How to plan an Influencer Marketing campaign

Influencer marketing (also influence marketing) is a form of marketing in which focus is placed on influential people rather than the target market as a whole.

Influencers are niche promoters on social media or blogs connected to consumer groups, communities or tribes. There are different kinds of Influencers:

Celebrity Influencers are famous people, usually show biz acts who are also community leaders and authorities in their niche: I.e Toke Makinwa, Tiwa Savage, etc.

Macro Influencers are powerful online trendsetters that reach millions of fans daily. There are not necessarily famous for anything but they create content online and have a strong presence online. e.g Laura Ikeji.

Middle (Power) Influencers are individuals that have cultivated an audience of 50,000 to 200,000 followers. They may not have the massive followers of other influencers but they equally have great engagement.

Micro Influencers have far fewer reach than other influencers but cannot be overlooked as the trust and close relationship with the audience is critical for brands.

I advise that before starting an Influencer marketing campaign you develop a plan. It will serve as a guide to manage and execute the campaign. Below I list and explain the important things to include in your plan

Make use of relevant hashtags, blogs, speaking to marketers and analyze competitor campaigns. Once you find relevant influencers, I advise that you create a list that you can update.

Set Objectives: It is important to have clear objectives before you start an Influencer Marketing campaign. Create a list of goals. Set qualitative and quantitative objectives that match your KPI.

Make sure that you have the means to track your goals, apart from social media and web analytics you can also create customized referral codes that Influencers can share with their audience. Make sure to set realistic goals-especially if you are a beginner.-

Budget: You will need to prepare a budget for your campaign, even though you can be lucky to get earned media from influencers if your product is of great value to them but it’s not very likely.

Create a process: I don’t advise that you leave influencers to create content, determine the duration of the campaign or time of posts. Although it’s good for them to express their personality while promoting to retain the (organic) effect but I advise you to co-create. Also, develop a process document that has details of the campaign such as the duration, time of posts and content for promotion.

Make sure that your messages are a contextual fit for the influencer’s feed, something their audience will most likely engage with. Send a list of what is required of the Influencer and have them agree to it or make an agreement if the campaign is costing you a lot. These processes will ensure that you are both on the same page and that you get your money worth.

Measure: Running any kind of marketing without measuring is a waste of time. It is important to measure in order to improve and analyze what’s working and what isn’t. Before your campaign starts, you should evaluate the current reach of your brand.

Look out for traffic inflow to your website during the campaign, the quality of traffic, Social Media interaction, quality of engagement and general impressions on focused platforms.

Consistency: You have to be consistent. Repeat what is working for your brand and drop what is not. Try new influencers relevant to your brand because your influencer audience might experience fatigue. Use good quality visuals and content to drive your campaigns and over time you will start to reap great returns.

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