Influencer Marketing Campaigns: Time To Enter the Future

Influencers are taking over our social media platforms. They represent the new way to market products to consumers. Influencer marketing campaigns seem to find you wherever you are. They are in the random YouTube video that you watched. They are in between the very serious posts on your IG feed. 

They must be working, right? Since using an influencer marketing strategy is all the rage, maybe you should consider it, too. If you are an influencer, this could be a way to increase your income. If you are a brand, this could bring you closer to your audience! Let’s talk about it!

Top 3 Ways To Work With Influencers for Marketing Campaigns

If you are new to influencer marketing, you may not be familiar with what these campaigns look like. Ironically, you would have seen these campaigns all over social media. At first glance, some of them don’t even look like campaigns. This is why brands use the services of Instagram influencers in the first place. 

They want to give the impression of transparency and relatability. A successful influencer marketing campaign will advertise a product in a way that generations before us never thought of. We will explain what we mean below with some influencer marketing examples. 

1. Collaborations Through Joint Posts

When a brand wants to engage the services of an influencer, it may do so through Instagram collaboration. Instagram allows creators to make joint posts on their feeds. This means that there will be one comment section with one like count for a post appearing on multiple pages.

All the parties involved in this joint post should benefit. When an account makes a joint post with another account, they gain access to the other accounts following. One account can vouch for the legitimacy of another account this way. Simply joining forces on a post can accomplish what expensive commercials could have.

Now, accounts can be in the comment section with access to the followers of other accounts. They can interact with the supporters of other brands. They can answer questions and build their rapport with these potential followers. These new Instagram accounts can like comments and show off their brand identity. 

A collaboration gives new accounts a foot in the door to show off what they have to offer new followers. Very crafty campaigns may not even overtly advertise a product. They may simply show a light-hearted video of two different accounts creating content together. This is an ad in itself. 

This tactic works best if the account you collaborate with has access to your target audience. What you are trying to do is get your brand in front of people who you want to follow it. And this way, you can be on the first track to reaching who you want to reach.

2. Hosting a Giveaway

An Instagram giveaway is already a great idea to expand your reach on Instagram. However, a giveaway combined with a collaboration is an even better tactic. We will explain how you could make it work for you.

When you think of a raffle, you probably think of buying a ticket at a really low cost. The price of the ticket is usually minuscule in comparison to the potential prize. A similar concept will apply to social media. Instead, however, entrants don’t have to buy a ticket. They give themselves a chance at winning by doing something else.

The entry fee is valuable to the Instagram influencer, not the entrant. This fee is simply a combination of a like, comment, share, and follow. The combination of these actions is up to you as the brand owner or influencer. Of course, your ultimate aim is to increase your reach and engagement.

Instead of just any comment, you could require that they comment on the Instagram handle of another account. You can also require that they follow all the Instagram accounts involved in the giveaway. You get the power to decide. Just remember that making your requirements onerous can turn some potential entrants away.

While the giveaways taking place, the Instagram account seeking promotion should be pumping out excellent content. People may have followed you for a chance to win something free. You need to make sure they stay because they genuinely like what you share.

Don’t forget to make sure that choosing the winner is aboveboard. You can use a free contest picker online.

3. Sponsored Posts

A sponsored post could be the most obvious form of marketing on Instagram. Typically, it takes this form: An Instagram influencer raves about a particular product that they are using. They may say that they’ve always used it for added effect. However, some of them may not have used it long enough to see actual results. 

They could mention towards the end that they have a discount code that they want to share. While this discount code appears to be generous, it is how brands track how much traction influencers get. It’s up to influencers to leverage their relatability and overall personality to sell a product.

Brands benefit because these influencers typically have earned the trust of their following. This is something brands have difficulty doing because they mainly care about their bottom line. Instagram-sponsored posts are pretty common these days. Some could see that the average IG user is starting to see right through them.

We are by no means discouraging you from using this method to promote a product or earn an income. Just know that there are other ways to post an influencer marketing campaign.

How To Create a Successful Influencer Marketing Campaign: 5 Basic Steps

Deciding that you want to know how to create a successful influencer marketing campaign is the first step. You’ve decided to get with the times and promote your brand in a language that IG users can understand. 

People have parasocial relationships with IG creators. It may be a bit weird, but it’s good to adapt to the times. We’re going to share with you some general tips to make your Instagram campaign successful. Feel free to tweak along the way to suit your specific needs.

1. Get Your Goals in Line

Why do you need the services of an Instagram creator? Are you launching a new product that you need to sell? Maybe you just need to get your name out there. 

