
The Business Of Marketing · 2026-07-02 · 33 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
50 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Kate Strachnyi built Datacated, a niche influencer marketing agency specializing in data, analytics, and AI brands, after leaving a nine-year tenure at Deloitte. Her core insight challenges how B2B companies approach influencer partnerships: ROI must be defined upfront with clients (sales, webinar signups, whitepaper downloads, or attention), and authenticity matters far more than vanity metrics. Strachnyi deliberately keeps her creator network small at 35 influencers to ensure genuine relationships and prevent AI-generated content (Claude, ChatGPT) from diluting campaigns. She uses Claude extensively to match creators to client objectives based on topic expertise stored in a spreadsheet database. The episode reveals that the actual goal is usually to highlight the client's story, with the influencer acting as a credible catalyst rather than the star. Strachnyi's background in financial and talent reporting at Deloitte informs her honest approach to metrics: she avoids guaranteeing impressions, clicks, or signups because the algorithm and user behavior are uncontrollable. She pushes back against competitors who use engagement-gaming tactics, framing authentic engagement as superior to 100,000 random impressions. Marketers and executives exploring thought leadership programs will find practical guidance on selecting camera-ready executives (CEO, CTO, CPO, CMO), handling camera-shy customers, and avoiding unrealistic benchmarks.
ROI looks different for each client - some want direct sales, others want webinar signups, whitepaper downloads, or visibility for product launches. Set success metrics upfront with the client, track them consistently, and be honest about what can and cannot be guaranteed, such as impressions versus conversions.
No; it depends on personality, not just role. CEOs, founders, CTOs, CPOs, and CMOs are typically good fits if they're genuinely excited to share, but forcing camera-shy executives to create video content wastes investment and shows inauthenticity.
Build relationships through genuine networking and word-of-mouth; Strachnyi uses a Google form to capture creator information (topics, content style, travel preferences) and Claude to match them to client objectives based on subject matter expertise rather than follower count.
Fake engagement tactics and algorithm gaming that artificially inflate metrics in the first hour of posts; these undermine long-term credibility and set unrealistic expectations for clients expecting similar guarantees.
B2B audiences are niche; 100,000 random impressions matter less than a few thousand relevant decision-makers (like chief data officers) actually seeing and engaging with your content authentically.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
There are some useful practitioner nuggets - using Claude to match creators to clients, the preparation checklist before hiring influencers, and the lurker dynamic at events - but these are diluted by two in-episode ads, extended host monologues, and repeated platitudes about authenticity. The signal-to-noise ratio is mediocre for a 33-minute episode.
I use Claude to a huge extent to automate a lot of that where I would say you know, here's the client, here's their call to action, here's their objective and topics they won't covered who are the best creators for this
if you post five times a day, LinkedIn is going to say, kate, chill, we don't want that much from you
Most of the advice - know your KPIs before you start, pick creators with relevant audiences, authentic content outperforms fake engagement - is entirely recycled B2B influencer marketing wisdom. The algorithm-gaming 'dark side' reference and the Claude-as-matchmaker workflow are mildly fresh but are not explored with enough depth to elevate the episode.
there are creators in this space who actually do provide those guarantees because they, they use systems, I'm going to call them, um, to kind of game the algorithm
if you're trying to reach data leaders in the United States and you have engagement from hairdressers in Australia, maybe that's, you know, not the right content creator for you
Kate Strachnyi is a genuine practitioner who built a niche B2B influencer agency from scratch, has real client experience, and has sat inside Deloitte - she is not a pure thought-leader. However, the operation she describes is small (35 creators, word-of-mouth sourcing, a Google spreadsheet as the 'database'), limiting the scale credibility.
dedicated has over 35 influencers and content creators and over 100 speakers and experts in our agency
It started this in March 2020, right? And I was the only creator. I was just, I left, um, my employer of nine years
Kate offers a handful of concrete specifics - agency size, the Google form workflow, UTM tracking, the motorcycle video anecdote - but there are no named clients, no campaign metrics, no pricing structures, and no hard performance benchmarks. The numbers that do appear are illustrative ranges ('you can get three, you can get 300, you can get 30,000') rather than real data.
we can almost guarantee the number of impressions you'll get because we have average ranges for our prior content
I created for a client, it was me on a motorcycle to show how like speed of insights with the help of A.I.
