1) The most significant trend in influencer marketing right now is the rapid growth of the whole industry. Marketers across verticals and industries are beginning to thoroughly understand the value of having a strong network of influencers and brand ambassadors on board, as well as see it as a cost-effective way to reach new customers and demographics. The rate of growth in influencer marketing is staggering – it’s estimated to hit $10b by 2020.
2) At Obviously, we’ve focused on building and constantly improving our own in-house proprietary technology platform to handle influencer marketing campaigns from A to Z for our clients. With our technology, and our persistent approach to improving it as the market changes, we’ve been able to scale our influencer marketing campaigns to handle thousands of influencers at a time without sacrificing quality.
This year, we reached an advantageous position in the market. We’ve succeeded at automating the time-consuming and tedious aspects of running an influencer campaign – such as collecting shipping addresses, managing product selections, shipping, and reporting results – which frees up our account managers to ensure our brands and influencers receive consistent personal attention to pull off incredible campaigns.
To illustrate this shift in scale – when we first started, one account manager could handle one campaign per month with about 25 influencers. Now, with our tech, that same account manager can handle about 30 campaigns per month, with each campaign including dozens, if not hundreds, of influencers, while still having the time to do one-on-one outreach with influencers and brands alike.
The combination of our technology plus our team of influencer marketing experts means we’re handling the growth of the industry without the growing pains typical of a huge business boom. Not just handling – but doing an incredible job as well!
3) This year, we tripled our revenue and quadrupled our team of account managers. Our growth is the direct result of our consistently excellent work in strategizing, executing, and reporting on influencer marketing campaigns for world-class brands. We are working with icons such as Google, Lyft, Sephora, Warner Brother Records, and Rock the Vote, many on a long-term basis, and we’ve been able to meet and exceed their influencer marketing goals.
