The rise in social media stardom has led many to believe that nearly anyone can successfully curate an online persona. However, many amateur influencers fail to recognize an important aspect of the business: strategic marketing.
Selling goods and services through an influencer has become a prominent marketing strategy for many brands, emphasizing the need for strong influencer campaign management that is meticulously planned. A company can organize this plan themselves or hire a social media manager who handles the campaign on the company’s behalf.
Here’s how to begin your influencer campaign marketing journey:
1. Set yourself apart from the rest
Pinpoint a particular niche that sets you apart from your competitors, providing an influencer with reasons to work with you. What makes your company unique in the market? What successes have your company had through influencer management?
2. Do your research and clearly define your goals
Set influencer management goals that align with your target audience. For example, a makeup brand needs to reach makeup enthusiasts. This involves creating connections with makeup artists or influencers, both well-established and up-and-coming.
Narrow your influencer search by considering long term goals, such as the kind of engagement you should expect down the line and potential trends that you could create for the campaign, including TikTok challenges, hashtags, etc.
3. Reach out to potential clients
Put together a personalized pitch for the influencer of choice. Depending on whether the influencer agrees to work with your company, you can negotiate the terms of agreement, called an influencer contract, and overall marketing goals for the influencer campaign.
4. Manage and maintain the relationship
Consider hiring a communication manager or working with a dispensable team that can streamline communications between the influencer and your company. This helps eliminate any potential confusion or issues the influencer may have, as they will have a specialized person handling their concerns.
The communications manager also ensures an authentic relationship between the two parties. Maintaining creative satisfaction increases your chances of having a smooth relationship and successful campaign.
5. Track your success
Influencer campaign management never ends. There are various free influencer marketing tools that you can use to track the campaign, insights, and analytics. Ensure that influencer campaign management is optimized, meeting and surpassing your campaign goals.
What are the obstacles around creating and managing influencer campaigns and influencers?
1. Difficult to work with
Some influencers may be challenging to work with due to various reasons, such as age, personality, beliefs, etc. Therefore, consider the pros and cons before working with an influencer.
An influencer should add to your brand and provide the same amount of effort and energy to the campaign, especially if you are paying them a considerable fee. Even with secondary research, sometimes it is only after working with an influencer that you are able to get a sense of whether they will be an excellent fit for the company or not.
2. New generation
If a company has not used influencer campaigns before, it may be cumbersome to convince others that it is an effective marketing strategy. They may not see it as a feasible option, opting for more traditional means of marketing instead.
In order to get the go-ahead from prominent figures in the company, a pitch geared toward influencer campaign management may be given before executing the strategy.
3. Processing and managing payments
There may be times where you are unable to process a payment to an influencer on time. This can be a frustrating situation for both parties, especially if neither is at fault. Remain diligent, transparent, and communicative with the influencer to avoid any potential conflicts that may arise due to the delayed payment.
4. Missed deadlines
Even the best influencer campaigns cannot survive failures in upholding agreements, missing deadlines without valid reasoning. If you are already falling behind on content, this spells big trouble. Follow up as often as you can, but sometimes a third factor may prevent you from meeting your timeline.
Free influencer campaign management tools to consider when looking for social media influencers include:
1. BuzzSumo:
2. Tweetdeck;
3. Upfluence
Influencer campaign management is an inevitable marketing strategy. For this reason, consider using creatorpilot.com. The influencer campaign management tools allow the user to easily navigate obstacles, such as invoices and payment, content calendars, easy communication, and real-time notifications and tracking for any changes made on drafts and documents that are saved, edited, and reviewed on the software.
Receive a demo of the free influencer campaign management tool after speaking to a member of the CreatorPilot team.
