Designing Influencer Marketing Campaigns
Influencers and Integrated Marketing Communications Campaigns
Oftentimes, we think of influencer marketing as a campaign (meaning a short-term effort) and as something that occurs only on a few social media platforms. Microsoft shows us that influencer marketing can be a strategic element of a larger integrated marketing campaign effort. For International Women’s Day a few years ago, Microsoft used National Geographic’s social media presence and some of the best-known adventure photographers to build an Instagram marketing campaign that had many other strategic elements. This effort was part of Microsoft’s larger “Make What’s Next” campaign in 2016 and 2017 to encourage girls to work in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). While the Instagram influencer campaign was key, the overall effort included other components including a 60-second TV ad, a career exploration tool created with LinkedIn, and a workshop available in Microsoft retail stores and a Facebook Live event in 2017.
The goals were to build awareness and foster positive perceptions of the brand and to create genuine messaging aimed at girls to pursue STEM education. Additionally, this allowed Microsoft to capitalize on a trending international event. A total of 30 photos taken by several popular adventure photographers were posted on five of National Geographic’s Instagram channels. The photos included captions about a prominent scientist or adventurer. Influencers included Cristina Mittermeier, Ami Vitale, Krystle J Wright, and Kitra Cahana. The campaign earned 91 million views on the five accounts, 3.5 million likes, more than 115,000 likes per post, and more than 1,000 comments. For Microsoft, it worked by leveraging NatGeo’s established channels and aligned them with a trusted partner as well as trusted influencers. It showcased authentic stories and imagery through sponsored posts on Instagram.1
Structure of Influencer Campaigns
The purpose of this chapter is to highlight ways to design an effective influencer marketing campaign. Ideally, the concept of campaign is short lived; eventually brands will consider developing deeper relationships and collaborations with a set of influencers who offer authentic content and messaging to their followers. But we must start somewhere. The chapter that follows outlines considerations for designing influencer marketing strategy. The first step examines the importance of setting goals and objectives. There are many principles around goals and objectives and understanding the consumer journey is helpful. The next step is understanding the influencers’ audience and the brand’s audience (known as the target market). The next issue is to examine how to best choose influencers and then how to find influencers. The following sections include campaign briefs, content creation, types of platforms, campaign structure, and performance measurement. Much of this information is based on time honored marketing strategy elements. For influencer marketing, the key “creative” decisions deal with influencer selection and message development (Figure 5.1).
Goals and Objectives
Before starting any campaign or influencer marketing program, it is best to conduct an audit of current digital assets just to establish a baseline. Amanda Russell in The Influencer Code recommends brands examine several areas. These include all current social media accounts (follower counts, subscribers, likes, shares, engagement ranks, and comments); website traffic; paid search results (such as click through rates (CTR) and average costs per click); e-mail marketing results (sign ups, open rates, CTR); brand sentiment from social listening tools; any instore activity for brick and mortar firms; traditional advertising metrics; SEO results; customer feedback; product reviews; and of course, financial metrics.2 This will ensure that any additional marketing efforts—especially those involving influencers—are able to make a difference.
Figure 5.1 Structure of influencer campaigns
Once there is a good strategic foundation, the next step is to determine the way forward. Defining goals and objectives should be one of the first steps in designing an effective influencer marketing campaign. That said, the terms are often used interchangeably. But they are a bit different. Goals are long term and are typically the ultimate result that a brand hopes to achieve over a time period. Goals focus on the general direction for the brand. For an educational technology company, a goal could be to become a thought leader in homeschool education space. Objectives provide some structure to goals. Objectives are short and medium term and should follow the well-known S.M.A.R.T format. These are defined as follows:
• Specific: Specific objectives narrow the frame of reference. Example: To increase new followers by 20 percent in six months.
• Measurable: Objectives need to be quantifiable. Hard data are required and answer questions like how much or how many. Example: To add 100 new followers on Instagram in 45 days.
• Attainable: While optimism is great to have, objectives need to be attainable, meaning the brand must have the ability to achieve what is desired. Objectives should be based on analytics and a strong understanding of the market context.
• Relevant: Objectives should match well to the goals and be relevant to not only the industry but also the life cycle of the company (e.g., startup).
• Time oriented: A time-oriented objective includes a deadline or time parameter.
Essentially, goals are what a brand wants to achieve, and objectives provide structure on how to define success toward the goal. Let’s take a company selling monogrammed bags online. The target audience for the bags are girls between 14 and 24. Before planning an influencer campaign, it is best to set goals and objectives. An effective goal for this company is to maximize growth year over year. A good objective is “to increase revenue by 10 percent by end of the fiscal year 2022.” This goal is specific (revenue), measurable (10 percent), attainable (10 percent is typically not out of the question for growth targets for many industries, but that does require context), relevant (the brand is selling products), and time oriented (by end of fiscal year 2022).
For influencer marketing campaigns, there are several typical objectives that are used to measure effectiveness and return on investment (ROI). In fact, determining ROI is the most important concern among marketing managers when it comes to influencer marketing programs.3 Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the metrics used to measure objectives. For example, if the objective is to increase brand awareness, how is it measured? Metrics include reach or impressions which can be measured online or it can be measured via website traffic through data measurement programs like Google Analytics. At this stage, it is important to align the goal, objective, and KPIs. But it is not quite that simple. It is important to think about the consumer and where they are in their purchase journey.
The Consumer Journey
Let’s be honest—consumers don’t usually see an ad on Facebook or see a recommendation from an influencer and immediately purchase the product. Rather, consumers typically go through stages of a consumer journey. This concept is well known and researched in advertising and still applies in the case of influencer marketing as well. The stages of the consumer journey describe how they move from hearing about a product to buying a product and what they do after the purchase (Figure 5.2). The consumer journey includes the following:
Figure 5.2 The consumer journey
• Awareness: Before anything gets purchased, consumers must be aware that a product even exists. Gaining awareness has been one of the primary reasons that brands invest in advertising. For influencer marketing campaigns, awareness is often seeded through content created and disseminated by influencers on social media platforms to their audiences, and awareness is one of the key objectives of influencer marketing. Typically, influencers mention a product through sponsored posts or product mentions. The message gains attention if the product or service solves a problem for the follower. It can be subtle or more overt, but the goal is to provide a solution to the problem by telling the brand’s story. Attention is a huge aspect of awareness—that something must happen to capture the attention of consumers that then increases their awareness of product or service, and currently, audiences are paying more attention to messages from influencers than messages from brands.
