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Influencer Marketing: Putting Bloggers to Work Building Your Brand
How do you generate buzz for your brand? Sponsor a conference specifically for bloggers in your field. Home decorating innovator Wayfair, Inc. is doing just that!
There are many ways to use social media and word of mouth marketing to build business … creating a Facebook fan base, running sweepstakes, creating YouTube videos, or putting out blogs, for example, but one of the most fascinating is through a tactic known as influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing targets your message to those people who exert an influence over potential buyers, rather than targeting the buyers themselves. Bloggers, for example. And, I just read about a fantastic example of influencer marketing that I wanted to share with you from the folks at Wayfair, Inc.
In case you’re not familiar with them, Wayfair is a portfolio of several brands offering curated collections of decorator accessories and home furnishings … nautical themed accents, coastal-style bedding, brightly colored area rugs … a visual candy store for anyone that loves decorating. You may recognize Wayfair.com, Joss and Main, or Birch Lane … just a few of their better known brands.
On June 15, 2015, Wayfair, Inc. announced they’re launching a unique, 2-day Heart Home conference specifically for “bloggers, designers and other lifestyle entrepreneurs.” I love the idea.
First because, through the conference, Wayfair will be forging even stronger bonds with the people who enjoy and buy their products anyway, by providing insider access to their design team, creating a fun venue to meet other design bloggers and entrepreneurs, and offering business training classes. But more importantly, the conference attendees are exactly the people who will share their experiences by blogging, tweeting, and generally spreading a positive message to all their followers. Free publicity for Wayfair. Brilliant. That’s influencer marketing.
Working with bloggers is not new to Wayfair. But hosting their own conference is. And while they’ve opened up attendance to anyone, they’ve cleverly limited seating to just 150 attendees, enabling making more meaningful connections during the meeting.
The conference line up is packed with speakers, hands-on workshops, parties, and networking opportunities that any design blogger would enjoy, with session topics that include:
- Build a More Beautiful Blog
- Social Media Survivor: Strategies to Outwit Facebook, Pinterest, and More
- Lessons from Year 1: Stories from Launching Small Business.
They’ve enlisted Apartment Therapy.com founder Maxwell Ryan for the keynote. Ryan is an interior decorator and life coach who started a weekly newsletter of design tips that expanded into a daily blog, and later the Apartment Therapy website. He’s authored two best-selling books, is a regular on such TV shows as Small Space, Big Style, as well as contributes to major news outlets including The New York Times and House Beautiful. What better speaker to get bloggers and entrepreneurs pumped up?
Also quite cleverly, the conference events will be sprinkled all around Wayfair’s Boston hometown, so attendees get to experience a bit of the town’s lively culture. Workshops, however, will be staged at Wayfair headquarters. Very smart!
As of June 22nd, there are just 33 tickets remaining at the early bird price of $149, and just 40 tickets for the full-conference branding meeting at $499, (plus a nominal ticketing fee). To learn more or register, see www.hearthome.wayfair.com.
And, if you’d like to learn more about Influencer Marketing, Marketo just published a solid article by Jeff Foster titled 3 Steps to Executing a Flawless Influencer Marketing Campaign.
So, what do you think? Cool, huh.
About the Author
Suzy Kedzierski is a freelance writer, marketing communications specialist, and founder of Marketing Communication Ink, with no affiliation to Wayfair other than being an avid fan of their products and daily newsletter.
Acknowledgements
Heart Home logo courtesy of Wayfair, Inc.
6 comments on “Influencer Marketing: Putting Bloggers to Work Building Your Brand”
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Thanks Suzy, cool summary. I talked with Jeff Foster and his team. They’re nice and well-versed for sure
Hi Alex. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Might do a Google Hangout On Air with him + 3 influencers. It’ll be for PR pros. Best practices, dos and donts, etc
Wow! Please keep me posted on when you plan to do it.
Will do. Half the battle is scheduling, but then usually it’s smooth sailing after that.