How To Plan Your Influencer Marketing Campaign
Word-of-mouth marketing is crucial nowadays. When I started in the public relations industry over 10 years ago we were laser focused on ensuring our clients were featured in large newspapers, magazines, and that we got placed on the right TV segment. Fast forward ten years, and I’ve seen a lot of changes. I’m sure you see it too, influencer marketing is on the rise.
I recently read these stats and thought you might also find them compelling:
70% of millennial consumers value peer endorsement over a celebrity endorsement
Micro-influencers, a content creator with up to 100k in following, receive higher engagement than those with over 100k
Studies show influencer marketing returning as much as $6.50 for every $1 spent
This only solidifies the importance of incorporating a strategic, and effective, influencer marketing plan that partners with the right creators who are targeted the right audience.
Chances are there are 2 main reasons why you are reading this now:
You want to learn about influencer marketing strategy
You’ve worked on an influencer marketing campaign and want to improve on your efforts
Here at Foodie Tribe we have developed a process, and a plan that has worked for the clients that have partnered with us. I’m going to share it with you.
WHAT YOU NEED TO ASK
If you know what you want to market, your plan starts by answering these questions:
How many content creators does your plan need?
Which platforms is your target audience using (Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, etc)?
What type of content do you want them to produce?
Do you need the impact of macro or micro influencers?
Are there specific markets you want to target for awareness?
How many pieces of content per influencer will drive the awareness you need to generate?
When do you need the campaign to start, and how long should it last?
Most importantly, how are you going to measure the success of the campaign?
Once you have identified these key aspects of a campaign plan, you can move forward with the influencer selection and invitation process.
Something very important to note, that’s an inspiration for our work; 94% of marketers think that ‘transparency and authenticity are key to influencer marketing success.’ Honesty is a core tenet here at Foodie Tribe. We hand-select and approve our influencers to ensure that they are authentic creators.
After you have decided on the group of creators you want to collaborate with, and you have finalized a content brand strategy, next step is going to be to put your content strategy into action, and let the influencers get creative. I’d recommend providing the influencers with brand and/or visual content guidelines, but always remember - the influencer knows their audience the best, therefore, they will know what content to create to ensure it resonates with their followers.
Here is the part we really enjoy at Foodie Tribe: content and collaboration management. We then review all of the content to ensure it’s on brand and delivers to goal. We then let the influencers know content is approved, and can be uploaded. That’s when the fun happens, we all get to watch the engagement and interaction.
After all of the content has made its initial impact we officially “close” the campaign, and run the numbers. We are looking for key metrics like how did the content perform against the agreed upon KPI’s? Was the campaign successful?
You can view some of the KPI’s we have tracked our campaigns against here. According to Linqia’s “The State of Influencer Marketing 2018” report, engagement seems to be the most popular metric (90%), with clicks (59%), impressions (55%), conversions (54%), and reach (50%) following.
Influencer marketing is something every brand should be looking into an exploring, as this is where the consumer is most heavily involved in when it comes to purchasing a product, or visiting a storefront.
Are you ready to put together a successful influencer marketing strategy? Email us to get started info@foodietribe.org.
Katy Coffield is the CEO at Foodie Tribe. When she isn’t eating or talking about food, Katy also loves to hang out with her husband and two kids, drink PepsiMax, and workout.