• Interest/consideration: Once aware of a product, some (not all) consumers will start to do some research because either the message has piqued interest or the brand can solve a problem. The purpose of using influencers here is to build brand affinity or consideration. Influencers often provide some valuable insight to their audiences depending on the type of messaging and information being shared. This is also where other types of content marketing such as blog articles or videos become important, some of which is created by influencers and some of which is created by the brand. Additionally, consumers may examine customer reviews to get a sense for the product of interest. Here, the influencer is trying to persuade the potential customer on behalf of the brand by making more information available.
Influencer marketing is particularly important in these first two stages. Influencers create compelling content and amplify that content on their social media platforms.
• Desire: At some point, consumers use information and recommendations to narrow down choices. The goal is to win consideration among many alternatives. Again, this is another place where other types of content marketing and native advertising can be useful to push the consumer to the next stage.
• Action: This is the point where consumers make a purchase (or not).
Ideally, influencer marketing is about finding the right influencer and then designing the right message at the right time in a consumer’s journey. Table 5.1 outlines several types of objectives that align with the consumer journey as well as KPIs that connect to the objective.
So, at the start, it is easy to see that having a good foundation on where to go and how to measure success is important. This sets up many other decisions—from how to choose the influencer to how to choose the platform and message. But first, we must understand audiences—the brand’s audience and eventually the influencer’s audience to ensure a match.
Table 5.1 Types of objectives and KPIs
Consumer decision funnel | Objectives | KPI4 |
Awareness | Brand awareness Reach new audiences Amplify reach and engagement | Reach; website traffic; views; CTR; engagement rate; share of |
Interest (or consideration) | Audience interest Engagement building Word of mouth/buzz Alignment with the brand Attitude and perceptions Follower growth | Engagement; shares; quality of influencer content; audience sentiment; clicks; comments |
Desire (or preference) | Audience interest Share of voice relative to competitors Drive lead generation Growing community | Engagement; shares; quality of influencer content; audience sentiment; comments; conversions (not sales) |
Action | Generate sales | Links through social commerce; sales; average order value; conversion metrics |
Satisfaction (loyalty) | Brand advocacy and loyalty Manage reputation and customer satisfaction | New followers; organic mentions Net promoter score |
Brand and Influencer Audiences
Interestingly, Brian Solis argues that the future of influence is “more significant than a legacy-based marketing program that emulates celebrity endorsements or advocacy programs in new paradigms.” He believes that empathy and customer centricity are the keys to taking influence to the next level.5 To truly understanding the audience (brand or influencer), it is critical to think about the people who are in the community—why they belong—as more than just numbers. The influencer communities are closely tied together—to the influencer and to each other. As such, it requires a more human approach than traditional marketing. The brand needs to understand what the community needs and values. Relationships should really drive this process since marketers are borrowing social capital from influencers to sell products to their communities.6
When putting it into marketing terms, the “target market” is the group of people who may/will buy a product or service. Traditionally, marketers defined target audiences in terms of demographics (e.g., age, gender, and income) and typically cast a wide net. That worked for a while. But now, audience size is only one component. In fact, if an audience is small, it can still be quite profitable for products and services if they are solving a consumer problem. For example, if Osaka’s field hockey stick is trying to identify a market, it may be small (e.g., people who play field hockey, mostly girls between the ages of 6 and 24 who live in the northeast and Midwest United States and who have access to a club, school, or field to play field hockey). But that group is passionate with specific needs, so if Osaka can offer a great product, then Osaka can be profitable. So, it is important to try to narrow the audience and design the message to them as opposed to trying to appeal to a large audience.
Of course, demographics are useful. However, they only get a brand so far. Psychographics tap into attitudes, character, values, interests and hobbies, and lifestyles of consumers. This helps understand the “why” behind consumer behavior. Shopping behavior taps into how a consumer shops (online, in store), feels about pricing (prestige, bargain) and what need or desire the consumer was trying to satisfy. Additionally, it can be important to understand how the audience engages with social media. The 90-9-1 rule basically states that 90 percent of users on a social media platform simply consume content. Nine percent occasionally engage with content which constitutes the community. Then, 1 percent represents who creates and disseminates most of the content. It is important to know the social media makeup of the audience to better target messaging and campaigns. In order to craft clarity around these data, marketers can create consumer journey maps based on audience information.
A good way to put this information together is by developing a buyer persona. It is a fictitious representation of the consumer based on research and data collected about the target market. It is a narrative—based on demographics, psychographics, pain points, and challenges as well as delights. Essentially, this is a great way to understand the problem that a consumer is trying to solve. At the end of the chapter, take a look at examples for a persona and consumer journey map.
Choosing influencers is one of the most important decisions (and the toughest) that brands need to make when developing an influencer campaign. The “pillars of influence” was first developed by Brian Solis and then expanded by Scott Guthrie of Ketchum London.7 Amanda Russell argues that five principles—reach, recognition, reference, relevance, and resonance—are important to understanding influence and any influencer should be assessed against them. Reach is defined as the overall size of the influencer’s following across all platforms. Recognition is defined as how recognizable the influencer is for the audience of interest. Reference is defined as who else in the category is paying attention to the influencer’s work. Relevance is defined as the degree that the influencer is associated with a topic (e.g., expertise in a particular category). And resonance is defined as how well the influencer can engage with the audience. It is also known as the engagement rate.
