The idea of influencers is not a new one. In fact, they’ve been around for decades, often times in the form of a celebrity as company spokespeople. Remember Brooke Shields and her Calvins? O.J. Simpson for Hertz? William Shatner for Priceline.com? Joe Dimaggio and his Mr. Coffee? The Marlboro Man?

Those are all examples of influencers. The marketing world has evolved since then, but instead of having spokespeople, brands, including subscription companies, are now using (paid) influencers to promote and share their products and services. It is a subtler, but more meaningful approach to reach a specific audience.

Influencer, Defined

What – or who – is an influencer exactly? As the base word influence suggests, an influencer is someone who influences the actions, behavior or opinions of others. In the marketing world, an influencer is someone with fans or followers who can help subscription companies increase awareness of a brand, promote products and services, serve as spokespeople or advocates, and have an impact on your subscription company’s reputation, positively or negatively.

Influencer Analysis defines influencers this way:

‘An influencer is an individual who has above-average impact on a specific niche process.

Influencers are normal people, who are often connected to key roles of media outlets, consumer groups, industry associations or community tribes.  Influencers may or may not be aware of your company, but represent control of an audience segment that is important to your business.

Such individuals are not simply marketing tools, but social relationship assets. They may be the person responsible for affecting key contracts, supporting new product releases, or part of a resource pool that increases market awareness and industry shifts before they happen.

In the end, influencers are a key type of evangelist for your company.’

An example of influencers would be Jay Z, Beyoncé and Kanye West, artist owners of streaming music service Tidal. While they are part owners, they are also influencers. When they release music or video exclusively on Tidal, new fans might subscribe to Tidal, because they can’t get that album or song on Spotify or Apple Music. They are considered influencers, because their influence has a larger-than-average impact on potential subscribers.

Influencer marketing is an extension of that idea. Instead of marketing specifically to a target audience, influencer marketing occurs when a subscription company or brand markets to influencers who may have an impact on potential buyers.

Who Can Be An Influencer?

Virtually anyone can be an influencer, but for the purposes of this article, we consider influencers for subscription companies to be industry leaders, supporters, channel partners, and social connectors as well as the media.

An influencer could be a celebrity like Kim Kardashian, government official like Paul Ryan or industry or business leader like Apple’s Tim Cook or Microsoft’s Satya Nadella; a person, company or publisher like My Subscription Addiction that shares their opinion on subscription products, services or companies; or industry experts like Ken Doctor or Mathew Ingram who writes about a particular segment of the subscription industry.

An influencer can actually be anyone generating content – if you are a member of Amazon Prime and you want to share how much you love the Amazon Original Transparent, you are an influencer. Your circle of influence may be limited to your followers and friends of your followers, but you have the power to influence possible subscribers too. People with a smaller fan base are sometimes referred to as micro-influencers. While they may not have a huge following, they can still be very valuable influencers.

‘Influencers are the new direct mail, a dependable way to identify, get attention and communicate the value of your subscription program to your prospective customers,’ said Robert Skrob, an expert in subscription and membership marketing and retention.

‘If you aren’t working with the influencers who your customers are paying attention to, you are missing the greatest new subscriber marketing opportunity of 2017,’ Skrob added.

Examples of Influencers

Let’s look at publishing. With an extensive background in publishing and strategy, Ken Doctor is one of the premier industry experts when it comes to anything related to news and publishing. If you’ve ever read Doctor’s ‘Newsonomics’ column for Nieman Lab, you know that he follows trends closely, and he not only analyzes those trends, he predicts what is coming next.

For example, earlier this week the Tronc-owned Los Angeles Times booted publisher and editor Davan Maharaj and replaced him with Ross Levinsohn, a digital media executive, according to The New York Times. Almost as soon as the news hit the wire, Doctor was all over it, publishing his take on the situation for Nieman Lab in ‘Newsonomics: After a Purge, the Los Angeles Times (Still) Searches for a Future.’ Doctor offered a detailed analysis of what had happened and questioned what is next for the newspaper under the chaotic Tronc umbrella. On Twitter, Doctor (@kdoctor) has 13,400+ followers who care what he thinks about the ever-evolving media landscape.

Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) is another key influencer, writing about the media and technology industries. He has more than 84,000 followers on Twitter. Brian Stelter (@brianstelter), the host of CNN’s Reliable Sources, has 524,000 followers. When any of these industry experts talk about publishing, the media or technology, their followers listen. Here’s an August 24 tweet from Stelter that received 1,300+ likes.

My Subscription Addiction, who we had the privilege of interviewing last fall, is a major influencer in the subscription box industry. Founder Liz Cadman and her team are experts on subscription boxes, sampling, subscribing to, reviewing, categorizing and writing about everything from beauty and snack boxes to coffee and fitness boxes. On Twitter, My Subscription Addiction (@subscriptionbox) has more than 12,900 followers. On Facebook, My Subscription Addiction have 120,145 likes and 119,855 followers. On their website, their reviews get hundreds of comments. Here is just a sampling from recent posts.

