The following is a guest contributed post from Victor Ricci, founder of Trend Pie, an influencer marketing platform that helps app developers drive cost effective downloads.
The truth is, influencer marketing works when brands and marketers play at the highest stakes. This will help them predict their success.
I’m excited about sharing influencer marketing case studies. Because to a large extent, the brand is judged based on merits. If they develop a great strategy, they win. If not, they lose.
For example, Amir Rajan developed a great strategy, quit his corporate job and built an iOS game that generated 2.26 million downloads in under 2 years (free and paid combined).
In this in-depth article, I want to show you how game studios can use influencer marketing to drive app downloads.
Of course their games (i.e., products) are truly great, but how did they go from 0 game downloads to hundreds of thousands of downloads in a space of 12 months?
How do you explain that other brands work long hours, exploring other methods of acquiring new users, yet, Game Studios is getting better results?
You already know the answer, don’t you?
=:) influencer marketing.
So let’s get to it. Here’s how game studios use influencer marketing to gain more traction, attract more users, acquire more customers, increase revenue, and build a strong brand, in 4 simple but powerful steps:
First step: Determine who influences your ideal customer
There’s no set rule for measuring impact. Though you may not be able to gauge how much impact influencers have on your ideal customers, but that makes it great.
To get the best result, you need to focus on experts that influences your ideal customers. It doesn’t matter how big or small the level of impact may be, as long as the effect is there, you’re good.
So how do you figure out the right influencers to connect with?
Start by entering your primary keyword (e.g., app marketing) into Twitter’s search box. The results are typically the target influencers whose focus is closely-tied to app marketing.
The Twitter results are brands, marketers, and research institutes that understands app marketing. Obviously, they should have direct or indirect influence on your ideal customers.
Note: You can find your ideal influencers on Instagram, YouTube, and Google+, by simply searching for your primary keyword.
Remember that when you find influencers, you’re not done yet. Work on building relationships with them. Because they have the interest of your ideal customers in their hearts.
Second step: Prioritize influencers
Through thorough research on social media sites, you were able to identify influencers whose opinions, recommendations, reviews, tips, quotes, and more, influences your ideal customer.
Great. But there’s more.
You need to prioritize them.
Game Studios prioritizes influencers based on who they think will have the most impact on their target audience. The company focuses its efforts on a few key influencers at a time, to fully understand them.
In the example that we highlighted above from LinkedIn, isn’t it obvious that putting all your efforts into LinkedIn groups may yield better results, since you can participate and get both micro and macro influencers to test your idea?
If your idea, content or product is truly helpful and engaging, influencers will want to share it. Why? Because they’re desperately looking for such information to engage with their audience.
On the other hand, if you don’t have much time to get into the conversation that’s already happening in social groups, then, connecting with other brands that have active community of loyal audience (i.e., your ideal customers) may yield the best results for you.
So you’ve got to prioritize influencers. And only you can do it, because your business objective may be different from mine.
Third step: Take action and engage influencers
One of the harsh truths about influencer marketing is that you hardly have enough time to communicate with key influencers.
This is one of the reasons why prioritizing is critical. Because it helps you to make informed decisions, take actions and engage with these influencers.
It’s no secret that influencers are busy people. But have you ever asked yourself why they’re damn busy?
Well, to answer that question, they’re busy because they create and share more content with their fans and customers than most people do.
After all, they win people’s heart in the first place through irresistible content – and the only way to sustain that relationship is to give them more interesting content.
With that in mind, the best way to engage influencers is to find out the content they’re sharing. Are they sharing more software, mobile apps, ebooks, blog posts, videos, or audio content?
Where do they get these content types from? (e.g., blogs, social media sites, forums). Of course if you want more influencers to find your content or product and share it, then you’ve got to be everywhere. According to NayTev Insights, 80% of Buzzfeed’s reach exist beyond their website.
Once you’re armed with this information, it becomes easier to pitch them your best content, and get a “YES” response.
Note that you can also engage key influencers by lending a helping hand. For example, watch their educational videos and share it on social sites.
Make a donation to support their cause, attend their webinars or live events. And when you do, send a quick/short email to let them know that you truly believe in what they’re doing and you’re a part of it.
Fourth step: Bridge communication gap using tools
One of the reasons why game studios has successfully built a strong brand using influencer marketing is because of effective communication.
How do I mean?
Well, the brand believes that keeping in touch with key influencers at all times. And not when they’re in need of them.
Unfortunately, this is where most mobile apps and game developers miss it. They spend money, time, and resources, building relationship with influencers – before product launch – but totally neglects it after recording initial success. Don’t do that.
You must bridge the gap in your communication.
When it comes to building relationship and communicating with influencers, don’t go on recession. It could be a simple, “How are you doing this week?” message to an influencer every other week.
There are follow-up tools, also referred to as email autoresponders (e.g., Aweber, GetResponse, ConvertKit) which you can use to keep in touch with key influencers.
Game studios with an active email newsletter can use it to communicate frequently with both influencers and potential customers.
Conclusion
With the right influencer marketing strategy, tools, and skills, game studios are able to launch successful campaigns, generate thousands of new downloads, increase in-app sales, and grow a thriving game development business.
The odds aren’t stacked against you. Once you can keep these four steps in mind and execute them, you will grow your own business. Above all, always measure your outcomes.
Yes, influencer marketing works but you need to go all in. You can no longer stand on the fence. Use all the tools that you can get, and don’t stop learning.