A few of the questions are genuinely well-framed - especially 'what needs to happen inside a company before they hire an influencer?' - but the hosts regularly take over with extended personal monologues, there is no substantive pushback on any of Kate's claims, and two in-episode ad reads break momentum entirely.
This question should be like the main question honestly because so many of my customers are not prepared for influencer marketing
Have you ever ran into a situation where you had to pivot on a live event and you're like, let's go to someone else
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
The Business of Marketing Podcast: With the rise of the creator economy on platforms like LinkedIn, B2B brands are seeking ways to authentically leverage influencers for greater reach, impact, and tangible business results. Kate Strachnyi shares industry insights on setting realistic ROI expectations, vetting true thought leaders over surface-level creators, and embracing genuine narratives over empty metrics. The episode explores how agencies and companies can bridge the gap between impactful storytelling, accurate data, and business growth, especially amidst evolving digital measurement challenges.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: Interestingly, a lot of my clients have not thought about this before opening up a conversation. They're like, oh, I don't know what I want to get out of this. I, I want, I want to market, I want to do marketing. Oh, my good. But how are you going to know if this worked or not? So, uh, a lot of times they'll have that number and other times they're going to say, I'm going to need to call you back and get with my team and see what we actually want to get out of this. I want to genuinely, authentically know each of these creators. I want to make sure they're not robots from, you know, somewhere where I've never met them. Right. I want make sure they actually have thoughts that they're not just using Claude or ChatGPT to create all their content. Because I think the clients are realizing that you need authentic engagement. You don't just need 100,000 impressions from random people.
Speaker B: Welcome to the business of marketing. Um, I'm a Lee Judge.
Speaker C: And I'm Rocio Suna. With the explosion of thought leadership on social media, we're seeing more and more professionals leverage platforms like LinkedIn to truly capitalize on their expertise. Our guest today did exactly that. She took her data and AI, uh, expertise and built her own agency to help brands amplify their message. Before we get into our story, let's talk about why monetizing your expertise is such a critical move right now. Recently, LinkedIn announced they're finally releasing a creator marketplace where brands can discover creators for paid opportunities. We're just talking about this with another guest recently, and it's clear LinkedIn has finally heard the feedback that TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, YouTube have finally answered for many years. It's currently an alpha and a few LinkedIn influencers have chosen to take it for a spin, which is really fascinating because LinkedIn is seeing those creator economy numbers and going all in natively into the future. What are your thoughts, Lee?
Speaker B: Well, I've been approached by brands, so I think having an introduction directly from LinkedIn would definitely be helpful. But what I don't see is good creators selling their souls. I don't want to see good creators selling their souls to anyone, but that will pay them and I'd be very selective myself. So just because I'm approached by a brand, I wouldn't necessarily want to do, uh, content for them. Um, um, and I'm also a bit frustrated with how LinkedIn seems to be pushing formats like video, but then they don't necessarily Practice what they preach. I mean, it makes sense because they are doing it for advertising profit, but then they act as if they're also pushing content organically, which isn't always the case. So nevertheless, I have in fact signed up for the program. So I'll let you know in future episodes if something comes of it and what it looks like from the inside if I get in. So, which, uh, brings us actually to our guest today, Rocio.
Speaker C: She's the founder of datacated. She is the former chief of staff, head of commercial business at Deloitte and LinkedIn, top voice in data science and analytics in 2018 and 2019. Welcome to the podcast, Kate Strachni. So, Kate, you and I met at Tableau Conference recently here in, uh, 2026. Uh, Jess Ramos introduced us and I thought it was really kind of you to give me advice about video production. And so, really excited to have you on the podcast. Uh, how do you set ROI expectations for brands that hire you as an influencer, especially when brand building is so hard to measure?
