Cure Media has had a busy fall, doing keynote speeches at international stages. And this year that included an invitation to speak at the Influencer Marketing Show in London, the largest industry event in Europe. The Influencer Marketing Show gathers brands, tech providers, content creators and agencies from all over Europe to meet and connect with each other.
As influencer marketing has become one of the fastest-growing areas of e-commerce, reaching almost 17 billion US dollars in 2022, there was a lot of excitement around the event as people gathered to learn about the newest evolutions and happenings in the industry. Cure Media shared their expertise on being a data-driven influencer marketing agency.
What Does Being Data-Driven Really Mean?
Prefer to listen? Tune in to our podcast episode!
Holly Morran, Cure Media’s Marketing Manager for the UK went on stage together with colleague Bernard Rosencrantz, Data Scientist to shed light on what it really means for a marketing agency, or brand to be fully data-driven.
For a long time, being “data-driven” is something that a lot of agencies and brands claim that they are. A quick google search for ‘data driven influencer marketing’ brings back 16,400 results and in a tough economy, marketers reasonably want to do whatever they can to ensure real, quantifiable results from their influencer marketing investments. Being “data-driven” has become somewhat of a buzzword in the marketing world and it’s been touted to be the answer and sort of a full-funnel solution to all of marketing’s worries as it can inform strategy, guide influencer selection, direct optimisation and help count up results at the end. However, the word is being grossly oversold and a lot of companies are too focused on vanity metrics and basic audience demographics, which makes a lot of companies’ approach to data-driven marketing fall short.
Holly, what do you think is the most important takeaway for brands to learn from your presentation on being data driven and what does it take for a company to become so?
There are some common offenders of ‘data-driven’ influencer marketing that I’d encourage brands to approach with a healthy dose of cynicism. Things like an over reliance on spreadsheets or vanity metrics, or only utilising performance tactics, forgetting about branding. These are tactics or approaches we see touted time and time again as evidence that an agency or a strategy is data-driven. But while they certainly can play a part in being data-driven, they are far from the be-all and end-all, and they’re certainly not going to be enough for you to benefit from truly data-driven influencer marketing.
Bernard, what are some of the common obstacles you’ve seen companies struggle with when trying to become truly data driven?
The reality is that there are lots of challenges. The regulations around data are getting more intense and data software is very expensive, so many companies are unable to keep up. Many companies also started their process of being data-driven too late in the game, which means they’re lacking the historic data they’d actually need in order to draw informed conclusions. Another reason why companies fail to meet increasingly high client expectations could be that they’re lacking operational staff to cover the scale of their activations.
Holly, how can brands benefit from working with data-driven agencies?
Data can make influencer marketing smarter at literally every stage. Brands should be using data to guide their KPIs, to choose their influencers, select their platforms and their content. Yes, intuition is helpful in a channel that moves this fast but you shouldn’t be relying on gut-feeling or simple metrics like whether an influencer has a lot of followers. Throughout campaigns, data should be a supporting method to help optimise, and then post-campaign that data should be used to inform the next one. But these are just best practices and they should be second nature to everyone in the channel by now. The truth is that with the economic outlook being so bleak and the landscape being so competitive, it’s really the ‘next’ practices that brands need to be focusing their energy on now and these rely on machine learning and AI, which is something that Bernard is working on right now. The work he’s doing with machine learning is super important to supporting the high standards we set for ourselves at Cure Media.
Tune into our podcast episode with Bernard to hear how influencer marketing, machine learning and AI can be the perfect match.
Bernard, what are some of the advantages of being data-driven?
You save time and resources with data-driven technology. And this is especially true now that consumers demand more holistic marketing and we see new (and more!) platforms appear, the number of channels brands will need to be active on is likely to increase. Which makes efficiency and time-management a crucial element of your marketing. Being data-driven makes it easier to scale, and as influencer marketing can be a lot of work, particularly if it’s going to be effective, using technology to pick up the slack can streamline your team and your processes while also generating the best results.