Alexis Kestler
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As an experienced social media marketer, I have designed and executed multiple successful influencer campaigns. In this expert guide, I will share research-backed strategies to develop an effective influencer marketing plan that delivers real business impact.
The Rising Importance of Influencer Marketing
Over 92% of marketers affirmed that influencer marketing will be an essential part of their strategy in 2023. Why this growing emphasis on influencers versus traditional ads and content?
Influencers can drive awareness and sales through trusted recommendations and engaging social content. Audiences perceive influencers as more authentic experts rather than paid sponsors.
This graph highlights the surging spends on influencer marketing:
| Year | Estimated Spend |
| 2020 | $8 Billion |
| 2021 | $13.8 Billion |
| 2022 | $16.4 Billion |
| 2023 | $24.71 Billion (projected) |
As spending and adoption accelerate, standing out on social media requires tapping into influencers to win hearts, minds, and wallets instead of interrupting them with traditional ads.
Now let‘s explore proven influencer marketing strategies:
1. Identify the Right Influencers
Your success hinges on partnering with relevant influencers who can effectively communicate your brand message to their engaged social audiences.
As an influencer marketing platform used by over 150,000 brands, Ainfluencer makes influencer discovery easy. You can search by location, niche/category, gender, followers, engagements, and more.
Connect with potential partners to assess alignment with your brand values before formalizing any commercial relationships.
2. Set Clear Goals and KPIs
Every marketing effort needs to align to specific business goals and metrics. Be clear on what you want to achieve via influencers:
- Awareness
- Engagement
- Conversions
- Lead Generation
- Sales
Define your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) upfront, allowing proper tracking and optimization. Volume of content views, clicks, affiliate sales generated, and campaign ROI matter more than vanity metrics like followers and likes.
3. Micro-Influencers Deliver Major Impact
The rise of micro-influencers (under 100k followers) represents a significant shift in the influencer marketing landscape.
Micro-influencers tend to be more affordable while driving higher engagement and conversion rates in their niche communities versus broad celebrity influencers.
As per a recent Linqia study, micro-influencers deliver 60% higher campaign engagement rates compared to influencers with larger audiences.
4. Prioritize Two-Way Relationships
The most successful influencer partnerships I have orchestrated over my career transcend one-off transactions.
Think of influencers as strategic marketing partners rather than pure media channels. Collaboration early on around content strategies and product feedback fuels authentic, creative sponsorships.
Building personal connections and adding value beyond financial compensation encourages influencers to become genuine brand advocates.
5. Always Track Performance
Monitoring campaign analytics provides tangible proof that your investment in influencer marketing is paying dividends and guides your future efforts.
Capture key metrics across three phases:
Pre-Campaign: Follower Demographics, Engagement Rates
During Campaign: Content Views, Clicks, Conversions
Post-Campaign: ROI, Affiliate Sales
6. Embrace Referral Marketing
Referral marketing represents a complementary awareness strategy to influencer marketing. Just as influencers provide trusted recommendations to their followers, brands can empower existing customers to organically share about products they love.
81% of consumers report making purchases based on peer recommendations.
Providing customers referral promo codes or rewards for spreading the word compounds the positive word-of-mouth effects.
7. Remember Compliance Rules
As influencer marketing matures, various countries now impose legal disclosure and accountability regulations.
Be absolutely clear about adhering to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sponsorship disclosure guidance within your influencer content in the United States.
Transparency remains critical for upholding consumer trust.
8. Explore Emerging Social Platforms
While mature networks like Instagram and Facebook still dominate, keep assessing audiences and engagement patterns on up-and-coming channels.
The short-form video app TikTok presents enormous influencer marketing potential moving forward with its viral user-generated content and over 1 billion monthly active users.
Early experimentation even in a small capacity sets your brand up for future success.
9. Encourage Hashtag Marketing
Incorporating campaign-specific hashtags (#ProductNameContest) or branded hashtags (#MyTravelsWithBrandX) into influencer posts greatly amplifies discovery and engagement.
Hashtags essentially connect content to target interest groups organically attracted to those keywords or topics. This pulls in net new audiences beyond just existing influencer followers.
10. Don‘t Forget Nano-Influencers
So-called "nano-influencers" with under 5,000 followers retain exceptionally high engagement rates with their niche communities in my experience.
While their individual reach is smaller, collectively partnering with micro and nano influencers exposes your brand to a sizeable social media footprint.
For cost-effective awareness and buzz, sending free products to multiple nano-influencers willing to create authentic recommendations suits most budgets.
11. Video Content Performs Best
Multiple studies reinforce how social video content outperforms static image posts across all key engagement and conversion metrics.
Yet only 30% of marketers leverage influencer video content within their sponsorships.
Prioritize interesting, educational and entertaining video concepts to stand out on crowded feeds. Short-form Reels and TikTok videos work exceptionally well at the moment.
Conclusion
The influencer marketing strategies outlined in this guide provide a robust framework for orchestrating impactful partnerships. As spending in this area ramps up, focusing on genuine advocacy versus pure paid promotion wins consumer trust.
Testing a pilot initiative with a few hand-picked influencers allows you to refine programs at smaller scale before expanding budget and reach.
Now is the time to tap into digital influencers to hit marketing goals while platforms still offer untapped potential before saturation.
