How to Master Influencer Marketing on Instagram
Influencer marketing is fast becoming one of the most powerful ways to turn internet users into customers.
A study performed by McKinsey & Company, one of the leading consulting firms in the United States, recently found that influencer marketing can generate twice as many sales compared to traditional paid advertising. Furthermore, influencer marketing can help you establish a more credible reputation by having a powerful social media voice vouch for your products or services.
If that doesn’t tell you how rewarding influencer marketing can be for your business, we don’t know what will.
Incorporating influencer marketing into your existing campaign can help you leverage sales while boosting your social proof at an expedited speed. Learn how you can take advantage of influencer marketing for your brand by taking notes on the following guide we’ve created just for you.
What’s in it for me?
Influencers are more than just powerful voices on the internet. They have gained a following due to their expertise and charisma. A beauty guru might be someone who has worked as a professional makeup artist for most of her life and can, therefore, make sound recommendations on beauty products and tools.
A celebrity may have a tremendous online following, but they are being followed by people mainly due to the work they do offline, that is usually unrelated to niche industries. This positions niche influencers as a more credible source for consumers looking into making a purchase.
Image credit: Social Media Examiner
Birchbox is a subscription service that is known for working with influencers to reach both online and offline success. For their May box, they worked with social media influencer Emily Schuman of Cupcakes and Cashmere to curate some of the best skin care products you can buy.
Having wide expertise in the beauty industry, Emily was able to bring in tremendous engagement for the company which translated to high sales.
PRWeek found that having an expert or influencer vouch for your product can lead to more sales compared to a celebrity endorsement.
And isn’t that the entire purpose of launching a marketing campaign in the first place?
How Do I Start an Influencer Marketing Campaign?
Compared to celebrities, you’ll have a much easier time reaching out to an Instagram influencer for a possible collaboration. This makes launching an influencer campaign a lot easier than you might think – you’re not trying to work with Hollywood A-listers here.
Learn how to kickstart a successful influencer marketing campaign by following the seven simple steps we’ve listed below.
Step 1: Identify Your Goals and Needs
Identifying your goals early can help you set the course for your campaign. Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, are a helpful guide to have when measuring the success of your campaign. Each indicator should tell you whether your campaign is on the right track in achieving your goals.
Below are some examples of KPIs that should help you measure the success of your campaign.
- Audience reach
- Impressions
- Views
- Engagement
- Click-throughs
- Follower count
- Sales
Tools like Social Mention and Trackur can help you measure various KPIs. You can find a number of free tools online that can help you track or measure a particular metric that’s integral to your campaign.
Step 2: Identify Your Influencer
Finding out who your target market perceives as influencers can help you identify potential collaborators.
You can directly ask the followers or users who fit your buyer persona who they go to for sound purchasing advice. This should point you to the right influencer much more quickly than doing research on your own.
From there, create a list of potential influencers you can work with. Find as many as you can because that list will be narrowed down later on. Reaching out to an influencer with a much larger following might be challenging but not at all impossible.
Ana Cheri is a fitness influencer on Instagram with over 9 million followers. Despite her broad reach, this social media superstar can easily be reached through her publicly-listed business email found on her Instagram bio.
Image credit: Mediatrix
This shows that she’s eager to work with brands and is open to receiving pitches from people like you.
Step 3: Prepare to Pitch
When brainstorming for the perfect introductory email with your chosen influencer, it’s important that you are as familiar as you can be with their body of work.
Hawaii’s PR department shows how important it is to pitch your campaign in the most appealing way possible. For their #LetHawaiiHappen campaign, they teamed up with numerous travel bloggers and gave them an opportunity to experience Aloha first hand.
Given that they’ve worked with several influencers around the world, it’s certain that whoever is handling Hawaii’s official Instagram account knows how to impress and be cordial with influencers they reach out to.
Sending a generic email to all the influencers you want to work with will be the death of your campaign. If an influencer feels like you are just sending them a generic and irrelevant pitch, they are more likely to ignore you.
Step 4: Establish your Credibility
In order to increase your chances of being noticed by an influencer, you must strengthen your credibility and social proof on Instagram.
Influencers can easily look you up after reviewing your proposal. If they see that you have a credible reputation on the internet, they’ll be more willing to work with you.
Numbers speak volumes on the internet.
Strengthening your social proof on Instagram while actively seeking influencers for your campaign can easily get overwhelming. To help you do both without overly exhausting yourself or your resources, we recommend you purchase high-quality Instagram followers from a reputable provider.
This is the most efficient way to boost your credibility without having to take time away from your influencer marketing campaign.
Step 5: Reach Out to Your Chosen Influencer
At this point, it’s important to keep in mind that establishing a relationship with potential collaborators is vital to a successful, recurring campaign. Be as cordial and personable as you can to make a good impression.
Old Navy knows the importance of establishing a good working relationship with influencers. For the holidays, they partnered with well-known lifestyle vlogger Meghan Rienks to give their followers fashion advice for the impending Christmas parties they’ll be attending.
This isn’t the first time the fashion brand worked with Meghan, and we doubt it will be the last.
Step 6: Work On the Post
When collaborating with an influencer, it’s important that you are as transparent as possible about your marketing goals and strategy.
If you want your Instagram post to gain massive reach, it’s a good idea to purchase high-quality likes from a reputable provider to give it the kickstart it needs.
Before purchasing likes to boost the post, make sure to discuss your plans with your influencer. It’s important that you make sure they are comfortable with your aggressive strategy.
Once the post is up, you can choose to upload the same post on your feed. You can also use tools such as Regram and PhotoRepost to repost the image directly without having to download it.
Step 7: Evaluate Results
Now that the post is up and your collaboration has had some time to spread around the net, you’ll want to evaluate the results you received.
Find out which of your goals were achieved and which ones fell short. This should help you come up with an even stronger strategy the next time around.
By taking note of the elements that made your campaign work, you’re able to benchmark success that makes it easier to recreate in the future.
Successful Influencer Marketing has been Figured Out!
Successful influencer marketing has been figured out by a lot of brands out there – all you have to do is craft a winning strategy of your own inspired by some of the winning campaigns you’ve seen here today.
Regardless of your marketing budget or tenure in the industry, anyone who’s anyone can launch an influencer marketing campaign – from small businesses to global brands. An influencer marketing campaign can easily scale for any type of business, because there are influencers out there with differing levels of popularity.
In order to guarantee success, you must bank on credibility. Choose an influencer who has a massive following and is considered a trusted voice by consumers on social media.
You also have to make sure your brand exudes credibility as well. You can do this the organic way but that will take time. Instead of simply waiting for organic growth, augment your strategies by purchasing a few thousand high-quality Instagram followers and social signals from a reputable provider. These bought followers should help you build a more credible presence and improve your social proof on Instagram.
Influencer marketing is one of the most powerful and results-driven marketing tactics out there today – and it’s about time you take full advantage of it.
Date: June 2, 2017 / Categories: Guide, Marketing, / Author: Mariko
