VIKTORIA EGGER INFLUENCER MARKETING SPECIALIST

Influencer Marketing Specialist

Viktoria Egger is a digital growth, content & influencer marketing specialist. She has more than 15 years’ experience in Online marketing. Viktoria is not just a specialist in Influencer marketing in Austria, but also, she is a business entrepreneur. After working in the Forbes 500 company as a digital marketing specialist, she decided to create her own agency. Since then, Viktoria has built a strong digital agency, not to mention that she has her blogazine and an online shop. We talked to Viktoria about how she started as an entrepreneur, her agency and more important influencer relations

Tell us about yourself

Since I was 13 years old my dream was to do something with computers. That was in the early 90ies, so it wasn’t clear what computers will be in the future. So in those days, everyone was telling me that I will need to have a degree in computing or start building up my computers. What I actually did and besides that, I started my first own PHP-forum that at some point had 2500 members – at that time a huge number. I studied business administration hoping that someday I will be able to work on the internet – what actually happened. At the end of my studies, I had a lot of luck, got a job in a Forbes 500 company in the event marketing, and had the best boss you can have: someone who supports your talents and needs. Thanks to him I got the job I always wanted: a digital marketing specialist. After some time there and many changes in my job, at some point, I lost all my energy because I couldn’t cope with those unexpected changes. At that time that I realized that I wanted to work with small remote teams, with customers that care personally and new topics. I had already a good working blog, so I decided to jump into it and try to be my own boss. I remember being scared to death. That was more than 8 years ago – I love my job. Since then I have built up a small digital agency and an online shop / blogazine and love to work with my customers on their projects.

Tell us about the challenges to start your own agency

There are so many. I think the first 2 years there were only challenges and there still is a lot. The biggest challenges were to find out how to meet my customers, finding my pricing strategy, and to say “no” to customers and people who aren’t meant to work with me. This is something that everyone needs to learn and I had terrible times with that – and still have. 

Which advice would you give to someone who wants to open their own Digital agency?

Do it and don’t hurry. Take your time to work it out and grow slow.

How do you see the Influencer Relations world in times of Covid-19?

Well, I am not sure if this will last. But at the moment quality goes over quantity- and I love that. I am someone who hates short-timed influencer marketing, as I don’t think that it works out as well as long-term projects. I believe you need to work long term with people, get to know them, and create campaigns together. So at the moment, it seems like we are heading in the right direction and this is a good thing. But I am not sure if this will last, as many people try to “make money fast” at the moment, so it might be that we will see a lot of bad short-timed, sales-driven influencer campaigns with no soul. But we will see.

How are you re-inventing yourself in these hard times?

I love to help people to create the life & work they love. So while normally I don’t have time to create a lot of content, I am using this more or less “quiet times” to create a lot of it. I started my own YouTube Channel for digital businesses, I am creating content for customers, I am creating Webinars, Online Courses, and more. Simultaneously I am pushing my own products and trying all those digital growth hacks I teach with my own online shop to give better advice to others.

Tell us about your work with influencers

I am working with influencers since the first day I started my own business. I have been a blogger for more than 10 years now and the influencer marketing has changed a lot ( lucky us!) I love to work in this field because I am a firm believer that, if you find the right hearted person for your products and services, who creates the right content, you really can achieve all those goals that mostly need a lot of time and energy, faster. Don’t understand me wrong: it’s not easy and it’s not done just looking for some influencers and working with them. It needs time, needs energy and you really need to know what you need to do along the customer journey. But done right it is such an incredible tool and I love to work with those minds: the influencers and those marketing teams or business owners who want to achieve their marketing and sales goals.

Which characteristics an influencer should have nowadays?

Authenticity, Trustfulness, and a huge heart for the community she/he serves. Because those people are the reason why someone is an influencer. 

Tell us the Do’s and the Don’ts in Influencer Marketing

There are many things, but at the moment the following come into my mind:

Do: Find your perfect match influencers, work long term, work together, and create together, don’t forget storytelling and do ads.

Don’t: work fast, work short term, create typical first decade 2020 influencer content (those posts we all hate), don’t forget that you are working with humans, and talking to humans.

Which criteria should a person have to choose an Influencer

You always should be open-minded and look beyond the boundaries you think your brand/product/services have. Most of the time the influencer you think you like for your brand isn’t the influencer your brand needs. Look at the data, look at the stories, the wording, the picture, the vibes.. and try to imagine how your target group would react to the influencer. And don’t forget to ask the influencer what she thinks.