Partnership Unpacked

Have you noticed how some full time employees are able to simultaneously balance having a side hustle as an influencer? How do they do it?

And what about the folks who quit their nine to five and lean into their role as an influencer and full time creator…

Does that sound frightening to you, and maybe just a little bit exciting?

Because the truth is, the creator economy is booming and there’s ample room for influencers, particularly B2B influencers, whether they’re full time or working on the side.

Whether you’re a budding creator, or a CEO who wants to support and retain their employees-turned-influencers, stay tuned, because that’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.

Welcome back to Partnership Unpacked, where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at strategic partnerships, channel programs, affiliates, influencer marketing, and relationship building… oh, and you get to learn too! Subscribe to learn how you can amplify your growth strategy – with a solid takeaway every episode from partnership experts in the industry.

And today is going to be interesting. On the one hand, you have people like me who have been working full time for the same company - I’m now celebrating five years working for Agorapulse as Head of Strategic Partnerships - and throughout that entire time I have kept and developed my personal brand and content at The Social Media Hat.

On the other hand, you’ve got employees who want to strike off as full time influencers, and leave the safety net of a regular paycheck behind.

Both scenarios can be frightening and stressful, but it helps to talk to people who have been in those situations and get their insights.

So that’s exactly what our guest today, Norman Farrar, is here to help with.

Norm is currently an entrepreneur who started his own marketing agency and has worked with major, major brands. Fortune 500 companies. And he’s now leaned into podcasting and is building up his personal brand as an influencer, even using platforms like TikTok. How’d he get there? What challenges did he face?

Let’s find out.

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Norm Farrar about:

♉️ Why he waded into product recommendations and influencer marketing.

♉️ How he has leveraged relationships to achieve success.

♉️ Which channels have delivered the highest ROI, and why, for his agency.

Learn more about Norm Farrar

• Follow Norm on Twitter
• Connect with Norm on LinkedIn

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• Lunch With Norm
• Amazon Influencer Program
• Influencer Incubator program to nurture up-and-coming influencers
• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar
• Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/how-this-serial-entrepreneur-became-a-product-influencer-w-norm-farrar/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution. Sign up for a free demo at https://www.agorapulse.com/contact/ 

Imagine how your business might benefit from partnering with the largest brand in your industry.

How would that extend your reach or establish your authority? Whether you’re a solopreneur or the CEO of an established brand, partnering with a company that’s much, much larger than yours is called a Sumo Advantage. But where do you start?

That’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.

Welcome back to Partnership Unpacked, where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at strategic partnerships, channel programs, affiliates, influencer marketing, and relationship building… oh, and you get to learn too! Subscribe to learn how you can amplify your growth strategy – with a solid takeaway every episode from partnership experts in the industry.

Listen, I want you to stop for a moment and think about who the absolute biggest brand names are in your industry. The top two or three.

For me, at Agorapulse, that’s easily the major social networks themselves… Meta, LinkedIn, Twitter, and so on. 

Got a couple of your own in mind? Cool.

Now think about what it might look like, and how it would benefit your business, if you were able to partner with some of those large brands.

And recall what we talked about way back in episode one, that partnership is about more than being a client and vendor. It’s about working together to create something new and innovative, like the marketing partnerships I’m working on right now with Meta and Linkedin.

So how do you go about getting the attention of one of those large brands and develop that kind of partnership?

That’s exactly what our guest today, George Thomas, is going to talk to us about.

George B. Thomas has been in sales and marketing for more than three decades, but in 2012, something changed. He started using HubSpot as a CRM and soon began partnering with them and working to help other brands improve their own sales, marketing and processes by leveraging HubSpot, one of the major brands in the MarTech space and host of Inbound, a huge event in Boston that attracts thousands of marketers..

George loves to truly come alongside other brands as a catalyst for growth, so in addition to being an expert in inbound marketing and sales, email and content marketing, and all-things-HubSpot, George brings a wealth of experience in partnerships and relationship building.

And he’s been a friend of mine for years…

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to George B. Thomas about:

♉️ How he developed such a close relationship with a huge industry brand.

♉️ How to develop and nurture brand partnerships.

♉️ How relationships played a key role in his long term success.

Learn more about George B. Thomas

• Follow George on Twitter
• Connect with George on LinkedIn

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• George B. Thomas, LLC
• HubSpot
• Influencer Incubator program to nurture up-and-coming influencers
• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar
• Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/how-to-develop-profitable-relationships-with-big-brands-w-george-thomas/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution. Sign up for a free demo at https://www.agorapulse.com/contact/ 

73% of B2B marketers cite an increased interest in influencer marketing this year. And that’s good, because it’s been shown conclusively that buyers are eager to make purchases based on the recommendations of influencers and content creators.

