Influencer Marketing Best Practices: How to Actually Make It Works!

I will use this post to talk about influencer marketing and how this marketing technique can help small, medium, and large companies to position themselves in digital media better. Applying good practices to marketing with effective influencers is essential for any brand and knowing how to choose opinion leaders for the campaign, not limiting your creativity, building a relationship, and monitoring results. All these are part of what you should do when working with this strategy.

I will walk you through in detail on some of the influencer marketing best practices. This is because merely sending a gift to an influencer will not be enough to make a good influencer marketing impact.

So, What is an influencer?

A person who can influence their community in a broad or specific niche market.

Why Should you Use influence marketing?

• There is more credibility of the message
• There is more connection between brands and fans
• More experiences and fewer words are generated
• The recommendations are more credible
• More and more brands use this technique, and others plan it
• The most commonly used metric to measure ROI is the number of publications
• For most brands this technique is effective
• Influence marketing works best for releases

What Influence Marketing is used for

This marketing technique is often used to:

• For product or service launches
• To launch a brand
• To promote a brand, product or service
• For events

What to do before starting campaigns with influencers?

Influencers are opinion leaders capable of influencing their followers. They are active people in social networks. They know how to communicate with users and how to connect with them. 

Thanks to this, they have gained the trust and credibility of the followers.

Due to the importance that social networks have gained, brands discovered the value of working with influencers. It is a different way to reach the user and increase brand reach.

Choosing the right person is essential for campaigns with influencers to work. In this way, the brand will get a significant boost and a new way to communicate with its audience. This strategy works because the current consumer relies more on the opinion of another person than on the voice of the brand.

Regular advertising ceased to be as effective as it was before, and some programs block ads on digital devices. Users have changed, millennials - who are the most active consumers - are more reluctant to traditional ads. Faced with this reality, new ways of reaching the audience must be sought, and this has proven to be effective.

When you start doing your influencers campaign, you need to do the following:

#1 Define the objectives

Accurate if you want to get visibility, loyalty, increase conversions or traffic, etc.

Decide if you will work with a single "big" influencer or with several micro-influencers. The latter could achieve similar results, even more real, at a lower cost.

You should know what audience you want to reach and investigate the characteristics of the influencers' followers. Now that you know what your goal is, you should consider what the best way to reach it is. Create a detailed plan with the tactics you will carry out. 

The possibilities are many! Therefore, think in advance how you are going to address the Influencer, what actions you will take with him, what the message will be, the dates of publication, etc. What do you want to emphasize?

It can be in the design of the pieces, in the content you offer, in the visual, etc. The less improvisation, the better.

#2 Choose the right person or group

Anyone who has enough popularity and credibility in social networks does not mean that it is appropriate for your campaign. You must take into account the niche in which it operates. 

To select a perfect Influencer for your brand, first, think of those people who have substantial authority to a specific issue related to your sector.

On the other hand, keep in mind which medium is the most used by your audience to consume content. Although the Influencers communicate through different channels, it is difficult for them to have the same arrival through all of them. You will see that some have more traffic on their blog, others on YouTube, on Twitter, and some have desirable audiences in all their podcasts. 

The important thing is that you evaluate their profiles on social networks carefully to know if their followers are the target of your brand. You should also analyze the type of product on which the Influencer usually thinks, what he does, what are the topics that interest him, what are his hobbies and in which geographical locations have a more significant impact. The choice will depend on your item, your objective, and your audience.

There are different types of influencers;

• Opinion leaders: They are experts who recommend your product or service because they use it and give them good results (in fact, they can become evangelizers of it).
• Celebrities: The type' personalities celebrities "often promote fashion products, clothing, perfumes, and accessories. They may be the most expensive Influencers, but they have a very high impact and reach many thousands of people in a matter of minutes.
• Experts: On the other hand, there are experts in a specific subject, which are ideal if you need to reach a particular niche.
• Product Reviewers: These influencers, on the other hand, are the ones who are always at the forefront testing the latest products and share.

For example, if you sell nutritional supplements, it works better for you to work with someone who is dedicated to fitness than with a fashion blogger. Finding an influencer is a challenge. You can search for them yourself through social networks, and that will mean a significant investment of time.

Another option is to contact them through agencies, and the disadvantage is that they can have their pre-established conditions and charge you extra fees. Before making your proposal for influencers, ask yourself why you want to work with that person. What is the message you want to send?

This will help you define whether you are dealing with the right person.

#3 Analyze the engagement they have with their users

It is essential to determine which social networks you want to publish content to develop successful campaigns with influencers. This will also help you research and choose the right person to promote your brand. Define what you will offer to the Influencer for getting involved in your campaign.

Resorting to influencers is one of the marketing strategies that brands should consider today. However, to be effective, you have to pay attention to every detail. From choosing the right person to complying with legal regulations.

