The following is a synopsis of a comprehensive playbook I created on influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing has its place in the marketing ecosystem, but a successful influencer program requires strategy, creativity, data and measurement planning, public relations, social media management, content development, and advertising.
Multi-Disciplinary Skillset Required: 6 Functions Required
While individual people may not do each of these jobs, it’s essential that whoever manages the program considers each factor when building an influencer program.
1. Strategy & Creative
The strategy works with the creative team to understand the campaign’s message or program and how the influencer can help advance it.
2. Measurement
With the input from strategy, they’ll determine the measurable goal and the metrics to guide the team in knowing if they are on track to achieve the overall program’s objective. They will also assess, strictly from a data perspective, whether the financial investment is worth the potential gains.
3. Social Media
They’ll investigate if the influencer is on the correct channels for the audience you are trying to reach. They’ll also evaluate how they’ve engaged with their audience in the past. They might recommend specific channels or a particular social approach over another. They’ll manage brand engagement, ensure links and hashtags align with the social strategy and control how and when you share the influencer content across owned brand channels.
4. Content
How does the influencer’s content complement or supplement your overarching content strategy? Can they provide or enhance something you’re lacking? Content planners will consider usage across platforms such as your website, email, or other channels.
5. Public Relations
They will assess if the influencer partnership has any value from a public relations standpoint and, if so, how they can maximize it now and in the future. They will also coach the influencer on expectations for speaking on behalf of the brand and required brand standards and manage any press inquiries.
6. Advertising
They’ll manage paid amplification of the content on and off social media channels to ensure you’re receiving the most exposure for your investment. They’ll integrate with the social and measurement teams to incorporate any promotion codes, tracking pixels, tagging, and work with third-party vendors to manage ads and shoppable content.
What Leads to Success
Influencer marketing is at its peak effectiveness, and those who do it well will reap the rewards of success. But with all the conflicting information available on the topic, it’s hard to know what “doing it well” looks like.
These are the steps that we’ve seen lead to a successful influencer program outcome.
10-Step Guide to Influencer Marketing
Before deciding if an influencer is right for your program, you must have a firm grasp of the entire plan.
- What are you trying to achieve?
- Who are you trying to reach?
- Do you need people to take action? What is the CTA?
- What other tactics are you using?
- What other content do you have? How will influencer content complement that?
STEP 1 Finding Influencers
Identifying the right influencer might seem daunting, but it shouldn’t be. Often, the best influencer for you will already be prominent in your category. Who are the people generating buzz in your industry? Who do they follow, and who follows them? The best influencers will frequently surface for you through the content they’re creating.
Google Alerts/Search
It is not practical to remember to search for your keywords regularly, so you should automate. Google Alerts is a free, easy tool that will email you whenever your topic is mentioned online.
Social Platforms
Is there a particular platform for which you need to generate content, such as Instagram or Pinterest? If so, your influencer should be prominent, which is an excellent place to begin your search.
Influencer Software
If you don’t have the time or inclination to search the internet for your influencer, you can try one of the many influencer platforms created for this purpose. Dozens of influencer platforms function as influencer curation hubs where would-be influencers can sign up and be listed in the system as influencers for hire.
Agencies
Of course, the easiest way to find, manage, and net results for your influencer programs is to hire an agency to do it for you. It’s also the most expensive. It’s a trade-off.
STEP 2 Choosing The Right Influencer
By this point, you’ve determined that an influencer can help your program succeed and know how to find one. Now, you need to determine the criteria that will make this person or people the best influencers for your particular program.
Deciding on the right influencer is both an art and a science.
Consider:
- How much “influence” does your influencer need? Nano, Macro, Micro, Celebrity?
- What type of content do you need them to create? Photos? Video? Event appearance?
- How do you plan on measuring their impact?
Nano-Influencers
Of all the influencer groups, the nano-influencer has the smallest number of followers, maybe as few as 1,000, but they’re experts in a niche or highly specialized field.
Micro-Influencers
Micro-influencers are ordinary people who have become known for their knowledge about some particular area or niche. They typically have fewer than 10,000 followers on any given channel.
Mid-level Influencers
Most brands and businesses tend to play in the mid-level area because it provides a broad, general assortment of all-purpose influencers. These influencers are suitable for meeting various goals and typically have 25,000 and 150,000 followers on a single social platform.
Macro-Influencers
Well-known brands with more money seeking more established and predictable content creators aim to use macro-influencers. These influencers make up the bulk of the market and have between 150,000 and 1 million followers on a platform.
Celebrity-Influencers
While celebrity influencers with millions of followers may drive the most awareness and traffic, they’re also the most expensive, most complicated to work with, and have the least flexibility or likely passion for your product. You’ll want a PR person and legal to help manage this partnership and work through the celebrity’s agent.
STEP 3 The Best Content Type
Influencers are content creators, so when deciding to use an influencer, determine what content will best achieve your goal and look for influencers creating that type of content.
Most influencer marketing occurs in social media, blogging, and podcasting.
