Influencer Marketing Strategy

How to launch an influencer campaign ?

December 31, 2021

Time to take your marketing strategy to the next level and collaborate with influencers! 

If you have never launched an influencer campaign before, this might sound scary and you might feel lost as to what you have to begin with. We got you covered! Here is everything you need to know to launch an influencer campaign. 

The first step is obviously to choose your influencers.

 

The search for influencers

You should keep in mind that influencers need to match your brand image and values. It would be a complete mistake to choose an influencer simply because you like them or because they have a lot of followers ⚠️

There are many types of influencers, from nano to mega influencers, you should choose the type of influencer depending on your campaign objectives. For example, a nano or micro-influencer usually has a very engaged community so working with them will have an impact on your conversion rate, whereas mega influencers have a large community which will mostly have an impact on your visibility. 

Your choice of influencer also depends on your budget, but you shouldn’t limit your choices based on this criteria. Remuneration can always be negotiated, especially if the influencer is enthusiastic about your collaboration proposition. 

Finding influencers who share the same values as your brand is important because it will give legitimacy to your partnership and your influencer campaign will look more authentic. 

On Favikon, you can search influencers by keywords, which will help you to determine which creators will be the best fit for your brand ✨

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The choice of the influencer

The next step is to check your influencer’s audit because an account with a lot of followers won’t necessarily bring you a lot of visibility. Why? Simply because some influencers have bought fake followers. Thus their account might look nice at first, but it won’t be profitable for your business and you will waste money by working with them. For example, on Favikon you can find the percentage of suspicious followers an influencer has. If this percentage is high, run!! 🏃 You will also find precious information on their audience (their countries, age, gender…). 

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Then there are other important data to consider, such as their engagement rate, or saturation rate. An excellent engagement rate means that this influencer has a very supportive community that interacts a lot with their content. The saturation rate is also an interesting figure to check before contacting an influencer. It is the ratio among sponsored and organic content. If an influencer has a high saturation rate, you might not want to work with them, as your collab will be lost between many others. Your collab probably is less likely to have an impact on their followers as they are used to seeing paid partnerships from this influencer.  

Great, you have found the perfect influencers but there is one more step before you can actually contact them. ☝️

Prepare your presentation

Make sure to write a complete brief explaining who you are, what you sell, your values, but also include the type of format that you expect from them and the type of content that you would like, and any other important information worth mentioning. This will save both you and the influencer time. The creator will immediately know what you expect and if they wish to work with you. 

Now, it is time to contact influencers!

This will be the first impression the influencer will have of your brand, so you want to make sure to leave  a good impression.✨ 

Which communication channel should you use? 

You could obviously contact influencers directly on their social media by sending them a private message. It is quick and the influencer will be able to check your brand’s social media easily. However, contacting them by email will always look more professional. A lot of influencers have their email address in their bio, meaning that they prefer to receive collaboration inquiries through emails. One thing to remember is that influencers get a lot of partnership propositions, so make sure that your email is clear and concise. This first mail should spark the interest of the influencer. So be engaging and personalize your mail. 💻 

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For instance, explain what you love about their content. 

 

Once the influencer has agreed on the partnership and the brief, you might want to write a contract for them to sign. Of course, this depends on the type of collaboration you are asking for. If you are only offering free products this might not be necessary. But contracts are always important as they will assure that the influencer completes every aspect of the brief. 

Finally, when you reach out to an influencer, this might be the time to discuss remuneration. Generally, you would send them your budget when sending them the brief but it is not necessary. You might want to negotiate their price with them, or else offer them free products instead of money.

What to do after the launch of your influencer campaign? What’s next? 

Great, your influencers posted their content but your work doesn’t stop there! 🤔 As a brand you should interact with your influencers’ content: comment on their post, repost their stories, etc. 

Let the influencers know you like their content! 

Don’t hesitate to repost their posts and stories, your followers will like to know that you're working with influencers and it is always nice to post content that isn’t made by your brand. Influencers’ content often seems more genuine and personal than brand content so it is interesting to repost them on your account. 

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Analyze the result of your campaign. 

You need to know if your campaign was successful and if you implemented the right strategy. There are a few criteria that you can check for that. If the objective of your campaign was to gain visibility, you should check your number of followers, the reach on your posts, the number of views on your stories, etc. Here are a few examples of successful campaigns that had different objectives. 

Turn your influencers into brand ambassadors or long-term partnerships. 

If your first collaboration with an influencer is a success, why not consider working with them in the long term? Try getting feedback from the influencers, did they like this collaboration? This is the right time to engage in discussion for long-term partnerships or ask them to become brand ambassadors. 🏆