By Megan McCarl, Senior Manager

Social media has become an integral part of today’s shopper behavior and experience, and influencer marketing has boomed accordingly. In fact, it’s expected that brands will spend up to $15 billion on influencer marketing by 2022, per Business Insider Intelligence estimates (based on Mediakix data.)

While working with influencers and securing third party validation is nothing new, the space and dynamic is constantly changing. That change will continue as social media channels like Instagram roll out additional capabilities – further blurring the role of influencers in the consumer funnel.

Our relationships with influencers are treated no differently than our relationships with traditional reporters. At Lambert, we engage influencers similar to how we interact with reporters, so we arrive at the conversation having spent time reviewing their content and special interests in advance. Influencers have powerful platforms, just as traditional media does, and these voices can directly impact sales, drive new consumer visibility, provide lead generation, and generally advance positive business outcomes.

Unsure how to get started? That’s what we are here for. We have rounded up our top four tips on developing a successful influencer campaign that will drive purchase consideration and trial:

  1. Determine the type and size of influencer you want to target. The influencer market is rapidly expanding as there are influencers for every niche you can think of – food, beverage, beauty, DIY, sustainability, and more. They also come in a variety of sizes from nano (1,000-10,000 followers), macro (500,000-1 million followers), and even mega (1 million+ followers). Spend time checking out their social channels, reading through comments from their audience and find who best fits your business objective(s).
  2. Set aside some budget. For many influencers, this is their job, and they spend a considerable amount of time curating content and building viable audiences (in addition to reviewing your product). To the layperson, this may seem like easy money, but it involves creativity, photo and/or video expertise, scheduling content, and deployment of effective community management skills such as responding to questions, tagging your social channels and more. This work deserves fair payment when considering the positive impact this exposure may generate for your brand.
  3. Collect your assets. While many influencers develop their own content to match their aesthetic and feed (remember – this is also usually the reason you are drawn to a particular influencer!), it’s also important that a brand provide information an influencer needs to determine if your product is something their audience would be interested in. The easiest way to do this is to develop a shareable Dropbox folder you can send along with your outreach and should include collateral such as press releases, images, website, social media handle and more.
  4. Schedule it out. Don’t be surprised when an influencer gets back to you and shares that they are working on content a month or two out. Just like traditional media, influencers are being approached by multiple brands and need to schedule out their content. Be sure to share a reasonable deadline – and be flexible if needed!

Looking for help on your next influencer campaign? Let’s connect.