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Working with influencers and digital creators requires a streamlined process - we're here to make that part easy for you! Here, you'll learn how to launch an influencer marketing campaign, what common mistakes to avoid, and more.
What Does Influencer Marketing Mean?
Influencer marketing is a form of social media promotion that employs endorsements by influential figures with an established following to drive awareness about products or services being sold or promoted. These individuals are often considered experts in their respective fields. Influencer marketing can be highly successful since social influencers are trusted by their followers, providing social proof for your product or service by endorsing it to others.
Influencers' Range And Reach
Partnering with an influencer who boasts millions of followers may seem ideal. Still, more is needed to guarantee it will suit your brand. Social media influencers may boast large audiences from diverse demographics; other influencers might focus more on minor but engaged and targeted communities. Know what each influencer type offers in terms of reach and range, engagement rates, and cost considerations. Look into different kinds of influencers more closely:
Mega Or Celebrity Influencers
Influencers with over 1 Million followers include celebrities, athletes, musicians, and public figures like Cristiano Ronaldo, who can attract a wide range of audiences due to their celebrity status and make an ideal target for large-scale campaigns.
Partnering with mega influencers may be costly, but their reach will provide unparalleled exposure for your brand. Their engagement rates are much lower than those of influencers with smaller or niche audiences.
These companies may benefit from teaming up with mega-influencers.
- The budget and resources of large corporations
- Brands that target a broad audience with different characteristics
- Brands that are high-end or luxury and want to create an exclusive feel
Macro-Influencers
Macro-influencers boast followings from 100,000-1,000,000 individuals and are recognized leaders within their niches. Influencers who have generated and engaged with content over an extended period and established themselves as thought leaders in their niche have proven their worth as trusted authority figures.
Macro-influencers provide more targeted exposure for brands than celebrities, as their audiences tend to share similar interests. Partnering with macro-influencers could give your product an impressive reach but may prove costly, depending on your budget.
Here are a few brands that may seek to partner with macro-influencers.
- Startups looking for rapid exposure, growth, and credibility (e.g., Canva)
- Nonprofits looking to raise money and awareness
- Hotels and airlines target a large but specific audience
Micro-Influencers
Micro-influencers with 10,000 to 100,000 highly engaged subscribers represent the rising stars in influencer marketing. These influencers are present on platforms like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. Marketers favor working with micro-influencers because their innovative content, valuable suggestions, and genuine engagements can draw in audiences quickly and successfully.
Micro-influencers tend to be less costly and have higher engagement rates than macro-influencers; yet this doesn't render them ineffective - micro-influencers have been shown to boost conversions by 20% and engage their audiences 60% better!
Nano-Influencers
Nano-influencers are those with less than 10,000 followers. These influencers enjoy strong relationships with their audiences thanks to authentic engagement and personable content creation.
Nano-influencers offer businesses that want to reach specific demographics or communities without spending too much money a great way of getting these audiences. Therefore, more brands will look toward working with nano-influencers in 2023.
Nano-influencers can also give each partnership more consideration due to the limited nature of their activities, thus producing content and relationships tailored more closely to niche communities.
- Local businesses that target specific cities, towns, or communities
- Small businesses that have limited budgets and want to run cost-effective campaigns
- Home-based, artisan, or specialty food businesses reach a niche market interested in their unique products
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Why Do Influencer Marketing Campaigns Work?
Influencer marketing can be an extremely effective means of advertising your brand; 56% of young Americans who follow influential people purchase something after seeing someone they follow post about it online.
Influencer Marketing Hub estimates the industry to reach $16.4 billion by 2022 and continue to rise until an expected $21.1 billion by 2023. Influencer marketing was found to be effective by 83% of those polled, and 67% planned to increase their budgets by 2023, as stated in this report. Now that you understand where the industry stands let's examine some of the main hurdles marketers must navigate when entering into influencer marketing.
Avoid These Influencer Marketing Mistakes
If done correctly, influencer marketing can be advantageous. Avoid these potential pitfalls for smooth influencer collaborations.
Failure To Set Clear Goals And Kpis
Know why you're doing what you are. Identify the goals and purpose of your campaign before teaming up with an influencer.
Here are a few advantages of setting goals:
- Select the right influencers By defining your goals, you can identify the characteristics and qualities you require in an influencer. If you aim to raise brand awareness, you should look for influencers with a large following and reach in your niche.
- Define success and measure it: What is success to you? What is success to you? Is it the number of impressions, the post engagements, or the traffic that comes through your website? Define the KPIs to be tracked during and after your campaign to determine its success.
- Stay on track: By setting clear goals, the brand and the influencer can work towards the same purpose. It will facilitate effective communication, and you'll save everyone time.
- Make influencers responsible: Setting clear expectations and benchmarks for performance makes influencers more accountable. They will create content aligned with their goals and focus on the results.
Prioritizing Follower Count Over Engagement.
