Lots of people have ideas about the best way to reach influencers but Rick Bruner, Director of Research and Industry Relations for Doubleclick, gives three quick tips for how to reach the people who affect the thoughts of others.
I just interviewed him for Marketing Voices and here is the interview, below. His advice on how marketers can effectively reach word-of-mouth influencers validates the use of blogs.
Rick discussed three ways that he thought were most effective: 1) set up a company blog 2) use next-generation PR tactics to reach out to bloggers and 3) advertise on blogs.
That last point is only still just catching on among marketers, but may be the most effective of all three strategies, both in terms of reach and influence. Rick cites Doubleclick's research paper "Influencing the Influencers: How Online Advertising and Media Impact Word of Mouth," which concluded that influencers pay considerably more attention to web ads than non-influencers when in the purchase decision process.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.mpdailyfix.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/12266
Comments
Very interesting. Thought you might be interested in a conversation about influencers sparked by Clive Thomas' article in "Fast Company" this week about the validity of targeting the Influencers. Todd Defren did a good post about it here: http://www.pr-squared.com/2008/01/rather_than_target_alisters_ta.html
Jennifer, I in no way mean to rain on your parade, because I am an enormous proponant of blog advertising and regularly place clients on hand-selected blogs targeted to their particular niche.
But how successful a blog advertising campaign is depends not only on the product, the ad and the blog it's placed in, but the presentation within the blogs layout.
I actually came by today to look at placing a client here, and although I love you guys, at this exact moment in time, I want to bet you all with a wet noodle because ironically, you're not doing a very good job of marketing the ad buying options on Marketing Profs.
Websites need to deliver value for the client's ad placement dollar. That means home page presence, and vertical space above the fold. I'm glad you're a Top 25 Marketing Blog, but I'd rather buy that spot than look at that very vertical graphic taking up your most valuable real estate.
Might I suggest an Advertising page that lays out where on a screenshot of the page buyers can place ads, and then a list of where to buy those ads? Direct from you folks, via BlogAds, whatever my options are.
In other words: MarketingProfs, please, please market to me better! Make it easy for me to give you my money, because I'd really like to!
Comments
Very interesting. Thought you might be interested in a conversation about influencers sparked by Clive Thomas' article in "Fast Company" this week about the validity of targeting the Influencers. Todd Defren did a good post about it here: http://www.pr-squared.com/2008/01/rather_than_target_alisters_ta.html
Posted by: Dana Theus | 01.31.08
This seems very sound advice. Thanks for the post.
Posted by: Neil Anuskiewicz | 02.01.08
Jennifer, I in no way mean to rain on your parade, because I am an enormous proponant of blog advertising and regularly place clients on hand-selected blogs targeted to their particular niche.
But how successful a blog advertising campaign is depends not only on the product, the ad and the blog it's placed in, but the presentation within the blogs layout.
I actually came by today to look at placing a client here, and although I love you guys, at this exact moment in time, I want to bet you all with a wet noodle because ironically, you're not doing a very good job of marketing the ad buying options on Marketing Profs.
Websites need to deliver value for the client's ad placement dollar. That means home page presence, and vertical space above the fold. I'm glad you're a Top 25 Marketing Blog, but I'd rather buy that spot than look at that very vertical graphic taking up your most valuable real estate.
Might I suggest an Advertising page that lays out where on a screenshot of the page buyers can place ads, and then a list of where to buy those ads? Direct from you folks, via BlogAds, whatever my options are.
In other words: MarketingProfs, please, please market to me better! Make it easy for me to give you my money, because I'd really like to!
Thanks.
Posted by: Sabrina | 02.02.08
You can target influencers directly at blipd.com
Posted by: Ty Graham | 02.02.08