5 Influencer Marketing Best Practices To Increase Your ROI

/ Zach Heller

The following is a sponsored post.

Influencer marketing allows businesses to thrive on social media platforms. As a marketing professional looking to boost your ROI, you need to consider launching influencer marketing campaigns. Consumers typically listen to other consumers over brands themselves, which is why influencer marketing is so effective. However, some companies jump head-first into this trend and struggle to launch profitable campaigns. If you want to avoid such a situation, read this post and learn the top influencer marketing best practices. 

Choose Influencers Based On Relevance

To start planning an influencer marketing campaign, you need to choose the best candidates. Begin your search by looking up users who align with your business already. Those users are the ones who are likely to already have followers that fit into your target audience. Thus, they are great candidates for when you want to increase your own following. Their followers will resonate with your brand when they post about your products and/or services. Find influencers who post about products and/or services similar to your brand. Search for candidates who have followers who constantly engage with their posts as well. If you find qualified individuals, you will succeed at influencer marketing. 

Reach Out To Micro-Influencers

When choosing candidates for a social media marketing campaign, reach out to micro-influencers through the Scalefluence platform or directly though campaigns. Most marketing teams go wrong when they assume that the best candidates are those who have massive follower counts. While it can be advantageous to sponsor larger macro-influencers, the ones with smaller follower bases usually influence their followers the most. More so, micro-influencers demand much less capital compared to larger scaled users. In terms of ROI, these smaller influencers could be the best value for your campaign. As a result, you can save capital and gain more organic traffic at the same time by utilizing this influencer marketing best practice. 

Show Influencers Appreciation

Furthermore, teams that show their influencers appreciation launch successful campaigns. Influencers who feel unique and rewarded are more motivated to produce quality work for their brands. Fortunately, you can show influencers appreciation in simple ways. You can show them a sneak peak of your upcoming product line. Offer them special influencer-only items and discounts. Consider sending them personalized gifts with their product packages. These types of actions build a strong relationship between you and the influencer which could lead to other profitable opportunities in the future. If you show your influencers appreciation, they will reciprocate the favor by earning you more followers. 

Require Influencers To Disclose

Another crucial factor of every influencer marketing campaign is disclosure. The Federal Trade Commission demands all influencers to label each sponsored post as such. Therefore, you need to include this requirement in your list of influencer rules. However, you can provide your influencers with some leeway. Inform them of the options they have on various social media platforms. For example, Instagram allows influencers to meet the Federal Trade Commission standards by using their paid partnership tags. Facebook and YouTube also offer their own tools for disclosing involvement in paid partnerships or advertising. Keep this influencer marketing best practice in mind when launching a new campaign. 

Ask Influencers To Be Honest 

Lastly, the best influencer marketing campaigns revolve around honesty. When influencers provide their followers with their true feelings regarding a brand's products or services, their followers can tell. As a result, their followers feel better about purchasing products or services from the brand mentioned. You should advise your influencers to use their own positive experiences with your products/services when posting sponsored content. Ask them to refer to their likes and any interesting elements they discover. Keep influencer marketing posts lively and truthful to attract consumers. Often times, an honest post or review can significantly increase your overall conversion rates. Use this best practice to your full advantage.

Influencer marketing is an applauded strategy for marketing teams looking to boost conversions and increase their social media following. To achieve these goals, you need to choose influencers who align with your brand. Your influencers should also be on the micro level so that you can save capital and resonate with more consumers at the same time. By showing influencers that you appreciate their efforts, you give them more of a reason to post quality content for your brand. Require your influencers to disclose that their posts for you are sponsored. Moreover, ask your influencers to be honest in their content about your products/services. Use these influencer marketing best practices to scale your company through social media marketing.

What’s the Deal with Influencer Marketing?

/ Zach Heller

Influencer marketing is having its moment right now. The term and its practice are getting the kind of buzz that content marketing was getting several years ago.

Why is that?

As marketers, we are constantly on the lookout for the next big thing, the next exciting and effective way of reaching our audience. The old way of doing things is boring, plus it’s gotten more competitive, more expensive, and less effective now that it’s old and boring.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is really nothing new. The best way to understand it is to recognize that it’s a new take on something brands have been doing for decades – that is, getting people outside the company who are recognizable and have the attention of their own audience to speak on the company’s behalf.

Influencer marketing is a combination of the celebrity spokesperson model and the product placement model, taking advantage of the popular social media outlets of the day.

For example, Red Bull will pay popular alternative sports athletes to post photos of themselves with Red Bull branded products on Instagram or Facebook. The practice is already popular with many beverage companies, supplement brands, and fashion houses. And its use is growing and expanding into new industries daily.

Does influencer marketing work?

This is the ultimate question. And the truth is, the jury is still out. There are some brands that are investing a significant amount of money in influencer marketing right now, and one assumes that they are measuring its effectiveness. But we know that – especially when it comes to newer initiatives – actual return on investment is difficult to gauge, and sometimes ignored completely.

If you and your company are wondering whether or not to invest in influencer marketing, there are a few things you should know. First is, no one can guarantee success. Anyone who tries to is lying, and you should run away from them.

Second, success in this field is going to depend on the influencers you work with and the kind of people that follow and engage with them. Audience is key.

And third, you should always put in place a way to measure effectiveness. Using unique web links or promotional codes give you a way to track return on investment and determine how to allocate future marketing dollars.