In recent years the field of influencer marketing has truly gained momentum. The industry has more than doubled in market value, and in 2021 has reached a value of $13.8 billion. If the market’s value is increasing so fast, it is evident that the strategy is effective for the companies that invest in it.
If you’ve not tried influencer marketing before and aren’t in a position to know where to begin, you’re in the right place. We’ve put together an array of tips to help you figure out how to navigate the five phases of an influencer marketing campaign.
Campaign Definition: Set your goals and know your target audience
The first step to decide is your goal. Are you looking to collaborate with influencers in order to increase the awareness of your business? Perhaps you’re looking to attract new social media followers or increase the number of sales. Whatever the reason, ensure that your goals are crystal clear.
Establish some KPIs (key performance indicators) to monitor your progress towards achieving the desired goal. For instance, for sales goals, you might want to record how many customers use discounts from influencers as well as the revenue and sales generated.
Alongside this, you should also identify your buyer personas. Be sure to know what people you intend to connect with through your campaign. Consider their gender, age, languages, location, and their interests.
Then, discover on the social networks where your customers spend most of their time. Demographics can assist you in deciding this. For instance, if you are looking to connect with teens, then you must consider TikTok influencers, as that network attracts a lot of young people.
Campaign Setup: Find influencers that are able to work within your budget
There are many aspects that influence the amount an influencer charges, including their country of residence, their engagement rate and the kind of content you want. Another important factor is the number of followers.
To better understand this, we can classify influencers in different tiers:
- Nano influencers, 1-5K followers
- Micro influencers, 5-50K followers
- Medium influencers, 50-100K followers
- Macro influencers, 100K-1M followers
- Mega influencers, 1M+ followers
- Key opinion leaders, no follower threshold
The higher you climb in the tiers, the more expensive influencers become. Micro influencers and nano influencers often offer to cooperate with you for complimentary products, or at times an amount of a few hundred dollars. They’re thus a good option for those with a limited budget. But starting at the medium level and beyond, you’ll be paying much higher costs.
A KOL, or key opinion leader, is someone with an outstanding reputation in their field of expertise. Because they have other avenues to voice their opinions other than social media, they don’t have a defined number of followers. KOLs can be costly to close a deal with and are difficult to connect with, so ensure you consider what kind of return on investment they could offer you.
Whatever type of influencer you want to work with, make sure you examine their profiles to look for signs that indicate influencer fraud. No matter if it’s a micro or mega influencer, check the growth of their followers over time, their engagement, and the authenticity of their audience to ensure that their audience appears to be genuine.
Campaign Launch: Know that you don’t always need a contract
If you decide to select some influencers you want to work with, contact them. In fact, contact twice the amount you believe you’ll require, since some influencers will not respond or even open your emails.
Negotiate with influencers who are interested in working with you. Consider topics like:
- What amount you’ll pay them (consider both free products as well as fees)
- What amount of content, and what kind, they’ll create
- Posting deadlines
- Any disclosure requirements that the campaign content must meet
- Hashtags or mentions you’d like them to include
Furthermore, determine if you’re required to sign a contract. If you’re offering influencers only free products, then you usually do not require a contract, unless the product is very expensive. However, if you’re charging fees, you’ll likely want to put the contract in writing.
If you’re not sure where to start in creating this type of document, get an influencer contract template. Modify the template in order to incorporate details that are specific to the campaign you’re running. You can then discuss any concerns you might have with your legal professional.
Campaign Monitoring: Don’t miss out on media and results
After your campaign is up and running, be sure you have a plan in place to record results. It is important to monitor the posts that influencers make on social media and track data such as how many impressions, likes, and comments the post receives.
To accomplish this, you should monitor your brand’s mentions and hashtags. If you’ve asked influencers to incorporate them into their content, you should be notified. Or, in the event that you don’t work with many influencers, check in manually to determine when they’ve posted.
In terms of results, gathering data is dependent on the type of metrics you’re trying to find. Google Analytics can capture data about your site’s visits, the links that brought visitors to your site and so on. E-commerce platforms such as Shopify offer metrics on sales and revenue. However, you might also have to request influencers’ private information about their social media, including the number of impressions their posts generated.
Campaign Analysis: Don’t compare yourself to others
Measuring success is the last step in your influencer campaign. It’s tempting to compare yourself to your rivals, or to successful campaigns you have read about. But don’t do it!
Success is relative: only compare yourself to yourself. You can measure your success by looking at the results of your campaign in relation to the amount of money you invested in it.
For instance, let’s say you paid a micro-influencer $100 to help promote your brand’s latest sneakers, and then gave them an item of footwear valued at $50, your investment will be $150 in total. If the influencer generates a sum of $250 in sales, then you’ll know that you’ve made money and thus have been successful.
Another way to evaluate the success of your campaign is by comparing it to your initial goals. Imagine that you employ an influencer for $200, hoping they will get 50K views of their content. However, in the end they actually get 75K. You’ve exceeded your initial expectations and are therefore successful!
Conclusion
Influencer marketing isn’t always simple. Therefore, keep an open mind during the process. It is possible you may have to make last minute changes and the results might not be as you’d like. If you’re not getting the results you want, examine the reasons why, and look for paths to success that you may not have anticipated. This way, you’ll be prepared for the next time.