According to research (paywall) from 2015, 73% of marketers claimed to have allocated budget for influencer marketing. A more recent study shows that 86% of marketers use this tactic as part of their content marketing strategy. Because of its growth, the influencer marketing landscape is ever-evolving, and the "rules" seem to be changing every day.
As platforms, algorithms and budgets all continue to evolve, it would seem obvious that their corresponding best practices would follow suit. Yet, even though some things in this industry seem to change every minute, that’s not always the case.
Our agency has overseen hundreds of influencer campaigns, and we believe there are a few best practices that will always ring true, regardless of what changes may come and go.
1. Be authentic.
Whether you’re on the brand side or the influencer side of an influencer marketing campaign, it is imperative to enter into these relationships with authenticity remaining a top priority.
Consumers are brighter than you might give them credit for, and no one likes to be lied to. So when influencers -- who are supposed to be figures their audience feels they can trust -- start pushing a product that doesn’t align with who they are and what they would organically talk about every day, people start to tune them out.
Not only can this damage the reputation of the influencer, but it can also make the associated brand appear desperate or money-hungry. It’s one thing to put an advertisement on TV, where the consumer expects to see it, but misusing a trusted space to make inauthentic claims can leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth.
The good news is, there is no shortage of wonderful influencers or brands today; it’s just about finding the right fit. One way to do this is to narrow your search using relevant hashtags associated with your industry. For example, if you run a clothing brand, try looking for fashion influencers using trending hashtags such as #OOTD, #fashionblogger or #styleblogger. Or perhaps you'd rather target influencers who hit a specific target, such as moms, for your campaign. You can also use hashtags like #mommyblogger or #familyblogger to narrow this search as well.
2. Communicate clearly.
Communication is the key to any successful relationship, including one between brands and influencers. Yet, in order to clearly articulate what each party wants, each party must first know what they actually want. Time and time again, we’ve seen both influencers and brands guilty of not clearly outlining exactly what they hope to get out of a partnership. This can happen when they don't articulate what they want properly, but sometimes it happens because they don't stop to think about what their expectations are.
We encourage brands to create clear, detailed briefs to help guide influencers in their content creation process. These briefs should outline the messaging, key dates, budget, target audience and content guidelines.
Equally, we encourage influencers to communicate their content creation process and raise any concerns with the requested deliverables on the front end. Before any of the execution begins, all parties should land on the same page about what is being created and when it will be complete to make for a more seamless process that all parties will be pleased with.
3. Gather, learn and optimize.
No matter how many campaigns we’ve been involved in, we’ll be the first to acknowledge that there's always more to learn. As previously stated, this landscape is always evolving, which creates a continuous opportunity to gather new information, learn from it and optimize on efforts accordingly.
Post-campaign reports are a great way to analyze this information and share with all parties involved. Our agency reviews things like reach, engagement, sentiment, conversion rates and ROI to measure how successful a particular campaign was. While we take a long, hard look at the numbers, we also discuss other variables that could be at play. For example, could seasonality or time of year have impacted the campaign in any way? What about the number of posts created -- was there a drop-off in interest? Discussing patterns, trends and plausible causes of certain results will help you plan even more effectively for your next campaign.
There are certainly lots of other characteristics that can contribute to successful influencer marketing campaigns. However, I believe all three of these will forever be non-negotiables required to yield optimal results.
