Why Content Marketing and Influencer Marketing Go Hand in Hand

June 27, 2011

During my tenure at OpenView I have been responsible for implementing content marketing and influencer marketing strategies for both OpenView and our portfolio companies.  As a result, I have learned one critical lesson:  If you want your strategies to succeed, you better be practicing both content marketing and influencer marketing.

But don’t just take my word for it.  I recently participated in two conversations with our senior advisor Joe Pulizzi and two portfolio company marketing teams. We discussed quarterly goals and strategies.  Like other growing tech companies, these companies are utilizing content marketing strategies in order to build brand awareness and thought leadership.  Both marketing teams cited the creation of blogs, articles, white papers, ebooks and participation in social media as a part of their marketing mixes for the upcoming quarter – all of which should help move the needle on their goals.  Joe stopped and asked both companies the same question:

What are you doing in terms of engaging with other influencers in the community?

On each call both companies softly mentioned that they know they need to do more of that!

So why should content marketing and influencer marketing come as a package deal?

Often times it is necessary for these two new marketing approaches to work together.  In a way, they feed off one another.

In order to implement a successful content marketing strategy many companies will have to play into influencer marketing.  By engaging with key bloggers or reporters, these influencers will be more apt to share your content and refer to you as a thought leader in the space over time. Want to get started quickly?

  • Identify a list of 10-20 key influencers (bloggers, editors, analysts, etc.)
  • Share their content with your audience
  • Post comments on their content
  • Interact with them on social channels like Twitter and LinkedIn

In order to launch a successful influencer marketing strategy many companies will have to actively participate in content marketing.  In my experience I have found that content is the key to success for influencer marketing.  Your pitches that simply boast ME ME ME, or our product this, our product that, will likely fall flat.  Simply put, without content it is more challenging to convey your story and your brand.  So what content types should you consider if you are marketing to your influencers?

  • Thought leadership pieces like articles or white papers
  • Content that is easily shareable (and encouraged to be shared) such as ebooks or infographics
  • Valuable insights like a “State of the Industry” report
  • Customer success stories to help show your brand or product’s value

How are you integrating your content and influencer marketing strategies?  What challenges do you face?

Content Marketing Director

<strong>Amanda Maksymiw</strong> worked at OpenView from 2008 until 2012, where she focused on developing marketing and PR strategies for both OpenView and its portfolio companies. Today she is the Content Marketing Director at <a href="https://www.fuze.com/">Fuze</a>.