Title: Influencer Marketing
Authors: Duncan Brown, Nick Hayes
Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
It is perhaps unsurprising that this book is a good example of its own principles in action. It’s handy for the authors that their company, Influencer 50, is in pole position to help those who believe in Influencer Marketing’s core message – the power of influencers in the buying decision is largely underrated and thus millions of marketing dollars are being wasted on those who do not have their hands close enough to the decision-making trigger. So, if you’re reading this, perhaps I’ve even become an influencer in promoting their services. As they lament in the book ‘few specialist influencer marketing firms currently exist’!
In fairness the book’s premise is well argued. There are communities of influencers which shape buying decisions of all shapes and sizes. The key to success is to work out what this influence network looks like in your market. Of course this means we need a new acronym too. Those of you familiar with the concept of the Decision Making Unit (DMU), now have to add the DME to your marketing lexicon, the Decision Maker Ecosystem.
The book contains some sound and well-reasoned advice as to how to go about bringing the influencer marketing principles to life in your business. Some of it borders on the blindingly obvious ‘the set of influencers for the retail banking is different to that of the local government segment’, but much of it is based in case studies and some helpful tips, particularly for those marketers in the technology sector.
By Matthew Heath, Strategy Director, LIDA
25-04-08