Influencer marketing campaigns have 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 or influencer campaign by building brand awareness and reaching new audiences, without a big budget.
Running an influencer campaign doesn’t mean simply sending samples of your products and getting customers but 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.
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What is influencer marketing?
Before having a look on how to create it, let’s find out what the terminology means. An individual who is a thought leader or celebrity in a particular niche and has an active community of followers on social media platforms is an influencer.
And, influencer marketing uses endorsements, product reviews and mentions or tagging from influencers to drive brand awareness, engagement, and sales.
Related read: 25 tips to increase your sales from Instagram (with examples)
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.
What is the state of influencer marketing in India?
You might be thinking about whether influencer marketing would be a beneficial strategy or not. Isn’t it? So, undoubtedly, it would be the best option or strategy. Let’s understand how with the following statistics released by Statista.
In 2022, the Indian influencer marketing sector had a valuation exceeding 12 billion Indian rupees. It was anticipated to experience a compound annual growth rate of 25 percent in the ensuing five years, with an estimated market worth of 28 billion Indian rupees by 2026.
In a worldwide survey conducted in 2023, which involved PR agencies, marketing agencies, brands, and other pertinent experts revealed:
- 39 percent of those surveyed reported that their organisations collaborated with between 1 to 10 influencers.
- Meanwhile, 12 percent indicated that they engaged with more than a thousand influencers.
- A quarter (25 percent) of the participants revealed that they allocated between 10 to 20 percent of their marketing budget to influencer marketing.
- Additionally, 23 percent dedicated over 40 percent of their budget to this specific digital marketing approach, marking a substantial rise compared to the previous year when only 5 percent of respondents did so.
Types of influencer marketing
Let’s explore the various ways you can leverage influencer marketing to boost your brand. Influencer marketing isn’t one-size-fits-all; it comes in several flavours to suit different goals and styles. Here’s a relaxed breakdown of the types of influencer marketing:
- Product reviews and recommendations: Think of this as the influencer’s version of your product’s TripAdvisor review. They share their thoughts and experiences, which can build trust with their followers.
- Sponsored content: Imagine influencers as your brand’s unofficial spokespeople. They create posts or videos featuring your product or service, giving it the limelight it deserves.
- Affiliate marketing: In this setup, influencers are like your sales team. They promote your offerings using special links and earn a commission for every sale they drive.
- Contests and giveaways: This is like a digital party with influencers as your hosts. They throw contests and giveaways, bringing in guests (followers) who can become your future customers.
- Brand ambassadors: Imagine influencers as long-term brand companions. They consistently promote your brand over time, making it part of their identity (let’s discuss in detail in the upcoming section)
- Social media takeovers: Ever handed your phone to a friend and let them post on your Instagram? Well, this is a more structured version of that. Influencers take control of your social media accounts, putting their own spin on your brand’s story.
- Cause marketing: In this scenario, influencers aren’t just promoting products; they’re promoting a cause or social responsibility. It’s like supporting a mission together.
- Celebrity influencer marketing: This is the star-studded version. If you’ve got the budget, partnering with celebrities can put your brand in the spotlight.
What makes a successful influencer marketing campaign?
Let’s talk about what it takes to make an influencer marketing campaign truly successful. It’s not just about picking the right influencers; it’s about the whole package. So, what are the key ingredients for a winning influencer marketing campaign?
- Clear goals: It all starts with knowing what you want to achieve. Do you want to boost brand awareness, drive sales, or create engagement? Having clear objectives sets the tone for the entire campaign.
- Audience alignment: The influencers you choose should be a good fit for your target audience. Their followers should actually be interested in what you’re offering.
- Authenticity: Authenticity is a must. The influencer’s connection to your brand should be genuine, not just a paid endorsement. Forced or overly scripted content usually doesn’t work.
- Compelling content: The content needs to be eye-catching and resonate with the influencer’s audience. It should tell a story, look good, and feel in line with the influencer’s usual style.
- Transparency: Make sure the influencer clearly states their partnership with your brand. It builds trust with their followers and keeps you on the right side of advertising regulations.
- Open communication: Keep the lines of communication open with your influencers. They should be on the same page with your brand, goals, and messaging.
- Adaptability: Be prepared to adjust your campaign based on real-time feedback and performance data.
