Marketing strategies and tools have changed dramatically over the years. From billboard marketing to social media promotions and Google Adwords, and more. However, the sole purpose of marketing has always been driving sales for better business growth.
Having said that, the latest emerging tool for effective marketing- Influencer Marketing, is proving to be one of the best results-driven strategies. According to a survey, Google searches for influencer marketing grew about 1500% in the last three years. The figure itself is significant for its effectiveness in driving the desired results.
But the real question is, whether hiring just any influencer can drive-in results? Of course, not. You need to be more specific and refined in your campaign designing and planning.
So, how do you do it, the right way?
Contents
Influencer Marketing: How To Drive Results Effectively
Draft a Brief of the Brand
The very first step is to understand what exactly do you need out of your efforts. Since no two brands are the same, a single strategy won’t work for all. You need to understand the nitty-gritty of the brand for which you are planning to launch an influencer marketing campaign. Here’s how you do it.
What is the message that you want to deliver?
When it comes to the right marketing strategy, you need to have a clear picture of the message that you wish to deliver. Is it the benefits of using your services or buying products? Or is it what you give back to society as an organization? The message you want to deliver will eventually let you decide what type of influencer you need for your campaign.
Layout the timeline or key dates for your marketing campaign
Once you’re done deciding whether you wish to educate your audience about your services, or you wish to compel them to make the purchase with you, the next step is to set a timeline. Essentially, this timeline would decide when the necessary tasks within your marketing strategy would be effective. Creating content, publishing it, and modifying it, if carried out at the right time can prove to be more effective, than otherwise.
Set the budget for the campaign
Of course, any marketing campaign demands inputs in terms of capital. But at the same time, you wouldn’t want to be spending unnecessarily. Therefore, consider the results you desire out of your influencer marketing and accordingly decide a budget that you can spend.
Type of content & choice of platform
For some brands, video content may prove to be more effective, while for others infographics may prove to be more beneficial. It all depends upon your budget and the results you wish to drive. Deciding the type of content you wish to be using, and accordingly, the platforms you wish to launch your campaign on would eventually decide the success of your marketing campaign.
Create a buyer persona
The most important part of any marketing strategy design is creating a buyer persona. This can help you decide if the audience you are targeting is the ideal buyer or not. Accordingly, you can design the campaign and make sure that you receive the maximum return on your investment.
Define KPIs
Unlike traditional marketing practices, influencer marketing is quantifiable. You can actually measure the impressions, engagement, and conversions driven through your content. But first, you need to define the key performing indexes. These KPIs can essentially help you set the minimal ground for measuring the success of your efforts.
Screen Potential Influencers
It is needless to say that you need influencers for your marketing campaign. But, just any influencer won’t work. You need to be specific about the influencers you would like to partner with.
Type of Influencers
Decide whether you wish to be using several micro-influencers, or single mega-influencer (online celebs). According to the experts from Social Book, the choice of influencers depends entirely upon your target audience. The dynamics of your audience such as their age, gender, location, interests, and most importantly social engagement will decide what type of influencers can fulfill your needs.
Audience alignment
Make sure that the influencer’s audience aligns with your target. You wouldn’t want to be spending your hard-earned money and resources on influencers that don’t serve the purpose. And, it is the buyer persona that can help you ensure this alignment.
Competitive partnership
Users prefer to follow the online promotors (influencers) which hold expertise in a particular niche. And the only way to identify which niche they are experts at is to analyze what other competitors in your segment do these influencers partner with. But, you need to be careful so as to not partner up with an influencer who has worked with many competitors. This would give you an edge at using them exclusively for your brand.
Content Management
Once, you are done prospecting the influencers, it’s time to create content. A better way can be to discuss who’ll manage the content with your partner. In most of the cases, the content is usually created by the influencers themselves.
This can, in fact, have better results as well. Since the influencers are the ones who understand the interests of their audience better, it is best to seek their help for content creation.
Discuss Rights & Exclusivity Terms
Almost indispensable as the marketing strategy itself, the right to the ownership of the content and the exclusivity terms should be discussed with your partner. Missing out on these terms of partnership can cause undue stress and friction in the near future.
Right to content
Make sure you discuss the right to content with your partner. In other words, whether the content would be the intellectual property of the influencer; or you can own it and use it during the progress of your campaign on other channels as well.
Exclusivity to brand
Another thing that you should clearly discuss with your partner is the exclusivity. Simply put, it means you can ask the influencer to promote your brand exclusively and not partner up with some or all of your competitors. This could give you another benefit over your competitors.
Review Performance
In the end, it all melts down to the results that your efforts bring in. With the help of KPIs that you designed earlier, and analyzing the current performance of your campaign you can easily assess the success of your influencer marketing. And accordingly, you can make changes to your campaign, if needed.