Given that true influence takes time, the term “campaign” may not even be as relevant for some brands. A top trend going into 2021 is that rather than single transactional collaborations, brands should develop deeper and more meaningful partnerships with influencers. This sentiment was heard from a variety of brands during AdWeek’s Social Media Week LA conference in June 2021. There are multiple reasons for this shift. First, if the ultimate goal is sales (and most often it is), making a sale takes some time. Even influencers with highly engaged audiences only have so much control over action (even influencers who have taught their audience to purchase). As such, it is tough for any influencer to make a significant long-term contribution in a single sponsored post.8 Relationships are the key here. In fact, Brian Solis talks about the importance of relationships and longer-term collaborations with influencers. Chief Marketing Officer at Brand Innovators, Ted Rubin, says “A return on relationships is the value that is accrued by a person or brand due to nurturing a relationship over time. This will demonstrate that the influencer is true to the brand, and this true relationship connection will pass through to the customer.”9 Trust-based relationships do take time and effort to sustain over time. And it is important for both parties. “If I can give brands value and I can teach influencers how to recognize their value and capitalize on what their true value is, then everyone walks away from a partnership happy and feeling like they got what they wanted out if it,” said Lynsey Eaton, CEO and founder of Estate Five, who manages macro-influencers and connects them with select client brands.
Michael Haenlein and his colleagues outline four issues to consider when choosing influencers. First, it is important to consider how influencers are categorized. Chapter 3 discussed this in some detail, with the caveat that the number of followers is only one metric to consider (and not always the most important metric). Rather it is also important to consider the audience composition and engagement rate as well. Second, they argue it is important to consider influencers as professionals and creators and realize the time and effort they have spent to build their audiences (and in some cases, their businesses). Third, choose influencers who are already influential in their social circle and choose those who have passion and authenticity. Last, consider multiple platforms and connect these to other traditional advertising efforts as well as offline efforts.10 So let’s examine some considerations in more detail, knowing that there is not “one” way to do this.
Looking for Influencers
1. Be sure to set your criteria. Check out issues like engagement rate, audience relevancy, content quality, location, topics, any special skills like language or athletics, and brand tone. There are many criteria to consider here.
2. Make a list. Using a variety of methods discussed later, make a good list and evaluate influencers based on criteria. It is also good to rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 and that can help winnow it down.
3. Select your influencers. Be sure to validate the size and reputation of the audiences for your influencers. Make the deal! (More on that in Chapter 6).11
There are several considerations for choosing an influencer. These include a variety of influencer metrics, where consumers are in the consumer journey and a few other considerations.
The easiest way (and up to this point, the way most brands selected influencers) is based on the number of followers. Chapter 3 outlines the various tiers of influencers based on that metric. And for some campaigns, choosing celebrity or macro-influencers perhaps makes sense to maximize reach and awareness. For others, especially for local campaigns, it makes sense to focus on influencers with smaller follower numbers. Instead of relying only on follower counts, there are other metrics to consider. These include the following:
• Reach: Discussed earlier, the number of followers can be used to determine an influencer. It is important to dig a little deeper into the numbers to ensure that there are no fake followers (discussed in Chapter 6). The purpose of maximizing reach is similar to a large media buy—how to get as many “eyeballs” as possible.
• Average engagement rate: This metric is measured by the number of likes and comments divided by the number of followers. It attempts to assess how excited the audience is about the influencer and the content that the influencer posts. Studies have shown that influencers with smaller audiences typically have a higher engagement rate, and brands are starting to focus on that more than reach.
• Audience quality: Related to engagement, this examines how the audience is engaged across a variety of content and the nuances in how they respond to various content. For example, do audience member respond in passive (likes) or more active (comments and shares) ways?
• Audience relevancy and composition: It is vital that the influencer’s audience are potential buyers for a brand’s product or service. This includes demographics and psychographics for the audience. Brands are looking for a match between the influencer’s audience the potential target market for the product or service.
• Exclusivity issues: Some brands may want the influencer to only represent their products and services. For some categories, that makes sense. However, in other categories—beauty and fashion, for example—this may not make as much sense because people typically mix up brands. Additionally, exclusivity is relevant after the influencer, and the brand has built a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.
• Influencer background: This includes the expertise of the influencer, the level of talent for content development, and how the audience connects with that content. This also includes perceptions of authenticity, which has been shown to be a crucial element to success.
• Budget: Sometimes selection comes down to the brand’s budget and whether the influencer’s price to post is in line with it. The price per post will depend on a variety of factors.
• Brand alignment: This includes whether a brand and influencer align in terms of image and price point. “If I am Neiman Marcus and I’m looking at an influencer who has a conversion price that is traditionally in the $400 to $500 range, that probably can work well,” said Lynsey Eaton CEO and cofounder of Estate Five. “But if she is a mom sitting at home with spit up on her shirt, that probably won’t align well.”
• Campaign KPIs: One way to choose influencers is to consider influencers who are good at converting on key campaign performance indicators. For example, some influencers are great for sales; others are better for alignment. Eaton argues that this is the best way to go. “What the mistake that brands make is that essentially they will come in and they will want a certain woman with 700,000 followers and they want them to sell this much product, but that influencer has not trained her audience into action,” she says. “Audiences follow influencers for different reasons. If sales is the goal, we have a woman with 180,000 followers who has trained her audience to purchase. They listen to her. My first question is always what is the KPI?”12
One way to examine how to choose influencers is to consider the consumer journey and the objectives related to the funnel (see Table 5.1). For example, the top of the funnel is about gaining awareness. If the brand is large enough, it can make sense to use macro-influencers or even celebrity influencers. The reason? Reach. Influencers with that many followers can reach millions of people. It is expensive to engage them but can be effective at creating top of mind awareness. When moving to interest or consideration, mass market brands can continue to use macro-influencers but can also consider micro-influencers, and many brands are moving toward influencers with smaller audiences and higher engagement. The goal here is connect with the audience in a deeper way. If the goal is to maximize evaluation and action (e.g., purchase), micro-influencers and nano-influencers have higher engagement levels because their followers trust them. They are perceived as authentic and are typically seen as more expert in the product category.
