When it comes to staying at the forefront of social media marketing, it is often extremely challenging for brands to keep up with the constant changes and competitive landscape. With the help of influencer marketing and digital influencers though, companies have the opportunity to work with popular content creators that know exactly how to capture the attention of their large audiences, while seamlessly integrating brand promotions.
Digital influencers are users who create unique content for an engaged audience on social media. Brands execute influencer marketing campaigns in a variety of ways. Due to the rise in content creation and content consumption on all social media platforms, marketers have started creating partnerships with influencers. From product exchanges to sponsored events, to paid-for social media posts, there are a variety of ways that brands and influencers can work together.
There are numerous benefits to influencer marketing. Influencers bring with them loyal followers, which can lead to online community growth for your brand, a pool of new high-quality content to repurpose, and growth in online traffic and sales.
According to a recent survey, more than 89% of marketers are already using influencers to generate unique content for their brand. Furthermore, 77% are using influencers to drive engagement for their companies, and 56% have found success driving traffic and online sales by partnering with influencers.
Luckily for brands, influencers exist in almost every category imaginable. That said, the process of finding and selecting the right influencer for your campaign can be a time consuming and overwhelming task. From the same study, marketers consider finding influencers to be the hardest job when it comes to creating social media campaigns and reported that project management often takes 25-50 hours per campaign. If you are managing a campaign on your own, the following steps will set out our influencer marketing best practices.
Before selecting an influencer first set your campaign’s goals and objectives. Are you looking to mainly create content that can be repurposed on your social media accounts? Are you looking to drive sales? Answers to these questions will help when setting up the campaign parameters that the influencers will ultimately carry-out. Always consider your brand and campaign first, then the influencer. Stay true to your story!
An excellent example of this is Leveret’s new influencer campaign focusing on creating brand awareness and generating content. They teamed up with mommy influencers to photograph different pajama prints and post sweet images to create buzz around the brand.
Before contracting any influencers, make sure that you have done your homework. Does the influencer have an engaged audience and a large following? Does the influencer talk about relevant products or topics for your brand? The biggest takeaway is the influencer must have an authentic connection to your brand for the campaign to be successful. The best social media influencers for your campaign have an active following and a proven track record of seamlessly integrating brands into their content.
Another great campaign example to learn from is SimplyFit Board’s collaboration with fit moms. They decided first that their campaign should center around busy moms who do not have time to go to the gym and need to squeeze in a quick workout at home. Their next step involved researching mommy accounts that would fit with this campaign. They knew they needed a mommy blogger, but more specifically one who shows that she balances both staying in shape and taking care of her children.
When it comes to working with influencers, many businesses start small to test the waters. However, there is strength in numbers, and that is especially true when activating a social media influencer marketing campaign. Whether you choose to invest in a macro influencer with over 1 million followers or to team up with 100+ micro influencers, you want to reach as many people within your target audience to maximize your results, and make the time that you commit to the campaign count!