Engagement only sometimes correlates to having a large following, and a larger presence automatically translates to increased engagement levels. Partner with influencers with loyal and engaged followings; such influencers' following is more valuable to your brand than followers who don't convert into customers. As part of your analysis to assess their influence, take note of engagement metrics, comments, interactions, and previous results achieved for other brands.
Failure To Research The Influencer
Failing to select appropriate influencers could cost both your time and money. Research shows it happens more than you realize: 72% of companies run influencer campaigns internally to reduce risk from fake influencers or poor results.
Conducting your due diligence before signing any partnership is the simplest solution to ensuring it matches your vision and values. Look through influencer media kits to ensure their offerings match perfectly with what's most important for you.
Here are a few areas you should keep in mind when searching for influencers to promote your brand:
- Audience Demographics: Studies of influencer followers will help ensure your campaign reaches the right target audience. Analyzing factors like age, gender, and location to see if their followers might be likely interested in your product is critical for reaching its intended goal.
- Voice, interaction, and content: Consider how the influencer communicates; their voice, tone, and type of content might not mesh well with your brand if its reputation includes casual and playful traits. Partnering with someone creating formal material could be better.
- Authenticity, influence, and force: Forced partnerships may appear unauthentic and damage your brand and campaign. Users often judge influencers based on realism when it comes to social media, so select influencers that genuinely appreciate and love what your products and brand stand for, not to undermine either their credibility or that of their followers.
- Influencers' experience with brand content: Are they familiar with working with brands and influencers of competitors? Carefully evaluate their content for any warning signals and assess their value proposition.
How To Write A Poorly Constructed Brief
An effective brief is critical for optimizing influencer marketing campaigns . A clear brief provides influencers with all of the information and resources necessary for effectively representing your brand without becoming restrictive or too demanding.
Here is a quick checklist of what should be included in a proposal:
- What is your main campaign goal? What do you hope to achieve?
- What is the history of your company? What is your company's name, and what products are you selling?
- What are the key features, benefits, and differences of your product?
- Who is your audience? If you have an audience persona, include it.
- How much money will you spend on this campaign?
- Do you have a time frame?
- Do you want your influencer to utilize the brand assets of your company? Provide them with your brand assets, such as colors, fonts, and logo, if necessary.
Never hesitate to inform influencers of any words or concepts they should avoid using when creating content for influencers. For instance, if your company promotes environmental sustainability as one of its core values, it should refrain from using plastics or harmful products in its posts.
Limiting The Creative Freedom Of Influencers
Though comprehensive briefs can be very valuable, they often need more data for one person or team to digest. As you create guidelines, be bold in mandating specific actions and words from influencers - this could limit their creative freedom, leading to content that appears scripted or artificial. Brands often make the mistake of micromanaging every aspect of content creation, from initial drafts to revision and review with influencers. You don't need to go through multiple revision cycles before publishing posts that go public!
Let them add their flair. Remind yourself that they are experts at creating content their audience loves and trusts; all it takes to help them do it is providing resources.
Setting Expectations Upfront
Predeclaring expectations early is critical to creating an efficient collaboration that meets your objectives and meets them successfully. What results? An effort that aligns with them.
Make sure that you and your partners agree beforehand on the following:
- Timeline, deliverables, and deadlines: Outline the timeline and deliverables required of your campaign, such as start/end dates and any deadlines you have set for content submission or publication. Also, outline any deliverables such as stories/posts/videos created by influencers during their stay with you.
- Terms and payment: Uncommit yourself and reach a mutual understanding of payment structure: retainer, single fee, or performance-based. Discuss the payment schedule and penalties or bonuses that might apply based on how well the project goes.
The Wrong Metrics
Influencer marketing provides more than a boost to sales; brands may be fooled into thinking their campaigns don't work by solely looking at revenue and conversion numbers.
Consider these metrics when assessing the success of your campaign:
- Engagement metrics : Measure likes, comments, and shares to better understand audience engagement and content resonance.
- Metrics for brand awareness: Measure website views, clicks, and traffic to measure campaign reach and audience interests.
- Tracking new followers: Tracking new followers allows you to measure the influencers' impact on your brand and audience.
- Inbound Leads: Tracking the number of inquiries your brand receives and the messages it receives to determine the campaign's impact on the inbound lead generation.
Let's look at how you can create an influencer strategy that will work for your brand.
Also Read: Building a full-funnel influencer marketing campaign
Create An Influencer Marketing Strategy In 5 Steps
Influencer marketing on Instagram may be well-known, but influencers are also becoming more prevalent across other networks, such as TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat. Influencer marketing programs must be carefully planned and targeted to succeed; simply giving out free stuff will never do.
Here are a few helpful strategies for creating effective influencer campaigns.
Discover Influencers' Payment Structures And How To Find Them
Researching is always the starting point in any strategy, so select which platform(s) to focus on first if starting from scratch. As for expansion opportunities later on, an ideal scenario is to see your brand already existing on that network - or at least be interested in exploring further opportunities therein.
