Alicia's 6 Best Tips For Successful Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing can be tricky sometimes – trust us, we know! That is why we asked Alicia, our Head of Influencer Operations, for her best tips and tricks!

1. Define your target audience and set clear goals 
Before you decide on the type of campaign you want to run, what channel to use and which strategy to follow in your influencer marketing activities, it is of great importance to have a clear idea of what your goal is. A common mistake many businesses make is that they want to achieve everything and reach everyone, with just one campaign. 

Unfortunately, there is no single strategy that allows you to successfully target every audience and obtain great results on all parameters. The only thing that is certain if you choose to work with this mindset is that you will end up disappointed. Therefore, start any influencer marketing effort by defining your target audience and setting clear goals – then you can decide on the channel and strategy to use.

2. Become a brief master

Writing a brief to influencers is a form of art. It is important that you keep it concise enough to retain the influencers’ attention, and informative enough to limit misinterpretation and confusion. It also needs to be written in an entertaining and inspiring way, in order for the invited influencers to feel like it is a kick-ass campaign that they just have to be a part of! In summary, the brief should be clear, fun and leave room for the influencers to make their own creative mark on their content.

3. Background check – and check again 

Another important, and perhaps the most obvious, aspect to take into consideration when running an influencer marketing campaign is to be careful with which profiles you choose to work with. Don not let yourself be blinded by a large amount of followers – they might have been bought, they might live in a country outside your target market, they may be of the wrong gender or at the wrong age, and the list goes on. If you do not work with a tool that can provide you with this type of information, you can always ask the influencers to send it to you. However, this method will not help you detect purchased followers/ghost followers, which is why we always recommend working with an influencer marketing platform, an agency or other third-party tools that have access to the right data.

4. Negotiate!

The second you invite an influencer to a collaboration you should be prepared to negotiate. Many influencers today have a set price list, specifying their wage for different type of content. But it is important to know that you do not have to accept it without questioning or making a counter offer. To know who is worth investing money in, you need to revisit your objectives and think about how well this specific influencer can contribute to reaching it. You can always ask for information or data that can strengthen the fee that the profile requires, and do not be afraid to ask them for results from previous campaigns they have participated in.

5. Work together with your influencers 

Although it is important that the influencers you work with follow the instructions of the campaign and create content that is in line with your brand values, you should always avoid micro-managing. Remember that the influencers are in contact with your potential customers every day, and know what they like and dislike. Ask for their ideas and input on the collaboration – their knowledge, experience and creativity within the field makes their opinion invaluable. Also take the opportunity to ask for feedback that is useful for future campaigns:  What did they think about your product/service? How did they experience the collaboration? How did it compare to other collaborations they have done? Would they like to continue the collaboration? 

6. Analyze to optimize

Just as with any other marketing activity, it is extremely important to not just set clear goals for your influencer marketing efforts, but also to follow up on those results and evaluate your performance.

If you are doing a large campaign that extends over a longer period of time, you will have plenty of time to continuously analyze and optimize along the way. If it is a shorter campaign, you should analyze the results afterwards in order to optimize for future campaigns. To make a comprehensive and relevant analysis, you need to start by collecting all available statistics – especially those that are relevant for your objective.

We know it can be difficult to analyze a campaign, and it becomes increasingly more difficult to draw relevant conclusions the smaller the campaign and the fewer influencers. But make sure to gather as much information as possible and learn from the results – end the collaboration with those who did not perform well, reuse the ones that did and find similar profiles for the next campaign.

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