Influencer Marketing: a guide to effective campaigns

Over the past months, companies have had to adapt to the “new normal” of consumerism, and we have seen a significant rise in the use of influencer marketing as part of many businesses' social media strategies. However many business owners are still unaware of how beneficial influencers can be to their marketing strategy. 

What is Influencer marketing? 

Influencer marketing is a method of social media marketing in which brands collaborate with an online influencer to market their services or improve brand recognition. By doing this, influencer marketing helps businesses to increase their reach and gain the trust of their customers, thereby boosting social media engagement and sales.  

Here are a few tips on how to create a successful influencer marketing campaign: 

  1. Be clear about your goal

The most important aspect of creating a successful influencer campaign is to be clear about what you want the outcome of the campaign to be. In order to successfully do this, you need to set attainable goals, including: 

  • Identifying your target audience
  • Setting a budget 
  • Setting the desired outcome

2. Choosing the right influencers for you 

Before choosing influencers to collaborate with, it is key that you consider what the right “face” for your company’s brand looks like. Does their online presence reflect your values? Do they talk about topics relevant to your own target audience?

These are all questions you must ask yourself when deciding which influencers to work with. 

As well as this, CEO World identified 16 different types of influencers, so making sure you have the right one for your brand is important. 

3. Pay attention to engagement. 

Similar to choosing the right influencer for your brand, paying attention to an influencer's engagement is very important for your influencer marketing strategy. For example, a micro or nano influencer with an engaged follower base could be more beneficial to your brand than a model with millions of followers who are most likely not following them for their product reviews. 

What to avoid

A mistake that companies often make when collaborating with influencers is assuming that in return for payment, influencers will give glowing reviews of your products and services. 

While it would be nice if this were the case, influencers giving false reviews of products can harm their integrity, and cause them to lose the trust they have built with their followers. 

As such, it is important for you as a brand to give your influencers creative freedom as well as taking on the criticisms they may give your products so that you can improve them. 

Are you considering an influencer marketing campaign for your business? Get in touch with us today.