Successful influencer marketing campaigns

Which criterias must be met in order to consider an influencer marketing campaign successful?

Do you remember the traditional 4P’s which later transformed into 7P’s – Product, Place, Price, Positioning, Process, People and Packaging? Those are old news. Now think about the 4 E’s- Engagement, Exclusivity, Emotion and Experience. Besides a high ROI, which is quite challenging to asses, creativity places an important role. When the product or service is not sexy, then many advertisers/influencers tend to put on some bikini and pose, but I believe that you can do better than that, am I right? It’s indeed a tricky strategy, but that would attract more attention towards you rather to the product or service, so think twice! Telling a story with emotional appeal or offering some knowledge is recommended because INFORMATION IS POWER.

Below, I will list a few brands that managed to maximize their branding through Social Media by bringing several influencers on board.

The campaign ran even in Switzerland, being managed by https://ebpr.ch/, where influencers had to follow 6 steps each coming together with a PR package and later they invited their audience to join a quiz with different questions, which will prove or not their status as a ‘Cremaholic’ with the chance of winning a set of skincare. I was luckily part of this campaign and it made more familiar with the brand.
Launched in June 2018 and as part of a new approach to collaborating with influencers, FOREO invited its most musically-minded influencer friends to some of the world’s coolest festivals this summer on a mission to #DiscoverBrighterMusic, showing how FOREO products are the perfect travel-friendly festival companion. Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/discoverbrightermusic-foreo-steps-up-its-influencer-ana-marija/
Ideal of Sweden does an amazing job by focusing on great aesthetic, picking famous influencers with whom to launch new products, so that they achieved the second place on Social Bakers’ list of most-mentioned brands using the #ad hashtag. Every influencer/ Instagrammer who receives a PR product, has to share a code which offers 15% off.
Gym Shark launched on 8th of March a 66 Days Challenge to encourage Tik Tok users to set personal (ideally fitness related goals) for themselves and continually post their progress under the hashtag #gymshark66. The incentive: whoever wins gets a year’s supply of Gymshark goodies. The account gathered 1.8 M Followers thanks to this challenge.
Dyson is another great example which is offering their newly launched products to influencers such as: Air Wrap, Dyson V11 Vacuum Cleaner, Pure Humidify + Cool machine, etc.
Here is an #ad from a food blogger for La Redoute regarding the Easter brunch and kitchen decorations.
Surprisingly or not, Snapchat is not dead and brands seeking to launch their Snapchat account mostly follow the “Takeovers” strategy, which can be a great way to reach untapped and vast audiences. Victoria’s Secret, Sephora, Nike, Gucci, Cosmopolitan are some of the brands who tried this method. However, the Snapchat app is much less popular among the others.

Pinterest is as well a marketers paradise, with 250 million active users and brands such as IKEA, GUESS, Levi’s understood that and collaborated with interior designer and model influencers. It is amazing how much diversity a marketing campaign can encompass and I believe this is just the beginning, having in mind the 4 E’s mentioned in this article.

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Typical beginner influencer mistakes

If you have been reading the other posts, then CONGRATULATIONS, you are halfaway done, in what your transformation of becoming an influencer is concerned. Before falling in the trap of obtaining unreal engagement and furthermore using the ‘Follow-Unfollow strategy’, thus not being able to create a community, you would better be aware of avoiding the following mistakes:

  1. The gravest error is buying likes and followers. There are 2 types of fake followers: in the first category, there is the follower who accepted to be on a Fake Follower list in exchange for a sum of money, but who will never have a look on your content. The second category are bots, who are actually a piece of code pretending to be a follower and according to their algorithm they have been programmed to do- some bots they engage, but that involves automated, often nonsense comments. Besides that bots are banned by Instagram, I guess you hate talking to walls in real life , so what is the meaning of having such followers when they aren’t social? To work properly, the bot would need to use machine learning and deep learning algorithms. While machine learning algorithms allow the bot to recognize text patterns, like captions and direct messages, deep learning — a form of machine learning — would allow it to analyze objects in photos and videos. This could allow the bot to comment appropriately on photos, or surf the web for photos that it could post.  -click on the paragraph to read more about an experiment too.

Depending on your number of followers, there is a certain percentage of engagement and buying power expected from brands, but if you have fake followers, then the numbers will differ as they drag down your engagement. I know that spotting profiles with over 10K on Instagram with poor quality content is getting on your nerves, but trust me : you don’t lose anything! They might attract a brand once or twice, but they will never manage to get long-term collaborations and build a real community.

Trick: If you want to be responsive on Instagram, then by clicking the Life Saver tip that I found out the other days by using the ‘ Quick Reply’ option. It works like charm for attracting potential followers.

You can apply almost the same trick on Facebook, but for people who write you a message.

  1. Organic or paid reach: We all aim to have an organic reach, but sometimes it simply doesn’t work and it’s time consuming. Sponsored posts are done through the ads system, which gives you more range, cross-platform reach if you choose, and targeting capabilities, and you still can add an actionable button and a URL. The most effective ads are the ones of Instagram accounts on the Facebook platform. They make sense when you have something to sell, otherwise they have a pitfall too: once you start investing in sponsored posts, Instagram will make less and less the others visible, so you decide to add more money with the hope of higher reach.
  1. Unoriginality :taking credits for something you didn’t even think of, while some content creators are squeezing their brains out to find something unique might hit you very hard in the end, because the way I perceive Instagram is that it relies on empowerment!
  2. Too much edit : changing the contrast, ambiance is ok but who has such a dirty mind to edit their bodies? I agree with the fairytale look alike edits, but I am strongly against of changing so much that you can barely recognize the place/product/person .
  3. Saying yes to everything: Check twice if the brand alligns with your beliefs and niche, because one size doesn’t fit them all.
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Content planning: tips and apps for an influencer

I can’t state enough why content planning, mentioned as consistency and furthermore authenticity play key roles in becoming a successful influencer. I know that planning what you should post might give you a headache, but consistently showing up in your audience’s feed is the key to engaging them on the social platforms.

content planning tips and apps, why you should plan your content

No matter on which platform you decide to promote your content, you better plan it ahead for the sake of a good mental health, as this process can intensify and to meet the brands’ needs you are working with. There are 3 types of content: static, dynamic and interactive.