Other Considerations
There are several other considerations when determining how to include as a potential influencer. Andrea Arias, associate brand manager for Cetaphil, said that she likes to look at trends. She likes to identify up and coming influencers by looking at data that show influencer growth in terms of followers and engagement levels over time.13 Brittany Knight, lifestyle brand manager for Nike, said that for some initiatives, they look for something specific. Knight works with influencers in Los Angeles. She focuses on engaging young Black and Latinx women. “We look at Dubsmash which is similar to TikTok but has probably 90 percent Black girls,” said Knight. “We are looking at engagement and influence and are looking at more of a long-term relationship.”14 As such, there are a variety of considerations. “I am seeing more and more that brands want to work with a really specific type of person that has a really specific message to a really specific group of people. And I think this shows a shift and the way that brands are understanding the value of influencers,” said Addi McCauley of IZEA.
Overall, when selecting an influencer, brands do need to compromise. “In influencer marketing, I feel that there’s awareness, there’s alignment and there’s engagement. Pick one or two but you can’t get all three,” said Lynsey Eaton of Estate Five.
Perspective From an Influencer
Remember that the best influencer marketing campaigns represent a partnership—between the brand and the influencer. So it is also important to consider what is important to influencers when determining who to work with. West Gissinger is a Dallas-based fitness influencer and Pilates instructor who is a brand ambassador for Outdoor Voices and Carbon38. I talked to West about how she connects with brands. “Most often for me, a brand will reach out to me directly via DM or e-mail. If I feel the partnership is a good fit and aligned with my everyday lifestyle, we discuss the logistics of the collaboration,” she said. “My favorite collaborations are with brands and people I have met personally through using their products and services. I have an ongoing collaboration with my hairdresser and I met her through being a client of mine!” Gissinger emphasized the importance of fit between her lifestyle and the brand. “I always ask myself—would I actually use this or buy this—and if the answer is no, then it is no to the collaboration for me. I turn down a majority of collaboration opportunities that come my way for that reason. I am not one to post about something just because they are paying me to giving me a free product. I really have to believe in it,” she added. “People are smart. They can read right through an inauthentic post. And maintaining authenticity is super important to me.”
Gissinger mentioned her work as a brand ambassador. To her this means acting as an “arm of the company” that helps build community in addition to brand awareness. “In my experience, you are given more insight into the happenings and initiatives of the brand. The brand also invests in you,” she said. “Both Carbon38 and Outdoor Voices do a great job of supporting fitness professionals in their industry. Being a brand ambassador allows me to connect and collaborate with a like-minded group of people.”15
This is a tough issue since there are so many potential influencers out there. There are databases that scrape website content based on filters and keywords that can assist marketers to find, research, and track influencers across several social media platforms. Popular databases include BuzzSumo and NinjaOutreach among others. Additionally, marketers can conduct a manual search that includes an influencer’s social media platforms, associations and groups, blogs, video blogs, forums and communities, and traditional media. While this can be tedious, it is important to assure brand safety.16 Influencer marketing agencies can also help identify potential influencers (some of which they have a relationship with and others that they don’t). Agencies will act as an intermediary when developing the campaign. Influencer marketplaces are two-sided platform to connect brands and influencers. Essentially influencers opt-in to a marketplace and marketers can then search the marketplace for the campaign needs. Additionally, the marketplace often facilitates the relationship around communication and payment, which then saves time and money for both brands and influencers. Many influencers belong to multiple marketplaces. Last, some brands want to cultivate the relationship in house. Pepsi’s Rockstar Energy (discussed in earlier chapters) made a conscious effort to build deeper relationships between influencers and the brand team, arguing the need for the brand to have a face.
Sometimes you must get creative. “We had a campaign for a company that was really wanting to work with moms as they gave birth and started their breastfeeding journey. They wanted to follow moms for the first 21 days because their research showed that if a mom can make it through the first 21 days of breastfeeding, she would probably stick with it for the first few months,” said Addi McCauley of IZEA. The issue was then how to identify those influencers. IZEA looked through content where women were showing their bump pictures and talking about how many weeks pregnant they were. “We were literally looking at people posting pregnancy announcements and early first trimester posts or second trimester posts so that we had enough lead time to identify the right fit for the campaign.”
Whenever working with an influencer, it is important to develop a communication or campaign brief, just like any other marketing effort. The brief includes basic information such as brand overview, campaign objectives, messaging, audience overview, content deliverables and timelines, review process, performance metrics, and payment. This will help influencers to create the content that will resonate the best with audiences. The biggest difference with influencer marketing is the degree of control that the brand should exhibit over the content and messaging. When a brand tries to have tight control, there can be several misfires. First, it reduces creative freedom for the influencer. When there are multiple influencers, reducing creative freedom can result in content that is too similar and not interesting and as such, will not resonate. Second, some influencers will refuse to work with a brand because reducing creative freedom also tends to reduce authenticity, and influencers are just as worried about their own brand safety as the brands paying for the content. It is better to provide guidelines that can result in authentic and quality content that deliver results.17 AT&T TV decided to give creative freedom to their influencers in the TikTok house The Crib Around the Corner, which is the first Black TikTok house. It consists of five Black creators who live in the house for six months and create content for AT&T TT who is the brand sponsor. Instead of tight campaign briefs, the creators were given a simple message and they were allowed to improve and do the rest. They argue it is best to treat the creator has collaborators and not puppets. “Trust in humans and keep experimenting,” said Nick Bianchi, director of digital and social media for AT&T during Adweek’s Social Media Week LA.18
Types of Social Media Platforms
Social media platforms are the connective tissue of the influencer marketing ecosystem. These platforms are where influencers build their audiences. They are linked—the influencers need the platforms for exposure to their audience and platforms need the content created by people—including influencers. That said, not all social media platforms are created equally when it comes to influencer marketing. Michael Haenlein and his colleagues argued in an article in the California Management Review that Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok are the most important social media platforms. Yes, Twitch (for gamers) and Snapchat are important too, but they felt that these five represented the most significant platforms right now. In a survey of enterprise marketers (more than $1 billion+ revenue), marketers felt that influencer marketing is no longer a one-off tactic but rather a sophisticated part of the marketing mix. Budget and commitment levels are increasing. Instagram is still the platform of choice with more than 93 percent stating they play to use it in 2021. Relatedly, Instagram stories will be part of the campaign plan for 83 percent and 37 percent of marketers are planning to experiment with Instagram’s Reels. TikTok saw the largest increase with 68 percent of marketers saying they will use it. From there, the list of social platforms include Facebook (68 percent), YouTube (48 percent), Pinterest (35 percent), Snapchat (26 percent), Twitter (32 percent), Blogs (25 percent), and Twitch (13 percent). 20