Blogger/Writer
Written content can be a way to tell an informational or detailed story about your brand or product.
Photo
Do you have a product or service that lends itself well to imagery? Travel and tourism, food, and fashion are a few industries that focus heavily on photography and working with influences that do it well.
Video
With platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and others, not to mention YouTube, pushing for and promoting video and having wild success, brands are scrambling to get in on the game.
Podcast
Podcasting is another form of brand content and influencer opportunity that’s just gaining traction. According to Convince and Convert, monthly podcast listeners have grown more than 50% from 2017 to 2020.
Live Event
Having an influencer attend an event has been a go-to tactic for many years. Modern marketers have social media influencers attend their events and post photos and videos to their followers before, during, and after to generate buzz, sell tickets, gain attention and promote their brands.
Animator/Designer
Some influencers have specialized skills. With the advent of platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and others where creativity is king, having excellent animation or design skills can go a long way.
STEP 4 Measuring Influencers
Establish A Goal
What you measure depends on your predetermined program objective for this influencer tactic. Are you trying to generate a lot of attention via impressions, drive event attendance, or generate product sales?
Pick one goal per influencer to ensure you have only one or two metrics to measure against.
STEP 5 Influencer Selection Criteria
A checklist will help keep you and your team on track and eliminate any subjectivity that may creep in from personal opinions.
Targeted Audience
How targeted is the influencer’s audience for this program? Do they have the correct type of demographics, interests, location, and engagement levels?
Content Tone
Does his or her content tone align with your brand or business, and will it help advance the type of image that your organization is striving to create?
Content Type
Do they create the type of content desired for this program (photo, video, podcast.)?
Audience Quality
Do they have a real audience and the average engagement rate needed to succeed?
STEP 6 Contracting
Congratulations! Now that you have an influencer — or a few — ready to work with, it’s time to make the relationship official.
The agreement should consist of a Scope of Work and a Contract.
Scope of Statement of Work (SOW)
An SOW is a document that captures and defines all aspects of your agreement. It outlines what will be provided and by whom, such as specific activities, deliverables, and timelines. A highly detailed SOW will prevent confusion regarding what the influencer creates, when, and how it will be used and managed.
Negotiations can begin after the influencer receives the SOW. Ensure you’ve built some flexibility into your budget to accommodate negotiations and inform the influencer if there are any non-negotiable points.
Contract
A legal agreement between the brand or organization and the influencer sets the expectations for both parties. The contract is the formalized written agreement that outlines all the topics we’ve already discussed and provides a paper trail for agreed-upon deliverables decided after negotiation.
You’ll want your legal team to help create your contract, but it should mirror the SOW sections.
STEP 7 Executing the Program
Now that you have a signed contract and scope of work, the relationship with your influencer can begin in earnest. You’ll want to provide them with details to set them and you up for a successful program.
Provide them with the following information:
- Copy guidance and requirements
- Social media engagement protocol
- Creative guidelines for photography and video
- Propping and styling guidance for products, logos, and trademarks
A disclosure is a statement that says, “This is a paid promotion.” Typically, with influencers, the easiest way to do it is with a hashtag #Ad, #Paid, or #Sponsored, but it can be done in other ways.
Not correctly disclosing advertising, including influencers, can result in fines, fees, and other legal issues for brands and influencers. You can avoid those issues by following the guidelines.
STEP 8 Content Review
The influencer will provide you with a draft of the imagery, video, blog, or other content you have contracted at some point. Assuming you’ve built it into your contract—and you should have—this is your opportunity to ensure that the content meets your quality standards and represents your brand or product well.
Setting clear guidelines and expectations upfront will save you a lot of time, edits, and disappointment on both sides during the content review process.
I can’t stress enough that it is much more important to set expectations before influencers create content than to try to correct them afterward.
STEP 9 Social Media Engagement Protocol
After your influencer has posted about your products, brand, event, or organization on their social media channels, blog, or elsewhere, they may receive comments and questions. Ensure they have all the information they need to answer correctly and drive the user further toward your goal.
You can do this by providing them with engagement protocol information. Here are some things you should consider, including.
- Cost of products, events, or services, if relevant.
- Product or event information details and such as features, benefits, time, date, and any pertinent information to help them sell
Provide them with a list of answers to frequently asked questions
- How does this taste, feel, smell, and sound? What is the texture?
- Does it come in other colors? What is the size availability?
- Can I get this at other retailers, in other cities, etc.?
STEP 10 Reporting
Once we get to the reporting part of the plan, we often realize we didn’t set up a measurable goal. Don’t let this happen to you.
Your report should include all the organic results from the influencer posts, including impressions, reach, clicks, profile or website visits, etc.
Begin your report with a recap of the original goal and any benchmarks you outlined in planning, as well as screenshots or files of the content. End your report with a summary of results, key learnings, potential optimizations for future programs and an overall assessment of the program’s outcome.
That’s it. If you follow these steps, you’re well on your way to launching and managing a successful influencer marketing program that meets your goals.