Everyone is talking about influencer marketing and rightfully so. As per research, the global influencer platform marketing market size is expected to reach $143.10 billion by 2030. This growth in influencer marketing technology is largely due to the growing need to manage influencer-generated content, identify potential social media influencers, analyse trends, take note of ROI and calculate engagement rate. 

To put it in straight words, influencer marketing is a very sophisticated marketing methodology that requires careful planning, implementation and performance evaluation. With the social media space getting competitive by the day, the room for error is very less. In order to be a step ahead of your competitors, it is important to have a solid plan in place. 

A good plan will ensure that the end result of your social media marketing campaign boosts sales, creates brand awareness, builds credibility and establishes a good working relationship with the influencer. 

Here are 5 relevant pointers that will help you kickstart a successful influencer marketing campaign - 

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1. Identifying a Customer Persona

This is the first step towards a successful social media influencer marketing campaign. The customer persona is very different from a customer segment. While a segment is more heterogeneous in nature, the customer persona is very specific. Key aspects of customer persona include the following - 

• Age group
• Gender
• Interests
• Motivation 
• Influences
• Occupation
• Pain points
• Demography 

Whether you are looking to market B2B or B2C products, the customer persona is the core of your marketing campaign. Trying to market your product to a large crowd of strangers is a lost cause and a waste of your marketing efforts. 

Once you have defined your customer persona, the next step is to look for the right platform to market.

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2. Choose the right social platform to market your product/service

Just like an individual, each social media platform also has a persona. For example, social platforms like Instagram and TikTok have a young vibe and the GenZ & Millennial population is more active on them. 

YouTube is known to have a mixed age group of people active on it, whereas the older generation is most comfortable with Facebook. Finally, if your target audience pivots more towards working professionals, LinkedIn is your safe bet. 

Besides the age and demographics, the budget of the campaign also is an important factor to consider when choosing the right social media platform. 

YouTube influencers have the best conversion rate, mostly because it is a long-form content platform. But a YouTube influencer is likely to charge more. 

If you are on a budget, then Instagram is perhaps the best platform to market. The platform has a vast pool of influencers and even if you choose to work with a smaller influencer with a niche follower base, you can still get higher engagement or conversion from your marketing campaign. 

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3. Educate the influencer about the product or service

The influencer you have decided to work with is the face of your brand. It is therefore important that they know about the details of your product. This holds for both B2B and B2C marketing. 

For instance, if you are a VPN service provider, the influencer must know the details of the plan, cyber security features and all the other technical details. Similarly, if you are a makeup brand, you need to share with the content creator minute details like - ingredients used, SPF factor, long-lasting factor and so on. 

It is best to give a demo of your product to the creator. The creator must know the minutest details of the product and you should allow them to question every aspect of the product. 

Transparency is very important for a successful influencer marketing campaign. 

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4. Stay away from spammy content 

When it comes to content representation, influencer marketing is a bare canvas. Most influencers are master content creators. They have the experience and expertise to create high-quality and innovative content.

Of course, they will need viable input from you with respect to the details of the product and the marketing strategy, it is important to not suppress the creative freedom of the content creator. 

Content should look organic, seamless and not like a spammy, sponsored ad. It should be represented as a lifestyle/personal story of the creator so that it can form an instant connection with the audience. 

For example, if you are a healthy snack brand for children, let the mom influencer create content around her kids eating the snack and capturing their reaction. Rather than simply putting out content with mere brand mention, while the rest of the video is about other stuff. 

Today audiences want a good story with authentic and honest reviews, and spammy and misleading product plug-ins are frowned upon. 

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5. Look beyond conversion and sales

The results of influencer marketing campaigns can vary and not every campaign leads to massive sales and conversions. It is wise to look beyond these metrics and pay attention to the following -

Engagement rate - this includes click-through rate, shares and likes

Brand awareness - this includes how many times it was viewed by the audience 

Impressions - this includes the total number of times the content came up.

Besides these, the type of influencer you worked with also helps create the image or the positioning of a brand. For example, if you are a fashion label and you work with conscious and sustainable fashion influencers, your positioning as a brand will signify that you care for the cause. 

These are important parameters that go a long way to build brand image. 

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Final thoughts - Take feedback seriously

Finally, the last tip, take the feedback of the marketing campaign seriously. This is true from both the customer and the creator side. This allows you not to repeat the mistakes and help you improve the performance of future campaigns. 

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