Best Practices for a High-Performing Influencer Campaign!

The effectiveness of influencer marketing is no longer in question! According to a Rakuten Marketing study, 8 out of 10 consumers have purchased a product following a recommendation by an influencer. Influencer marketing is a powerful strategy that involves partnering with influencers to promote your brand. Through the creation of impactful content on social networks, the influencer conveys a message to their audience by talking about the brand and its products, whether they’re a micro-influencer or a nano-influencer.

Today, influencer marketing has become an essential communication channel. By leveraging this marketing strategy, your brand can reach new audiences, increase awareness, and boost sales. So, how can you succeed in an influencer marketing campaign? What are the key steps not to forget? Trustt shares its advice.

Best Practice #1: Define Your Marketing Objectives, Target Audience, and Targeted Platforms

Clear Objectives for Quality Content and Concrete Results

Are you considering an influencer marketing campaign to promote your business and products? To obtain compelling results, the first step is to clearly define your campaign objectives. At the same time, you must precisely target your audience.

For example:

• Increase your visibility and awareness,
• Generate leads and sales,
• Gain new followers on your social networks and increase your engagement rate,
• Introduce a new product or service,
• Reach new consumers who can become true brand ambassadors,
• Change your brand image,
• Etc.

Set KPIs to achieve for each selected objective. They allow you to measure the success of the influencer campaign at each stage.

A Precise Target to Choose the Right Media

Once your campaign objectives are clearly established, you can define your target audience, that is, the audience you want to reach.

• Who is your target? What are its specific characteristics?
• On which platform are they? Are they on Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube…?
• Who are their users?
• What content interests them?
• Etc.

Now that you know which audience you want to reach, you also know on which social networks they are most active.

And this information is probably the most interesting: it’s on these specific platforms that you will implement your influencer campaign. As each platform has its own specificities (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc.), it will of course be necessary to adapt the content to address the right consumers.

Thus, the success of your influencer marketing campaign lies in the clarity of the set objectives and in the precision of the target.

By following these steps, you optimize your chances of creating a powerful and impactful campaign that will engage your audience and propel your brand to new horizons.

Best Practice #2: Identify the Right Influencers

We’re getting to the heart of the matter! Based on your objectives, the audience to reach, and the social networks on which you want to implement your influencer campaign, you must select influencers who can meet all your criteria.

Here is our advice for finding the ideal influencer:

1. Choose influencers who have a real affinity for your brand and products so that the collaboration happens naturally and authentically. The right influencers are not necessarily those who have a very large community or millions of followers, but those who truly love your products. By focusing on these influencers, you ensure that you obtain concrete results and an impact on the consumers who follow them.
2. Select passionate influencers who position themselves as references in their field (beauty, fashion, health/wellness, nutrition, sports, etc.) so that the messages they convey to their audience truly make sense to their community. Their content must adapt to brands and resonate with their followers!
3. Take an interest in their personality, their values, their way of communicating so that their image aligns with that of your brand. Whether it’s a micro-influencer or a nano-influencer, it’s essential that their universe matches the spirit of your brand!
4. Finally, analyze their accounts on their social networks or media in detail:
   • The quality of their audience;
   • Their engagement rate and the reach of their posts;
   • Their posting frequency and the type of content they produce;
   • The type of content (video, photo, reel)
   • Etc.

The selection of relevant influencers for your influencer campaign is therefore crucial and determines its success!

To assist you in this time-consuming step of selecting influencers, the Trustt solution is THE solution for developing brands’ community engagement through:

• Influence missions,
• Collection of qualitative data and UGC,
• Conducting surveys and quantitative studies,
• Event organization,
• Product co-creation.

Best Practice #3: Contacting the Influencer

Once you’ve selected the ideal content creators for your influence campaign, it’s time to contact them and establish a fruitful collaboration!

This step is crucial as it allows you to “establish the foundation for”a successful partnership with each influencer.

Prefer sending an email to contact content creators, rather than reaching out via their social media. Email offers a professional and structured approach that will capture their attention.

