I want to share with you the real truth about influencer marketing. According to research, each dollar invested in influencer marketing can make money at a rate of 20 dollars. That’s a 20x return on investment. Therefore, there is no reason you should not have developed an influencer marketing plan for your business yet.
This is why I’m here to walk you through crafting and influencer marketing strategy as we create many for our client businesses. I’ll tell you exactly the steps to make the winning influencer marketing strategy with the right tools and concepts. Let’s get started.
A Breakdown Of Influencer Marketers From Mega Stars To Nano Leaders
Today, everyone and every niche is considered under the influencer marketing umbrella. So, there are various types of influencers. Let’s start by exploring the different types of influencers and their unique characteristics:
1. Mega Influencers
These are your social media super influencers with over 1,000,000 fans or followers. They charge their fees very high, and they have large followership, but the interaction may at times be minimal as compared to rising influencers.
For example, Ali Murtaza (Founder of TechJuice and Digital Entrepreneur)
2. Macro Influencers
It ranges from 100,000 to 1 million followers, to which macro influencers attribute a reasonable level of audience reach and interaction.
For example, Munir Ahmad (Founder of Think Digital Podcast)
3. Micro Influencers
With followers between 10,000 and 100,000, the micro influencers have loyal and targeted followers, which makes them reasonable for many organizations.
For example, Junaid S. B. (Founder of The Digital Hash and Tech Blogger)
4. Nano Influencers
These influencers have less than 10K followers, which are usually highly engaged and loyal followers. It can act like a weapon of mass creation in highly niche areas.
For example, Ayesha Sajid (Freelancer, Web Developer, and Tech Mentor)
The Important thing to remember is that when selecting the right influencers for your brand, it is not enough to consider how many people are subscribed to a given influencer. But views, participants’ gender, interests, and association with your company’s value system must be a decisive factor.
How To Identify The Right Influencer For Your Brand?
Some things to keep in mind during this stage.
- Expertise: Does the product you’re selling match what the influencer’s audience is interested in?
- Reach: Is the influencer’s reach in the same place as your target audience? For example, if you’re trying to reach teens, a LinkedIn influencer probably isn’t the way to go.
- Demographic: Does the influencer demographic match the buyer persona you’re trying to appeal to?
- Notoriety: Finally, is the influencer well-liked on the whole?
Remember, they’ll be associated with your brain. So if you’re a wholesome cookie person, you probably don’t want someone controversial or edgy. Must settle on an influencer you really like to work with.
How To Outreach The Influencers?
Once you’ve identified your candidates, it’s time to start outreach. In the Free HubSpot ebook, there are some great templates for starting the conversation via email or DM. When you’re starting outreach, keep these few things in mind:
- Try to take advantage of any mutual contacts you might have for an introduction, but always be professional and honest with what you’re looking for.
- State your goal clearly, and let them know at the outset what outcome you’re hoping for.
- Show them visual examples of other campaigns that you like to give them a showcase of what you’re looking for.
- Keep the numbers simple. Don’t bog them down too heavily in the data.
- Give them the brass tacks that are relevant to your campaign. Be clear on the responsibilities of who you partner with. Are they creating the content or just sharing it?
- Finally, don’t micromanage; you want to brief them on your goals and intentions, but allow them the space to pitch ideas that work for their own brand.
How To Draft An Influencer Marketing Agreement?
When the time finally comes to drop an agreement, be sure to cover all your bases. This includes things like:
- The extent of the partnership
- Method of compensation
- Type and amount of content included
- Promotional requirements
- Approval process
- Content, Copyright, and Sunset clauses.
So, basically, it’s about deciding how long the sponsored content should stay live on the influencer’s page. There’s quite a bit to consider here. So it’s super important to have your contracts reviewed by a lawyer. But once those contracts are in motion, the agreements tracker in the template makes it really easy to keep track of everything the status of the contracts, deliverables, all of it. It’s super handy.
For me, it’s as simple as copying over the influencer’s details and then using the dropdowns to update the status. So, yeah, once the contracts are signed, the content goes live!
Measure the Success Of Your Campaign
When the campaign is complete, move to the campaign measurement tab in your template and measure how the campaign performed. Just input the total number of impressions, engagements, clicks, and visits on your website that result from that particular piece of content. It provides a status-of-affairs check, which is good for determining how things work.
Tracking like this not only allows you to know your return on your investment, but after a while, you will be able to determine which influencer and what type of content delivers the most value. Of course, it often makes sense that influencer marketing would feel like a whole new world, especially if you come from, let’s say, a traditional marketing background. But don’t fear experiencing new stuff in your business.
Looking for the perfect influencers to grow your brand? Reach out to our team for expert guidance and start your campaign today!
Some of the Best Practices When You Partner With An Influencer.
Following are some of the best practices to partner with an influencer for developing a winning influencer marketing strategy.
1. Research the Influencer
I should point out that I talked about this earlier, but it bears repeating be sure to do your homework! The most important tip that I can give is to work only with those influencers whose values are similar to your brand. You have to ensure the outcome, including the message, tone, and style, is ideal for your company’s image.
