Max Ciccotosto of LightInTheBox on Influencer Marketing Strategies

My today’s interviewee is Max Ciccotosto, Head of Global Growth at Light In The Box. On Day 1 of our inaugural New York show he will present strategies for Scaling your Influencer Marketing Globally; but to get you acquainted with Max’s approach I sat down with him pre-show to get his answers to several important questions.

Question: While the concept is centuries old, influencer marketing became the “buzz word” only a couple of years ago, and advertisers’ interest in it is only getting stronger. What do you think about influencer marketing?

Max: I think influencer marketing is a really exciting opportunity for marketers. It’s exciting because it’s so comprehensive. You get to evaluate and experiment across the full spectrum – from content and performance to engagement, brand, and SEO. When it’s done properly, it can have a meaningful impact. We’ve had a lot of success with influencer marketing by committing to it, tweaking our approach along the way, and most importantly by focusing on very specific goals and being disciplined in how we allocate spend to achieve those goals.

Question: What’s the biggest misconception you’ve seen brands have about influencer marketing?

Max: The biggest issue I see is people trying to box influencer marketing into a pre-existing traditional channel definition. You see companies approaching it from a PR angle and focusing too much on metrics like views or reach. Or companies approaching it from the social media standpoint and focusing on engagement, sentiment, etc. Or others who might have read how company X increased sales Y% and believe it’s a performance channel – so they try pushing coupons, focusing on traffic, etc. When you use this silo-based approach you (1) rarely get a decent ROI, and (2) miss bigger opportunities.

Question: What top 3 mistakes should advertisers be aware of as they look into getting their feet wet in/with influencer marketing?

Max:

1. Be clear and realistic about your goals
2. Don’t do single channel campaigns – this might be a bit more controversial, but I think it’s not optimal from a resource perspective to run an Instagram-only or Pinterest-only campaign. This is especially true early on when you’re trying to learn what works and what doesn’t
3. Get your feet wet with tier two or tier three influencers – don’t go to an LA talent agency to book five high-priced influencers. It’s a high-cost/high-risk approach with limited upside. Start small. Spread your budget. Try a few different things to see what works – then take it from there.

Question: What is the biggest overlooked influencer marketing opportunity, in your opinion?

Max: I’d say the content and cross-channel opportunity. You can (and should) use the content you generate across all your channels. Send a newsletter highlighting what things your influencers pick. Create ads with their content. Boost their posts on Facebook. The key is not to be boxed in by traditional marketing channel and team boundaries.

Question: With 2017 just around the corner, what would you recommend for advertisers to consider implementing as soon as Q4 is over (a New Year’s influencer marketing resolution of sorts)?

Max: Put in place technology and processes to properly track, measure, and scale your programs. We engage between 2000 and 3000 influencers globally on a monthly basis, and it’s a mistake to do it with spreadsheets. We use sourcing tools to discover new influencers (some custom and some commercial), we use Mediarails to manage our influencer relationships and campaigns, and we use Google Analytics to properly measure performance at the influencer/post level.

Question: What do you believe to be the biggest challenge that advertisers face in terms of influencer marketing, and what steps can they take to overcome it?

Max: Getting scale. Starting an influencer program is fairly simple and managing a few influencers isn’t operationally taxing. Going from five or ten influencers to 200 becomes a lot more of an operational challenge. You need to find the right 200 influencers, fulfilling 200 orders with free products, negotiating terms, managing a real budget with finance, tracking performance, etc.. You need to have a plan or you’ll very quickly get drowned in operations.

Question: Give us 1 key reason why marketers should attend your Influencer Marketing Days session.

Max: The team I lead reached out to tens of thousands of influencers in over 30 countries. We’ve engaged with more than five thousands of them and gotten as many proposals. So in my session, I’ll not only share some of the things I’ve learned along the way, but I’ll also share how we apply a unique “value stack” measurement to better evaluate influencer marketing activities.

Question: If you were to leave brands with one piece of influencer marketing advice, what would it be?

Max: Might be obvious, but don’t plan your influencer marketing based on few random articles on AdWeek or other marketing sites. Influencer marketing is a holistic channel – you can get great content, you can get some direct response, you can get linkbacks, you get some brand awareness. Think about what your key needs and goals are so you can shape the priorities of the campaign. Be very focused on your prospecting and buys.