0 to 100: Best Practices for Organic Influencer Campaigns
People trust people. That’s the core idea of influencer marketing and what makes it so damn effective. Even in ancient Rome, gladiators would endorse wines and oils to a crowded coliseum. So, while digital influencer marketing is a relatively new concept that blew up in the late 2000s, it has deep roots and an even deeper impact.
What Is Influencer Marketing Anyway?
Most modern advertising and marketing campaigns can benefit from the inclusion of influencers. In 2022, four out of five consumers were “influenced” by influencer marketing. So, what is it exactly?
Influencer marketing is about partnering with individuals who have a devoted online audience to have them evangelize your brand on your behalf. The influencer can make videos, write blog posts, host live-streams or create any other type of social media content to connect with their followers and talk about your product or service. There are influencers in every imaginable niche, and they can have a wide range of following, from “nano” (less than 10,000) to “celebrity” (over 1,000,000).
Partnering with an influencer or a network of influencers is a great way for brands to connect with a target audience at scale and promote products through a trusted source.
How to Make the Most of an Influencer Campaign
If you’re ready to launch your first influencer marketing campaign, great! But slow down; you need to be strategic so you don’t waste your time and budget. The ideal process is to hire an influencer marketing agency or leverage an influencer aggregation platform to do the work for you, but for start-ups and small businesses, that’s not always the case.
If you plan to do an “organic” influencer campaign, which means you’re managing the project and coordinating with influencers on a one-on-one basis, then there are several best practices to note before you begin.
1) Find Influencers in Your Niche
The first step is to find the right influencers. There are big and small influencers for every industry, and you’ll likely have a lot of options. The key is to find influencers who are speaking to specific sections of your target audience and whose content (and values) aligns with your product or service. For example, "cooking show" type influencers are a great match for kitchenware and food product brands because items can be casually featured and make use of the influencer's trusted expertise. You wouldn’t want a gardener talking about your blender because it would feel forced.
2) Feature Your Products in Influencer Content
There are many ways to feature your products or services with an influencer. It all depends on the unique combination of the influencer's style and what your brand has to offer. Work directly with each influencer to determine the best "with the flow" way to incorporate your products with their content. The influencer knows their audience best and how they will probably respond to a casual mention, personal recommendation or featured promotion.
3) Provide Samples for Featured Reviews
Often, influencer campaigns involve sending the influencer sample products, free items or discount codes so they can explore the items for themselves. Make sure to provide the product in the way that aligns with the intended outcome. For instance, some influencers specialize in unboxing videos, so sending them the item in the mail in the same way your customers receive it is critical. Others will incorporate your products into other videos where they’re not in the spotlight, then give a shout-out to the items and brands at the end that made each video possible.
4) Give Influencers a Promotional Link and QR Code
Influencers need to direct traffic back to your website and product pages. Provide them with their own promotional links and design a landing page for each audience. Use affiliate-style tracking to credit influencers with the conversions they earn for you to build a stronger influencer relationship. For visual content, it also helps to turn your promotional links into QR codes that viewers can scan.
The key takeaway here is to set yourself up to measure your return on investment (ROI). Without the means to track sales or website visits from your influencers, then the marketing campaign is simply an expensive brand awareness play.
5) Develop Brand Ambassadors
If you successfully build strong business partnerships with your influencers, they may become brand ambassadors. A brand ambassador professionally represents the brand and becomes a spokesperson who collaborates in branding events while bringing their personal audience along for the ride. If they truly love what you do, they may even continue to promote your product or service organically without new incentives. The right influencers can make powerful brand ambassadors that improve your brand reputation and spice up your company events with their e-celeb status.
Build Your Influencer Marketing Strategy
Influencer marketing and partnered influencer campaigns can help you reach a wide range of audiences, access valuable niches and build consumer trust faster than ever before. Influencers can make effective brand partners as they introduce your products to their following and they may even grow into brand ambassadors with time, nurturing and mutual success.
To begin your first influencer campaign with expert advice from the influencer marketers here at Elevate My Brand, contact us today.
Hopefully, an influencer campaign is one of many marketing tactics in the works at your start-up or small business. An omnichannel approach is so important! The other blog posts in our 0 to 100 series can give you the insights you need to DIY your other campaigns too!