Also, make sure you spend some time researching their previous experiences, their interaction with brands, and their standing in the market. Some research can go a long way here!
2. Always Have a Contract
Moving on to something very crucial—always, always use a contract. Do not sign a deal only because they shook your hands and promised to deliver, all because someone pulled that stunt, leaving their fingers slick with the best of nail polish! The rule of thumb is to put it down in writing, and when possible, make it clear who will do what and by when.
In that manner, nobody is in a position to complain that the other’s expectations were not met since everybody had a clear understanding at the very beginning.
3. Maximize Your Value
While your focus is to explain what the influencer is doing for you, be sure to let people know what you are doing for him/her as well. Of course, you are either paying them or giving them free products, but can they get something else as well? Does it increase their visibility if the authors cross-post their content to your brand’s social media accounts?
Perhaps you could help to make them follow others or perhaps help them get a new set of audience. It is important to note that this is going to be mutually beneficial to the two of you.
4. Engage with Their Content
And, of course, do not forget to actively use their content. And I am not only referring to the situation where you are notified by one of your friends and thereby compelled to like it. As with your posts, provide depth in your comments, and re-share material that would interest you. This lets the influencer and their followers know that you are serious about the partnership other than the contract.
You have to know that being real plays a critical role in influencer marketing since it is, in simple terms, the basis for trust that the marketer and the influencer are going to establish.
Common Mistakes To Avoid In Developing A Winning Influencer Marketing Strategy As A Newbie
When you are new to the concept of influencer marketing growth, it is not tricky to make some mistakes that should be avoided. So, let me tell you what you should never do, or, in other words, what is a big ‘No no’ when you are here.
Mistake #1: Priding yourself on sticking with your product even in the wrong influencer’s hands may lead to its destruction.
About the Kendall Jenner Pepsi advert, have you noticed it? I think it’s better sometimes to try to go after an audience you want to target instead of going after a superstar who will only mislead your target market. It’ll just hurt both brands. There always comes a time when something does not sound right and nobody loves products being forced down their throat when they have no interest in that product.
Mistake #2: Focusing too much on follower count and not enough on engagement.
You, for example, can have the number of followers of 10 million, but in fact, 10 million people may not really notice your post. When you are deciding between two influencers, one with a million followers but a low engagement rate in contrast to the one with 15k followers but with a high engagement rate, in most cases, you would be better off selecting the second. Just as the unlimited nature of the integrin indicates that it is all about quantity rather than quality, it is exactly the opposite.
Mistake #3: Not setting clear goals.
In other words, you should be very specific about your goals, clearer than a VVS diamond. Decide on your goals before the actual campaign so that you can determine how well the undertaking is performing. Learn what performance indicators are really important for your company. It ensures you choose the correct influencer, ensure that the influencer delivers on the goals, and analyze whether the campaign was a success.
Mistake #4: Not providing a solid brief.
This one is quite big ensure that you include every detail in your brief. You and your partner need to provide information about your goals, time frames, your budget, your target audience, and basic details regarding the product you are selling. For instance, if you are working on a vegan brand, it will be very important to state that the influencer should not use anything that is associated with animals in the content that you want them to publish. A good brief prepares everyone for victory.
Mistake #5: Lack of adequate creativity to offer to the influencers.
Of course, it should be a very concise and plain-to-the-point brief since it is the influencers’ role to be aware of how to address their audience. But do this after you are clear with your team on what you expect to happen, then set them free. Working for some extent, repercussions often produce more creativity and uniqueness, which appeals to the followers.
Don’t let these common mistakes hold you back from making your influencer marketing benchmarks. Start planning your successful influencer marketing campaign today reach out to our team for expert guidance!
A Famous Example Of Influencers’ Partnership
As you might have heard, America woke up to Dunkin’, and in 2020, TikTok woke up to Charli D’Amelio. I first learned about her when she became the first creator to reach 100 million followers, and, if you were a viewer of her show, you’d observe she constantly drinks iced coffee. Well, it didn’t take people very long to learn that, of course, she was a Dunkin’ fan, and what happened to them next? An epic partnership. The brand Dunkin’ released a coffee in honor of Charli’s favorite beverage, which she agreed to feature on her TikTok page, telling her fans that they would receive 100 bonus points if they ordered the drink via the Dunkin’ application.
The result? There was an increase in the app downloads as it was boosted by 57% through Charli Drink.
Got an Influencer Marketing Plan?
The objective of Dunkin was simple more app downloads, and this campaign got that right. And if you still think influencer marketing is all about creating fun content, you’re not wrong, but what you are unaware of is that influencer marketing is real business and it generates real business outcomes. But guess what? Your business can, and should, jump on this bandwagon too!
Creating your first influencer marketing strategy? Contact us today, and let’s work together to find the perfect match for your brand! We want to hear what your business has done to work with influencers. Feel free to share your thoughts with us.
