When people speak highly of your business, brand, or product, they are essentially putting their stamp of approval on it. That’s why Influencer Marketing can be a powerful way to raise awareness, increase brand trust, and drive conversions. But, as with any marketing channel, getting it right can be tricky. Here are some tips on how to develop an influencer marketing strategy that will give your campaign the best chance of success.
Start by identifying your target audience and outlining your goals for the campaign. Common influencer marketing goals include gaining more followers on your social media accounts, increasing product consideration, or driving sales of a particular product. Once you’ve established a clear goal, make sure to align that with your budget and campaign timelines.
Then, look for influencers who are willing to work with your company. Common influencer categories include adventurists, photographers, food enthusiasts, fitness vloggers, how-to experts, beauticians, artists, and models to name a few. You can also find influencers by searching for hashtags related to your industry or looking at popular posts on a particular platform.
Once you’ve found an influencer who fits your criteria, send them a brief introduction to your business. This will help them get to know your brand and help guide their content production. You can also provide them with a high-level brand style guide or mood board to ensure that their content is consistent with your company’s voice and aesthetic.
Depending on the scope of your campaign, it may be necessary to provide more detail about what you expect from the influencer. For example, if you want them to post about your products on their Instagram, you should specify the desired image size and how you’d like it captioned. If you want them to use specific hashtags, it’s important to communicate those ahead of time as well. Especially with social media platforms, rules regarding #spon or sponsored content are constantly changing.
Once the campaign has started, it’s crucial to monitor progress and engagement metrics. This will allow you to determine if your campaign is working and it’s worth investing in. You can use a variety of social media monitoring tools to track the performance of your campaign including content analytics, sentiment analysis, and reach measurement.
When it comes to leveraging influencers for your marketing campaigns, remember that reach is not always synonymous with influence. It’s more important that your content reaches the right people, so make sure to share influencer content that is relevant to your audience. For example, WordStream CEO and CTO Larry Kim is a recognized expert in the paid search and content marketing space. His insightful and authoritative writing has elevated his personal reputation as an influencer, as well as that of WordStream as a whole. In fact, one of his pieces prompted Google to address the issue of Quality Score in AdWords. That’s a pretty good return on investment, in my book.