In this email:

• Briefly introduce your company (your brand, its history, concept, products, values…).
• Also briefly present the mission you wish to implement and the objectives you want to achieve with their help.
• Then, explain to the influencer why you chose them and what you liked about their work and the type of content they share with their followers. Highlight the benefits for both the influencer and their community.

Establishing a trusting relationship from the start by showing your genuine interest in the content creators’ work and vision ensures a long-term partnership.

Be transparent about your expectations and what you anticipate from the collaboration with each influencer. Don’t hesitate to share your enthusiasm for this joint work.

Best Practice #4: Supporting the Influencer from A to Z

Throughout the collaboration with an influencer, it’s important to guide and support them to ensure you reach your objectives and guarantee the success of the mission.

This begins with drafting a clear and detailed campaign brief to guide content creators, including:

• The mission objectives,
• The presentation of your brand,
• The concept description,
• Expected deliverables with dates and relevant media (Instagram, TikTok, etc.),
• Key messages for users,
• The dos and don’ts.

Drafting a detailed brief is essential, as this document serves as a guide for the influencer throughout your collaboration and as a basis for their content creation.

It allows the content creator to understand your vision and the message to convey to their followers.

To ensure the success of your influence campaign, it’s necessary to monitor the “influencer’s work by not” hesitating to send them regular reminders, expected requirements, and deadlines. Proper management of this partnership ensures content creation in line with the message you wish to convey.

Note that supporting the influencer doesn’t mean constantly controlling them!

Give them the general guidelines for your campaign, but don’t try to control them. Allow the influencer to express their creativity so that the messages they share with their community are natural and authentic.

Best Practice #5: Amplify the Visibility of Your Influence Campaign on a Social Network

To boost the return on investment (ROI) of your influence campaign on a social network, it’s essential to consider it as part of a global strategy.

The theme and messages of your campaign should integrate naturally and harmoniously into a global communication plan. You can’t rely solely on the actions of selected influencers!

Also disseminate your messages consistently across your own social networks (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube video, etc.), your website, and your email campaigns.

This complementarity helps reach a wider audience and engage your followers in your message.

Depending on the marketing objectives to be achieved, your target audience, and your budget, integrate other communication channels (press articles, advertising spots, sponsored publications, etc.) and consider varying the media (videos, photos, podcasts, interviews, etc.) to offer a rich and engaging experience.

The synergy of these combined actions multiplies the positive outcomes of your influencer marketing campaign. However, keep in mind not to spread yourself too thin. Find the right balance by ensuring that each channel and medium contributes coherently to your objectives.

Best practice #6: Go further in your collaboration with influencers

Among the best practices that allow you to maximize the positive outcomes of your influence campaigns, don’t hesitate to think bigger and further, and consider long-term partnerships with the influencer.

Prioritize long-term partnerships with the content creators you prefer.

These collaborations allow content creators to become more involved with your brand and become true ambassadors. Automatically, they feel more invested in the evolution and development of your brand, which ultimately shows in the way they talk about your products.

By being more sincere and engaged in their messages, it has a greater impact on their followers, who can become true ambassadors of your brand.

Also consider co-creation with your influencers! This influencer marketing technique involves creating a close collaboration between the influencer and your brand. Together, partner up to create an exclusive product or service.

From your collaboration stems a capsule collection to which the influencer’s name will be attached. This technique is incredibly effective! By associating the influencer’s name with a capsule collection, you create a sense of exclusivity and proximity with their audience, which stimulates consumer enthusiasm.

Best Practice #7: Following Upcoming Trends…

Finally, to ensure effective and impactful influencer marketing campaigns, always stay one step ahead!

Be on the lookout for trends and new developments on the Web and social networks to seize opportunities. Regularly, new ways of communicating emerge on social networks and create buzz. Stay constantly vigilant to seize opportunities when they arise. Also, consider following other brands in your sector, understand what works well for them, and seek to innovate while differentiating yourself. Dare to test new content formats to capture your audience’s attention and to change from the classic post: video, reel, carousel, podcast… anything is possible!

Our last piece of advice is to dare! This is what will make the difference among all the content published every day on the Web and will have a real impact on consumers.

It’s your turn to take action!