In today’s world, it’s often the consumers themselves that influence other consumers’ purchasing choices, rather than the companies and businesses who provide the actual products and services.
With this consumer-to-consumer environment, also known as C2C, marketers are finding it difficult to reach target markets with messages that relay trust and relevance, which in turn affects results at scale.
That’s where companies like Linqia come in. They use a performance-based influencer marketing platform that combines the science and accountability of online media with award-winning service, which leads to guaranteed influencer marketing results for their clients.
Linqia Marketing Vice President, Kristin Hersant, spoke with RewardExpert about the company’s approach.
Empowerment in Advertising
In late 2012, Linqia co-founders Maria Sipka and Nader Alizadeh envisioned the future of influencer marketing.
“They knew that traditional advertising methods could not compare to the power of personal recommendations — particularly in today’s digital age — so they created a framework through which meaningful, authentic and consumer-driven stories and content would become the new marketing standard,” Hersant said.
That led to Linqia’s founding as the first performance-based influencer marketing platform, empowering brands, advertisers and influencers to partner towards the shared goal of developing a lasting, emotional connection between brands and consumers.
She said the company’s mission is to create harmony between people and brands via bringing trust and relevance to advertising.
Paying for Results, Time Management
Linqia guarantees results, and clients only pay for what the company delivers.
In addition, the company offers a 100 percent turn-key service, meaning that it takes care of all the heavy lifting. That includes every client having a dedicated account team that runs every program from start to finish — including writing creative briefs. Once a client is set up in the system, a program can be launched in as little as eight days, requiring only 90 minutes of a client’s precious time.
“We also have the industry’s first platform that uses artificial intelligence to predict and guarantee the results of our programs, matching you with the perfect mix of influencers every time,” she said.
The company makes it easy for clients to reuse content from Linqia’s influencer marketing programs, thus driving greater performance from paid, owned and earned media.
How to Improve Your Own Business
When it comes to advice for budget-conscious businesses, or for individuals looking to boost their brands or audiences, Hersant said running an influencer marketing program will help with content creation needs.
For business-to-business branding, the most effective pieces of content as social, videos and photos, comprising 71 percent, 45 percent and 29 percent of the market, respectively.
“Rather than creating content and blindly guessing at which piece will be the most effective at moving consumers down the funnel, savvy marketers are taking the best performing pieces from their influencer marketing programs and using them to improve the performance of other digital channels,” she noted. “Not only does this strategy provide marketers with proven content — 51 percent of marketers say that influencer content outperforms brand-created content — but it also costs 2.6 times less than working with a professional for a similar output.”
Moving forward, Linqia strives to be a leader in the industry on all fronts — from brand safety and fraud protection, to exemplary customer service-guaranteed business results.
She said it’s in the company’s DNA to deliver return of investment for customers, extending the value of influencer content far beyond the initial organic reach of influencers. With an AI-driven platform, the company continues to improve, learn and evolve.