What if the influencer is not even human? What if the influencer is a pet? Well, there is big money in being a pet influencer and brands are starting to take notice. The Westminster Kennel Club (WKC) founded in 1877 began promoting its 2020 Best of Show on TikTok. It featured videos from leading pet influencers—like Loki the golden retriever—to hype the event. The video from Loki received close to three million views! Interestingly, the top pet influencers earn a lot of money. “On average, someone with 10,000 followers is getting around $1–2K per post; someone with 500,000 followers earns around $5K per post and someone with more than 1 million followers is in the $10K range,” said Loni Edwards, CEO of the Dog Agency which represents the highest earning pet influencers. Dog Agency connects brands—like Bush’s Baked Beans—with dogs and cats. And pets can convert! According to research from Collective Bias, people are 10 percent more likely to buy goods endorsed by a famous pet versus just 3 percent from a human influencer. The number one pet influencer is Jiffpom, the Pomeranian pup with nearly 10 million followers on Instagram who regularly earns an average of $32,045 per endorsement. Nala Cat with more than 4.3 million followers earns $14,253 per post. We are living in an influencer economy for everyone!19
Regardless of which platform a brand chooses, it is important to understand what about the platform makes it most useful for influencer marketing and that each platform has its identity. Each platform has its culture, language, and styles that have been adapted by the influencers on that platform. Remember, most influencers have a primary platform where they are most popular. Content in one platform cannot be easily transferred to other platforms (although there are ways to repurpose content and brands can and should do that for their traditional advertising efforts). Brands should ensure that they engage with influencers with deep experience on the social media platform.21
More detail is provided on three platforms used for most influencer marketing—Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Table 5.2 includes larger set of social media platforms. Let’s take a look at some of the platforms and what makes them great candidates for influencer marketing.
Table 5.2 Social media platforms
Platform | Focus | Influencer interest | Uses |
Instagram (Gen Y, Z) | Image and video (stories, reels) | Top influencer platform | Entertainment, follow friends, follow brands |
TikTok (Gen Y, Z) | Video | Top influencer platform | Entertainment, follow friends |
YouTube (Gen X, Y, Z) | Video | Top influencer platform | Follow brands, entertainment, news |
Facebook (Gen Y, X, Boomers) | Text Image Video | Keep in contact with family and friends, news, entertainment | |
Snapchat (Gen Y, Z) | Disappearing photos and videos | Keep in contact with family and friends, entertainment | |
Twitter (Gen Y, X) | Text | Keep in contact with family and friends, news, entertainment | |
Pinterest (Gen Y, X) | Photos and images | Entertainment, inspiration | |
Twitch (Gen Y, Z) | Live streaming | Entertainment—gaming specific | |
Clubhouse TBD | Audio only | TBD |
Instagram is currently the most popular social media platform for influencer marketing. By the end of 2020, there are more than 130 million U.S. users and 67 percent of U.S. adults are on the platform. That said, 89 percent of Instagram users are outside of the United States. Instagram is popular with Generation Z and millennials—in fact, 72 percent of teens are on Instagram. It is also popular with businesses. More than 75 percent of businesses use Instagram in some way.22 The photo and video-based app is known for its aesthetically pleasing grid and the ability to curate content. It primarily shows the content of users that people relate to—for example, following. In the past few years, Instagram added Instagram Stories (like Snapchat stories), IGTV (for longer form video content), and Reels which allows for a new way to create and discover short entertaining videos. The app offers the perfect space for influencers to authentically recommend products and services to their loyal audience members. The pool of influencers is vast and includes several categories—from health and beauty to DIY and sports. Brands pay influencers to develop and disseminate sponsored posts in a way that connects with their followers, and the price of the post is based on the number of followers and engagement rate. Engagement on Instagram is high (one study shows 29.67 percent engagement rate).23 Campaign types include sponsored posts, contests, branded content, and reviews via product mentions. Instagram is a staple of influencer marketing and at this point should be considered in most brand campaigns.
Olay set out to stand out in the crowded beauty space. The legacy brand elected to leverage Instagram influencer marketing and cause marketing. The campaign centered on several female influencers to encourage women to be “unapologetically” themselves and disregard comments about being “too much.” Olay branded the campaign for the Fearless9 and built a microsite that hosted behind the scenes footage of a Vogue photoshoot. The purpose of the campaign centered around inspiring messaging. Olay wanted to connect to diverse audiences to generate relatability using female influencers; to increase brand awareness around defying societal expectations; and to establish brand affinity and sales. Influencers included models and athletes as well as other “powerhouses” using the #faceanything hashtag. The campaign was a 28-day challenge to break free of normal beauty campaigns. Social reach included 298K video views and 21K followers targeted. Engagement rate was 8.33 percent through 1.4 million likes, 11,000 comments, and more than 1,000 hashtag uses. Why did it work? Olay chose a core group of influencers of a variety of types and then supported the influencers to share personal stories and then connected with audiences through authentic messages.24
TikTok
In 2016, the Chinese-based ByteDance launched TikTok which has become Generation Z’s most coveted app after merging with the lip syncing video app, Music.ly. In 2020, it became the most downloaded app in the world with 700 million active users and an expected 1.2 billion in 2021. It is also the fastest growing social media platform with 80 million active users in the United States. Users spend an overage 52 minutes daily on TikTok and 32.5 percent of users are ages 10 to 19 and 29.5 percent are ages 20 to 29, with females outnumbering males almost 2:1 in the United States. TikTok also has the highest average engagement per post (17.5 percent) which is key for brand managers.25
Why? What makes TikTok so popular? Four design issues make TikTok useful for audiences. First, the “for you” algorithm is a recommendation engine that directs users to relevant content based on their browsing habits. This changes over time as the browsing habits change. This ensures authentic content. Second, TikTok contains captivating short-form entertainment that does not take itself too seriously. It is fun—not curated and perfect. The content is approachable making it popular with users. Third, there is a native scrolling format since the app is built to scroll from video to video ensuring users don’t have to work too hard to discover new content. Last, TikTok provides accessible creator tools for everyone to become a creator which supports the quick and easy production of user-generated content.26
Given TikTok’s massive growth and global viewership, brands are heading to the social platform. Brands are considering more TikTok creators over Instagram, partially for the chance for content to go viral. In terms of marketing spend, brands are trying out things in TikTok. Over the last quarter, “there’s been a significant acceleration in the investments our brands are making on TikTok,” noted Brendan Gahan, chief social officer and partner at Mekanism. “It’s shocking how quickly they’ve managed to go from that experimental bucket to nearly being a campaign staple on par with Facebook. TikTok is not there yet, but you can see it trending that way.”27 Brands like Chobani, Verizon, and Alaska Airlines have prioritized TikTok influencers in their marketing efforts. Currently, most campaigns are designed to drive brand awareness, and more brands are seeing TikTok as part a staple of social media spending as opposed to a test and learn.28
TikTok has several branding opportunities, including using influencers, and has built a tool for third parties to easily discover influences on the platform. TikTok allows brands to partner with creators to produce content for branding initiatives. Other options on TikTok include the hashtag challenge, paid social advertising, and of course, brand profiles.
