Influencer marketing: how can you run successful campaigns?

Without influencer marketing, there is no performance today! A new generation strategy which mainly involves social networks. Concretely, influencer marketing brings together all the techniques using the strength of recommendation of opinion leaders. The objective: to get prospects to purchase products or subscribe to services. Focus on best practices for successful campaigns.

Nearly 80 % advertisers want to practice influencer marketing in the next two years. This is the result of a study carried out in 2022 by Reech, an agency specializing in influence campaigns, in partnership with the ARPP (Professional Advertising Regulatory Authority) and the Union des Marques. Several factors explain this enthusiasm: the rise of social e-commerce, the redistribution of the advertising budget from television and offline to digital advertising and the increase in the use of ad-blocks (ad blockers). Here are some recommendations for an optimal influence strategy.

1/Create clear and transparent contracts

Influencer marketing is a lever increasingly used by brands to boost their sales or their notoriety. But it is also increasingly regulated. With the culmination of contractualization, now required.

Several types of commercial partnerships exist: the influencer contract, the sponsored post contract, the advertising blogger contract, etc. With legal obligations to respect, in particular on the mention of the remuneration given in return for the work carried out by the influencer.

And the sanctions fall in the event of non-compliance with these legal obligations. As in the case of the Nabilla affair: last year, the influencer was fined 20,000 euros for deceptive commercial practices following a story published on her Snapchat account.

2/Consider influencer marketing as a tool with a positive impact

For successful influencer marketing, also avoid using promotional strategies that rely solely on product placement type content. Indeed, the values of authenticity and transparency have never been as important as today for consumers. Therefore, focus on influence strategies that convey meaningful projects.

Ask yourself about the positive actions you have put in place, about your corporate values… Then, think about your collaborations accordingly. Choose your ambassadors carefully. They will be the starting point of your community. A community made up of influencers, collaborators, customers, distributors, with common values, both personal and professional.

This is vital because influencer marketing is all about trust. Particularly among the youngest. Indeed, for 55 % of 18-24 year olds, recommendation from a social media star is THE determining factor that pushed them to purchase. This figure reaches 44 % among 25-34 year olds.

3/Amplify messages with media buying based on influencer content

Regarding the content to be placed at the center of an influence campaign, it can either be produced by the agency leading it, or by the selected influencer. In the latter case, some advice: don't hesitate to sponsor his posts.

By doing this, you express yourself through the content creator, a real user of your product or services. Obviously, the interest of Internet users is increased tenfold.

In fact, it is no longer the brand's marketing department that speaks, but the influencer they follow on the networks. By the way, you are targeting a wider audience.

Harnessing the power of employee advocacy You are never served so well as by yourself. This is also true in influencer marketing. Who would be better placed than employees to talk about their company? Person. This is why employee advocacy strategies are being developed. Concretely, this involves mobilizing employees active on social networks and encouraging them to relay information from the organization. This can be done in various ways: business videos, blog articles, forums on LinkedIn, etc. The aim of the game is that the proposed content initiates discussion within the community with which the employee-ambassador interacts. If this is the case, the performance is there: employees' publications on social media generate 8 times more engagement than those of managers, according to the France 2021 edition of the global Edelman Trust Barometer study.

4/Opt for variety

Not boring the consumer is a basic rule in marketing. And even more so in influencer marketing. To do this, do not hesitate to mix influencers (macro-influencers, employees, brand ambassador clients, nano-influencers, etc.), and formats. And on this last point, the video is on the rise. Logic: videos are at the heart of uses, in particular short vertical formats.

The meteoric rise of TikTok and Instagram Reels bears witness to this. One of the latest groups to venture into TikTok is the European shopping center leader, Klépierre. His videos follow one another following TikTok trends: between sharing good deals, exploring behind the scenes of shopping centers, discovering brands...

But we shouldn't neglect the contribution of live shopping either. This allows influencers to make their 100 % content purchasable, instantly. It takes place through live videos mixing snack content and promotion of products or services. Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Tiktok, Twitch… thus offer features conducive to instant shopping, very popular with consumers.

5/Collect data and measure the profitability of your campaigns

Influencer marketing allows, unlike mass media, to establish a privileged link with prospects. Their feedback constitutes a wealth of information that should not be overlooked. You must therefore use it to adapt your products and/or services. This requires having the right tools to recover and process these large volumes of data.

The same goes for measuring the return on investment (ROI) of your campaigns. Several key performance criteria (KPIs) make it possible to evaluate the success of an influence marketing operation. First and foremost, the volume of impressions, or the share of followers exposed to content created on the brand. Then, their engagement rate (likes, comments, shares). Finally comes the earned media value (EMV), which calculates the equivalent amount of media purchase necessary to obtain the same results.

Knowing that in all cases, to be profitable, influence must be integrated into an overall strategy including other essential levers, such as social advertising, SEO (natural referencing) or even SEA (paid referencing).

6/Follow the evolution of social networks towards web 3.0

Emerging social networks continue to attract brands and influencers. If only to diversify their presence and meet the needs and expectations of consumers. Proof of this is the dazzling success of the TikTok network.

Will metaverses be the next generation of social networks? It's possible. Like them, they allow you to exchange, engage, buy, participate in events, and entertain. But with one difference: everything happens in a 3D world, with virtual reality, avatars, etc. Recent illustration with Samsung, which presented its Samsung Galaxy S22 phone with a virtual influencer during an event in the metaverse co-hosted with the creator of TikTok. This is one example among others.

We can logically assume that in the future, brand strategy will involve virtual influencers. Moreover, certain agencies like Dentsu have already created a dedicated center. This hub provides brands with a virtual face and personality to use across all digital platforms.

In summary, influencer marketing, more than ever synonymous with performance, is gaining maturity and becoming more professional. But a successful influence strategy means respecting good practices, some of which constitute legal obligations. This concerns in particular the constitution of clear and transparent contracts meeting these legal obligations, the commitment to more ethical marketing or even taking into account the metaverse or web 3.0. With the guarantee of a successful campaign.