And yet, there’s still a tremendous amount of confusion and trepidation when it comes to influencer marketing. Is it just for B2C brands? Is Instagram losing it’s luster? Should B2B brands be focusing on TikTok?

That’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.

Welcome back to Partnership Unpacked, where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at strategic partnerships, channel programs, affiliates, influencer marketing, and relationship building… oh, and you get to learn too! Subscribe to learn how you can amplify your growth strategy – with a solid takeaway every episode from partnership experts in the industry.

Now, I mentioned at the outset how much more marketers, even B2B marketers, are investing into influencer marketing this year. One of the big challenges though is that the vast majority of the information online today is geared toward B2C influencers. Celebrities and other social media influencers who have amassed large followings and are able to make purchase recommendations from their platform.

B2B CEOs and CMOs, like many of you, are often left wondering who they’re supposed to work with when it comes to influencers. What kind of content should we be creating? And which channels should we really focus on?

That’s what Gordon Glenister is here to help us with.

As a podcast host, consultant, and author of the best selling book, “Influencer Marketing Strategy: How to Create Successful Influencer Marketing,” Gordon is a global influencer marketing expert. He recently partnered with Ryan Hilliard of HypeAuditer to put together the State of Influencer Marketing 2023 report, packed with trends and data that we want to UNpack.

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Gordon Glenister about:

♉️ Is Instagram still the preferred platform for using influencers to impact buying decisions?

♉️ Do we have to focus on influencers with the largest followings?

♉️ How should B2B brands approach influencer marketing today?

Learn more about Gordon Glenister

• Follow Gordon on Twitter
• Connect with Gordon on LinkedIn

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• GordonGlenister.com
• Influencer Marketing Strategy: How to Create Successful Influencer Marketing
• State of Influencer Marketing 2023 with HypeAuditor and Gordon Glenister
• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar
• Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/influencer-marketing-trends-amp-insights-for-cmos-w-gordon-glenister/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution. Sign up for a free demo at https://www.agorapulse.com/contact/ 

Over half of B2B buyers say that they rely on industry thought leaders and influencers to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments in their field.

It’s no wonder then that 59% of B2B marketers say that they plan to increase their influencer marketing budget in the coming year. In an industry that reached $16.1 billion in 2022, influencer marketing has become extremely lucrative, and competitive!

Which means there’s a lot riding on every pitch and proposal and presentation from an influencer trying to land work with a brand, or even brands looking to partner with other brands.

If you’re interested in making sure your next pitch to a brand gets the attention it deserves, you’re in the right place.

Because that’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.

Listen, whether you’re a partnership leader for your brand, or you’re a B2B influencer growing an audience and building revenue streams, you have one major challenge in common:

You have to be able to successfully pitch another brand to buy in to your ideas and pony up, whether that’s a sponsorship fee, co-marketing campaign, or some other investment.

The problem is, as I mentioned at the beginning, the influencer marketing industry is huge and successful brands are getting inundated with LinkedIn connection requests, cold emails, Twitter DMs, and more… all begging for their attention.

How can you make sure that it’s your pitch that get’s seen and accepted?

That’s exactly what our guest today, Justin Moore, is going to talk to us about.

Justin brings a very unique perspective because not only has he been a creator in the trenches doing sponsorships for years but by running an agency, he has insider knowledge behind how big brands choose which influencers to partner with and why they pass on others.

He is a Sponsorship Coach & the founder of @CreatorWizard, a school & community that teaches you how to find & negotiate your dream brand deals so that you stop leaving thousands on the table.

Having made over $4M working with brands over the course of 8 years, I knew this was a conversation we wanted to have.

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Justin Moore about:

♉️ How to start working with brands as an influencer

♉️ The most common mistakes influencer make with their pitches

♉️ How to craft a winning sponsorship pitch

Learn more about Justin Moore

• Follow Justin on Twitter
• Connect with Justin on LinkedIn

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• Creator Wizard: http://creatorwizard.com/
• Influencer Incubator: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/incubator/
• B2B Influencer Marketing From The Influencer’s POV w/ Goldie Chan
• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar
• Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/how-to-craft-a-sponsorship-pitch-no-brand-will-ignore-w-justin-moore/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution. Sign up for a free demo at https://www.agorapulse.com/contact/ 

Are you by yourself right now?

No, I don’t mean are you alone… I mean, are you the only one in your organization managing partnerships?

I know I am! And in that respect we aren’t alone… in a recent survey of 664 professionals by Hubspot and Partnership Leaders, 59.6% of the respondents reported having at least one employee working full time on partner operations.

