Planning an Influencer Marketing Campaign?
Check Out The Key Areas Wherein You Should Be Working!
Influencer Marketing is no more a new term in the dictionary because of the rapid growth of digitalization and people engaging themselves more and more on online platforms be it for any purpose.
Being up-to-date with the technological advancements is a must for any brand to exist. Therefore, influencers have become an important consideration for any brand planning out digital and social marketing strategies. Collaborating with influencers, engaging more and more with customers, managing campaigns, creating brand advocates is something one needs to watch out for.
So, we have come up with some vital aspects towards planning your Influencer Marketing Strategies with an integrated approach. Just check them out and get going!
Thoughtful Ideation for Excellent Outcomes
The reason why you are planning a marketing strategy is a pre-requisite. One has to have a clear idea in his mind as to why is he opting influencer marketing because a concrete goal is gonna help carry on with the campaign. Some key goals can be Brand Awareness, Building Brand Identity, Audience Building, Engagement, Sales, Customer Loyalty, etc.
Now, a clear notion as to what ultimately one wants to achieve can be really helpful in making you choose the right kind of influencer. Supposedly one wants to boost his brand awareness, the campaign will be differently planned. Similarly, if the focus aims to increase the purchases and conversions, he might need an entirely different influencer. The Key Performing Indicators thereby vary and so will the planning of your Influencer Marketing.
Pondering Over for an Apt Influencer
The very next step after you are sorted with your goal is selecting the ideal influencer in alignment to your customer’s personage. The influencer is the one who will be followed by your customers, and his content will engage them. This marks the importance of the right choice. It is thus very vital for a brand to dive a litter deeper to fetch an influencer who has a hefty amount of fan base, is quite active on social networking sites, has a good ROI, is industry-relevant and most importantly what kind of response he/she is getting back from the very industry.
Now that you have a list of the top influencers for your community and brand, you can move on to your influencer’s history; his recent projects and collaborations, success rate, the sponsored campaigns he gets, etc. In a nutshell, all you need to do is to be very clever and analytic to evaluate the potential influencer.
One very crucial thing to be taken care of while choosing the influencer is to make sure he is not promoting similar brands from the same industry or he is not the one who is being shared simultaneously by your competitor as your customers might give up interest on him.
Large Group of Influencers vs. Popular Individuals
Now a stage comes where you have to think enough to make yet another crucial choice for your brand, yes, it’s all a matter of choice or rather a matter of right choice with a great level of your brand introspection. The choice between large groups of influencers like: Nano and Micro-Influencers or popular individuals like: Online Stars, Celebrities or Category Experts is a tough call.
Considering your customers and the nature of your brand, you can decide what type of influencer you need. Celebs are the ones who are in limelight and they have a great influential impact on their fans thereby they can amplify your brand awareness and bring your brand into the eyes of many more potential customers.
On the other hand, these nano or micro-influencers have no such mass popularity which makes them limited to a certain level of reach. But a positive aspect is always there. Gone are the days when people used to imitate celebs and use each thing that they are using. Now, the new age of technology is making people think more and seeing less reach and more friendliness of these influencers, people get a sense of being more trustworthy.
Nevertheless, the celebs are still the influencing factor of many.
Depending on the requirement of your brand and analyzing the pros and cons of selecting the type of influencer for your product/brand, just make sure your growth potential and take the decision!
Focusing on the Social Media Platforms and Turning them into your Own Community
Choosing a primary platform to carry on with your Influencer Marketing is also an advantageous factor towards goal-achieving. So, considering your customers and potential customers well will make you decide which platform suits you best for promoting your product/brand. Think, your target audience use Instagram and Facebook pretty often, now you can ensure with your influencer his great pool of followers there and move ahead with your strategy.
Imagine! What if your customers become your brand advocates? Yes, Customer Relationship Program is a way wherein you can turn you existing customers into your influencers. All you need is an identification of the real brand/product lovers amongst your fans. In brief, if your customers are impressed with your brand, they will promote it through word-of-mouth or through their individual areas of reach through social media on a larger ground.
Company’s Human Resource! No Less than Influencers
A company’s employees can be its Brand Ambassadors, isn’t it? Why not?
Who can promote your brand/product better than your employees? They have a great influencing power to drive your brand’s awareness and sales. These potent influencers can share encouraging content of their social media handles and get your work done in no time proving out to be a great marketing tool for your brand. All you need to do is to awake the passion in them and encourage them towards playing their crucial role for their own brand/product.
Above discussed are some strategies which can prove out to be very helping for any brand. Just need a mix and match of some or all according to the nature of your brand, the target audience and yes, of course your budget.
The expected reach of influence i.e. restricted to a local community or a mass population is also important to be considered in advance before planning out a marketing campaign.
Authored by: Gautam Madhavan, Founder and CEO at Mad Influence.