Speaker A: Yes. Well, Rocio, thank you so much. And yes, Jess introduced us. It was great to meet you in person and do our little book selfie. So that was fun. Um, so your question is around ROI for the brands that I work with. I think just briefly, I'll explain to your audience. What I do for a living is I run a company called Dedicated, right, which is essentially a media partner for clients that are in a data analytics and AI space. So it's a very niche marketing, influencer marketing agency. And for every client, the ROI actually looks a little bit differently. So some of them want sales, right, which is, I think, the end goal for every client. They, they all want to sell. Um, but in, in other cases it's, you know, they want signups for webinars, they want white paper downloads, ebook downloads, they want more eyeballs on the product announcement or the launch of a, uh, you know, 2.0 of whatever product that they're launching. And it's, it's really about getting attention on social media. I think that's the biggest roi. And the way that gets measured, again is very different. So in some cases it's an actual ticket sold for a conference or it's in books sold or books downloaded. And it's. So it's always different. So that's something, that's a conversation we have very early on of, you know, what is your call to action and what are your success metrics and what, what does success look like at the end of this? Interestingly, a Lot of my clients have not thought about this before. Opening up a conversation. They're like, oh, I don't know what I want to get out of this. I, I want, I want to market, I want to do marketing. I'm like, yeah, but how are you going to know if this worked or not? So, uh, a lot of times they'll have that number and other times they're going to say, I'm going to need to call you back and get with my team and see what we actually want to get out of this. I think if you skip that process, it's not good because then they don't know if it worked or not because they're not measuring it. And, you know, it's really helpful for me as a creator to know what outcome they're looking for because that's going to change the type of, um, type of content that I create and the outcome that I'm driving towards.
Speaker B: If you're a marketer struggling to create content that's truly unique to your brand, here's the key. Your experts and executives are your most valuable content assets. Conversational content like videos and podcasts featuring your team stand out above all all other content. So instead of creating content that sounds just like your competition, start leveraging the unique voices inside your company. Thought leaders and authentic, uh, conversations build credibility and engagement. At Content Monster, we specialize in remote content production, meaning we coach your people to be comfortable on camera. Then we capture and produce high quality videos and podcasts featuring your team and customers. No need for expensive production crews, long production plans or complex setups. Want to see how it works? Visit contentmonster.com today to learn more. You know, I want to definitely get into some of the ROI things deeper in a moment, but I want to back up a little bit to make sure you were describing what your company does, and I want to make sure our audience understands this, this space. Um, Rocio and I have been talking about these how the platforms like LinkedIn and TikTok have been creating their own channel directly with influencers, most recently LinkedIn. But if these platforms are opening direct connections with influencers, how does this affect an agency like yours?
Speaker A: I haven't really seen an impact yet. I think it's probably early stages. My main platform is LinkedIn, and the beauty of this is it's not just me. So dedicated has over 35 influencers and content creators and over 100 speakers and experts in our agency. So even if you know, my content is not as competitive, we have 35 others who also have Their own audience, their own thoughts, their own followers to engage with content.
Speaker B: So how are you connecting with these creators? I mean, I'm a business oriented creator and I've been approached by some companies. Um, but I just wonder, as an agency in the middle, how do you find these creators? How they bubble up on your radar and then you connect them with these brands?
