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Influencer marketing isn’t just a buzzword. Increasingly more brands are teaming up with influencers to build authentic connections with their audiences.
Leveraging influencers has become the go-to marketing strategy for businesses across industries. A report by Socialbakers showed a 133% increase in sponsored content over the course of last year.
That’s because consumers trust their social peers more than advertisements. From every dollar you spend on influencer marketing, you can get an average earned media value of $5.20.
But, you need to do it the right way.
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There are numerous campaign choices when it comes to partnering with influencers for brand marketing.
Let’s take a look at some of the most effective types of influencer marketing campaigns that you can use to grow your brand.
1. Sponsored Content
Partnering with influencers in exchange for sponsored content is one of the most popular types of influencer marketing campaigns.
In this type of influencer marketing campaign, brands simply reach out to influencers to ask if they’re willing to promote their products or services. Sometimes, influencers even approach brands for collaboration, especially micro-influencers.
As a brand, you need to discuss your campaign goals with the influencer so that they know what you expect from them. It is also important to give them a brief that outlines certain content guidelines and requirements.
Depending on what you agree upon, the influencer will either create a photo, video, Story, or blog post featuring your product or service.
Bloomlife partnered with an influencer, Manou, to promote their smart pregnancy tracker.
It is crucial to provide content guidelines to ensure that the influencer-created content aligns with the voice and messaging of your brand. But you should not take away their creative freedom with overly restrictive guidelines.
Sponsored posts can help expose your brand to the right audience. But you need to choose your influencers very carefully to drive the best results.
You can use tools such as BuzzSumo to find top influencers in your niche. However, you need to take time to evaluate potential influencers for their authenticity, relevance, and the type of content they create.
To help you with this, influencer communities like Influence.co can help you analyze the profiles of various influencers and review their past collaborations. This will help you see the kind of content they create and evaluate whether or not their content will align with your brand.
Why Use This Type of Influencer Marketing Campaign?
Leveraging influencers to publish sponsored content can help you:
- Increase your brand’s reach and exposure.
- Attract audiences who are likely to be interested in your products or services.
- Gain recognition for your brand.
- Drive engagement.
- Get people to trust your brand.
2. Contests and Giveaways
Everyone loves a giveaway. This type of influencer campaign is a win-win for brands, influencers, and their followers.
Brands offer free merchandise or services for the influencer to give away to their followers in exchange of:
- Likes
- Follows
- Comments
- User-generated content with a campaign-specific hashtag
- Shares
- Tagging 3 of their friends
Premium athletic bag brand, VOORAY, worked with athlete, Kinsey Camp, to host a giveaway. Kinsey asked her followers to follow VOORAY’s Instagram account, like the post, and tag their best friend.
Asking an influencer to host a giveaway for your brand can boost your social engagement and follower count. But, before you approach an influencer to host a giveaway for your brand, you should:
- Choose the prize for the winner of your giveaway contest.
- Determine the entry and participation criteria.
- Decide on a goal for your giveaway.
- Select a campaign hashtag.
- Decide a time limit for allowing participation.
Why Use This Type of Influencer Marketing Campaign?
Partnering with influencers to host contests and giveaways can help you:
- Increase the visibility of your brand.
- Grow your follower count.
- Attract and engage potential customers.
- Get more people to try your product or service.
- Increase web traffic.
3. Affiliate and Discount Codes
If you want to drive more qualified leads for your business and increase sales, then this type of influencer marketing campaign can be your best bet.
When you want to drive sales, you need to give people a strong reason to purchase. And there is no better reason to shop than an impressive discount offer. Some discount coupons are just too good to refuse and they can help encourage consumers to buy immediately.
You should create a unique discount code for each of your influencers and ask them to share it in their posts to drive sales.
Influencer, Jenna Minnie, promoted a necklace by Joikka in the below post and included her discount code so that her followers could get 20% off.
Unique discount codes can make it easier for you to track the ROI of your campaigns. More than that, you can also use these codes to track the performance of each of your influencers.
For this, you can use UTM codes to create trackable promo codes for your influencers. This will help you track how many sales or product page visits an individual influencer drives.
You can also team up with influencers for affiliate marketing campaigns, during which you pay them a commission for the sales they drive.
Why Use This Type of Influencer Marketing Campaign?
Giving influencers unique discount codes to promote a product or service can help you:
- Generate more leads.
- Boost sales and revenue.
- Increase engagement.
- Get more people to check out your products.
- Track the ROI of your campaigns.
4. Brand Ambassadorships
Many brands are taking influencer campaigns to the next level by turning their trusted influencers into brand ambassadors.
Brand ambassadors are people who love your brand and products so much that they are ready to vouch for them on an ongoing basis. If they have a genuine appreciation for your products, there is a good chance the influencers’ audience will trust their recommendations.
For instance, fashion and lifestyle influencer, Kate Lavie, promoted a bag from Mansur Gavriel. She is a huge bag lover, which made her a perfect fit for the brand.
Her love for the bag is genuine and not just for the collaboration. This is clear from her news feed that shows how she featured the bag in a lot of other posts too. Here is one such post:
You should always keep an eye on such loyal influencers. You can ask them to become the “face of your brand” for enhanced promotions.
Why Use This Type of Influencer Marketing Campaign?
Making influencers the face of your brand can help you:
- Enhance your brand’s reputation.
- Humanize your brand.
- Increase positive word-of-mouth marketing.
- Get more people to trust your brand.
Plan Your Influencer Marketing Campaigns Now!
Now you have a better understanding of the most effective types of influencer marketing campaigns and how to leverage them. Each of these campaigns comes with its own set of pros and cons.
You need to figure out which type of campaign best suits your business and current influencer marketing goals. It is also important to choose your influencers carefully to ensure the success of your campaign.
When done right, influencer marketing can help you increase visibility and get your brand in front of the right people in the right way.
Do you know of any other effective types of influencer marketing campaigns? Please feel free to mention them in the comments below.
