Michael Humblet:
Welcome to The Chaos Show. I really, really looked forward to having you in the show. And it took a while to get her, but the one topic we didn’t cover is influencer marketing, All right?
Yasmin Vantuykom:
My name is Yasmin Vantuykom, I’m the founder of Efluenz, which is an influencer marketing agency. We specialize in, uh, creating influencer marketing campaigns with a creative solution, with our own influencer database.
Michael Humblet:
And you… so basically what you do is you look for influencers and you connect them to brands?
Yasmin Vantuykom:
Yes.
Michael Humblet:
B2B, B2C, it doesn’t matter?
Yasmin Vantuykom:
It doesn’t matter. What we actually do is we try to find the perfect match between the brands and the influencer because the influencer needs to trust in the values of the brands and vice versa.
Michael Humblet:
What’s influencer marketing for you? Just very briefly here because you are right, we can talk three hours about it, right?
Yasmin Vantuykom:
Yes. I can talk a full day about it-
… but if for some marketing is actually, uh, for me it’s, uh, a medium that is consumer to consumer. It’s actually the influencer that will translate to the values of the brands towards their own audience and audience that they build themselves… an audience of friends, a community online friends… co- followers, however you want to call them-
Michael Humblet:
Yeah.
Yasmin Vantuykom:
… but those friends or followers, they follow that influencer because they trust-
Michael Humblet:
Yeah.
Yasmin Vantuykom:
… that he or she is saying is true.
Michael Humblet:
And- and looking at the growth of your company, it is also… you’re on the- on the growth track. It’s a bit of a hype.
Yasmin Vantuykom:
Yeah.
Michael Humblet:
The question is wha- what’s- what’s, I mean the… I think the most asked question for you, what’s the ROI? Why should I do it? That kind of stuff. Maybe you should explain it a bit.
Yasmin Vantuykom:
Yeah. So when you- when you will, um, for example, compare to other means of marketing, what is, uh, good for influencer marketing is that you can actually track all the results. You can track how many unique views you have. You can track the clicks to a website, but not only that, you can cli- track with everything which is-
Michael Humblet:
So it’s actually very clear ROI.
Yasmin Vantuykom:
Everything is very clear.
Michael Humblet:
Clear there than all the rest?
Yasmin Vantuykom:
Yeah we calculate actually an influencer media value-
Michael Humblet:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Yasmin Vantuykom:
… so you can really see like, “Okay, what was the cost that I put into it and what is the return on investments?”
Michael Humblet:
Yup. It’s very obvious to B2C-
Yasmin Vantuykom:
Yeah.
Michael Humblet:
… and we all know the Instagram stars and I think it’s very clear. But if we then would move to B2B-
Yasmin Vantuykom:
Yeah.
Michael Humblet:
… and companies, things like LinkedIn and I haven’t seen too much of influencer marketing on LinkedIn, so I’m very curious, what’s your opinion and, uh, w- w- how do you tackle that.
Yasmin Vantuykom:
For example, influencer marketing on B2B, which is very different compared to B2C and then indeed Instagram. Instagram is very emotionally-driven… and, it has to be beautiful and everything, uh, video images, while, um, B2B LinkedIn, we call them actually opinion leaders and not influencers.
Michael Humblet:
Of course.
Yasmin Vantuykom:
they will have a c- certain expertise in an industry or in a process or in something else. And they talk about it on a daily or regular basis. And then we link their story. For example, an entrepreneur for example, why did you become an entrepreneur? And now we will link them to certain brands.
Michael Humblet:
If you wanna be an influencer, what’s the thing next to of course contacting you, but-
Yasmin Vantuykom:
(laughs)
Michael Humblet:
… I mean what- what would be the thing to do? Look for brands yourself or just what would you recommend to them?
Yasmin Vantuykom:
If you’re- if you’re an influencer, if you wanna be an influencer, what is very important is that you stick to a certain niche where you believe in Influencers that have lifestyle travel, fashion entrepreneurship is very difficult because brands only want to touch a certain audience. So influencer with a specific niche like sustainability will have much more success. And of course continue being yourself, storytelling and try to stand out in your niche and for contacting brands yourself of course. But then only brands that are of course-
Michael Humblet:
In your niche.
Yasmin Vantuykom:
… for you. And not…
Michael Humblet:
Do you then need a personal website or is that not needed? It’s a question I get a lot by the way.
Yasmin Vantuykom:
Yeah. (laughs)
Michael Humblet:
It’s why I’m asking you. So I’m asking her all the difficult questions I’m getting here. (laughs)
Yasmin Vantuykom:
(laughs) No actually, it will depend on what is your niche
Michael Humblet:
Give us some advice. Stuff you say really you gotta when you’re… let’s, let’s go back to companies because there’s a lot of companies watching. I’m looking at these influencers and maybe they can shortcut growth.”
Yasmin Vantuykom:
Yeah.
Michael Humblet:
Right? That’s what we’re talking about. Is there some advice you say, “Okay guys, you’ve got to look for that. You’ve got to do this.”
Yasmin Vantuykom:
Um, you have to be really careful when influencer marketing can f- can work really well if you choose the right influencer. And not only look at a profile of the influencer, but also look at the audience of the influencer. Because it’s not because an influencer is a male living in Brussels that their audience will be of the same profile.
Yasmin Vantuykom:
So it’s very important to do that check as well. And then to see what is the message that I wanna convey through those influencers.
Michael Humblet:
What’s the evolution? What’s the next thing? So you’re now you have the brands, you have the influence, you connect them.
Yasmin Vantuykom:
Yeah. So what do we do next to the- the brands and the whole database that we have is, of course, a creative concept to match them together. But the creative concept is very difficult because to create content, to be always very creative. So how can we help influencers to be there the whole time?
Yasmin Vantuykom:
So actually we’re thinking we’re going to set up a talent agency, which means that influencers can, um, join us not only the database but further that we will train them-
Yasmin Vantuykom:
… not only social media-wise but also video production, uh, and we can-
Michael Humblet:
Yeah. I think it’s because you at a certain stage will have more competition.
Michael Humblet:
So as my piece of advice, I think if you start adding that, it will become more interesting to work with you and not with somebody else.
Michael Humblet:
And actually it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy because the better they get and the more…
Yasmin Vantuykom:
Yeah, and the more they will work for brands
Michael Humblet:
… we do like working.
Yasmin Vantuykom:
That’s the whole purpose. (laughs)
Michael Humblet:
Thanks for coming to the show.
Yasmin Vantuykom:
Thank you. (
Michael Humblet:
I know it was tough, I’m really happy I will keep track of what’s happening
Yasmin Vantuykom:
Thank you.