Speaker A: So most of it happened. Um, I'll just tell you a quick story. It started this in March 2020, right? And I was the only creator. I was just, I left, um, my employer of nine years. I wanted to start my own company and I started getting clients and they got to the point where I had too many clients, which is every business owner's dream, right? Yeah, but also, you don't want to leave money on the table. You don't want to tell a client, no, thank you, I can't do this project. And at the same time, you don't want to take on too many gigs and then not perform. Because if I post five times a day, LinkedIn is going to say, kate, chill, we don't want that much from you. One a day is enough. So I also had friends that, you know, we grew together on the platform and they were creating content and they wanted more clients. So I just tapped them on the shoulder and said, hey, do you want this gig? How much do you want to get paid for this? And I sort of started with my friend circle. And even today I'm not really reaching out and I'm not looking for creators. Obviously, if I see someone at a conference and I see they're creating good content and they're, they're telling me they want more clients, I send them a link to my Google form and say, hey, fill this out, get added to the database. But they're actually asking like they're seeking me instead. Um, so because of word of mouth, they're like, hey, I have a friend who's working with you. How do I become one of the influencers? And I'm keeping the group very small. I think 35 is very small on purpose because I want to genuinely, authentically know each of these creators. I want to make sure they're not robots from, you know, somewhere where I've never met them. Right. I want to make sure they actually have thoughts that they're not just using Claude or ChatGPT to create all of their content. Because I think the clients, uh, are realizing that you need authentic engagement. You don't just need 100,000 impressions from random people. You need the right, let's Say few thousand chief data officers or data leaders to actually see your content, especially for the clients that I'm working with.
Speaker C: So this goes into uh, a question that I had which is how do you vet them? How do you vet the uh, influencers against the brands that are coming to you for services.
Speaker A: So for the most part I know the things that they talk about. Again this started with people I knew for several years already. So they've been pre vetted because I've just through the nature of knowing them although you can never really know anyone in this world right M. Uh, but to the best of my ability and I see their content all the time and I see that they're genuine. For example we've got folks who are just all they talk about is data visualization or all they talk about is data engineering. And if a client comes in and they have a data engineering product, well obviously I'm going to just give it to the data engineering person and I have a group. So. And the way that that works is through that Google form that the influencers and content creators will fill out initially will have a data repository sort of in a spreadsheet that talks about the topics that they talk about the kind of content they want to create, do they want to travel on site. So I sort of use that as the database and it used to be just me kind of knowing and then looking through the spreadsheet but now I've actually I use Claude to a huge extent to automate a lot of that where I would say you know, here's the client, here's their call to action, here's their objective and topics they won't covered who are the best creators for this. And it's definitely saved some time. Sometimes I'll get it wrong but I still have the subject matter expertise where I know like no this is really the right person. But it does, it does get me like the top five who I think
Speaker B: should be considered marketers and sales leaders. If you want to close more deals and drive real revenue growth, you need cash. And I uh, don't mean money. I'm talking about my new book Cash the four Keys to Better Sales, Smarter Marketing and a Supercharged Revenue Machine. It gives you a proven framework to improve the four areas that impact revenue the most, communication, alignment systems and honesty. You need a stronger sales and marketing engine and this book will show you how to build it. Get your copy now and@aleadjudge.com cash now back to the content. Well, speaking of the right people. So my company creates content with executives. And they're reaching out to our agency because they're hearing that there's a pressure to establish their C suite and product leaders as creators. So if we look at just a couple of platforms like LinkedIn or YouTube, in your opinion, inside a typical B2B company, who do you think should be publishing on LinkedIn and who should be maybe left alone? Mhm.
Speaker A: Um, I think, I think it depends on the personality, not just the role, because I would say, you know, the CEO and the founder, especially if it's a smaller company, they're typically a good face because they have that excitement, the passion, and they're just like, they want this to succeed so bad that they, you could see that passion come through. In other times, you know, it's the chief technology officer who can get to that technical side, uh, in, you know, interviews like this, for example, or live shows. Chief product officer, chief marketing officer. Those are generally the ones that I get provided with when, when I'm supposed to do an interview with an executive. Um, because typically in those roles they're just more outgoing people and they really know their stuff and they know how to present the product. Uh, but personality does come into this. If you're not excited to share your story on social media or if this is something that's forced, especially for video content, that's going to come through and it's almost like a waste of investment if, you know, if you hire an influencer to interview an executive and they hate that, it's not going to be good for anybody.