The report went on to share some pretty interesting findings with regard to the size of partner ops, the different kinds of partnerships and metrics involved, and the impact all of that has on company revenue.

But what does that industry really look like?

What kinds of partnerships are companies exploring today, and how are they managing that? Should you hire more staff? Invest in more partner tech? Explore more integrations?

That’s exactly what our guests today are going to talk to us about, and you and I are lucky because I have twice as many guests as usual in the studio today.

Kelly Sarabyn is the Platform Ecosystem Advocate at HubSpot, where she is responsible for growing the ecosystem through partner content and engagement. Before that, she worked in marketing at Pandium, and was a partner at Woden, a branding agency. She believes companies that leverage partnerships and ecosystems can drive more revenue and build stronger brands. And I definitely agree with her on that.

Asher Mathew is a co-founder of Partnership Leaders. He’s worked in sales, marketing, customer success and business development, as well as partnerships in venture and bootstrapped businesses.

Partnership Leaders is the top community for partnerships and alliance leaders looking to advance their career and improve their partner programs.

So clearly, we’ve got the right people on the show today!

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Asher Mathew & Kelly Sarabyn about:

♉️ How brands are growing using different kinds of partnerships

♉️ How different partnership programs are driving revenue, and real ROI

♉️ Why tech-savvy brands are driving more revenue from partners

Learn more about Asher Mathew

• Connect with Asher on LinkedIn
• Connect with Asher on Twitter

Learn more about Kelly Sarabyn

• Connect with Kelly on LinkedIn

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• The State of Partnership Ops Report
• HubSpot
• Partnership Leaders
• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar
• Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/the-state-of-partnership-ops-in-2023-w-asher-mathew-amp-kelly-sarabyn/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution. Sign up for a free demo at https://www.agorapulse.com/contact/ 

According to our friends at Top Rank Marketing, 86% of B2B brands consider their influencer marketing successful, and 85% say they plan to increase their investment in influencers over the next twelve months.

And yet, these same brands continue to report that their biggest challenges lie in identifying and maintaining relationships with key influencers.

They’re struggling to find the perfect folks for their programs and, even when they do, all too often, brands don’t have the right program and processes in place to keep those influencers happy and engaged.

Where are they going wrong? What mistakes are these brands making that the rest of us can learn from and avoid? 

Now, back in episode six with Goldie Chan, I mentioned that the idea for talking to her, a B2B influencer, on this show, came about due to a conversation I’d had with another influencer. He’d been sharing all these stories of not only the work he’d done with brands, but all the mistakes they’d made in their approaches and their campaigns… it was clear there were lessons to be learned from talking to these kinds of influencers in this format.

So that’s exactly what our guest today, my good friend Timothy Hughes, is going to talk to us about.

Tim is ranked as the number one most influential social selling person in the world, and is universally recognized as the world leading pioneer and innovator in this space.

He is the Co-Founder and CEO of DLA Ignite and co-author of three bestselling books, so I knew his incredible experience working with brands, and his tremendous business savvy, would make him the perfect influencer’s voice to bring to the show.

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Timothy Hughes about:

♉️ Why the traditional approach to podcasts is so wrong for B2B brands

♉️ How podcasts actually help build and strengthen relationships

♉️ How to measure success and ROI from podcasts

Learn more about Timothy Hughes

• Connect with Timothy on LinkedIn
• Connect with Timothy on Twitter

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• DLA Ignite
• B2B Influencer Marketing From The Influencer’s POV w/ Goldie Chan
• The Ultimate Guide to the Perfect LinkedIn Profile
• Social Selling: Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers
• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/b2b-influencer-marketing-from-the-influencers-pov-with-timothy-hughes/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution. Sign up for a free demo at https://www.agorapulse.com/contact/ 

Stop me if this sounds familiar.

You open LinkedIn on your phone and there at the top of the feed, LinkedIn has recommended a post by the CMO of a huge brand you know your sales team is targeting.

You tap on their profile and figure if you could connect with them on LinkedIn, maybe you could strike up a conversation and build a case for your solution. So you smash that connect button and smile at your cleverness.

But then, nothing happens. Days go by and your request goes unanswered. In fact, none of your attempts to connect with and build relationships with target stakeholders are working.

What’s going on here? Is there a better way to build rapport with target accounts?

Now listen, LinkedIn is an absolute treasure for networking and building relationships. Whether you’re targeting stakeholders to eventually pitch to, or potential partners or influencers you’d like to collaborate with, they’re all there.

The problem is, they’re unlikely to want to connect with you if they don’t know you or, worse, think you’re only interested in what they can do for you.

And I see you in the back, waving your hand because you make it a point to write a charming introductory note every time you send a connection request. Bravo. But you’re still leading with an Ask… an ask to connect.

