Although each influencer marketing project may be different, the main stages in a successful campaign will be the same. Let’s take a short tour of the digital influencer campaign systems.
Stage 1: Defining the campaign objective
The first stage is to define the overall objective of the campaign. Making people aware of the brand and developing a reputation? Improving your brand image? Acquiring new customers? Building customer loyalty? Increasing a fan base on social networks?
Julien Schaaf, an expert in digital influence at Kolsquare explains that “although the choice of influencer is an important part of any influence campaign, it is also necessary to bear in mind that the system chosen will have a considerable impact on the success of the campaign. “
In an influencer marketing campaign, the system is composed of three distinct elements: the type of content (text, photo or video), the social networks chosen and the chosen account (brand or celebrity’s account).
Each social network has its unique features and must be suited to the influence strategy. Depending on the objective of the campaign and the brand’s budget, the most relevant social network(s) will not be the same.
For Facebook, you can negotiate posts from the influencer’s Facebook page in order to access their subscriber database and to reach these directly. You can also offer them to opportunity to manage your page, thereby associating their image with yours.
This is the same for Twitter and Instagram. Not negligible, this also offers the possibility of creating a story campaign, like on Snapchat.
For example, Marine Leleu has published on her own Facebook page to communicate the course that she was going to deliver in on the premises of Superprof.
Here is an example of Intimissimi which has created adverts with influencers.
For YouTube, there are two options available to you: you can either publish on the brand’s account or publish on the influencer/YouTuber’s account. In the first case, the brand will have more control over the content (script and filming).
They will be able to decide to do pure advertising or Native Advertising. In both cases, they will pay the influencer and must manage the shoot.
In the second case where the video is published on the YouTuber’s account, this will naturally be Native Advertising.
In fact, the influencer cannot, for example, create a five-minute video on a brands’ watch.
Instead they will create a video about time and will talk about the brand’s watch at one or two points, while including the product in the video: this is what we call product placement.
The brand cannot afford to impose their own script, because each influencer has their own style, tone, habits etc.
Respecting the style of the influencer is essential to reaching and winning-over the end consumer.
Finally, when negotiating a contract, the brand must remember that the influencer will always be more demanding in the case of publishing on their own page, because – let’s not forget – influencers have an editorial line to stick to.