards TikTok as well. 24:44 Meredith, I'm curious. For your followers and your audience, where do you see the most engagement with them? Which platform? Yeah. So I think, for sure, one thousand percent Instagram. 24:55 It's my community of women, basically. On YouTube, I have, like, over a hundred and eleven thousand followers, but I don't think, well, I don't think that I have the same conversion over there just because the audience is a little bit different. 25:07 So Instagram for me is, like, it's it's the sweet spot. Chelsea, how about you? I definitely agree with Meredith. 25:17 Of course, I lean more towards TikTok now too, but, Instagram has always been my go to because I feel like you get you can get long form, short form reviews. 25:28 And TikTok's a little bit, like, more of, like, quick. Here's this. You know? Here's a little spiel about what I do with it and how I like it. But I definitely do spend some time on TikTok and the TikTok shock. 25:39 But like she said, Instagram has always been my go to because you can see what people use on a regular basis. And, you know, I just enjoy seeing that and, like, how often they use a certain brand or, you know, what clothing brand that they're constantly wearing. 25:56 Can I add one more quick thing to this? I think for me personally, each audience on each social platform is completely different, which is why whenever I talk to other creators, like, spread your content on every platform because the audience is different on each one. 26:13 Agreed. Yes. Yes. Such a good call out. I love that. Let's see here. Scrolling through, we've got another question. Kim asked, is every channel really considered a converting channel, and is there one that's more applicable to different stages of the funnel? 26:28 I think the reality is every single channel is a converting channel. It could be Facebook. It could be YouTube. It could be Pinterest. It can be Instagram. 26:39 It can be TikTok. We are seeing it across the board. And so, absolutely, I think every single channel channel can be considered a converting channel. 26:49 We and we can follow-up. I there's, I'm sure, some stats in our shopper experience index that indicate which platform we see the most volume coming out of. 26:58 So if you haven't had a chance to review the shopper experience index, I think that's a great resource where we here at Bazaarvoice try and aggregate all of that sort of, feedback that we're able to see across our entire network of everyday shoppers. 27:11 Like we mentioned, we've got over nine million everyday shoppers in our influencer community that help, help us inform that shopper experience index. So we would love to share those results with you as well. 27:22 I also think that, the easier it is for somebody to click on to something to purchase it is, like, the better option for most people because they don't wanna have to click link after link or to go to one app to go to another app, then you get the link to it. 27:36 So I think the easier it makes it on whatever platform it is, that's what people, you know, flood to the most, I think. Amazing. Thank you. 27:45 And, Doug, I see you already shared the shopper experience index. Thank you for that. Love the real time sharing of information here. That's so helpful. Alright. We've got one minute left. 27:54 So I think we've got time for Valerie's questions. Valerie had mentioned FDA guidelines are consideration when it comes to allowing creators to use their own voices. 28:03 And she mentioned here health and wellness industries are highly regulated including what can be said about their products. One thing, that you can trust whenever content is coming through Bazaarvoice in any of our platforms or services is that it is in compliance with FDA guidelines. 28:21 We ensure that in each of our campaigns, whether that be a creator campaign, whether it be a UGC content activation campaign through our sampling community, or even just organic reviews that are left on your products that make it into the bizarre voice network. 28:36 Trust and authenticity is critical, in terms of making sure that shoppers have the trust in the products that they are purchasing and also trust in the content that they're reviewing. 28:46 And so we keep that, at the highest standards and everything that we follow here at Bizarvoice. And Bizarvoice is actually a leader when it comes to compliance, and, we have active members of our team that participate in all of the FTC regulatory body meetings, as well as international regulatory bodies as well. 29:06 Alright. I think we've made it to ten thirty one, so thank you for everybody for hanging on with me. I hope that you will stay connected with us. Please scan the QR codes, follow us, and keep in touch. 29:17 Thanks again for joining us, and I hope you feel empowered to challenge the status quo with a social driven creator led content strategy. Have a wonderful rest of your day. Thanks, everybody. 29:27 Thank you. Thank you.
