As marketers are struggling to gain engagement through traditional marketing, brands are turning to influencer marketing and rightfully so. One of the most effective modern marketing strategies involves using social media influencers to guide consumers back to your business. It’s not an easy path to tread but with this writeup, we will help you find your way.
First, let’s explore the need for an influencer marketing strategy:
The digital marketplace is an ever-changing one. Once it was the domain of pop-ups and banners, but now we’re seeing massive changes in how consumers react to advertising. More than 50% of people say that they won’t click a banner ad.
This is why you need to look to the world of social media, where platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are now dominated by influencers. Influencers specialize in creating content that now only keeps their audience base engaged but also bring in new followers. Nowadays, more than 50% of consumers say that they would purchase an item if it’s recommended by an influencer. Basically, influencer marketing involves integrating an influencer’s marketing ideas into your brand’s strategies.
Consider these Do’s and Don’ts to ensure a successful influencer marketing campaign.1. DO decide whether you want to Reach or engagement:
A majority of people believe that when it comes to influencers, a wide reach is a key to getting better results.
But unfortunately for them, that isn’t always the case. Engagement is just as, if not more important than reach. High-quality content that encourages your audience to actively like, comment and share is essential. But the truth is – Engagement and Reach are two sides of the same coin.
Statistically speaking, celebrity influencers can reach huge audiences with limited engagement and micro-influencers often engage smaller, niche audiences with higher engagement.
Decide on the result you want and then pick the right influencer.
2. DO keep your team updated on your influencer choices:
As with every other digital marketing campaign, communication is essential to making sure your influencer marketing strategy bears fruit. This means ensuring that your marketing teams are kept well-informed and updated.
But simple spreadsheets won’t do the job. In fact, you will need a fullscale influencer marketing platform. This platform should display:
* Which influencers you’ve found or narrowed down.
*What social platforms thee influencers use.
*Which stage of contact you are at with the influencers
*What impact they’ve made so far to your campaign.
3. DO contact influencers in the correct manner:
Once you’ve found your prospective influencers, make sure to approach them correctly. Remember, this is about building a relationship and partnership.
You have to figure out how they prefer to be contacted. You can check their profiles to find the best contact point for them. Some prefer an email while others fancy a tweet or even a phone call.
4. DO set a clear & transparent relationship:
1. What do you want from this relationship/partnership?
2. What do you want to give in return?
Finding the answers to these 2 questions from the seat of the communication process is important. It’s basically a two-way street.
With the answers in hand, you can avoid getting yourself into a sticky situation during the communication process and the campaign.
I mean who in their right mind would want to finalize a campaign plan, then see all the hard work come undone when you discover your content developers are not living up to your requirements or your budget.
5. DO set goals for your campaign:
What do you expect to achieve from your marketing campaign? Consider this question before you begin your collaboration with influencers.
Set some tangible targets for yourself or your brand. You can use them as metrics to measure your success.
Mere improvement is not enough. Your goal should be ore along the lines of “I want to improve by …..% by the ….. year”
6. DO monitor your campaign results:
Monitoring your results can be a huge challenge. In fact, more than half of marketers struggle to properly measure the performance of their influencer marketing campaigns.
In this context, a good influencer marketing platform can simplify things. You can place a real value on each engagement and mention and the campaign results can be converted into a tangible ROI. You can also compare this against your other marketing and PR efforts.
1. DON'T chose the wrong influencer:
Here’s an important thing to remember: An influencer’s reach and engagement don’t indicate relevance.
Before picking an influencer, pay close attention to their content and see exactly what message they are sending.
Consider carefully whether your brand’s values align with your potential influencers. For example, if they post something controversial while being connected to your brand, you’re going to face the music too. So tread this path carefully
2. DON'T spam your potential influencer:
As you plan your influencer marketing campaign, align your teams. Communicate with them and make sure either one person takes responsibility for the external communications, or that the messages you send are tracked properly.
It would be confusing for the influencers to receive different emails from different people. They will feel spammed.
3. DON'T underestimate an influencer’s professionalism:
There’s a laughable misconception that influencers are amateurs…. just because they run their business from home. For a marketer, this is a dangerous idea to believe in. When you finally make contact with an influencer, keep it professional.
Treat every influencer as you would treat any other marketer.
4. DON'T expect free mentions:
As good as free mentions are, don’t expect to get them every time. It’s vital that you set your budget when you start your influencer campaign.
Remember, for a lot of people, the social channels are their bread and butter. They have the responsibility of converting their workload into a wage slip. Giving stuff away for free isn’t going to help.
Although, you may be able to offer something just as valuable. An occasional free product is always appreciated and can go a long way to win them over.
5. DON'T forget to link the campaign results to your goals:
Don’t forget to link the campaign results back to your goals. If your influencer marketing strategy is to increase sales of one product, but it improves the sales of another. That’s great. But it’s not exactly your goal.
By linking back to your goal, you can see the factors that are aligning in the campaign. Having clear goals and measurement enables you to optimize the campaign as you go along.
Keep these do’s and don’ts in mind and you’ll nail your influencer marketing campaign.