Business
Get More From Influencer Campaigns: The Secret For Extending ROI
Influencer marketing’s popularity and demand show no signs of slowing down; in fact, it's been predicted that brands will spend up to $15 billion on influencer marketing by 2022.
Influencer marketing keeps on outperforming traditional marketing, primarily because influencers understand their audience’s interests and can bring brand messaging to life in a way that’s relevant, authentic, interesting, and (ideally) doesn’t feel like a commercial.
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Founder and CEO of Sway Group, An Agency That Specializes In Influencer Marketing, Branded Content, and Digital Media Planning and Buying
The ability to produce high-quality, engaging content that resonates with audiences is perfectly suited for social media sponsorships — but many brands are missing out on the benefits of making that influencer-created content work even harder.
High-performing influencer content can and should be extended beyond the original campaign. You can leverage content and even real-time content engagement into all kinds of branded outreach, including uniquely effective programmatic ad displays backed by social proof.
The likes and comments that drive engagement on social platforms can be prominently incorporated into ads that run on other platforms or websites, making even more use of that valuable social capital.
Today’s digital influencers often specialize in on-trend photography, videography, graphic design, copywriting, and more, offering a bevy of creative skills to brands along with the ability to reach their followers with the kind of word-of-mouth recommendations that modern consumers are drawn to.
In order to truly make the most of that valuable content, plan to integrate this work into your overall marketing mix.
Let’s dive into two of the most effective strategies for getting more from your influencer investment.
1. Get More From Paid Media.
Influencers are influential for a reason. They’re aligned with their audience’s interests and needs, and they know how to create targeted visual content that captures the right kind of attention.
Instead of using an agency- or brand-created creative, try transforming high-performing influencer content into paid media.
While brands may be familiar with how effective influencer content can be when used for paid social advertising on platforms like Instagram and Facebook (and how it ensures that great content gets the visibility it deserves rather than being buried by ever-changing display algorithms), there are many relatively new options for expanding ad strategies to reach audiences at scale.
It’s a smart move to put brand advertising spend behind content that’s already been tested and proven effective among target audiences, and now it’s possible to extend that content beyond the original social platform into programmatic placements that run on premium websites, mobile ads, in-app placements, etc.
Programmatic advertising provides data-driven targeting abilities that cut through millions and millions of users to ensure that the most relevant audience sees the right kind of ad at the right time — and the potential payoff is directly tied to the content that’s served.
High-quality branded content that is authentically shaped and shared by trusted influencers drives organic interest when promoted via paid media, and it can also boost brand credibility.
2. Repurpose for Brand-Owned Channels.
Brands have long relied on impactful user-generated content to share on their own channels; GoPro is a great example of a brand finding success with this strategy.
Influencer content serves the same purpose of adding authenticity and social proof to various brand promotional efforts and can be used across brand-owned social feeds, websites, newsletters, and much more.
Furthermore, repurposing influencer content can have a positive impact on brand SEO results in addition to boosting brand visibility.
Of course, repurposed content depends on ownership rights. Every brand-influencer partnership should be structured around a contract that outlines deliverables and timing while also documenting whether the influencer or brand owns the final sponsored content.
There are plenty of smart ways to upcycle high-quality influencer content into brand channels of all kinds:
• Influencer content is already optimized for social audiences, which makes it perfect for sharing across brand-owned social accounts. Reposting influencer content from a company account can build trust and credibility among existing audiences and attract the influencer's audience as well.
• Influencer testimonials can be included on brand websites, with authentic descriptions of what the promoted product/service has done to improve their lives.
• Creators can fill in the content asset gaps brought on by pandemic restrictions; while many brands and agencies have had to put traditional production shoots on hold, influencers never stopped developing high-performing content from home — and brands have been noticing the difference in both quality and cost. Brooklinen’s popular “petfluencer” subway ad campaign shows how influencer content can be successfully turned into billboards or other in-real-life promotions.
• By tagging relevant influencers when promoting their content, brands increase the chances of additional organic shares as influencers republish to their own audiences
A New Outlook For Success
While it can be a lot of work to get an influencer marketing program up and running, don’t let that effort lose value by ignoring the content after the campaign. Change your outlook to view influencer campaign work as an integrated marketing investment, and expand on the most successful campaign elements to drive even more awareness, interest, and brand engagement.
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Article Source: Forbes.com
