Learn more about the best influencer marketing campaigns and how to run one yourself.
Influencer marketing is a method used by brands to increase their return on investment. It is a new way of using word of mouth and merging it with social media to push products on a large scale.
Earlier, businesses were skeptical of influencer marketing campaigns but with the rise of social media and the increase in power of influencers, it is now a commonly adopted way of marketing.
Here are some statistics that demonstrate the success of influencer marketing campaigns:
- The industry is expected to increase by 2.6 billion in 2022, taking it to an estimated 16.4 billion dollars
- 79% of brands choose Instagram as the platform for their influencer campaigns
- 93% of marketers have relied on influencer marketing at some point
- More brands are opting for micro-influencers to reduce costs and get higher engagement
This only goes to show that when marketers move in a strategic manner with these campaigns, they are likely to achieve higher success.
In this blog, we will talk about how to run influencer marketing campaigns. We have also included some of the best influencer campaign examples to put things into better perspective.
Influencer marketing campaign best practices
Let’s review some of the best practices along with influencer marketing campaign examples to help you get started:
1. Have a clear understanding of your KPIs
At the beginning of any influencer marketing campaign, it’s important to have a clear direction on what you want out of that campaign. Are you aiming for sales or growing brand awareness? Or perhaps your goal is to achieve both. Your campaign’s KPIs really depend on what you’re trying to achieve with your influencer marketing strategy.
Marketers who are new to influencer marketing campaigns may find it a little too complicated, but as long as you know what you want and how to gain it, things should go well! There are many strategies that bring different results. It all depends on your overall goal itself which will set the tone for executing a successful campaign.
But the first step in doing so is knowing where to keep an eye on your performance i.e KPIs and what success looks like for you. You will need to adjust them accordingly during post-campaign analysis.
2. Define your target audience
When it comes to influencer selection, your target audience should be a fairly obvious starting point. The ideal influencer campaign is one where there’s overlap between the creator and their followers’ interests being similar to your brand’s offerings as it makes for a far more successful campaign.
For example, Daniel Wellington — the watch and jewelry brand — who earlier used to work with major influencers, started involving micro-influencers in their campaigns to get a wider reach and increase their ROI.
3. Decide the campaign type
There are different types of campaigns you can initiate based on your end goal. Here are a few influencer marketing campaign types you can choose from:
- Giveaways
- Sponsored posts
- Sponsored long-form content like YouTube videos and podcasts
- Affiliate marketing
- Product reviews and unboxing
- Contests and events
- Social media takeover for a set duration
- Collection or product release campaigns
- Programs devised around brand ambassadors
A good example of this is the G Fuel Energy X Pewdiepie collaboration. The shoutouts on his Instagram page and YouTube videos have garnered the brand such great attention that G Fuel has even created a flavor called PewDiePie.
4. Map out the key deliverables, approach and assets before creating a contract
When you’re using an influencer to promote your brand and you want to make sure they’re giving you what you want, you need to make sure that you nail down specifics early on. Make sure you decide on the products they are going to use, if your logo needs to be in the post, and if other guidelines need to be considered for the campaign.
It’s a good idea to allow them the freedom to create their own content – but only if the deliverables will meet your goal of driving customers to your website and product pages.
When working with influencers, it’s important to set guidelines and expectations right away. This will keep both parties aligned and be sure that everyone is on the same page!
A contract should be sent over to the influencer as soon as possible and you can include a list of brand assets and what the deliverables will be. This way, you can easily track progress and make sure that you’re getting what you need from the influencer. You can include a clear and concise timeline and instructions for the tasks.
5. Create a list of influencers and pitch to the right ones
It’s easy to get carried away by the number of influencers out there on the Internet. This is why you need to take into account your brand image and requirements before you zero in on influencers to invest in. Look for the ones who associate themselves with brands that align with your own values, have considerable numbers of followers and have a high engagement rate.
If a person has a high engagement rate and passes the other statistics you are considering, but does not fit your brand image, it will not benefit your company. After you make the list, shortlist the influencers you would like to work with and pitch to them. When choosing which influencers to partner with, you must also consider the compatibility between the influencer’s audience and your product.
A few things to be mindful about while pitching is that macro-influencers will require some kind of compensation since they get offered brand deals often. Whereas, nano and micro-influencers might even accept free products. Whatever your offering, just remember to make it beneficial enough for them to accept the pitch.
6. Start your influencer marketing campaign
Once you have everything in place, you can work with your influencers to grow your customer base and reach more people through their marketing channels. There are a few different ways to do this, but whatever you decide upon, make sure you keep in touch with the influencers throughout the campaign. They will likely have questions that you can answer to help the campaign run smoothly, and focused communication is key to a successful influencer campaign.