- Measurable ROI: At the end of the day, your campaign should bring a positive return on investment. Measure the costs versus the benefits to determine success.
Related read: How to find the right social media influencer for your business
Here is an example of Mrunu Panchal’s Instagram handle and how she’s promoting Milkmakeup editions.
View this post on Instagram
As a small business, is it appropriate to choose this mode of marketing? Ofcourse, it is! Therefore, we have explained the steps you need to take for creating a successful influencer marketing campaigns.
Let’s build one for you!
How to create a successful influencer marketing campaign?
So, you want to know how to create killer influencer marketing campaigns, right? Well, you’re in the right place. Influencer marketing can be an amazing way to get your brand out there and engage with your audience, but it’s not as simple as it may seem. It takes some planning and strategy to make it work.
So, let’s have a look and learn how to measure the success of an influencer marketing campaign and get some real results through the strategy!
1. Set your goals
Before you kick off any marketing campaign, it’s vital to establish objectives. You must have a well-defined understanding of what you aim to accomplish. Here are some typical goals that a brand should pursue when executing an influencer marketing campaigns:
- Increase brand awareness
- Generate more followers
- Build community
- Bring more leads and sales to website
- Build email list
Suppose your objective is to attract additional customers through your influencer marketing campaign. In that case, you’ll require an online store where the influencer can guide their audience.
If you don’t have one in place yet, it’s crucial to establish it before initiating your campaign. An online store not only enhances your credibility in the eyes of influencers but also opens up the potential for more robust partnerships.
With a user-friendly platform like Instamojo, you can set up your online store at no cost in a matter of minutes. Here’s a brief tutorial to assist you in getting started:
2. Research influencers on Instagram and other platforms
As we’ve mentioned, Instagram is the go-to spot for influencer marketing. So, that’s where you should kick off your hunt for potential brand influencers.
Now, let’s dive into some tips for finding the perfect 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 campaigns, 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 a big or small influencers?
According to research, micro-influencers have a bigger impact as compared to bigger influencers. These influencers typically have less followers and create content in a more specific-niche.
3. Use influencer marketing platforms
Identifying the ideal influencers can be a real challenge. If you’ve exhausted the methods mentioned above and are still coming up empty-handed, you might consider exploring the option of utilising an influencer marketing platform. These platforms not only assist in identifying suitable influencers but also facilitate building connections with them and running campaigns effectively.
Take a look at this compilation of some prominent influencer marketing platforms in India:
- Confluencer
- Ainfluencer
- OPA
- Influencer.in
4. Reach out to your chosen influencer
Now that you’ve identified the influencer you’d like to collaborate with, it’s essential to initiate contact with them in the right manner. While many might assume this is a straightforward task, it’s, in fact, one of the most pivotal stages in the process.
Here are some key considerations to bear in mind when getting in touch with your selected 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 help you reach your business goals. Here are the most common ones:
a. 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
Related read: How to use Instagram story highlights to get leads and engage customers
b. 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 a lesser number of followers usually opt for this.
c. Promo codes:
Influencers receive a unique promo code that they share with their followers. When someone purchases your product through their Instagram post, they receive a discount by using the provided promo code, and the influencer earns a commission. Here’s an illustration:
Here is a quick example of promo codes being displayed on That Boho Girl’s Insta page.
View this post on Instagram
d. Long term partnership/ambassador:
You can also get influencers to be long-term partners. This is more suitable for bigger brands with more budget. Recently, Nua partnered with Deepika Padukone to promote their range of menstrual hygiene products, which is also considered as the most successful influencer marketing campaigns.
This is how their campaign looks like:
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 the numbers.
a. Use the Instagram paid partnership feature.
On Instagram, influencers have the option to transparently indicate that they are sharing promotional content by using the “paid promotion” tag, which is typically displayed at the top of a post.
By tagging a paid partnership on their posts, brands gain visibility into the post’s reach and engagement metrics (such as likes and comments) through their Facebook Page Insights account.
This is how it looks like:
b. Use a UTM tracker link
If you want influencers to direct their audience to your eCommerce website, you can share them with 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.
c. 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.
Crafting your business’s online store: The Instamojo way
Now that you know how to go about creating the best influencer marketing campaigns, 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.