Sony Home Pictures Entertainment collaborated with several TikTok creators to promote the movie Jumanji: The Next Level. They partnered with Zach King (one of the most popular TikTok influencers), New Rockstars, and SuperHeroKids to create dedicated videos for TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Engagement rate on TikTok was 16.2 percent (higher than the other platforms), and Zach King received 19.8 million views on his TikTok video. This managed to garner a social reach of 67.8 million and 25.3 million total views.29
YouTube
Content marketing trends indicate that video is more important than other types of content. YouTube remains an important to tool for authentic storytelling and provides an avenue for longer form content. In fact, YouTube was the place where many SMIs got their start especially in fashion, beauty, and gaming. There has been an uptick in content related to all other types of subjects—from fitness to finance to travel. Currently, there are 1.78 billion global views for YouTube with an expected increase to 1.87 billion in 2021. More than 92 percent of the audience claims they use it weekly. The highest earning influencer on YouTube in 2020 was Ryan’s ToyShow where 9-year-old Ryan Kaji reviews toys. He earned $29.5 million in 2020. YouTube is a favorite platform for 53 percent of Gen Z males and 42 percent of Gen Z females.30 There are several types of ways to use YouTube on influencer channels, including unboxing videos, haul videos, how to videos, behind the scenes videos, comedy sketches, morning routines, and day in the life vlogs. Several brands have used these types of video content successful, especially beauty, fashion, and fitness.
Other Social Media Platforms
While the ones above are currently seeing the most influencer marketing action, that is not to say these are the only ones. But there have been changes. Facebook is still the largest social media platform (in terms of active users, monthly sessions, and weekly posters), but the audience has skewed older over the past few years. Users tend to be in their 40s for Facebook. Additionally, engagement rates have declined, and more people have left Facebook than some of the other platforms. Few Generation Z are Facebook users, highlighting the changing media consumption patterns based on age. Twitter is text-based making influencer marketing a bit more difficult. The same can be said for LinkedIn, which has a more specific, work-related focus. Snapchat is very popular with Generation Z, but the messages do disappear and are not sharable, making it harder to develop content for brands. Twitch is an amazing platform for livestreaming for the gaming industry and has a variety of users and influencers. But the focus is still limited. Clubhouse, the audio only social media platform, is the newest to the ecosystem, so the verdict is still out on how it will be used. Blogs and podcasts are still utilized for specific reasons. Podcasts have seen a huge surge in popularity. Oftentimes, however, people with influential blogs or podcasts have other social media platforms they use to connect to audiences.31
Campaign Structures and Beyond
There are several general ways to use influencer marketing campaigns. Some of the “structure” depends on the social media platform. But some campaign structures platform agnostic. Regardless, most campaigns are centered around content—both creating it, cocreating it, amplifying, and distributing it.
Content creation is one of the most valuable aspects of working with influencers. According to Neal Shaffer,32 there are several aspects of content creation. First, brands are now considering outsourcing their content creation and acknowledging the true talent of influencers as photographers, videographers, editors, and writers. They utilize influencer’s skills. Second, brands can sometimes cocreate content with influencers, thus establishing a partnership. There are several types of content that can be used as part of an influencer marketing campaign beyond sponsored posts. These include lists (think about top 10 things to do in San Diego), infographics, how to articles (very useful for several categories like beauty and fashion), what posts (posts that start with “what” like … what to do), why posts (articles that attempt to answer why), videos, live feeds, live feed takeovers, webinars, podcasts, and so many others.33 Remember that many of these need a call to action to direct audiences toward the expected behavior. This is really a place where influencer marketing and content marketing intersect. Third, there is the value of visual storytelling and visual voice. Shaffer also argues that since these new types of visual communication tools have popped up, brands have struggled to align their imagery and find their visual voice and learn how to communicate that voice on social media. As a quick example, beauty companies like Sephora, Nordstrom, and Target have done a good job of refining their visual voice on Instagram. All use influencers to assist.34
The other value of creator content is the cost. “I know coming from the brand side, that on the agency side the production costs continue to skyrocket and are not stopping,” said Ryan Schram, COO of IZEA. “At the same time, tools get better and in the hands of ordinary people and the work that they are creating oftentimes look as good if not better than the million dollar shoot I just got done.” He added, “You know you had foodies who had better lenses and better videography tools than some of the pros and they also were doing it themselves. They were coming up with the idea, the recipe, the shoot. And all of a sudden, you start thinking to yourself that it is the ability to hit social reach and the ability to touch all these platforms and the brand gets a license to use that content and repurpose it.” In many cases, the content created—for example, a video—can be sliced up and become preroll for a brand across programmatic advertising buys or can be used in store. There are so many possibilities.