Speaker C: Have you ever ran into a situation where you had to pivot on a live event and you're like, let's go to someone else and how do you pivot that if you ever had to do that?
Speaker A: I generally leave it up to the client. Um, I tell them before we even pick the individual that's going to be on camera, like, make sure they're not camera shy. We have definitely faced this before where I would do an interview and then a lot of times it's not the client, but it's the client's customers because they want to give them that air time. I generally recommend that it's a great story when you can bring a customer on, but sometimes they're not camera trained. And I had one particular case where it was just the customer was very nervous and it was like the shaky voice, the shaky hand. And in the end we couldn't really use the video, but we ended up turning that into like a case study article. So we were able to pivot that way. Um, but it was more of like I presented that option to the client and they're like, yeah, let's, let's do that so we can still share the story. And then, I mean, that customer did not want that video to air to begin with. So it's, it works out in the end.
Speaker C: Yeah, it's a good pivot.
Speaker B: I want to make clarity here. You mentioned influencer and the, the subject matter expert, the person in the company, the client. So when you go, when you have a, uh, an influencer working for you and then they're interviewing a client, what is your primary goal in terms of content output? Is it output of the influencer creating the content or output of the client showing up in the content?
Speaker A: Generally it's the client. So our main goal is to highlight the story of the client. So the influencer is more of the, like the catalyst to get that story out. So they have to, the influencer has to have a following. And we need people to care about their voice and their story and their perspective. But they have to be really good at giving the spotlight to the customer. I mean, add some thoughts in there for sure. But if, if the influencer is doing 80% of the talking versus the client, that's, that's probably not a good idea.
Speaker B: So when we see a video, is it a video of the influencer or a video of the client or like an interview situation?
Speaker A: Oh, it's usually, it's usually an interview and it's usually both on camera. And you know, in some cases, uh, people have different styles. So if people who are more comfortable with video editing will have like, start with two people or sometimes three people on camera and then we'll, you know, zoom into the person who's speaking and zoom into mostly the client. Sometimes there's two angles. Other times you use a whole video crew and do a whole production. Um, and then in addition to that, there's generally some B roll. So at an event, for example, you're talking to an executive about some big release and then you can have a, ah, B roll overlay of that release being announced on the keynote stage or a demo of that release to, ah, make it more engaging. So it's not just talking heads, which is great too, by the way. Our talking heads here are amazing.
Speaker B: So we're doing right now. Right.
Speaker C: So, um, I want to know, you know, as a longtime expert in data and AI, what do you think B2B marketing teams systematically get wrong about data storytelling?
Speaker A: I mean, different marketing teams do it in, in different ways. Right. I think focusing on their own product too much could go the wrong way. I know the goal is to talk about your product, but I think wrapping it up in a story is a good idea and that's where the customer comes in. So if you have a customer or especially several customers from different industries that are willing to not only get on camera, but you can also do articles or case studies and include pictures and behind the scenes stuff that tells a much better story. And that's why Dedicated exists as a company, because these clients know that them talking about it is okay. But if I'm talking about it or if I'm talking to their customers and I'm sharing it as kind of an outsider media company, it goes, it goes a lot further. So it's not just them saying they're awesome. There are other people saying they're awesome. And people tend to listen to other people because we, we're sort of more, um, unbiased.
Speaker C: Yeah, you, you borrow the credibility and it feels more, you know, for lack of a better term, authentic. Right. It's, it's more human rather than like, here's a sales pitch directly from the company, but it's like, here's the expert that has dealt with the same industry before and here's her perspective. And let's add in a little bit about the company as well. So it feels more human and less salesy in a way.
Speaker A: Mhm. Absolutely.
