Launching an influencer campaign in 6-8 weeks seems easy enough, but there’s a lot beneath the surface that requires careful planning and time management to get content live on schedule. In fact, there are dozens of actions that need to take place in precise order, with each one impacting the other. When putting your arms around influencer campaign management, it’s imperative to understand the key milestones needed to meet your timelines, as well as how to keep influencers on track throughout the course of content development.
This article will help you with your milestone mapping, preventing and addressing challenges along the way, and ensure effective influencer campaign management from start to finish!
Managing influencer campaign logistics is typically a daily task, but it’s important to keep your eye on the main pillars for campaign execution. Milestone Mapping refers to planning out deadlines for key action items. Like a line of dominos, each milestone impacts the one that follows – creating a chain reaction of delays if deadlines are not met.
To plan out your timeline for influencer marketing campaigns and set the foundation for staying on track, here are 9 milestones to plan for, equating to 6-8 weeks total:
It’s important to note that the influencer content timeline above assumes a lot of prep work has taken place beforehand! So let’s go through what this prep work looks like to ensure your timeline for influencer marketing campaigns can be met:
Finding the right influencers means checking stats like engagement rate, audience demographics, following size, etc. against the criteria you’ve already aligned on with the client, as well as knowing their preferences when it comes to content style. Coming into this first stage, you should know exactly who you are looking for! Also have a template ready to go for presenting these candidates to the client, so that you can quickly (and professionally) share your top picks for sign off.
Before starting any outreach, understand the budget, fully vet influencer candidates, and create a detail-oriented tracker keeping tabs on all logistics, including rates, deliverables, usage terms, and exclusivity terms. Know the max you’re able to pay each influencer (based on market rates), as well as have a strong list of backups for anyone who is over budget, unavailable, or politely declines. Also note that the best results from sending custom notes to each potential partners, and even getting on the phone.
The briefing call is your time to get the influencer excited about your campaign and fill them in on campaign objectives, brand guidelines, and any other details relevant or unique to your particular campaign. Get your brief approved well in advance and use the call as an opportunity to get in front of any potential challenges or roadblocks to minimize the need for content edits down the road, ultimately helping keep your timeline for influencer marketing campaigns on track!
Develop a contract template in advance that can easily be updated for each partner, which makes managing your influencer campaigns so much easier! This contract template should include all the deliverables and the agreed upon terms, as well as legalese around termination, indemnification, payment, confidentiality, etc. By doing this early, you can share a timely contract as soon as you align on terms with influencers and kicks execution into high gear.
To help get influencers’ juices flowing and ensure content feels authentic, go through their feed and share ideas of how your campaign could come to life on their handle. Pull examples so they know what you like, and so they can get it right the first time – a great way to keep influencers on track!
Prior to kickoff, determine if the client will send products to influencers or if influencers will get the products themselves. If the client is sending them, devise a system for sharing addresses and tracking numbers most efficiently. Delays in shipment can cause delays for the whole program, so iron out details before you’re in a time crunch. If influencers are responsible for getting the products, have that conversation during the outreach phase so there are no surprises later!
At this stage – when their concept is approved and they’re ready to film – the key to keeping your influencer content timeline on track is to reiterate the main takeaways from the brief to help prevent the need for time consuming edits. This may include reminders of how to pronounce the brand/product name, messaging that must be included, or any other do’s and don’ts. Most importantly, let them know to stay true to their natural voice and are creating content that feels authentic on their feed.
If you’re new to working with a client (or if the client is new to working with influencers), educate them about the process beforehand. This includes what to look for, as well as aligning on who from their team should be included and the turnaround times. Also, reiterate the number of days they have to review in order to meet the desired launch date.
Some influencers see deadlines as more fluid than others, so your final step to managing your influencer campaigns is to level set expectations with influencers and hold them accountable. First, let them know what’s riding on their go live date and time to drive home the importance of sticking to the schedule, like how it impacts the client’s organic and social strategy. Then, send a reminder about 8-12 hours in advance of their scheduled post. If more than an hour lapses after they were supposed to be live, check in with urgency and confirm a new time.
Your best tool for ensuring successful influencer campaign management is to create a workback plan based on your Milestone Mapping exercise, fleshing out every deadline leading up to your launch date. By plotting out every detailed step, you will ensure all stakeholders are aligned and help you meet your timeline for influencer marketing campaigns.
Hot Tip: Always include padding around key dates – especially influencer deadlines. Circumstances inevitably come up that create delays, but by accounting for that up front, you’ll have enough wiggle room to still meet your go-live window and keep your timeline for influencer marketing campaigns on track.
For example, the Concept stage would have 3 deadlines:
Aside from doing the prep work around key milestones, here are a few other things to consider in advance of your influencer outreach to prevent content delays:
Ultimately, keeping your campaign on track comes down to how well you manage your relationship and milestones with each influencer. Here are 4 things to keep in mind during campaign execution:
By starting with Milestone Mapping, building out a workback plan, doing the prep work, and being strategic with communications, managing your influencer campaigns will be a breeze – and they’ll launch on time!
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