Influencer marketing has proven to be a huge growth asset when it comes to social media businesses . Both mega brands and small businesses can benefit from influencer marketing — build brand awareness and reach new audiences, without a big budget.
Running an influencer campaign is simply not by sending samples and getting customers. You need to strategise right from the beginning.
Here’s how you can create and run a successful marketing campaign along with examples to get the ideas clear.
Contents
- 1 What is influencer marketing
- 2 State of influencer marketing in India
- 3 How to create a successful influencer marketing campaign
- 4 1. Set your goals
- 5 3. Use influencer marketing platforms
- 6 4. Reach out to your chosen influencer
- 7 5. Decide on the campaign
- 8 6. Track and measure with the help of analytics
- 9 Conclusion
What is influencer marketing
Firstly, let’s look at who an influencer is. An individual who is a thought leader or celebrity in a particular niche and have an active community of followers on social media platforms.
Influencer marketing uses endorsements, product reviews and mentions from influencers to drive brand awareness, engagement, and sales.
Influencer marketing is rooted in the concepts of community and social proof. A community that is grown organically on a social platform who have a common interest can be leveraged to sell products and services.
State of influencer marketing in India
Over the past five years, many social media influencers have emerged in India, many of whom take it up as a full-time career.
The creator-led economy fuelled the growth of influencer marketing and made it a 9 billion dollar industry, and is expected to reach 22 billion by 2025. That makes it one of the fastest growing industries in India.
Among different social media platforms, Instagram is the most preferred marketing channel when it comes to influencer marketing.
Which industries choose influencer marketing as preferred marketing medium? Lifestyle, beauty, and music are the industries that have the greatest distribution of influencers across channels. And they have seen success in their campaigns. Do you have a brand in this industry? Then you should definitely try creating an influencer marketing campaign, if you haven’t already.
As a small business is it appropriate to choose this mode of marketing? We have explained the steps you need to take to create a successful influencer marketing campaign.
How to create a successful influencer marketing campaign
Running an influencer campaign is simply not by sending samples and getting customers. You need to strategise right from the beginning. Here’s how to successfully conduct influencer marketing for your business:
1. Set your goals
For any marketing campaign, it is essential to set goals before launching.
You need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve. Here are some common goals brands have when running an influencer marketing campaign:
- Increase brand awareness
- Generate more followers
- Build community
- Bring more leads and sales to website
- Build email list
If your goal is to get more customers, you will need an online store where the influencer can direct their audience to. If you don’t have one already, it’s important to create one before you start your campaign. An online store also shows your authenticity to influencers and you can get better partnerships.
With a platform like Instamojo, you can create a FREE online store within minutes. Here’s a short tutorial to get you started:
2. Research influencers on Instagram and other platforms
As mentioned before, Instagram is the most preferred marketing channel when it comes to influencer marketing. So, that’s the place to start researching potential influencers for your brand.
Here are some tips to find the best influencers for your brand:
- Explore hashtags
- Look at your competitors accounts
- Search within your audience
- Ask your audience
Once you have a list of influencers to choose from, narrow down your options by looking at details like engagement and geography. Find out if their audience matches yours by looking at their demographics.
For a successful influencer marketing campaign, your target audience must be a match for your chosen influencer’s demographic.
You should also analyse the type of content they create. Make sure the influencer can deliver the high-quality content you need for your campaign. It’s also important that their aesthetic matches yours.
Should you reach out to big or small influencers?
According to research, micro-influencers have a bigger impact as compared to bigger influencers. These influencers typically have lesser followers and create content in a more specific-niche.
For more details, here’s a complete guide on how to find the right influencer.
3. Use influencer marketing platforms
Finding the right influencers can be hard. If you still don’t find the right influencer using the above steps, you might want to try using an influencer marketing platform. These platforms will also help you create connect with them and run campaigns.
Here’s a list of top influencer marketing platforms in India:
4. Reach out to your chosen influencer
Now that you know who you want to be your influencer, it’s time to reach out to them the proper way. Most people think that this is a simple task, but it’s actually one of the most crucial steps.
Here are some things to keep in mind when reaching out to your chosen influencer:
- Make sure you find the right contact details from their Instagram page or their website. Email is the best way to professionally reach out instead of Instagram DM.
- Send a personalised message introducing yourself, your brand, and what kind of collaboration you want to do. Never copy and paste the same message. It’s best to send a short email at first.
- Be as transparent as possible
5. Decide on the campaign
There are many ways an influencer can hep you reach your business goals. Here are the most common ones:
Payed for each post or story:
The rate will be higher based on follower count and niche. For example, Masoom Minawala, a fashion influencer promotes different lifestyle brands through her Instagram account. Such influencers usually get paid per post or story.
View this post on Instagram
Free products in exchange for review:
Are you a business with a small budget? No problem. Influencer marketing is still possible if you can work with influencers who can get your product reviewed on their account without payment. Influencers with lesser number of followers usually opt for this.
Promo codes:
Influencers get a promo code which they share with their community. When anyone who goes on to buy your product from their Instagram post will receive a discount, either using a special promo code and the influencers also get a commission. Here’s an example:
Long term partnership/ambassador:
You can also get influencers to be long-term partners. This is more suitable for bugger brands with more budget. Recently, Nua partnered with Deepika Padukone to promote their range of menstrual hygiene products.
View this post on Instagram
6. Track and measure with the help of analytics
To measure the success of your campaign, you need to keep track of numbers.
Use the Instagram paid partnership feature.
Instagram allows influencers to clearly show that they’re posting promotional content with the paid promotion tag. You can see this at the header of a post.
Tagging paid partnership on posts can let brands see the reach and engagement (likes and comments) of the post on their Facebook Page Insights account:
This option is available for Instagram stories as well.
Use a UTM tracker link
If you want influencers ro direct their audience to your eCommerce website, you can share them a UTM link.
UTM is the piece of unique code you’ll add on to the end of your URL. With UTM tagging, you can clearly track where your traffic is coming from through Google Analytics.
Share results with your influencer
You need to analyse the metrics that you track. And the best way to do that is discussing it with your influencer. You can find out what worked and what didn’t, based on which you can create your next influencer campaign.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to go about creating an influencer marketing campaign, it’s time to prepare for the first step.
Make sure that your eCommerce business looks and feels good. Are you prepared to give the customers you get through your influencers the best shopping experience? Do you have a proper system in place to manage customers, orders, and shipping?
With an Instamojo online store, you get all the above under a single roof. Sign up today for a free eCommerce website.
