We’ve written often about the importance of authenticity and credibility. Expert influencers are uniquely suited to help elevate your brand’s credibility. We’ll explain what expert influencers are, how they differ from their traditional counterparts, and how to select and work with them.

What are Expert Influencers?

Experts are people with extensive knowledge and/or skills in one particular area. They’re viewed as authorities, but may not always have the largest social media following. With extensive professional acumen, experts are typically informative more than aspirational.

Focused on their primary area of study or practice, they may not often engage in activities that build an audience on purpose, such as posting new content frequently and following trends. Even experts with a smaller following can be valuable partners, as they lend their credibility to your brand, helping you gain trust from your audience.

Fabio A. Marchesin, better known as Finanzfabio, said, “As an expert financial planner, I feel a certain pressure to create more added value and, above all, to provide correct information. My aim is to create a clean basis and then go into more depth to provide thought processes that no one else can offer. While my work is intended to serve non-professionals, my colleagues in the financial sector also find it useful for further training or exam preparation.”

Quality Over Quantity – Expertise is More Important Than Follower Count

Many brands partner with celebrity influencers in order to reach millions while gaining the personal endorsement of a popular individual. However, some consumers have become disillusioned with outmoded influencers who can be artificial and unrelatable while excessively pushing products. According to Trustpilot, celebrity influencers have the lowest level of trust among consumers – two-thirds (67% in the US and 65% in the UK) describe their level of trust in this source of information as ‘low’.

Expert influencers can serve as an antidote. 41% of consumers trust expert reviews, whereas only 13% trust advertising.

Veronica Kiriak, Doctor and Content Creator, shared her views on how brands and followers have different expectations of experts as compared to classic creators. “As a doctor and influencer at the same time, you have to act a little differently than classic creators. I choose my collaboration partners very carefully and always pay attention to legal and medical principles. Brands often place particular value on the authenticity of my medical expertise, while my followers are primarily looking for reliable information. It requires a balance to meet the expectations of both sides.”

How Do Expert Influencers Help Brands?

Collaborating with people who bring the credibility of formal education and expert credentials can help brands stand out, and can be particularly advantageous in the beauty industry. As marketer Polly Petrova writes “the beauty sector has become more cautious when it comes to collaborating with influencers. It seems the industry is trying to lessen the ‘influence’ of influencers.”

Many beauty influencers post their personal daily skincare routines and preferred brands. However, a dermatologist brings exceptional credibility, with a trustworthiness that’s hard to beat. Dr. Liv Kraemer shares best and easy #skincare routine tips with her more than 243K TikTok followers. Dr. Liv also sells products made in Switzerland that she developed inspired by decades of dermatology insight.

When partnering with an expert, your brand benefits from their credibility in addition to gaining access to their audience. Experts can be especially skilled at explaining complex concepts and bringing clarity to technical jargon. “Finanz Fabio” provides financial education on his podcast and shares podcast snippets on TikTok, along with street interviews he conducts.

Expert influencers also fulfill the need for industry-specific knowledge that B2B buyers have throughout lengthy, complex sales processes.

Experts Influencers Continue Working in Their Profession

For many traditional influencers, social media content creation and brand partnerships are their primary sources of income. OTOH, experts make a living with careers distinct from social media. For example, dermatologist Dr. Liv still sees patients in her clinic and Fabio provides personal financial consulting services.

Continuing to work in their profession means expert influencers:

• Keep their knowledge current
• Have new real-world experiences
• Must maintain a positive reputation

The need to maintain their reputation prevents experts from promoting brands they don’t believe in, further strengthening their trustworthiness with audiences. Regardless of what percentage of their income is generated by content creation, their influencer career relies on their professional credibility. It’s not worth risking any threat to that credibility for a questionable brand partnership.

Veronica Kiriak said, “My content creation process requires more research to ensure my medical statements are accurate. At the same time, I try to present the information in an entertaining and accessible way to keep my community’s attention. I have high expectations of myself, especially in terms of the quality and accuracy of my medical advice. It’s important to be transparent when it comes to the boundaries of my expertise and to always create a safe space for questions from my followers.”

How to Select and Work with an Expert Influencer

1. Start with your Marketing Goals

We’ve discussed how expert influencers differ from their traditional counterparts, but when partnering with any influencer, your goal is still to build digital brand equity. While some aspects may differ, it’s important not to abandon your existing processes for building successful campaigns.

Alter your Influencer Evaluation Criteria & Examine Their Credentials

When considering partnering with any influencer, it’s important to view their track record. With experts, you should additionally evaluate their formal credentials. Do they have the requisite education? Are they certified with the relevant board, such as with surgeons and architects? Can you confirm that after obtaining both the education and credentials, they also have real-world experience working in the field? 

2. Pitch Your Brand to the Expert

Considering their need to carefully guard their reputation, experts can be particularly discerning about the brands they work with. You may have to invest time in selling your brand to the expert. This could involve a more detailed, technical analysis of your product, such as examining ingredients or production processes.

3. Be Flexible with Payment Structure & Recognize Added Value

Again, brand promotions aren’t their primary focus, so you may need to compensate experts with a different type of payment structure. Scrunch advises, “…they might be more expensive as you are really purchasing their time, experience, and credibility. Almost think of it as paying a consultant, rather than an influencer.” The value you receive from working with an expert extends beyond access to their community. Your brand earns a seal of approval from a knowledgeable expert. These engagements might also be longer term.

4. Maximize Use of Their Expertise

Instead of asking them to merely promote your product, think of additional ways their expertise can benefit your brand. Ask them to sit for an interview, speak at a conference or webinar, write a blog with their top tips, or provide feedback on your new product innovations.