Many YouTube stars are also influencers. Take a look at the top 5 most popular YouTube stars in the world, as of March 2017, according to Business Insider.

1. PewDiePie, 54.1 million subscribers, estimated 2016 salary: $15 million
2. Germán Garmendia, 31.2 million subscribers, estimated 2016 salary: $5.5 million
3. ElRubiusOMG, 23.5 million subscribers
4. Smosh, 22.6 million subscribers, estimated 2016 salary: $7 million
5. VanossGaming, 20.2 million subscribers

With so many millions of subscribers, these stars are huge influencers, particularly among millennials.

Why Use Influencer Marketing to Promote Your Subscription Program

According to a study done in January 2017, influencer marketing fulfills a number of key sales and marketing functions including improving brand advocacy, expanding brand awareness, reaching new audiences, improving conversions, driving lead generation and more. Here are the top goals of influencer marketing worldwide, according to World, Traackr, TopRank Marketing, Altimeter, and Statista.

Why Influencer Marketing Is Popular Now

As Lizzie Davey for Tint explains, social media platforms like Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram have created ways for influencers to build a base of followers in a short period of time. These platforms also make content – text, images, video, etc. – easy to share instantly. A key influencer receives her Birchbox in the mail. She can take photos of the unboxing experience, the package as she unwraps it and the products inside. She can instantly share those photos and her opinion about the subscription box and products, so other subscribers know what to expect with that month’s shipment and to entice new subscribers to try Birchbox for the first time.

What makes influencer marketing successful is the influencer’s ability to build trust and an authentic relationship with their followers. Once upon a time, celebrities, sports figures and media personalities were unreachable. Now anyone with a social media account can interact with such influencers, giving them the opportunity to build a relationship and grow a network.

If you’re not convinced, consider this. You watch a 30-second ad on YouTube or broadcast TV (yes, some people still have cable) for product XYZ. A paid spokesperson or an actor tells you how fabulous it is and tells you to buy it now. Now compare that to seeing something similar generated by someone online that you have a relationship with or an admiration for. Which marketing tool will be more effective? Probably the latter because we like doing business with people we like, know and trust.

Where Is Influencer Marketing Heading?

In November 2016, Linqia surveyed 170 B2C marketers to ask how their 2017 budgets would change in terms of influencer marketing. Forty-eight percent said their influencer marketing budgets would increase in 2017. Only 4 percent said their budgets would decrease.

Skrob said influencer marketing isn’t limited to B2C though.

‘While some think of influencer marketing for B2C products, influencers are a tremendous B2B opportunity as well, as business owners and the C-Suite are as likely to turn to an online video for actionable information as a mainstream media outlet,” Skrob said.

10 Tips for Using Influencer Marketing Successfully

1. Reach, resonance and relevance. Those are the three keys to influencer marketing success, according to Salesforce. You want reach but you also want a story that resonates with your influencer’s audience and you want that story to be relevant to them.
2. Is the influencer a good fit? Entrepreneur magazine recommends that you make sure your influencer is the right fit for your brand. Is this someone you want to represent your company? Start by establishing a relationship with the influencer to get to know them first. Develop a rapport online before reaching out.
3. Allow for creative freedom. Sure, you have goals and a story to tell, but give your influencer some creative freedom so your subscription program and message feel genuine rather than forced, says Business2Community.
4. Define your goals. Meltwater suggests that you define short-term and long-term goals at the outset, so you know what you’re looking for. Do you want to generate leads or boost sales? Are you trying to get in front of an audience you don’t have access to?
5. It isn’t all about the numbers. Yes, the number of followers an influencer has is somewhat important, but size isn’t everything, says Entrepreneur. What you want to see is engagement. Are the influencer’s followers interacting with the influencer? Are they making comments? Adding their own content? Sharing the influencer’s posts?
6. Negotiate price. According to Entrepreneur, influencers with a few million followers can get as much as $5,000 to $10,000 per post. Calculate your ROI on those posts.
7. Be authentic and consistent. Consumers are smart, and they want to be in control of their buying decisions, so they can spot a fake or a phony a mile away. Choose influencers who are genuine, not just those who are looking for a financial transaction or a quick paycheck, says ShortStack. Meltwater says you should also be consistent and try to establish an emotional connection through your story. It’s not a ‘one and done’ relationship.
8. Discuss expectations. Before agreeing to work together, ask to see the influencer’s media kit so you get a better feel for the size and demographics of their audience and the success of other campaigns, recommends Shortstack. Can they deliver your ROI?
9. Don’t forget to follow-up. Shortstack recommends you follow-up with the influencer after they’ve posted the agreed-upon content to thank them for sharing your content with their audience. Also, find out if there are comments that your company should respond to directly – questions, concerns, etc.
10. Add value for your influencer. It isn’t just about the transaction itself. It is helpful for your relationship with your influencer to be reciprocal, says Meltwater. They suggest giving a discount, a special offer or access to an exclusive event to the influencer’s followers to show you want to add value to their relationships as well.