Some companies are still unaware of what influencer marketing is or how to use it. But others are already making it a primary focus of their marketing and seeing amazing results.
17% of companies spend the majority of their budget on Influencer marketing. And 89% say that they’re getting better or similar results compared with any other marketing method.
Because of just how effective influencer marketing can be, using it is no longer optional. But at the same time, since it’s relatively new, many companies aren’t sure where to start.
To help with that, let’s look at some of the basic steps involved in a typical influencer marketing campaign to provide you with a place to start.
4 Essential Steps to Successful Influencer Marketing Campaign
Step #1: Understand Who You’re Targeting
Just as with any marketing approach, targeting can play the deciding role in whether the campaign is successful or not. Even if the strategy itself shows a lot of promise, it won’t produce the results you want if the people you get in front of simply aren’t interested.
Therefore, before you get into the specific details of the influencer marketing campaign, you need to answer the question: who are you trying to reach?
To get started, look at your current customer pool and try to identify the best buyers that are the easiest to work with and generate the biggest returns. These are the people that can facilitate your company’s growth, so you need to attract as many of them as possible.
Try to figure out who they are, where they hang out online, and the biggest obstacles they are trying to overcome. Having this information will serve as a foundation for all of the decisions you make.
For instance, if you determine that your audience likes to hang out on Instagram, you can find influencers on Instagram with Collabstr, identifying the best fit with your audience and massively increasing the chances of your campaign working.
Knowing where your audience hangs out is a significant first step towards success. If you use a reputable platform like Collabstr, you can also access relevant data about the past performances of the influencers you’re considering.
Step #2: Define Your Goals
In order to succeed with influencer marketing, you need to know what you’re trying to accomplish. Sure, increasing sales is a good ultimate goal, but that’s not the only thing that influencer marketing can help you achieve.
For instance, you may decide that right now, you want to increase your presence on a social media platform. If that’s the case, you can use social media analytics tools to track how many new people become followers or engage with your posts.
Sure, new followers might not be as appealing as immediate sales, but that can help establish a stronger presence on a platform that many of your prospective buyers frequent, which can be just as powerful in the long run.
If you use the influencer marketing campaign to run a promotion, you can get even more exposure by getting people to share the content with their friends. This can allow you to reach an even bigger audience than the one that the influencer can offer.
In the end, the choice of goals will depend on how well aligned your audience is with the influencer’s followers, whether they are already familiar with your brand, and how exclusive you can make the offer.
Remember, you don’t have to limit your partnerships with an influencer to just one campaign. In fact, running multiple campaigns and building on increasing brand awareness usually produces the best results.
Step #3: Find the Right Influencers
Now that you know who you want to target and what you want to achieve, it’s time to find the actual influencers you can work with. We already talked about the possibility of using specialized platforms that can help connect you with influencers who are already running successful campaigns.
Ideally, you want to look for an influencer that overlaps with who you are trying to reach. If they are a prominent figure in your field or someone that people in your audience follow, that’s an ideal candidate because they not only have the attention of the people that you want to reach but also have an authority status that gives their recommendations more weight.
You should also think about whether the values of your brand align with those of the influencer. Even if they have the right audience, going against your public perception can hurt your brand and cause more damage than good.
Having similar values will also make it easier to develop an authentic campaign that the audience responds to.
Finally, remember that when it comes to the number of followers, size isn’t everything. If you can’t afford the most prominent influencers in your field, you can always start with micro-influencers with smaller but more engaged and relevant followings.
Step #4: Track Your Performance
Once you find an influencer and reach an agreement with them, you will need to accurately measure whether the campaign was successful. Working with influencer marketing platforms can help you keep track of the most important KPIs, but you can set them up manually as well.
For instance, you can use a customized link for the post, which will allow you to measure the traffic you get and the conversions resulting from it.
You can also measure how your social media activity changed during and after the campaign. Measure the activity beforehand to serve as a base, and see how many people came to your social media profiles, how many followed it, and how many interacted with your posts.
To make influencer marketing work for you, it’s essential to clearly establish what you want to achieve and what ROI you need to consider the campaigns worth it.
Whether it’s generating revenue, getting more followers, or improving engagement, having a specific number that you’re aiming for will ensure that you can make adjustments and improvements as you move forward.
Final Words
Influencer marketing can be one of the most powerful strategies you can use. Even if starting out can be challenging, most companies can start seeing excellent results after getting more familiar with how the process of putting together campaigns works.
By using the strategies listed above, you should be able to stay on top of every influencer marketing decision and avoid investing in a campaign that doesn’t have a lot of chances to succeed.