7. Follow up on the performance
Following up is an important step once your influencer campaign starts. You want to see how the campaign is performing, get feedback on your products and ask questions about how to improve your campaign.
You can also follow up with the influencer at the end of the campaign to see how they found the product and if there is scope for future collaborations then what they would improve in the process of the campaigns.
8. Repurpose and broadcast as much as possible
If you want your influencer marketing campaign to be successful, you have to maximize the reach of the influencer on all platforms. That will require more time and effort from you, but you’ll be working with a higher caliber of influencers with more followers and a better reach.
To get the most out of your campaign, you’ll also want to repurpose your content in different formats. This means you’ll have to make sure the content is high-quality, which can be costly. But it’s worth it to ensure your campaign is seen by as many people as possible!
9. Analyze the performance against pre decided metrics
Lastly, there will come a time when you have to evaluate just how effective an influencer campaign really was. While it is definitely important to outline the success and return on investment of your overall program, you will also become wiser in different aspects of marketing and management for future campaigns.
You may find that audience targeting could be improved or perhaps that one particular influencer is not quite as effective as you may have originally anticipated. Either way, there are many valuable lessons to be learned from every single performance of a marketing campaign.
Bonus tips to consider for your influencer marketing campaigns
Influencer marketing campaigns are often hard to crack owing to the aspects that are immeasurable and dynamic. But here are a few tips you can make use of to measure the success of campaigns in a more effective way:
1. Monitor conversations your influencer campaign generates with social listening
Social listening is the act of monitoring and analyzing the content people share on social media, forums, blogs, and other sources to make sure you’re staying up to date on trends. You can also use it to see what people have to say about specific topics, as well as what people say about your brand.
It’s a great way to find out what people are saying about your brand and the kinds of interactions they are having. You can analyze this information to improve your marketing strategy and get the most out of your efforts.
Using social listening to monitor your influencer campaign is a great idea. It’ll give you an idea of the level of interaction your campaign is getting. On top of that, it’ll help you improve it by seeing how users are interacting with your campaign.
The easiest way to do this is by using social listening to find mentions. Once you’ve found mentions, you can see how users are engaging with your campaign. You can take this data and improve your campaign by making it more interesting, more captivating, and more engaging.
2. Monitor sentiment behind conversations
Monitor the response to your influencer campaigns. It’s not enough to see how many people are talking about your product or brand, you should also pay attention to what they are saying. Are they saying something positive or negative? Are they able to provide a valuable contribution to your campaign or is it just one-sided?
If your campaign is going to be successful, it’s important to make sure that influencers are triggering active participation from their audience and increasing your ROI.
To be on top of your campaign, you can work with Radarr’s Sentiment API and streamline the data around online campaigns.
3. Respond to comments
The content being produced by the influencers is already useful and engaging. In order to help increase visitor conversion, it may be beneficial to have your brand not only share this content but also respond to comments on the influencer’s post. This way, the influencers can focus on what they do best and your social media accounts can get more visitors and followers.
Now you and your team can benefit from one powerful dashboard as we enable you to monitor your brand on every channel. With Radarr, you can find and respond to all of your mentions on one screen with an almost instant response time.
4. Finally, optimize your strategy
Your organization has recently been getting into influencer marketing. You’re not sure if it has been effective yet but you have been obsessively reading articles about it. You take a look at the key performance indicators and metrics of previous influencer marketing campaigns from other players in the industry. You analyze them and try to figure out what the best KPIs are that you can use to judge the performance of the campaign.
Now, with this new information, you can make a more educated decision about implementing influencer marketing strategies and set yourself up for success.
In closing
Influencer marketing is a proven method for brand growth and increased ROI. This strategy allows for brands to analyze the various influencers who may be a good fit for their product or service.
By leveraging influential figures, brands are able to reach a broader audience. It is important to note that the power of influencers is not in the number of followers they have but in the number of actions they can compel their followers to take.
You should take caution while choosing the right influencer for your campaign. The number of followers an influencer has is not a good way to gauge the effectiveness of your collaboration efforts. It is better to look at the percentage of followers that actually engage with the influencer’s posts.
Using influencers with a high engagement rate will lead you to higher conversions, which is why always look for quality over quantity.
By looking at the audience that the influencer has and their previous posts and campaigns, brands can determine whether the influencer has effective methods of increasing ROI.
Best social media marketing books you should have on your reading list.
Ready to run successful influencer marketing campaigns?