5. Make the Content Keep Working for you

Increase the value of these collaborations with performance marketing (boosting content to reach even higher KPIs). Consider multi-touch attribution models and use every channel strategically.

Get Started with the Best Expert Influencer Matches for Your Brand

As the leading full-service influencer marketing agency in Switzerland and beyond, Kingfluencers can help you select and collaborate with influencers of all types, whether B2C, B2B, expert, or traditional. We help give brands a real face that people relate to, stand out from the noise, and connect to consumers. 

At Kingfluencers, we understand that influencer marketing is part of a much bigger field. We encourage brands to think beyond influence to digital brand equity. In this blog series, we’ll cover how brands can establish, strengthen, and grow long-term brand equity through digital influence programs. First, we’ll explain what we mean by that and what lies beyond traditional influence.

What is Digital Brand Equity?

Digital brand equity is the value of brand recognition and brand perception in the digital space. Digital brand equity is a core pillar to competitive advantage. It has a positive influence on people’s purchasing decisions and is a key determinant of the brand’s overall success. 

→ Defining factors for a brand’s digital equity include:

What is Digital Influence?

Digital influence is the online equivalent of brand equity. It refers to a brand’s ability to affect and strengthen people’s perceptions, opinions, preferences, and decisions related to your brand versus competing ones. Digital influence is the ability of a brand to take ownership of the influence they have to impact perceptions and – most importantly– decisions.

Like digital brand equity, digital influence is a key determinant of the brand’s overall success. Digital influence strategies enhance your brand’s ability to take that control and ownership to shape perceptions. It is a means to an end. You can build digital brand equity through a variety of digital branding and influencer strategies.

By impacting decisions, you can drive revenue by encouraging people to:

• Purchase your brand over competitors by building competitive advantage and elevating brand preference
• Increase expenditures through upgrades and additional purchases
• Remain loyal customers over time to increase customer loyalty, generate more revenue, and improve profitability
• Recommend your brand to their friends by sparking intrinsic advocacy and strengthening your brand community
• Work for your brand, enabling you to recruit and retain the best employees and strengthen your employer branding

Digital Influence = Huge Component of Overall Brand Equity

For many brands, the majority of customer interactions take place online. That means your digital influence is nearly synonymous with brand equity. Simply put, what people think of you online is what people think of you. Those brands who master their digital brand equity as first movers will gain an immense advantage and outperform their competitors moving forward.

Beyond Social Media

An influencer posts a positive review of your brand on Instagram. A content creator features your product in an entertaining TikTok.

Great! 

Influencer campaigns are excellent tactics for increasing awareness and connecting with your audience.

But that’s just it… they’re tactics – individual components of what must be a larger strategy in order to really make a long-lasting impact. So, what separates effective brands from those throwing campaigns at the wall and hoping something sticks?

How Can Brands Build a Foundation of Digital Influence?

A brand’s equity depends on your visibility, how you’re perceived, and your ability to connect in consistent ways to your audiences in today’s complex digital ecosystem.

Consumers rank trust as a top buying consideration. 81% need to trust a brand to consider buying from it. Nielsen reported that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family, and 70% trust online reviews from strangers. A strong digital presence and positive online reputation can help strengthen brand equity, in turn influencing purchasing decisions.

Proper digital influence strategies and tactics draw their inherent power from word of mouth (WoM) marketing principles. Building digital influence involves magnifying and elevating the impact of WoM through digital amplification. Digital influence enables brands to turn a 1:1 process into 1:many while maintaining credibility. Shifting from one to many amplifies a brand’s influence, which drives exponential gains, making digital influence extremely powerful.

Digital influence programs must focus on strengthening the brand’s digital presence and thereby positively influencing brand awareness and perception. 

The Amplification Effect

Individual marketing initiatives, such as SEO, can give your brand a boost. But the most powerful strategies work collaboratively to amplify one another.

With numerous people-centric tactics focused on advocacy, WoM, and authentic storytelling, you can achieve an amplification effect. More people will discuss your brand, activate audiences and communities, building more intrinsic advocacy and WoM from consumers and partners. Like the famous “Flywheel” model, customers become advocates and promoters who feed growth as they move through the phases of attract, engage, and delight.

Key Components of Building Digital Brand Equity

A strong foundation must run deep and wide. 

Doing these following things well and for enough time will improve your brand reputation and drive increased online visibility. You’ll be able to increase knowledge of your brand, and impact perceptions of your brand versus others.

• Use your existing brand equity

Make use of the equity you already have. Build upon your brand’s reputation and standing in the market. Get ahead of the narrative and consistently convey your brand’s unique selling propositions.

• Be consistent

Have consistent, coherent messages across all digital channels. Those messages should also be in line with consumers’ offline experiences. Consistency is key. 41% of consumers say branding (messaging) consistency defines brand loyalty.

• Run people-centric campaigns

The participation of numerous voices, along with a consistent story, helps create positive digital brand equity and therefore digital influence. Work with multiple advocates and storytellers who can promote your brand authentically, including employees and senior leadership. Capture and make use of user-generated content.

• Harness the power of advocacy & word of mouth

Advocacy is a key ingredient. Consider personal branding and working with corporate ambassadors. With an integrated approach, you can take control of the narrative surrounding your brand and boost competitive advantage and growth. 

An effective digital influence program will include multiple tracks such as social media, influencer marketing, brand and corporate ambassadors, personal branding, content creation, including UGC, and performance marketing. While these tracks can each deliver results independently, a program is stronger when they’re all in alignment. More to come in part 2!