Creating Compelling Influencer Campaign

Everyone spends time scrolling through their feed, itching to find something informative or compelling. While trends tend to take over the majority of posts, content doesn’t have to be “trendy” to gain traction, it just has to be compelling. This is inclusive of influencer marketing campaigns as well. When creating a compelling content strategy it’s important to know your goals for the campaign, what kind of influencers you want to promote your brand, understand how to collaborate with influencers, and know how much money you’d like to spend towards the campaign. 

Influencer Campaign Goals

There are many different goals to have for an influencer marketing campaign and it’s important to identify what your brand would like to achieve the most through campaign creation. From increasing brand awareness to boosting sales, or driving website traffic, there are many benefits of influencer marketing. 

If you’d like to increase brand awareness, then having a solid foundation of your mission, messaging, and imagery is crucial. Brand awareness can help expand visibility and create positive associations with your brand. According to Charle Agency, “78% of marketers found that influencer marketing is an effective strategy for increasing brand awareness.” Not only is influencer marketing thought to be the most effective strategy for brand awareness at the moment, but it is proving to be.

Say you’re a wellness brand promoting supplements to improve mood but there is some stigma about supplements online. Your brand is going to break through that stigma with strong imagery, messaging, and influencer endorsement to genuinely represent how these new supplements assist in harnessing a well-life. Bringing awareness to your brand solely focusing on well-being will earn positive associations not only with your brand but with what you’re selling as well. This is backed up by Influencer Marketing Hub which reports that “consistent brand presentation across all platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%.” 

Now maybe your brand visibility is doing great but your sales aren’t doing so hot. Then your goal is boosting sales. Collaborating with influencers will help achieve this goal because now you have a face (with a following) endorsing your product. The influencer can incorporate links for audiences to easily access, discount codes to incentivize purchases, and they can speak personally to the product. 

Whether your goal is increasing brand awareness, boosting sales, or driving website traffic, the important thing is identifying which is most important and ensuring your strategy focuses on that goal. 

Discovering Your Influencers

You’ve picked a goal but now how do you find the perfect representative to showcase your brand? Reaching out to companies like CEG is the first step because we can draw from our vast database of influencers to find the right match for you. Written by Meltwater, 34% of brands report having difficulty finding influencers. The challenge is in filtering through the sea of influencers, making sure they match your brand values, that they have a solid following and engagement rate, and that they’re credible online figures. We’ve already done the hard work of finding genuine influencers who are excited to work with brands, so consider reaching out for this step in creating a campaign.

After deciding how you’re going to find influencers, you want to then understand what type of influencer to work with: mega-influencers (2.5M+ followers), macro-influencers (500,000-2.5M followers), mid-tier influencers (100,000-500,000 followers), micro-influencers (10,000-100,000 followers), celebrities, UGC creators, or a mix of it all. Each type of influencer has its benefits. Do you want to reach a larger audience that may not have the best engagement rate, or connect with a smaller following that has a much higher engagement rate? Surprisingly, nano-influencers have the highest engagement rate at 2.19% as reported by The Social Shepherd. That doesn’t necessarily mean nano-influencers are right for you, it depends on what your goals are but either way, there are influencers out there who are right for your brand. 

While the influencers themselves are important in your consideration, their audiences are just as important when deciding who to work with. Their following is who you will be connecting to. If you choose the influencer with the largest following, you’ll have more eyes on your brand but you might not have the connection you’re looking for. The influencer’s audience should be similar to your own to leverage the most out of the campaign. 

Many different factors go into discovering the influencer for your brand and it can be overwhelming, but understanding each detail will help your campaign go a long way.

Time to Talk Budget

The conversation that everyone loves to have: budgeting. The good news is that you can decide your budget for influencer marketing. If you’re apprehensive about how the content strategy is going to perform, then you can start small with a couple of influencers and see how it performs. As the strategy works, you can continuously scale up and add more influencers to your campaign. To give an idea of how much a campaign can cost, the average budget for mid-tier influencers (100,000-500,000 followers) is $500 - $5,000 per post. This may seem like a lot of money (and it is) but according to Insense.pro, a successful campaign has a 5:1 ROI, which means your brand will make $5 for every $1 spent on the campaign. The return is worth it for influencer marketing, but to be successful you have to execute each step in planning the campaign well. 

In addition to calculating how much the influencer will cost you, it’s important to keep in mind any agency costs (if you go through an influencer marketing agency like CEG), production fees such as shipping the product to them, and how many people you’ll have to work on the campaign. Some advice: before starting your content strategy, make sure you have the team in place to make sure you get the most out of your campaign spend. While there is a lot of investment that goes into an influencer marketing campaign, know that the reward far outweighs the costs when done right. 

Need More Support for Your Campaign?

It can be overwhelming to take on a new influencer marketing campaign at your company. We understand that pain point, which is why we’re here to help you on your journey to creating a compelling campaign. If you want to learn more, check out our services page, and don’t hesitate to reach out for a chat about your influencer marketing needs.