Marketing in the digital age looks starkly different.
According to the World Economic Forum, “The digitalization of the media industry has been driven by changing consumer behavior and expectations, especially among younger generations who demand instant access to content, anytime, anywhere.”
This digital transformation is shaping a new kind of world for marketing and advertising. One of these new worlds or new trends is influencer marketing.
According to Forbes, COVID-19 caused lockdowns that led to increased social media usage. In efforts to feel better about the situation, audiences turned towards authentic content from real people. Thus, brands became inspired to partner with more influencers that could help them get the message of their brand in a more relevant, mindful, and authentic way.
Before you crave out a hefty chunk of your budget for influencer marketing, you must have a solid influencer outreach strategy at hand. Knowing what you want and knowing where to find it are two important aspects of a successful influencer-backed brand campaign.
Here’s what you might need for a solid influencer outreach strategy:
- A set of goals and specific KPIs
New marketing strategies will always need some testing, including influencer marketing. Before you start reaching out to influencers, you have to determine your SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals and KPIs first. As BigCommerce says, once you’ve set your campaign’s goals, determine how you’ll measure ROI, because knowing which partnerships are working and aren’t will help create a more efficient strategy. It will also be good to compare results from other marketing channels to see which campaigns are worth continuing and if they are meeting your overall brand goals.
- A narrowed-down list of influencers with specific niches
After your goals are set, it’s now time to scout for influencers that are fit for your brand. According to Hootsuite, you should consider the 3 R’s:
- Relevance: influencers who share content relevant to your business/industry, and have a following in that same realm
- Reach: do they have a big enough following for you to hit your ROI?
- Resonance: what is the potential level of engagement your desired influencer can create while speaking to the right audiences?
Don’t be tempted to tap ALL the influencers, either. Tapinfluence says that every brand is different, every campaign has differences, and every influencer operates within their own niche. Customization and alignment are key. There’s no silver bullet.
- A strong desire to create lasting relationships.
Commitmentophobes, beware: influencer marketing requires establishing and maintaining strong relations with your pool of content creators. If that sounds like too much work for you, having a solid team to help in managing influencers will help your brand immensely in keeping up with your local influencer landscape, because the digital world is always shifting rapidly. If you can’t have an in-house team, there are agencies to help you strengthen those influencer relationships!
“The critical difference between blogger outreach and spam is that you have to take care of the list of those you want to contact.”
Irina Maltseva, hunter.io
Mediakix says about working with an outsourced agency that they can help brands “establish their goals and KPIs, design campaigns, craft agreements and contracts, negotiate fees, and interpret post-campaign data.” Simply put, let other people do the work you can’t while running your business the way you know how.
- An evaluation metric.
As the content game is stepping up, it’s important to give influencers some room for creativity. Gone are the days of templated captions — today’s audiences want authenticity, more candid posts, less hardsell but more brand partnerships.
Know what your brand’s priorities are for partnering with an influencer. As per the Influencer Marketing Hub, it is the brand’s job to also monitor influencer content across all channels agreed upon, to check if everything aligns. Brands need to see how each influencer contributes to the brand’s promotion on the whole. Some influencers may be better at helping you meet specific goals than others. Awareness, information, and buy-in are just some of these goals, so make sure you know what part of the performance you would like to evaluate.
Influencer outreach can make a big impact on your marketing campaigns if done the right way. Just make sure to plan ahead and look for partners who can assist you in the process.
Here NGP, we can help you expand your digital footprint with our ePR solutions. To know more about our services, click here.