What if I could show you a way to initiate a connection with someone that starts off by offering them something of real value, something that will potentially foster a real relationship that could lead to a sale or a partnership.

That’s exactly what our guest today, Adrian McIntyre, is going to talk to us about.

Dr. McIntyre is a cultural anthropologist, keynote speaker, and communication advisor. He has lived and worked in over 30 countries, spending a decade in the Middle East and Africa as a researcher, journalist, media spokesperson, and marketing consultant.

Adrian has been podcasting since 2016, serving as a host, producer, or featured guest on more than 300 podcast episodes, and he’s turned that experience into a channel for thought leadership campaigns and B2B podcasts for professional firms. He’s graciously agreed to help me understand how I can use this podcast to further partnerships and sales for Agorapulse, so y’all get to listen to my consulting session.

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Dr. Adrian McIntyre about:

♉️ Why the traditional approach to podcasts is so wrong for B2B brands

♉️ How podcasts actually help build and strengthen relationships

♉️ How to measure success and ROI from podcasts

Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/using-podcasts-to-develop-partnerships-amp-relationships-w-adrian-mcintyre/

How’s your affiliate program looking?

Have you noticed how most of your affiliate traffic and referrals are from less than 20% of your channel partners?

Picture your top affiliate. What would it look like if you had 5, 10, 50 more affiliates just. like. them.

But friends… I’ve got a problem.

I’m looking at our channel partner program in FirstPromoter and I have to be honest, the vast majority of my affiliates have zero referrals last quarter.

That’s not good!

It’s not good for my program, and it’s not good for those partners.

Now, some of those affiliates could use with some better nurturing and training, and that’s on me, and something we’ll touch on in a future episode. But I also have to wonder what else I could be doing to bring in more affiliates like my top earners. The ones that are driving loads of traffic and quite literally making thousands of dollars a month from Agorapulse commissions.

Well, that’s exactly what our guest today, Farzad Rashidi, is going to talk to us about.

Farzad is the lead innovator at Respona, the link-building outreach platform that helps businesses increase their organic traffic from Google. He previously ran the marketing efforts at Visme, where he helped the company gain over 18 million active users and pass 3.5 million in monthly organic traffic.

He’s partnered with me on a number of initiatives over the past few years and was gracious enough to agree to come on the show and help me out with this dilemma.

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Farzad Rashidi about:

♉️ What makes for a really good affiliate?

♉️ How brands should structure their affiliate marketing programs

♉️ Where to find terrific affiliates and actually see ROI

Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/how-to-recruit-high-performing-affiliates-w-farzad-rashidi/

How would you like the low-down on what B2B influencers are really looking for when they work with brands?

Wouldn’t it be nice to know what might make an influencer truly excited to partner with you?

All too often, brands approach influencers assuming that they only care about money#, or that the prestige of working with the brand will suffice. And while those things can be important, they’re not the sum of what it means to be an influencer and partner with brands.

What else is important? What are B2B influencers actually looking for?

That’s what Goldie Chan is going to help us with in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.

Goldie has been working directly with B2B brands for years and is a global speaker, strategist, author and advisor. She's known as the "Oprah of LinkedIn" by Huffington Post and her video channel won LinkedIn Top Voice.

I knew her incredible experience working with brands, and her tremendous business savvy, would make her the perfect influencer’s voice to bring to the show.

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Goldie Chan about:

♉️ The best, and worst, influencer marketing campaigns

♉️ How brands should structure influencer marketing programs

♉️ Why and how brands can empower B2B influencers

Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/b2b-influencer-marketing-from-the-influencers-pov-w-goldie-chan/

Harvard Business Review found that omnichannel customers spend 10% more online, and a shocking 73% of customers prefer shopping through multiple channels.

And Google found that omnichannel customers are worth 30% more!

The challenge, of course, is finding ways to create a seamless experience for customers across all of a brand’s channels. Could partnerships play a role?

That’s what Robin Dimond is here to help us with.

Robin has been marketing and innovating for nearly two decades, and strives to bring sensory experiences and the heart back into all her team’s work, thus comes the name - Fifth (five senses) & Cor (Latin for heart). She transforms brands and communities, and she’s going to help you transform how you approach partnerships!

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Robin Dimond about:

♉️ Why partnerships and omnichannel marketing are critical today

♉️ How we set goals across broad & complex channels

♉️ What the most important goals should be, and how they’re measured

Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar

Full Notes & Transcript: 

Why are partnerships important? What do businesses have to gain from them?

How are busy executives supposed to find the time to manage partnerships of any kind?

Those questions and more are what we're exploring in this podcast. Listen as your host, Mike Allton, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Agorapulse, sets the stage.