Influencers also amplify and distribute content. This is where the paid component of influencer marketing comes into play and where it intersects with native advertising. This is also called sponsored content distribution and is often identified as #sponsoredcontent and #ad. Approaches include sponsored Facebook updates, follow a brand, sponsored tweets, videos, photos, blog post, e-mail, twitter follower, livestream, and pin. Brands can get experimental. Clorox has been a leader in influencer marketing but raised their profile with a mysterious artist known as CLRX, who attracted fans on social media with a debut song “So Clean.” Her songs were on Apple Music and SoundCloud promoted on Instagram and Twitter and even a website. CLRX also earned more than 135,000 views on YouTube and has offers from multiple record labels. But she is not an up-and-coming artist but rather than a partnership between Clorox and Brand Synergy Group. “‘So Clean’ is about cleaning up life, both emotionally and physically,” said Magnus Jonsson, global vice president of brand engagement and U.S. vice president of cleaning at The Clorox Company. “The strategy behind CLRX is to appeal to young adults in an authentic, nonintrusive manner that’s more about communicating with them than at them.”35
There are several ways to work with influencers as well. Most are financially compensated—mostly as a monetary transaction—but that is not always the case. Especially for nano-influencers, other compensation options include giving them products hoping that they will mention it (note: it is important to adhere to FTC guidelines discussed in Chapter 6). A giveaway or sweepstakes is another way to collaborate with influencers. It is a combination of giving away and gifting for influencer review. If the brand’s product is too expensive to give away, sometimes affiliate marketing can be used. Influencers can become an affiliate marketer for the brand, and as a result, they can get some compensation based on each purchase. This has the added advantage of tracking sales in a pretty easy way. Amazon Influencer Shops is an attractive option through their platform. Promotion and discounts can also be used for tracking where influencers use a tracking code that is used as a discount at checkout for their followers.36
In addition to campaigns, brands can use influencers in many ways. Remember, influencers are people—they are advocates for the brand. Connecting them to additional aspects of the overall business can make a lot of sense. First, brands can use influencers to help identify target audiences. Influencers know their followers—their needs, wants, and desires—and this is insightful data for brands. They bring a different level of depth of the audience. Second, brands can use influencers to assist with product design and redesign. Using the insight that influencers have about potential markets, this too is useful information for brands. They can suggest improvements and assist in product redesign. And many influencers would jump at the chance to have cocreator partnerships where brands and influencers launch a cobranded product or collection where the influencer has co-ownership. Nike has done this for years—think about the Michael Jordan basketball shoe and how successful it has been for decades! Interestingly, according to Neal Shaffer, five of the top female clothing brands in China were started by Chinese influencers. Third, influencers can help brands hone marketing messages ensuring that it is tapping into the needs and desires of the audience. Influencers know the language, culture, and memes—the ways that a brand can appeal to audiences. Last, one of the best things that influencers do is create content, much of which can be repurposed for other aspects of the advertising and marketing campaign.37
Performance and Pivots
During any influencer marketing campaign, it is important to continue to measure success (or lack thereof). In some cases, the cause of failure has to do with a lack of access to data and metrics. It is the lack of analysis and critical thinking about the short-term and long-term impact of campaigns and partnerships. Campaigns should review both short-term and long-term metrics. One of the criticisms of influencer marketing (and in fact, digital marketing overall) is the focus on vanity metrics. Vanity metrics are measurements of likes, follower counts, comments, and so forth. These focus on short-term results and do provide some directional impact. These metrics have a place but should be the starting point as opposed to the ending point of measurement. True influence and the value of the relationship are more sophisticated than that.
Amanda Russell sets out some great ideas on performance measurement in her book.38 In order to really understand performance and then determine what types of pivots are needed, it is vital to review the goals and objectives set forth at the beginning. What was the purpose of the campaign and how did the brand view success? Importantly, review the baseline information. This will ensure that the goals and objectives (and metrics) are going to make an impact. Second, determine how to track the progress. Most will be strictly quantitative but will yield useful data. A few options:
• Coupon codes that are provided to each influencer to track sales.
• Tags and hashtags track mentions and references to the brand and topics.
• Tracking pixels will allow brands to see website visits and can identify the social platforms that are performing well.
• Social listening and alerts set up to track brand mentions online.
• Affiliate links are like coupon codes and are simple ways to tie influencer content to results.
• Dedicated landing pages are specific pages created on the website that influencers can direct audiences to that can include special editions or products.
• Instagram’s in-app purchasing allows users to directly purchase items from the platform.
• Google analytics and other measurement programs should be used at a minimum to provide basic details on how people use the website.
Now that the brand has the data in hand, it may become apparent that pivots or revisions need to be implemented. That is one of the best things about digital and social media marketing—the ability to make quick changes. Remain in contact with the influencer to ensure that changes can be implemented quickly. This is especially important as the relationship between the brand and the influencer grows.
Brands are concerned with better ways to measure performance. Earned media value (EMV) is a PR-based metric used to measure earned media. Essentially it assigns a dollar value to the various actions associated with content. EMV considers reach or actions such as comments or likes and the amount normally paid for CPM (or the cost to reach one thousand people). Recently, Trybe Dynamics determined that EMV could be another way to look at influencer marketing and focus on the earned part of the equation—that there is a misconception around influencer marketing being all pay to play and pointed to Wet + Wild cosmetics who had more than 6,000 creators develop more than 7,000 pieces of content on their own. That said they can use EMV to identify campaign successes. Tula Skincare saw a 32 percent increase in EMV boosting its EMV to $28 million during its recent “return to normal” campaign.39 Google is also starting to review performance through a different lens as well. Google argues moving past EMV to measuring brand lift. This was done in order to get closer to attribution since that is a true way to measure impact. Google has been able to conduct brand surveys using YouTube’s Brand Connect to track various aspects of brand lift and then compare it to other tactics like television. Interestingly, they have seen a brand lift using influencers, which is close to the scale of television.40
Designing effective campaigns is hard but can make a huge impact for the ability of influencer marketing to build impactful brands. The issue with influencer marketing is how quickly things change and how large a role that technology will inevitably play. But the beauty of this is that the brand can get a better idea of its ROI. Measuring ROI comes down to three issues: What was your objective, did you achieve it, and at what cost? Then, influencer marketing can be compared to other tactics.
