I’ve noticed over the years that there’s been a shift in where influencer marketing is executed. First, it focused mainly on blogs, and then it moved on to YouTube. Now it’s all about Instagram, which seems to be a favorite among influencers. Quintly reports that a user’s follower growth rate is the highest on the platform, which could be one of the reasons why influencers are favoring it.
The same study also found that the interaction rate is higher on Instagram than on any other social media channel. And in a survey conducted by Hashoff, 91.9% of 150,000 influencers chose Instagram as their number one platform.
So if you’re going to execute an influencer marketing campaign, Instagram is the place to be. To help you optimize how you run your Instagram influencer marketing campaign, I’ve compiled a list of best practices that you can utilize.
1. Define Your Goal
I’ve come across a few businesses that have decided to launch an influencer marketing campaign on Instagram without any set goal in mind. Sure, they want to promote their business like every other brand. But that’s not enough for launching a marketing campaign. It’s crucial to define what success looks like to you, so you can easily measure the effectiveness of your campaign.
Do you want to gain more followers through the campaign? Or do you want to drive a certain amount of traffic to your website or landing page? Maybe you even want to increase your conversions and revenue.
Whatever the goal is, make sure you clearly define it so you can understand how to properly execute the campaign or make improvements when necessary.
2. Define Your Performance Metrics
Now that you have a set goal in place, you can define the key performance metrics with which you can measure the success of your campaign. Which metrics are relevant to your goal?
For instance, KPIs such as follow growth, social media impressions, engagement rate, reach, etc., would be crucial to a goal that involves raising brand awareness. And if your goal is to drive more revenues, you’ll be looking mainly at metrics such as click-through rate, conversion rate, total basket value, etc.
3. Look For Your Ideal Influencers
What kind of influencers will be able to help you achieve your goal? Do you want to gain massive reach with mega-influencers? Or do you wish to win the trust of a small but relevant audience through micro-influencers? Before you look at the influencer’s following size, you need to first look at the most important aspect: relevance.
Ideally, you should be working with influencers who create content relevant to your industry. In some cases, however, the influencer’s niche may differ according to your campaign goal.
For example, HP Australia partnered with fashion influencers on Instagram to promote their new HP Spectre laptop. This is relevant because the goal is to raise awareness about the product among a young and style-conscious audience.
In addition to relevance, the other vital factor to look at is engagement rate. An influencer with high engagement rate is a sign that the influencer is creating content that their audience loves to interact with. I really like tools such as Phlanx Influencer Engagement Calculator for measuring the average engagement rate of potential influencers.
And once you find your ideal influencers, make sure you build a genuine relationship with them. This is a crucial step in any influencer marketing campaign to generate high-quality leads. In the expert roundup I put together recently, experts like Mike Allton, Gini Dietrich, Heidi Cohen, etc., also stressed the importance of influencer relationships.
4. Execute Campaigns That Fit Your Goal
There are different types of influencer marketing campaigns you can execute on Instagram. You can get influencers to create sponsored posts that feature your product or service if you’re looking for exposure. You can ask for a simple brand mention or a thorough review, though the latter would be a better option. This will help you educate and inform your target audience while winning their trust.
You can even get influencers to take over your Instagram account for a day. This works great because they’ll be able to draw in their followers to your account and help you gain new followers. Plus, they’ll be able to engage your current followers with new content from a fresh viewpoint.
The options are virtually endless. You just need to have a clear idea which of the campaigns would be best for accomplishing your goal.
5. Maintain Transparency
Instagram has made it easier for influencers and brands to maintain transparency with sponsored posts. Influencers will now be able to add a “Paid Partnership With …” tag in which they can tag your brand for the posts they create for you. So enable your influencers to make the most of this tag whenever relevant.
This will ensure that you comply with the FTC endorsement guideline and avoid paying heavy penalties in case of failure to disclose.
6. Track Your Results
It’s not enough that you execute your Instagram influencer marketing campaign. You should also ensure that the campaign is delivering results so you can tell whether or not your investments are paying off. You’ll also be able to understand if any adjustments or improvements are necessary for your campaign to deliver better results.
This may prove to be a bit challenging because ROI measurement is still the biggest influencer marketing challenge. What I’d suggest is that you invest in an influencer marketing tool that can help you track your campaign performance and determine ROI more easily. Grin is an excellent option, and I’ve been using it to track metrics such as earned media value and engagement on all of the content I am creating.
These six steps are vital to your Instagram influencer marketing campaign. They can help you stay organized and successfully launch your campaign without any major setbacks. After measuring your ROI, it would be wise to see what’s working and what isn’t, then make necessary adjustments in your campaign accordingly.
