Introduction

Influencer marketing is maturing fast and becoming a more strategic part of many brands’ marketing toolkits. Like most other forms of digital marketing, influencer marketing is plagued by significant challenges, and needs to be actively and keenly managed if it is to contribute to brand growth and success.

While it doesn’t yet represent even 2% of total global marketing spend, investment in influencers – authentic voices with impact, in social media in particular – is increasing fast. So too is best practice in influencer management, measuring the performance metrics that matter, and getting the right clear commercial contracts in place.

The insights summarised in this guide should be of benefit to brands already investing significantly in influencer marketing who want to do it better. They should also help all those who are considering or are at the start of the journey working with influencers and who seek to do it well from the start.

The first step in getting influencer marketing right is to get influencer management right.