Ah yes — the influencer. From the dawn of social media, influencers have long held the ability to connect brands to viewers and convert viewers to buyers. And so often, it looks effortless. However, what’s happening is a well-constructed narrative that, when done effectively, can authentically shift consumer perspective. How are influencer relationships maintained, and how can you collaborate with them most beneficially — particularly in unconventional industries? 

In this episode, we sit down with Eddie Saunders Jr., former Demand Generation Manager for Flex Machine Tools and current Sr. Content Strategy & Demand Generation Manager at Norgren, for an insightful conversation on how to inject fresh, new life into your marketing efforts and maintain a positive influence in marketing spaces.

Let’s get started!

MINDSETS:

• The Direct Line of Attention - Consider fishing: you can check the pond, or you can go find the “sure thing” that another fisherman sends you too. The same goes for marketing; finding the users that produce qualified attention will have a huge impact on your awareness efforts.
• H2H - Flipping the B2B and B2C mindset to understand that, at the end of the day, marketing is a human-to-human interaction. Eddie immersed himself in the human experience as a way to expand his worldview and improve his marketing ability. Taking an empathetic approach opens opportunities to strengthen business relationships.
• Actively Avoiding Selfishness - Recognizing that the most important part of marketing is relationship building. Bonds aren’t built overnight, but the crucial work of relationship management played a large role in Eddie’s success as a leader.
• Making Noise - Keeping current plays a large hand in maintaining an audience. That includes taking risks, trying, failing, and trying again. Importantly, the noise attracts an audience, and those who like your noise are prepared to stick around so long as you’re making it. 
• The Buddy Branding System - Synergistic collaboration — a kind that benefits both sides of a relationship, curates a mindset that expands creativity, and mutually helps participants expand their audiences and mindsets in the process while restricting the amount of work an individual needs to do to a tangible level. 
• Enjoying the Laughter - Laughter is a joyous activity that can benefit your mood, even during tough decision-making. In business interactions, keep the atmosphere as lighthearted as is appropriate, and it can help keep professional settings a lot more positive. 
• Gravitating Towards Expertise - Eddie may be a prolific communicator, but his penmanship? That’s a different story, and that’s OK. Gravitate towards what you’re good at, emphasize what you’re good at, and spend some time working on what you’re not so good at. 

SKILLSETS:

• The Human Decision-Making Process - Having a grand understanding of human interaction — with emphasis on why humans even make decisions — will make you a better thought leader.
• The “Them” Focused Framework – We learn about ourselves quite easily, so changing the framework in professional settings to emphasize the “other” in any situation — particularly potential business partners — reflects positively on any empathetic efforts.
• Strategic Experimentation - Content decisions may not only be focused on likes or views, but data plays a large role in any testing process. Open eyes, open ears, and general curiosity in content creation will yield results that can be replicable for your business over and over again.

TOOLSETS:

• Podcasts
• Open Communication
• Video 
• Buffer (Social Posting & Analytics)
• Mailchimp
• Constant Contact
• Canva

RESULTS:

• With Flex, Eddie was able to track 4 million impressions across Flex Machine Tool’s major social media platforms — 95% of which came from organic traffic. Focusing on influencers afforded Flex over 1.6 million views — results that you may otherwise have had to spend tens of thousands of dollars for. Eddie had set a goal for 2 million impressions by the end of 2022, but after seeing initial results expected to double that goal by 2023 — all with no ad spend. 

A bit more about Eddie:

Eddie Saunders Jr. considers himself a thought leader by strategy and by design— one who sought out and worked on the importance of scaling influence. With a background in theater, Eddie quickly found success in the industry of attention and has closely aligned himself with influencers at the most successful level of his career. Starting with a career in sales, Eddie quickly progressed as a Brand Development Manager, to hosting the Flex & Friends Podcast, and finally his current position as a Sr. Content Strategy & Demand Generation Manager at Norgren.

In his free time, Eddie acts as an event MC, and manages his fitness and fatherhood Instagram page “The Flexing Father.”

Connect with Eddie:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/eddiesaundersjr
• https://www.instagram.com/theflexingfather/
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/norgren

Connect with Mike & Gaby @ Proofpoint Marketing:

• Mike’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikegrinberg/
• Gaby’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriellaisrael/
• LinkedIn Company Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/proofpoint-marketing-llc
• Proofpoint YouTube Channel: http://bit.ly/ProofpointonYouTube
• Proofpoint Marketing Website: www.proofpoint.marketing