A successful influencer strategy doesn’t happen overnight. It takes brand authority, social proof, and a strong digital imprint.
Influencer marketing is an important tactic in building your brand because it helps boost brand awareness and influences purchasing behavior within your prospective audience.
Modern marketing options are myriad and vast; with many platforms available to reach diverse audiences. But using the power and influence of influencer marketing to build valuable content that connects with your audience should not be understated.
The main cornerstones of successful influencer marketing are: asking the right questions to determine who to work with, setting the right budget, and learning how to measure ROI.
Your strategy is the key to success and must be taken seriously. With so many platforms and different influencers driving content and sales on those platforms, not having a sound strategy for the content you produce will be detrimental. Exposure, engagement, nurturing, and relevance all work together to increase sales and ultimately; authority.
Your influencer content strategy should be based around specific goals you want to reach. To effectively measure ROI, you must know what you want in the end in order to create strategy in the beginning. This will also set the tone for the types of content being used and deciding which platforms the content will perform best on.
Strategy requires adequate research on the influencer and audience. One of the worst things you can do is have good content and an influencer that doesn’t connect with your target audience.
Choosing the Right Influencer
Ensuring you have the right influencer takes time. When doing your research, you’ll find different types of influencers you can use to support your campaigns. You may need a nano influencer for one campaign, and a mega-influencer for another. You must be certain they understand your audience and how they engage with content. The influencer should also be interested in your brand and can fully represent who you are. It’s important to consider them a partner because they deliver your content in their own style.
The best way to work with an influencer is by making them feel as if they are a part of your overall team. You’ll learn from them, and they’ll learn from you. This is the best way to strategically align and add value. You should be on the same page every step of the way. They will come to know your integrated marketing strategy and can help you determine how they fit into the equation. Share your goals, create benchmarks, and work together in deciding and creating the content that will best reflect your message.
Integrated Marketing and Measurement are Key
Influencer marketing is effective on its own, but it can be even more powerful when it’s used as part of a larger integrated marketing strategy.
Here are four surefire ways to improve your influencer marketing ROI:
- Track sales both online and offline
It’s no secret that tracking sales makes sense, but with digital technology spearheading campaigns, it’s advantageous to use mobile and other digital tactics to reach your consumers. This means using text messaging and email for coupons and discounts. This helps in the monitoring of purchasing decisions by day, week, and month. This also aids in tracking influencer marketing campaigns on how impactful those texts or emails are. Recent stats indicate 45% redemption rates when texting influencer coupon codes for certain items. - Instagram advertising and direct response
Instagram is a quick engagement tool when used the right way. It’s organic and can easily be tracked with comment-to-purchase tactics. Your influencer emails a link to purchase when comments leave email addresses. This is a great way to capture and build the email list for further engagement down the line. New products can benefit from this because it draws interest immediately. All the influencer has to do is tell them to drop their email for a purchase link. - Tracking pixels
Pixels have always been used to determine where traffic flows, gain insight into interests, and more understanding of audiences. When attempting to target audiences with influencer marketing tactics, a pixel can help unravel the entire user experience. This is key to knowing where the person purchased from on the buyer’s journey, whether it was through retargeting, direct links, or organically. - Consistent influencer engagement
Although influencer marketing is a strong tactic, it can be challenging in getting brands to realize the value of having a consistent influencer campaign and relationship. Successful campaigns that provide lucrative influencer marketing ROI are consistent and build upon each campaign over time. This helps in creating brand loyalty, because the brand becomes one that can be trusted and relied on. Consider your influencer as a partner, not a one-time deal. To have a great partnership, you should place a high value on building a relationship with the influencer, not just use them for driving transactional sales.
You won’t know how effective your campaigns are if you don’t have markers in place to measure the effectiveness of your efforts. You should have indicators of success based on trends, historical data, engagement, and results. This also helps in determining the trajectory of your partnership.
When done right, your influencer marketing campaigns can work wonders in building brand recognition, delivering value, and increasing sales. Always remember – it’s not a quick win, but a long-term focus.
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