Social listening will allow you to learn where people are discussing your brand or industry online and can also identify influential voices on each platform. Discover more by downloading our guide on Social Listening!
Influencer marketing strategies depend heavily on your industry. Instagram and YouTube can be great platforms to market beauty and fashion brands; Twitch caters mainly to video game companies.
As part of your research, consider which influencer types appeal to you most - celebrities with large followings versus micro-influencers with under 2000 followers are just two options; celebrities may offer even more. When budgeting, your influencer selection could determine its cost as well.
Compensating these influencers varies significantly, making it essential to look at average rates. Nano-influencers usually specialize in one or two topics and accept products as payment; micro-influencers work independently or are represented by an agent; the amount and who pays them will depend on each case; celebrities with larger accounts will require compensation and may use talent agents.
How will you measure the contribution of influencers to your marketing goals? Compare their expectations against those of other firms; for example, look at the budget allocated between production companies creating ads for you and influencers creating videos - this approach may initially appear unpredictable. Still, it will allow you to compare and contrast their value against similar firms.
Influence. co provides brands with an Instagram influencer rate chart to assist in deciding the appropriate payment amount based on audience size and industry sector. Research will become an essential step of your process, returning time after time.
Budget And Management Strategy
As soon as you understand the various pay rates for influencers, create your budget. Include time for planning, executing, and reviewing an influencer campaign successfully; an influencer campaign requires constant monitoring.
Influencer marketing differs from more automated strategies in that its relationships with influencers are human and multifaceted, often with multiple partners working simultaneously. Influencers may post as promised or make errors when providing tags or calls-to-action you request; you'll have to be active and find what works for your niche market to develop these relationships successfully.
Consider setting up an ambassador program if you have both money and time. Fujifilm employs its ambassadors as part of its product launches and content distribution strategy, adding variety through various photographers and videographers in its feeds. Hiring an influencer agency to research and coordinate influencer relationships may be the perfect solution for brands seeking to access more influencers.
Choose Your Campaign Messaging And Goals.
Influencer marketing can increase brand recognition and sales. Instead of prioritizing these two goals as primary drivers for influencer marketing strategies , consider starting by determining your company's needs: it could mean expanding clientele among younger demographics or reaching different user groups with new product introduction. Finally, influencer marketing provides another method of promotion without being bound by trends - it offers unique ways of using influencers instead.
Influencers can reach highly targeted audiences. By working together, influencers and companies can develop more focused campaigns. Influencer posts featuring personal narrative and dialogue help distinguish them from brand posts focusing more heavily on features or sales - something brands might do on their feed for similar products.
Your goal and message are equally essential to each other, though. At the same time, an influencer's creativity should remain free to flourish without interference from you or unrelated posts appearing online. Before initiating any influencer campaign or message plan, make sure it includes ways of staying on task by structuring its structure appropriately to avoid deviating.
Contacting Influencers: How To Establish Influencer Outreach
Research should always be your starting point when searching for influencers to target. After developing a comprehensive strategy to meet your goals and target the appropriate types of influencers, research can reveal new avenues of discovery for discovering influential influencers.
Keep the following factors in mind when conducting your research:
- Has the influencer posted about topics similar to yours? If you are a restaurant and you want to promote your new menu, then look for influencers who regularly blog about their dining experiences and food.
- Are they real? You can do this by scrolling their feed and clicking on the posts. Poor engagement to follower counts and spammy comments indicate fake accounts or followers.
- Has the influencer worked with brands similar to yours before? A seasoned influencer will have a press package that includes a portfolio. You'll be more interested in vetting an influencer the more money you invest.
Utilize social media analytics to quickly locate influencers that will add value to your campaign on multiple platforms.
Determine how you will reach out. A direct message could be sent directly on their platform for micro influencers; more established influencers could include contact info in their bio to field business inquiries; they might even include links indicating brand partnerships as possible points of entry.
Summer Rayne Oakes' multi-channel approach can provide brand partners with multiple exposure opportunities. Summer has joined Gardener's Supply Company in giving away one product. She gains greater reach among her followers while keeping them interested through an intriguing product giveaway; even if one person doesn't win it all, their followers have seen something interesting!
Refine Your Strategy
Set milestones to measure your influencer campaign's progress even while it remains ongoing, as discussed further in this guide. In our next section, we'll go into detail regarding results tracking; even though you might only sometimes succeed with campaigns, each experience you go Through can teach something useful!
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Conclusion
Influencer marketing will continue for some time; however, its implementation has changed considerably and could appear differently five years from now. This guide can assist with building your strategy; remember, it must remain flexible to account for future changes to social media usage.
Utilizing influencers as part of your marketing campaign presents its own unique considerations; nonetheless, the process should remain relatively unchanged from other campaigns: conduct research, establish a budget, and define goals; then identify your influencers before reviewing and revising as necessary.
Once you know how it may become accessible to craft other kinds of influencer campaigns, check out our guide on running successful social campaigns if your team needs additional tools for running influencer marketing strategies .