The Anatomy of an Influencer Campaign
A great way to understand this is through an example. Truly Good41 is a health restaurant based in Dallas, Texas, started in 2019 by two friends who met at culinary school. They opened a small, hip and upscale restaurant located in the uptown area in Dallas. This is one of the wealthiest and youngest areas in the city. They offer a full line of lunch and dinner options, which include several vegan and vegetarian options as well as a new line of protein bowls. They also offer several lines of wine and beer that is healthy with fewer calories than the other options. Truly Good has a great patio with a fountain, busy happy hour, and a well-trained and friendly staff. While they have relied on WOM and some social media to increase awareness, the owners—Kate and Carol—feel that it is time to increase their marketing presence. But they don’t have a major budget and—at least right now—they are limited to one location in Dallas. So, they set a few objectives:
First, they want to increase the sales of their protein bowls by 20 percent in the next three months. Second, they want to increase the awareness and the reservations for a new Saturday brunch offering. They believe having 10 reservations on average for the first month would be considered a success. Note that both are SMART objectives, allowing Kate and Carol to be able to measure their success. To really understand, it is important to review their baseline snapshot. In this case, here is a quick overview:
• Truly Good averages 20 to 30 lunch customers during the week and 40 to 50 dinner customers during the week. It increases during the weekend (especially on Sundays) but the Saturday lunch averages are lower.
• Truly Good has an Instagram account (4,500 followers), Facebook page (972 followers), and blog where they post. They post one to two times per week on Instagram (average 6–10 comments depending on the post), weekly on Facebook, and biweekly blog posts (no comments). They also have a general website and have reviews on Yelp and Google. Most of the comments and evaluations are positive around their service and food quality. They have been written up in a few local Dallas publications over the past year.
Second, it is important to understand Truly Good’s customers. Most of their core customers are women aged 20 to 30 who work and live in the area. They visit Truly Good three times per month, often with friends. To understand customers, a persona and journey map can be useful. Take a look at these two useful tools (Figures 5.3 and Table 5.3).
Jen, Jess, and Brenna
About: Three friends who have known each other for 5 years (all college friends); ages 24 and 25; work in banking, fashion and advertising; health interests (yoga, cycling, running); Jess is vegan
Attitudes: Optimistic, fun, ambitious but not over the top, love great food, wine and atmosphere
Goals: Looking for a great place to connect on Saturdays after their morning workouts; love healthy and light food.
Pain points: Not enough healthy food options and they feel there is a lack of places that are interesting and pretty. Also they want a good place that is good for Instagram worthy posts!
Figure 5.3 Persona
Table 5.3 Customer journey map
Stage of the Process or User Journey | Stage 1 Friday weekend plans | Stage 2 Saturday morning workouts | Stage 3 Eat | Stage 4 After brunch |
User Activities | The three friends are texting plans for the weekend. It includes work, workout, social | Girls head to morning workout classes starting at 8am. It is a long workout day. | Decide where to meet for brunch. Want somewhere fun & casual with great food | Happy, and full (not still feel great!). |
Pain Points | Too many things to do! Don’t want to work more—feel that they have been working so much so looking for fun | None, other than getting up early | SO MANY OPTIONS! But don’t want heavy calories. And Jess is a vegan so must find good options for her. | None! (except maybe doing some work later….) |
User Insights & Emotions | Frustrated but excited | Tired, but happy! Lots of good workout endorphins. | Overwhelmed and hungry | Happy to catch up after a busy week. |
Areas for Improvement | Need some inspiration about where to go! | Connections to healthy food as to | Direct to Saturday Brunch at Truly Good. | 2 Instagram posts + 2 Instagram stories |
Kate and Carol think that influencer marketing may be a good addition to their marketing mix. To date, they have created some content, using a small boutique social media firm in the area. Truly Good has a fun and engaging blog and an Instagram account with 4,500 followers. Most of the Instagram content includes photos of the regulars (and sometimes a celebrity or two). They do have a Facebook account that includes the menu and specials. In terms of digital advertising, they have placed a few ads on Facebook and Instagram around specific occasions such as Mother’s Day. To engage with potential influencers, they have decided to create a campaign brief (Table 5.4).
Table 5.4 Campaign brief
Campaign name | #TrulyGoodSaturday brunch |
Brand overview | Truly Good—a healthy restaurant in Uptown Dallas |
Specific product/service | Saturday brunch during the summer months |
Influencer description | Dallas area influencers—foodies, fitness instructors, young women (20–30), friendly and approachable, known for having a large group of friends and who like to be out and about on the town |
Deliverables for creator | 2 Instagram posts + 2 Instagram stories |
Content direction | Fun, approachable, healthy, authentic. Clean creative. Preferably colors to match Truly Good’s logo and palette |
Elements | Include time and dates for brunch; favorite dishes (e.g., avocado toast); include friends and can include dog (since the restaurant is pet friendly) |
Links and taglines | This would include all social media links and hashtags |
Disclosure | Must include #ad, #sponsored before the link and must include SHOW MORE; must be the first hashtag in the list |
Other notes |
When considering social media platform, Instagram was chosen as the primary platform because of the visual elements and because it is very popular with Truly Good’s audience. There are several ways to choose influencers. For Truly Good, they knew a few people with between 10,000 and 15,000 followers who had an engaged following and who lived in the area and frequented Truly Good. They also found a Pilates and cycle instructor who built an engaged audience who followed her for her glute workouts online (as well as her high energy in person classes at two area fitness clubs). Truly Good also hired an influencer with a larger following to increase awareness. KPIs included engagement rate, shares, new followers, and ultimately bookings and sales. Obviously, this is a small example, but the principles are essentially the same (Figure 5.4).
Figure 5.4 Campaign elements
The next chapter highlights some of the important issues to consider when implementing the influencer marketing campaign. And it will wrap up with a quick look at the future of influencer marketing (at least as we know it right now).