Keep in mind that it is still advertising, even if it does not seem so.

#4 Forecast the Success of Your Campaign

In any online and social media marketing strategy, the engagement is worth more than the number of followers of the brand. The influencers are also a brand. A large number of followers does not mean it has a great reach.

This is because many people who use fake accounts to bulk up the counter. Instead, look at the number of comments, likes, and shared content. These three factors are indicators of the user's level of engagement with their audience.

At this point, we can talk again about choosing between someone very famous or several micro-influencers. If you prefer the first, a top-notch athlete - for example -, it may not give the importance that your brand deserves. Your message to the audience may be less 'real' than the opinion of another person with fewer followers but truly feel connected to your brand.

#5 Talk with the Influencer

First of all, remember that all these influential people are human just like you. Therefore, write to them without fear and tell them your proposal in detail. Sometimes, you can directly contact the blogger, YouTuber, or celebrity, and sometimes you will have to talk to an intermediary company. 

In any case, try to be very clear and precise in what you communicate. Of course, at the time of contact, there should be no doubt about the strategy, the objectives sought, the times you have, and every detail of your action plan. In the first contact, it is essential that you briefly describe your brand and your product.

Also, make sure that it is evident what exactly you are looking for in that Influencer and what actions he or she should take to achieve it. Presenting examples from previous campaigns can help you explain and strengthen the idea. Another thing to consider is you must agree on his rate.

Do a previous investigation to be sure that your budget lives up to what the Influencer asks for. And if not, think about whether you could benefit through trade or service.

#6 Define the content strategy

You must define what type of content you are going to publish. If you have technical specifications on how the Influencer should deliver it, let the know! In addition, you should be clear about the frequency of your published campaign will be.

All these aspects should be apparent to the Influencer. Conveniently, you review the content before it is published. This way, you make sure that it complies with your guidelines and that it does not violate any laws.

However, you should not limit the creativity of the Influencer. Giving him freedom in his creative process is the only way to make his message authentic.

#7 Relate to your influencers

Developing a stable, sincere relationship with influencers will bring many benefits to your brand. The message will be more real if the person identifies with the values you represent. Also, keep in mind that they also expect something in return; their name and credibility are at stake in supporting your brand.

If you get him to believe in what you do and have a long-term relationship, his audience will perceive it. Then, the results you get will be better.

#8 Take care of the legal aspects

Unlike other countries such as the United States or the United Kingdom, in some countries in Europe don't define regulation for advertising with influencers. However, the IAB established a Branded Content Legal Guide with a series of recommendations to carry out these strategies. The objective is to protect the user and avoid deceptive advertising.

Among the recommendations, we find that it is necessary to make it clear that the publication is an Ad. It can be done with a message in the image, video, or within the text. Also adding a label that indicates it, for example, #ad, #referral or #sponsor.

The publication should not violate existing prohibitions on products and services such as violating people's rights and dignity. Intellectual property rights must also be respected.

To shield the relationship between the brand and the Influencer, a contract must be signed.

This should be clear about the services that are being agreed upon and the conditions. It also establishes the type of remuneration you will receive, whether it will be monetary or through products and services. Each of the parties may add the clauses it deems necessary in the contract for influencers.

The more specific it is, the easier it is to comply with the terms.

What to do when your campaign is running

When the marketing campaign is running, you have to measure the results actively.

As with any marketing strategy, it is necessary to monitor the results of the campaign. This way, you will know if you have reached the right audience and can even gather more information about the target audience.

You will also know the performance of the campaign. Evaluate the number of impressions, comments, likes, shared content, etc. The metrics you choose will depend on your goals.

See if you have achieved more conversions and who have used campaign tags.

This will help you attract new customers or implement specific actions for them.

How to measure the impact of Influencer Marketing actions

Monitoring the results as the campaign progresses will allow you to apply the necessary changes. In this case, you have to measure some qualitative and quantitative metrics.

The Qualitative metrics are:

• Feeling of interactions following in the influential message (can be seen in comments and emoticons people used)
• Connections impact between brand and fans
• Interest was shown by the prominent message
• Feedback from communities regarding the action

The Quantitative metrics are:

• Number of posts in blogs and social networks
• Engagement of publications
• Number of clicks on post links (traffic)
• Number of conversions due to clicks (purchases, registrations, etc.)

Quantitative metrics are determining factors, but qualitative ones are more essential.

At Last…

Resorting to influencers to do marketing is a way to get to know and expand your audience. In fact, in the last few years, it has become a popular strategy to market new products. This trend will be expected to grow for the following months.

Contact influential people in your niche and start working with them. These are good practices for marketing with effective influencers. Have you applied this strategy before? 

Tell us about your experience. If you need help with your marketing strategy, ask for a budget in our company.