The first type of content involves social media profiles (not feeds), eBooks, whitepapers, emails, landing pages, PPC and social media ads, banner ads, one-way webinars. The dynamic ones include Blogs, RSS feeds, social media feeds, syndicated sites, A/B-tested landing pages and emails, smart website content (post-conversion content personalized for a lead). Some ideas for the dynamic content would be: 5 themes for dynamic: key events and dates (e.g International day of Pancakes/ Pizza), Influencers (shotouts, etc) launches and campaigns and key brand messages. Part of the interactive content are blog comments, social media sharing and liking buttons, social media follow buttons, social media updates and shares (likes, retweets, comments), customer reviews, online surveys and polls. Source: KunoCreative.com

TIPS:

  • Prepare a set of hashtags in ‘Notes‘ or even better in an Excel file and copy paste them whenever you want to upload a photo. Attention! You are allowed to post 30 hashtags in a post and 10 in a story. Read more here about the hashtags strategy.
  • No clue what you should post next? Check BuzzSumo , which is a tool that shows you which are the most popular topics in your niche. You might as well choose to share bits about yourself, but be aware that makes you vulnerable. For example: what movies/ TV shows you like, who inspires you, memories from childhood, your fears, polls etc.
  • Presets, which are a configuration of settings for your photos with just one click away. You can either make your own or buy a set of presets and follow the same color scheme, which I personally find it quite dull, but obviously that depends.
  • Sometimes inspiration comes when you least expect it, therefore whenever you have some ideas write them down- don’t let them slip and apply them asap, so that someone else won’t steal them.
  • 1 day shooting: Prepare a suitcase with versatile elements ( books, mirror, glasses, hats, flowers, etc), clothes in order to shoot different perspectives, in several backgrounds, colors so you can use your time efficiently and have plenty of material for later. Make sure you have both photos and videos.

Apps for Instagram Feed

As first impression matters, the first 8 photos shown in your feed will give an idea to your potential followers of what they can expect from you. A curated feed tells a lot about who you are, and an app will ease your work. Basically, they all have the same function, but it’s a matter of design, lack of errors and customer service.

Preview is an easy and powerful tool for businesses, influencers and creators to plan, schedule, edit their posts. There is also a premium version at a price of 12.50 $ per month for unlimited accounts and which offers unlimited filter packs and hashtags analytics.

Unum When I firstly heard about this app, I thought that it will enable you to change the order of photos previously posted. Hehe, that would have been a dream, right?

Planoly

Later

Do you use any of these or have considered others? Write me bellow what you are going to take away from this post and how you will implement it.

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The importance of a media kit and how to do it

I have been mentioning about the importance of having media kit to every person who asked me ‘How can I collaborate with brands?’ , but I never thought of writing it down. Let’s suppose that you have in mind what is needed to become an influencer (niche, visuals, which I suggested in this article or in a more funny version on Tik Tok), but attracting brands still remains your weakest point.

When you apply to a job, you need a CV and a Cover Letter, so the employer is aware of your experience, personality and skills, so that he sees you as a potential candidate The same thing goes with a Media Kit, which has the purpose of showcasing your previous works, present your interests and additionaly your statistics and expectations, no matter your size.

What is a media kit?

According to Investopedia:

A media kit is a package of information, assembled by a company, to provide basic information about itself to reporters. The media kit is a promotional public relations tool that can serve several functions, including promoting the launch of a new company, promoting the launch of a new product or service by an existing company, giving a company a way to present itself as it would like to be seen, and/or saving time, by eliminating the need for a company’s employees to repeatedly answer the same questions.

In shorter words, a media kit is a document that describes you and your activity and it is used when you want to reach out to brands and PR agencies

What should a media kit contain?

  1. About me: write 4-5 lines about you that will awake the interest of the brand or PR agency of working with you.
  2. Include your Social Medias and Statistics including the number of followers, so there is a short overview of your traffic and used platforms. Be careful to update your statistics constantly.
  3. Describe your blog/ IG Account Here you mention your niche and why did you chose it.
  4. Services offered: include your collaboration options such as product placement, product reviews, attending events, giveaways, vlogs, IG video, interview, photo shoot, etc.
  5. Rates: it is not mandatory to include how much you charge as you can, as well, discuss about this matter personally with the brand and be more flexible.
  6. Contact info: including your address.
  7. Cool photos – avoid selfies, though and in case you have, add samples and testimonials in your media kit which build more credibility.

Where to do a media kit?

Canva is an exceptional tool which allows you to edit cool templates for creating a CV, Media Kit, posters, flyers, business cards or even stories and much more. Some templates, stock images and graphics are not free of charge but you can do your job with the free version- see the example below.

Photoshop if you have experience and patience. You might want to check this tutorial.

As well, just by simply google-ing I found this blog which offers free media kit templates .

I am looking forward to seeing your media kits, considering that now you have some free time to do it!

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