Jared: Number one, ambassadors, they're probably getting paid an affiliate rate. Right. And then number two, influencers, you're getting paid per post. How are subject matter experts getting compensated?

Morgan J Ingram: Because SME’s have credibility, they actually have a wider scope of things that they could do. And to a degree, this is also advisory as well. But we're just adding some creativity to it. So I'll just speak from my own experience. For clients that I work with, I'm doing master classes for their existing customer base. I'm doing customer workshops with them.

I'm doing content that is like hosting their podcast or even taking over their YouTube channel, taking over the blog. So it's not me just posting on my channel. It's actually getting integrated into what they're doing and what their revenue numbers are and what they're trying to track towards. And I'm mapping that towards these certain objectives still. All those things that I just mentioned are content. They're just in a different realm. And so those are just things that we've seen with clients and that I personally have done that have led to those results.

Jared: Now, how do you execute this full playbook?

Morgan J Ingram:

1. Let's start with the brand ambassador:
   
   The one thing I think I do not like, someone asked, actually, someone asked me this on a post today. When I posted about this, they're like, what do you think about strategic advisors? I actually am starting to not like them at all because a lot of people position strategic advisors as what we're calling a brand ambassador. I think a lot of people label people as strategic advisors. Cause, yes, you do get pushed by the algorithm when you post the announcement. That is, that is. It does that.

   So I understand why people do that. Fair play. At the same time, that person really probably isn't actually doing any strategic advising. They're just posting. It's really just an ambassador. But no one likes that word in B2B.

   A lot of creators don't want to be called brand ambassadors. But the thing is, that is effectively what you are at this moment. You are a brand ambassador for this brand. You're an affiliate right now. You have an affiliate link. You may be getting paid, you know, a thousand, $2,000 a month, which is great. 

   But that's the realm you're playing in, is the brand ambassador. 

   So how you monitor that is you typically are probably going to get five to eight brand ambassadors. And you're just seeing are you getting more uptick in your traffic on your website? Are you getting more uptick in your LinkedIn followers as people start to talk about you a little bit more.

   That's how you're going to gauge that. 

   And then obviously the affiliate is how people are clicking the affiliate link that converts to actual opportunities. So these are things that I think about the brand ambassador level.

2. The influencer is someone who's a little bit more mature in their content creation:
   
   These people have sold more contracts, they've closed more deals. Simply put, they're active, they're doing their thing. 

   So when you think about that component, the influencer, how you stage deals with them is it might be longer term, it might be four months, you're going to post and also as well maybe create some content for us, you know, on our, let's just say on our company page, for example, or hey, you know, we want you to create five pieces of content, three written, two videos, and you're going to post something dead. 

   So these influencer contracts will probably vary and be different based on your objectives.

3. And then the Subject Matter Expert, this is where you have the whole, how you track that, by the way, if you're looking at awareness and demand. 

   So are they getting attention to the brand overall and are they driving what we want them to drive? 

   Some people, it's a PLG motion, so it's easier to track some people that don't have PLG. So it's a little harder, but it depends what you're doing. So you typically have one to two of these people. 

   So it's a lot, I mean, four to eight on them or four to six on the influencer side, one to two in the SME side. You're probably actually not spending a whole lot of time managing these people on a super deep level. You're just, you're getting in depth with them, but you're not saying, oh, what are you doing over there? Like, these people don't have great content.

   They know what they're doing. So you just need to make sure the data is there. So the way you're going about that is you're tracking a lot of different things. Because if they're hosting a podcast, you're looking at the podcast numbers. If they're hosting a webinar, you're looking at revenue impacted and influenced. Right. If they're doing all these other things right, then you want to be able to do that. So that's a really big component there of how to get in front of these people.

Jared: Who are some companies you’ve worked with that are doing a great job here?

Morgan J Ingram: I'm gonna, first and foremost, go with Cognism. I think Cognism is actually in terms of the way they think, and they operate as ahead of their time. 

And they've done a really good job, too. Obviously, they sell data, but they've made it very unique and fun. So I've been working with them for, like, 18 months, and really proving out this SME integration new go to market channel. 

There's a lot of things we learned along the way. Some good, some bad, to be transparent, but a lot more good across the board. And the reason I like working with them is because their whole focus is, how do we drive demand through media, and how do we make sure that we're impacting our. 

How are we the most value driven brand?

So people, when they think about, I got better at x skill, they think about Cognism, which is the right way to think about it. 

They think about, how do I get people better at the skills of what they do today? So that they always remember our brand associated with that. So they've done a great job on that. 

And I've been working with them on their webinars, their video series, their. Their stuff for their podcast. We do some in person events. So we've really expanded and tried different things, and that's why I really enjoy working with them across the board.

Jared: How are they working with influencers, SME’s and ambassadors across your 3 levels?

Morgan J Ingram:

Ambassadors: we have people that submit videos. So, for context, Cognism has a brand called Kaspr, which is basically, like, the leadIQ type product. 

And the reason I'm bringing that one up is because they have. They have, like, videos that they are looking to get through their own media channel. And so they have brand ambassadors that will come on and create videos on half of that channel to get exposure, because they're just getting out there. So it's out there in exchange for, like, swag or whatever, affiliate links or whatever it is. 

Influencers: On that content side, how they work with influencers is people that want to be on the webinars or shows with me. And so we work with them in that tandem. And then there are also reports that we bring out and we'll run or run active campaigns of the reports, videos explaining what it is. Right. And then we'll go from there. So that's a critical component as well.

SME: It's me and we just go deeper. So I work with the customers. I do customer workshops. I do all these different things. And that's another way of how I go about how they go about it.

Jared: That's awesome. So influencers are the guests. SMEs are the hosts of this content?

Morgan Ingram: SME's are the hosts. So, yeah, I host. I host all the webinars or our shows, and then I also post our customer workshops as well. Because of the SME, and even with another company we're with, I'm the host as well, because I'm able to be the rosetta. So I'm able to be the interpreter. And I'm able to unpack the information. You really want a sales leader who's managing 300 reps? You wouldn't hear him from that person more than you probably would hear from me, to be fair.

Jared: Are you able to share the results they've seen?

Morgan J Ingram: Without going into actual revenue figures; it has increased revenue and increased pipeline. We saw 2:1 return on the program costs. Positive ROI.

Jared: What are some brands/ individuals that you love how they’re running influencer marketing?

Morgan J Ingram:

Hockeystack and Obaid Durrani

AudiencePlus has a good presentation on the content that they have.

Champify and Will Falkenborg and Todd Busler