Speaker B: Well, speaking of data in the marketers who are listening right now, we have to tell this story internally as well to sell whatever the company's doing, whatever vendors we want to hire, we have to prove these things with our data. So I know that you spent several years inside Deloitte doing internal reporting on finance and talent before you built data Cated. So since you've sat on both sides of the table, what are your thoughts on how marketers can present their marketing data to a CRO or a CFO without having to be on the defensive?
Speaker A: Um, I don't know if you ever have to be on the defensive, like for my, especially for my agency, um, when I'm requested, you know, to show the impressions or the engagement metrics, it's sort of, it is what it is. Like, I never tried to say, well, this one only got, you know, 10,000 views as compared to last time. Um, it's sort of because we can't really control the algorithm. So I do make sure to set that stage right away. And I think it really is about expectations at the beginning so you don't have to stay on the defensive. Um, so when my clients say, will I get 300 signups after this post? My answer is, I, um, don't know. You can get three, you can get 300, you can get 30,000. It's very hard to tell, especially since we can make them look right for the most part, but we can't make them click and we definitely can't make them sign up after they've clicked. It is something we can track with UTM links, but it's very hard to guarantee those types of results, especially if the Signup page has 10 data points that they're trying to collect. So there's only so much we can do. So generally we can almost guarantee the number of impressions you'll get because we have average ranges for our prior content. But yeah, to avoid disappointment, we generally just don't give any, uh, any metrics that we are guaranteeing.
Speaker B: I love that, and that's something I've been writing about and on stage preaching about lately, is that marketers have to be very upfront and honest about what can be measured and, and what can't be measured. Because often I think marketers come into the door and they, they accept the metrics of the previous team, which are either a vanity or things they can't really prove or something a software company sold them. Like, hey, we're going to promise you, you know, likes or impressions or even MQLs and certain pipeline velocity things that they may not be able to measure that may not be even realistic today. Especially like in a post click to close world, which we can't do that anymore. Marketers aren't being upfront enough about, look, we don't know what this is, where this is going to lead, but you should do this based on our experience.
Speaker A: Yeah, well, it makes it even more difficult because there are creators in this space who actually do provide those guarantees because they, they. Yeah, yeah, because they use systems, I'm going to call them, um, to kind of game the algorithm.
Speaker B: And for those listening, that was a wink, wink systems.
Speaker A: Um, but that is out there and that, that does make it harder for me to have that conversation where I say I can't make any promises. And then they're like, well, those people can make those promises, why can't you? And then, then it's a harder conversation where I have to like, explain to them of how the dark, the dark side of influencer marketing works because there is unfortunately, uh, a dark side which I'm staying very, very far away from. I want nothing to do with um, fake engagement, it just helps nobody in the end. I mean, it does, I guess, help those creators who want to look like they have just a ton of engagement in the first hour of their random post. But anyways, rant over.
Speaker B: Yeah, it's good. I mean, the message there is for those executives who are looking for benchmarks and data, be careful where you get it from because you may be getting benchmarks that are very unrealistic or even untrue or impossible. And then you hold your, your team, your agency, your influencers to these fake standards and you're claiming that they weren't successful. In reality, you just had a really false sense of what to expect.
Speaker A: Yeah. So, uh, what have you both seen in Sense of Metrics? What are customers looking for from a marketing team?
Speaker C: So I wanted to get to a point where, uh, Lee was mentioning sometimes you can't gauge with metrics like who's doing certain things. And what I often Talk about is LinkedIn lurkers. So I've said this several times before where there's metrics that you can't very much see on LinkedIn. You know, I, uh, bring some example all the time, but there's several people that I go in real life events and they mentioned my video and never in the metrics did I ever see them like engage or comment on that post. So it's really interesting to see that, you know, that metric we can't measure. And it happens, I'm sure with you too, where you have content that goes out there and someone later on comes to you and say, I love that video with that interview. And never did you see that person in any of those metrics. Right. So it's hard to send that as a reporting because you can't put that on the spreadsheet. You know, X ghost person or X actual person, you know, really enjoyed the video and he's a, uh, VP of sales and marketing and he actually decided to sign up or do something. So it's like not something we can report to, but it's something that is visibly seen at least in my content. And I know with other people I speak to is those LinkedIn lurkers or lurkers in other platforms exist in their actual leads.
Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I actually. One very specific video I remember I created for a client, it was me on a motorcycle to show how like speed of insights with the help of A.I. uh, so I put a lot of effort into this video and so many people at an event that I used this, this video to promote came up to me and talked about that video. But a. I've never seen their name, their face. There were no engagement. We weren't even connecting. And I'm like, okay, so they're all talking about it, but they have not touched it. So lurkers are, I would say the majority of people looking at your content are the lurkers.
Speaker B: So the lesson here is that companies have to become comfortable with training their teams. This is sales and marketing. Anyone else, customer experience. Train them in asking questions, talking to customers, and documenting what they're hearing and seeing. Because the problem is that there's far more software companies or analytics companies that are creating content than there are individuals talking about it. Uh, like your customer service team isn't talking about how they gathered information. The company selling analytics are talking about it a lot. And they're going to talk about it in a way that is more, um, mathematical and precise because they're selling precision when reality is we're moving away from that even possibility of such precision. And so you could pick any tech stack of analytics or, uh, you know, web, web search or web, click analytics. They're still, they still exist. And they're all kind of in chaos right now trying to figure out how to sell measurement to marketers. But the reality is, from a company standpoint, the best route is to figure out where we're going. Where we're going is we're going to have to just listen more, uh, add fields to our forms and say, how did you find out about us? Just old school. How did you learn about us? You know, what are you, what's your interest in our company? How'd you find us? That kind of information? Like back when we just had billboards and we had to figure out which billboard was working without data and electronics. That's where we're at right now for at least the, uh, foreseen future. And unless companies don't accept that, they're going to be changing their whole strategy based on some report from a analytics or software company.
Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And I, I feel like I'm guilty of not doing that myself. Where I get clients, uh, who want the services, but I never ask them where they're coming from. It would probably give me a lot of information about how to get more customers if I knew where they're all coming from. Yeah, it's just one, one extra step in a conversation. Right? That's. I, I have a Google form for people to, uh, download a media kit. So I probably should add, like, where did you see us? Because that is a very old School thing. I used to hate old school.
Speaker B: And it works now though because you know, I'm realizing that we're getting clients through ChatGPT and Claude and if it wasn't for the form we wouldn't know this because they're not communicating it in that way. It's not showing up in clicks, but it's showing up. We do have some GA G GA4 analytics but it's not as good as just asking them. And so we're learning a lot from asking and getting clarity in those conversations. But it takes a uh, corporation or a larger business time to train people to ask these questions and to show how important it is.
Speaker C: It's mhm, less dingy at least for that GA4 reporting. At least you get it verbatim in a survey, right? Um, I often do it with events that I host. That's always the first line item is like where did you hear from us? So that I could see whether I should invest more time in that space specific channel. Um and so I often say it to the past corporate companies I've worked for too. Like how is that not on your survey? It's one of those old school things that is so valuable and you know, it's less digging in the actual reporting of Google or anything else.
Speaker A: Just as straightforward.
Speaker C: Ask someone.
Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker B: So Kate, as these companies begin building influencer programs, what needs to happen inside the company before they build an influencer program with someone outside a company like yours?
