5 Steps to Develop an Influencer Marketing Campaign

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An influencer marketing campaign uses people with networks and interests that can help share your brand message. There are five steps to develop an effective influencer marketing campaign.

Set the Goal for Your Influencer Marketing Campaign

To build a successful influencer marketing campaign for your business, know your marketing goal and define a campaign goal that supports that goal. You will want to tap into what influencers do best – influence.

Influencers can help:

  • Content promotion
  • Product
  • Product advantage
  • Content creation
  • Event management

Identify Your Influencers

Social media influencers are social media users who have an established credibility and audience. These are users who persuade others.

Influencers typically:

  • Have a large and engaged audience
  • Active on social media and post frequently
  • Authentic, credible, respected
  • Relevant to your brand or industry as evidenced by the content of posts and/or the people in their audience

Know what you are looking for and then find the influencers that fit. The easiest way to find your brand influencers is to use search tools on various social media channels to explore who’s already posting about your brand online.

Also look for recommendations. Social influencers tend to know other influencers. Once you’ve identified influencers , ask them to recommend others who are similar. Some social media networks will give you recommendations when you follow an influencer on the platform.

Reach Out to Influencers

To start these relationships off on the right foot, make sure you focus on building a strong relationship. Reach out directly to influencers and get to know them. Give support and information before you start to ask for anything.

Provide Rewards

Offer appropriate incentives for influencers you partner with. Influencers are not necessarily looking for monetary rewards. Consider their interests:

  • Increase their reach/grow their audience
  • Quality content
  • Perks like insider scoops, product previews
  • Unique experiences

Measure Your Marketing Results

Define your measures of success and take periodic assessments. As with all social media, influencer marketing should be viewed over the long-term. If you take time to create healthy relationships with influencers, you should see results over time.

Adjust to do more of what works well and less of the activities that aren’t showing results.

How to Start a Digital Marketing Strategy to Guide Online Marketing

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Do you have a digital marketing strategy to guide your online marketing? If not, you are likely not clear what you are doing or if it is having the right impact. It’s never too late to develop a strategy to set yourself up for success.

The digital strategy process begins with a discovery phase. During this initial phase of the process, the goal is to gather the information needed to develop the right strategy for the needs of your business.

Collect Marketing Information

Review materials you already have on hand, such as your business and/or marketing plan.

You may also need to conduct some research:

  • Interviews with key stakeholders, including internal staff, partners, and or customers
  • Review of available research related to your industry
  • Focus groups
  • Competitor research

Ask the Right Questions

Goals

  • What are my marketing goals? Leads, sales, exposure, etc. Be as specific as possible.
  • Do my online goals differ in any way?
  • What are the valuable target keywords for my business?

General Marketing

  • How do I market my business? Review any related documents such as marketing plans, market data, etc.
  • What makes my business unique? What makes people become customers? Repeat customers?
  • What are my current sources of new clients?
  • What is my desired style, tone, voice, messaging, brand positioning?

Audience

  • Who is my target client/audience? Be as specific as possible.
  • Ideally, what should my target client say about me?
  • What do I provide that is of the greatest interest/need to my audience?

Competitors

  • Who are my top competitors?
  • What are the components to their digital strategy?
  • Is there anything that my competitors do online that I know or think helps them? Hurts them?
  • What makes me different from my competitors?

Website

  • Do I need to change my website, including adding or deleting any current content or features?
  • What tools are used to provide content and functionality for my website?
  • What does Google Analytics tell me about how my website is currently used?

Social Media

  • Which social media do I currently use? Document how often and what you post at each.
  • What does my following look like on each social media channel? (Include follower numbers, types of people, and anything else that defines who you are engaging with.)
  • What types of posts result in engagement (comments, likes, shares, emails, etc) from my followers?
  • Which social media do I want to consider?

Online Marketing

  • Where else am I online? (Google it!)
  • What opportunities are available at each location?
  • Considering everywhere I am online, what is working and what is not? How do I know?

Resources

  • What financial resources do I have to apply to my digital marketing? Human resources? Other?
  • How much time can I reliably invest in digital marketing activities?
  • What content sources can I draw from for my digital marketing – That I create? That others create?

Online Marketing Success Starts Here

If this seems like a lot, it is. The more insightful information you collect, the better the digital marketing strategy to guide your online marketing will be.

Of course, I am here to help!

Elements of Great B2B Headlines

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All of your business-to-business (B2B) content starts with a headline or title. Those words are the most important part of your writing. The right headline captures the reader’s interest. Without it, the rest of the content will never be seen.

Focus on Your Audience

As you review the advice below, remember that your headline and content needs to speak to your audience. Some of the advice may be more or less applicable to the audience you need to reach.

Know your audience. What do they like? Need? Get turned off by? Make sure all of your content is written with the needs and interests of your audience in mind.

The Best Headlines…

Research shows:

  • The words that come first in the headline have the most impact on reader interest
  • Headlines that introduce steps (“How to”) and lists (“x Tips/Ideas/Ways/Things”) get the most attention
  • The numbers 3, 5 and 7 create interest
  • Headlines that suggest forward-looking and predictive content provoke curiosity about industry developments
  • For B2B headlines, a focus on practicality and industry insights wins out over emotional appeals

7-12 Word Headlines Are Best

Headlines that are 7 to 12 words get the most B2B engagement. Shorter headlines work best for B2B messages.

SEO Considerations

To build in search engine optimization (SEO) know the focus keyword for your content and make sure that is part of the headline.

Do some research to understand the words that your target audience uses when looking for the content you are providing. Sometimes these are a little different than the words you would naturally use. Whenever possible, factor keyword vocabulary in your writing.

The words of the headline are a strong signal to search engines about the topic of content. Using the keyword first or nearly first in the headline is best.