Tom Augenthaler
Build Brand Affinity. Work with Key Opinion Leaders Your Buyers Trust.
B2B SaaS companies struggle to positively impact their buyers.
They struggle because they use poor quality content and tired tactics. Then they try to scale it.
I know this because I’ve been there too.
I watched as our marketing team kept doubling down on *doing more* rather than *doing better.*
Everyone looked for ways to pump out more owned content, push more company news on social media channels and run more ads.
When that didn’t work, executives would demand we do more PR, try to convince analysts to move our dot in the magic quadrant, and hold more events.
The results were unremarkable.
Many agencies only make it worse by focusing on vanity metrics and outmoded tactics that produce diminishing returns.
At 551 Media, we recruit influential, subject matter experts to help you make an impact on your ideal customers.
They help you stand out from the competition, build brand affinity and ultimately drive demand.
Hi, I’m Tom Augenthaler.
I’m the founder of 551 Media, LLC and this website.
For years I worked in public relations which is why I describe myself as a “recovering PR person.”
Many people ask me how I got started with influencer marketing. Here’s my answer:
Because I had to.
Back in 2008, the economy was doing really bad.
I was working for a big tech company handling PR for one of their product lines.
As things got worse, the publications we worked to promote our stuff started to close down.
I was faced with a big question:
How was I going to promote the products I was responsible for?
After some trial and error, the answer ended up being bloggers (later coined *influencers*).
Blogging was a new *thing* and getting more popular.
Social media was brand new with Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn just entering the scene.
Skip ahead to today and I’ve been doing influencer marketing for over ten years, mostly for B2B companies.
Why does influencer marketing work?
The best marketing is when someone you trust recommends something.
That’s it. Pretty simple, right?
It can be anything too… a book, a movie, a car, a laptop, a service, or even a dump truck.
It really doesn’t matter.
Because you trust that person, you’re more likely to consider it and maybe
even buy it.
So it comes down to a simple truth:
People like to buy from people they like and trust.
And that’s the crux of influencer marketing.
It’s also why companies of all kinds are jumping into it.
Can we help you?
Well, the easiest thing to do is to check out some of our free content.
If you like it, you’ll probably like our products, trainings and methods.
If you don’t like it, well, you won’t.
But consider this…
I started working with influencers while working for the Fortune 500 company.
At the time, I asked bloggers to review our products.
I ran over half a dozen campaigns before launching our first big contest involving
31 bloggers.
The campaign pumped new life into a nine-month-old product, and we ended up selling millions of dollars’ worth of it.
(And just so you know, the company never told me EXACTLY how many millions because they don’t release that information, not even to employees.)
But the best part was that it also created a sales lift for our other products.
That means people bought more of those too.
And to top it off, the brand experienced a huge surge of affinity it hadn’t seen in years.
Bloggers and their followers made hundreds of comments about how the company *got it,* and *understood them.*
Then in 2009 I left to join a start-up consulting firm that specialized in influencer marketing.
I set up their B2B practice and designed influencer programs for those clients.
In 2016, I founded my own company: 551 Media, LLC.
We focus exclusively on influencer marketing with a specialization
in B2B.
Fast forward to today and I’ve worked with some of the biggest brands on earth (and lots of smaller ones too).
I’m the go-to guy for B2B companies when it comes to influencer marketing.
Take These Next Steps
Go to our blog and read some of the articles.
If you like them, go to our Learn page for a FREE eBook on how to find the right influencers for you.
If it helps you, consider contacting us so we can have a call to get acquainted.
We’ll see if we’re a good fit.
Thanks for reading this page and checking us out.
Let’s talk soon!
