How to Run an Influencer Campaign

Marketing teams are quickly realizing the benefits of influencer marketing. Research shows 66% of brands plan to increase their influencer marketing budget because they see value in influencer outreach. 

When you’re ready to run an influencer marketing campaign, here’s what you need to know:

What is influencer marketing?

How does it work? Influencers are paid by brands to create content that promotes their product or service. Once approved, the influencer shares the content with his or her followers. By doing so, the endorsement feels more like a recommendation from a friend than a sales pitch. 

Influencer marketing works best when it’s treated as a long-term digital strategy as opposed to one-off campaigns. Ideally, a brand and an influencer work together repeatedly to increase brand awareness and sales.

Steps to run an effective influencer campaign

Whether you’re new to influencer marketing or have a few campaigns under your belt, here are steps to run a successful campaign:

1. Set campaign goals

As with any marketing effort, you need a goal. What do you want to achieve with your influencer campaign? Common goals include: 

• Increasing brand awareness
• Encouraging brand reviews or user-generated content (UGC) 
• Generating leads
• Sparking conversations and engagement around a product
• Increasing customer retention
• Driving sales

You should not only identify a goal but also identify the KPIs you’ll use to gauge your success.

2. Find relevant influencers

With a goal in mind, your next step is to find influencers that speak to your target audience and share your brand’s goals and mission. How do you find the right content creator? Here are a few options:

Explore your customer base

Check your social channels for positive comments or reviews left by satisfied customers. Check their social media presence and see if any of your existing customers could double as an influencer. 

Search social sites 

Go to your preferred social channel and run a search for an industry-specific or a location-specific influencer. For example, go to YouTube and search “luxury travel influencer” or “Denver influencer.” Review the results and research profiles, and make a short list of possible influencers to work with. 

Use an influencer marketing platform

Visit IZEA’s Marketplace to search for influencers with ease. A vast Rolodex of influencers is listed within the database. You can filter by demographics, connection details, and location based on the radius of a selected city to narrow your search efficiently.

3. Craft a pitch and have a contract ready

When you’re ready to connect with influencers, consider writing a template that you can use to ease the process. Most brands reach out via email or DM. 

The message you craft should be short and to the point. More specifically, your message should include a(n):

• Greeting
• Introduction
• Suggested partnership with campaign details, if possible 
• Next steps

Check out What to Say When Reaching Out to Influencers for outlines, templates, and example messages. 

If an influencer is interested in a partnership, you’ll talk about brand messaging and campaign details, but no content should exchange hands without a contract. An influencer contract outlines the project and specifies things like content type, due dates, and the approval process. In addition, the contract should explain compensation, content ownership, and terms that could end your relationship, like not delivering content on time or making inappropriate comments on social media.  

4. Execute the campaign

When it’s time to execute the campaign, use these tips:

Offer content guidance

Give the influencer guidance, but if you want creative content, let him or her take the reins. However, your brand could provide a brief that outlines the campaign’s goals, timeline, target audience, brand tone, and any branded hashtags or @mentions that you’d like to see in the post. 

Provide tracking elements

To help you track a campaign’s success, consider giving influencers personalized tracking links or promo codes to share with followers. 

Review content

Your campaign strategy likely involved an approval process. When the content is delivered, make sure everyone who needs to sign off on the content is prepared to review it quickly. 

Make sure you’ve built in time for a round of quick revisions too.

Monitor comments

You and the influencer should monitor the post once it’s live. The influencer will respond to comments, but your marketing team should keep an eye out for any “difficult comments” that you may need to help the influencer respond to. 

Share the post on your brand’s channels

To expand the post’s reach, share it on your brand’s channels too. Write a message about how excited your brand is to work with the influencer to give the post context. 

5. Track your results

With the campaign wrapped up, it’s time to check on your measurement tools to see how the campaign fared. Revisit the campaign goals and pay special attention to the KPIs that help you judge success. 

If, for example, you’re hoping to increase brand awareness via sponsored posts, you’ll likely look at reach, impressions, or audience growth via increased follower count. If you’re tracking sales, you can look at conversions or quantify promo codes that were used. 

You should check social engagement metrics too, which include likes, shares, and comments.

Influencer marketing can be a powerful marketing tool for your brand, but it takes time to get it right. If this process sounds overwhelming, reach out to our Managed Services team for help with strategy, execution and more.