Influencer Strategy: Nailing Your Influencer Brief

Few other marketing disciplines have been in the news as frequently as Influencer Marketing in recent years. The industry as a whole continues to grow at a rapid rate, and many brands are experiencing significant success compared to traditional marketing channels.

However, with the increasing professionalisation of the industry, rising competition, and the introduction of numerous new tools and content formats, it has become more challenging than ever for brands to determine the right influencer approach.

To embark on your journey into the world of Influencer Marketing, it is essential to outline a few key points that will help you develop a suitable strategy.

Why Influencer Marketing?

What is your brand’s primary reason for wanting to start Influencer Marketing? Is it merely a trend you feel compelled to follow because everyone else is, or do you have specific goals in mind? When approaching an agency like Disrupt, this is one of the first questions we will ask to identify the best approach to achieve your objectives.

The most common motivations for influencer activities are increased brand awareness, brand/product consideration, sales conversions, or simply reputation management. Based on these objectives, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can be established in alignment with your available budget.

What’s your goal?

What do you want to promote, whether it’s a service, brand, or product? Defining the campaign’s focus is crucial for creating a clear message. What are the key selling points in terms of features or differentiators? How do you want consumers to perceive your brand? What values set your brand apart? Given the frequency of influencer ads that consumers encounter daily, their ability to stand out is limited.

Experienced agencies can serve as valuable consultants to help you refine and define your brand’s key message to maximize its potential to stand out.

When are you going live?

Do you have a timeline or a specific launch date in mind? This could be a product launch, an upcoming promotion, or seasonal peaks, such as holiday gifting or the start of the year for assessing lifestyle changes.

Whenever possible, the timing of influencer campaigns should be considered in line with your brand’s broader marketing activities and key dates. However, for more substantial goals like building brand trust, reputation, consideration, and, hopefully, conversion, longer timeframes and a consistent approach are necessary for effectiveness.

Who are you trying to reach?

What does your target audience look like? How do they think and behave? Understanding your target demographic is vital, as this information plays a crucial role in selecting the right influencers for your campaigns.

Achieving high impressions in a campaign holds little value if the viewers have no interest in your brand. While most tools can provide a demographic breakdown, Disrupt’s comprehensive screening process also involves evaluating online reputation, lifestyle, and past brand collaborations to find the most suitable matches.

How will you utilise influencers?

Which channels do you want to leverage? What is your budget? How will creators interact with your product/brand? Although this aspect is challenging without prior testing, some brands may have initial preferences based on the nature of their product or service. At this stage, influencer strategists like us can suggest the most effective content format, creative concepts, and platforms for your brand to leverage.

Once the above key questions have been addressed, a detailed brief can be created to guide influencers through the campaign objectives, creative concepts, key messaging, and logistics to ensure a smooth execution.

The work doesn’t stop here, though! Throughout the campaign’s duration, performance data, such as content reach, engagements, and sentiment, should be captured and analyzed, alongside link/website traffic and sales where applicable. These performance patterns in relation to costs indicate the overall effectiveness of your campaign as a whole and of each influencer, ultimately enabling us to draw crucial insights from the strategy and make adjustments where needed.

Stay tuned for the next feature in the influencer strategy series, what do you want to see us dive into next? Let us know on socials!