Speaker A: This question should be like the main question honestly because so many of my customers are not prepared for influencer marketing. And then uh, generally I, I am the first. For many they always tell me like this is the first time we're working with an influencer. Especially for events. Um, I'm usually like a first which is an honor but it also like I wish they knew what they're doing before. So let's, let's get through it. One is internally knowing what you want to get out of it. The call to action, you know, success metric. What do you wish will happen at the end of this program? A lot of times that's not in place. Second, have a point person who is going to be well versed in the product that they can review all the content because generally we don't post to that review, um, unless that's specified and then we can, it streamlines the process but 98% of our customers want to see something before it comes out and then it's like a bottleneck because they're like oh, I don't Know, we're not the content expert. I'm just a marketing person. I don't really know if this is accurate and that takes time. So having a point person who's going to review everything for on site influencer engagement, content creator engagement, having a point person on site just in case you're lost, you don't know where to find the executive you're supposed to interview. Really helpful. Start a WhatsApp group. Really, really helpful to just get that communication on site. Uh, lining up interviews. I think that's generally really great for when we do these one on one executive video interviews. Identify the right people who think of this as an opportunity versus as a death sentence because they're dreading it or they're just so busy. Find people who are genuinely excited to share their story, um, and share their perspective. Help us with actually booking the interview with the executive because that just streamlines that process because, you know, a lot of back and forth. We don't see their calendars and the client actually sees their calendars. Yeah. And then just being very clear with expectations for what you want to get out of any campaign really. So we've come full circle to that same point. Know what you want to get out of the program. Seems, it seems common sense, like. But yeah, that's what I would say to the clients who are just maybe exploring influencer marketing. And then I guess the other thing is make sure you find the right influencer. Don't just go after someone who looks like they have a huge audience. Actually look at the engagement, look at who's engaging with the content. If you see 200 random comments, chances are they're not the right person for you. Unless all those 200 comments are from people in your field.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker A: If they're, if you're, if you're trying to reach data leaders in the United States and you have engagement from hairdressers in Australia, maybe that's, you know, not the right content, uh, creator for you. So take a minute and look at the last five to ten posts of what they, what they talked about and what, who engaged with that and um, their interview style, their video quality, their audio quality. You could see all of that online. So take, invest like an hour and do your research before you actually hire somebody.
Speaker C: Do you often see with, um, companies, you know, whether they're large, small or big, that, you know, stereotypically the big companies have it together or have you seen where the big companies sometimes don't have it together with influencer marketing and hiring you, is there like a Trend,
Speaker A: the bigger the company, the, the more they tend to have it together. They're genuinely, like, generally easier to work with because they have a bigger team who, like, they have a designated team for influencer marketing. Right. So they know what they're looking for. They know what the messaging should be. They know how to review and approve. They know who to go to. They know how to sign up, like, get these executives on. Um, the smaller companies are generally just trying to figure it out. They want to test the waters. They want, like, very small projects, which is fair. Right. They need to know they're a lot more careful as well. Like, they tend to know their call to action a lot more than the bigger ones because the bigger ones, even though they have more awareness that generally they want more. More awareness. Right. The smaller ones want the sales. They're like, how do we make sure somebody buys? Um, that's what I've seen in my experience.
Speaker B: Cool. Well, Kate, before we wrap, please tell us about how anywhere you want our listeners to or viewers to find you or tell us about your company and, um, how they can connect with you.
Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. So, um, datacated.com um, is probably the best platform, but if you want to reach me personally in an easier fashion, I think LinkedIn, so go to Kate Srashne. I'm probably the only person with that name on all of LinkedIn, so it should be easy enough to find. Funny story. You can type dedicated, and I tried this at home with only your left hand. If you're, you know, if you can type without looking at the keyboard, you only use your left hand to type the M word dedicated. I realized that, um, recently. So, yeah, go to LinkedIn, go to the website and we can help with influencer marketing or landing, you know, a speaker or an expert for your next project.
Speaker C: Thank you so much.
Speaker B: Thanks for joining us.
Speaker A: Well, thank you so much for hosting. It's a pleasure.
Speaker B: That was a great conversation. So, once again, thank you for listening to the Business of Marketing.
Speaker A: Thank you for listening to the Business of Marketing podcast, a show brought to you by contentmonsta.com, the producer, uh, of B2B digital marketing. Content show notes can be found on contentmonsta.com as well as aleadjudge.com.
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