Do you want to increase your growth? Make sure you know what you aim to do. Otherwise, how will you know if you succeeded?

Have a measurable metric in mind. You can’t just say that you want more followers. This is far too vague and leaves too much room for interpretation. If you want to increase sales, attach a number to the sales. If you want to grow your page, have a follower count in mind.

Maybe you want to have a better engagement rate. If this is your aim, simply growing your page won’t achieve this. It’s actually more difficult to maintain a good engagement rate with a higher following. This is why you need to have your goals clear from the outset.

Give yourself a deadline. When you are on your boss, sometimes it’s hard to stick to your goals. You may not have anyone to be accountable to, so you have to have a level of discipline. And one deadline may not be effective, so assign several due dates along the way. Check-in on these days.

2. Define Your Ideal Target Audience

So many different types of people use Instagram. We have to hand it to this app. It’s diverse. That only means you need to work extra hard in defining your target audience. Depending on your brand, you’ll have to pin them down using age, race, location, and gender.

Casting a wide net may not work out for you in the end. If you want to make money on Instagram, you’ll have to engage in a level of specialization. You can always veer away from time to time. Still, brands and followers need to know what they can expect from you.

For example, anyone can buy the Stanley Cup if they want to. Still, they have their ideal audience that they are marketing to. Focusing on one specific demographic of follower has not thwarted their success. In fact, the intensive marketing has created somewhat of a cult.

Daniel Wellington targets a different audience than Nike. Both experience success. Remember that.

3. Decide on the Campaign That Works Best for You

There are so many different ways that you can create a campaign. In this article, we go into depth concerning the specific types of campaigns that you can run. It doesn’t mean that you’re limited to just one. You can combine as you like as needed.

4. Choose the Ideal Instagram Influencer

This is where you are awash with options. There is an influencer for every small sector of interest that exists. There is an influencer with the size following that you want. There is an influencer that creates exactly the kind of content that you like. There might be both micro-influencers and mega-influencers on your radar.

You’ll have to narrow down your list to a reasonable number. You should contact everyone that you think has a nice IG page. We can help you sift down the number by telling you some considerations that you should have.

What other brands do they promote? You can’t use an influencer that will promote your competitor. What are their values? You don’t want to worry that one day, the Internet cancels them, and your brand is a casualty. 

Do they respond to the comments on their posts? You want to know that they’ll answer questions about your product. Do they have a high engagement rate, or is that just a high follower count? When you begin to negotiate prices and deliverables, this shortlist will go down even further.

Have a clear understanding of deliverables on both ends. Get transparency of their Instagram insights when negotiating prices.

5. Keep Track of Your Results

You need to know that your methods are working. Use the Instagram Insights tool; it will give you the plane numbers. Check out the numbers for your interaction and your overall reach. This is an important point, so let’s talk about it a little more.

How To Track Influencer Marketing Campaigns

Depending on your budget, you might end up spending a lot of money on an influencer marketing campaign. Like with any investment, you’ll have to make sure that you’re getting the returns that you need. This is why you set metrics in the beginning. 

You’ll need to know how to track influencer marketing campaigns. We can give you some general tips that you should go by. Of course, these tips are subject to what your actual goals are.

1. You Can Track Using Discount Codes

If you went the route of using affiliate marketing, these social media influencers would have codes or links. These tools are good for tracking how often people use them. You should be able to access your metrics relatively easily if you do the affiliate link route. Of course, not everyone takes this route.

2. Sales Say It All

Did you have a product that you needed to get off the shelves? Selling these products could determine the success of the influencer campaign. How many times did people book a consultation? How many times did they follow through after adding an item to their cart?

In some cases, this could be all the indicators you need to determine if your campaign was successful. If it wasn’t successful, now you know how to pivot. Maybe you need to use user-generated content (UGC) instead or use a different influencer.

3. See if the Engagement Rate Improved

Of course, sometimes it’s about more than making a quick sale. Maybe you are still in the stages of growing your following. You were aiming for better engagement with a more committed following. The analytics on your Instagram page will let you know if you are successful.

The Best Influencer Marketing Campaigns Include Plixi

The best influencer marketing campaigns still need help from a social media growth expert. Plixi is the growth tool that will send your progress to a new level. We know the market better than anyone. We’ll use our expertise to your advantage.

We have the means to give you the results that you want. For one, we have an in-house platform for Instagram influencers. We also have a propriety AI targeting algorithm that we’ve worked on over the past decade. 

Your goals are within arm’s reach! Start growing and gaining Instagram followers today.