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Influencer Marketing From A To Z
Influencer Marketing From A To Z
marketing
from A to Z
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAR T 1 - PL AN N I N G 5
.Lesson 1: What is influencer marketing? 6
.Lesson 2: Goals & strategy 16
PAR T 2 - M ANAG E M E NT 29
.Lesson 3: Smart influencer selection 30
.Lesson 4: Mastering influencer outreach 44
.Lesson 5: Choosing campaign types 61
PAR T 3 - E VALUATI O N 75
.Lesson 6: Measuring success 76
.Lesson 7: Getting the most from your campaigns 86
Introduction PAGE 3
How to use this course
Influencer Marketing from A to Z is divided Here are the lessons you’ll find in this course:
into 3 parts focusing on the three elements
of campaigns: planning, management and PART 1 - PLANNING
evaluation.
Lesson 1: What is influencer marketing?
Lesson 2: Goals & strategy
Each lesson in this course includes a short
video summarizing the topic, a written
PART 2 - MANAGEMENT
chapter with further explanations and
examples, a resources page, and a key Lesson 3: Smart influencer selection
takeaways page. To complete a lesson simply Lesson 4: Mastering influencer outreach
read and watch the materials provided, and Lesson 5: Choosing campaign types
feel free to explore the topic further with our
suggested resources. PART 3 - EVALUATION
Introduction PAGE 4
PA R T O N E
PLANNING
INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS
INFLUENCER MARKETING?
INFLUENCER
INFLUENCER MARKETING
T H E BA S I C WO R KF LOW
_STORYTELLING
Influencer content is culturally relevant for a
reason! Their creative skills and social media
know-how allow them to host online communities
& spark trends. With their expertise, brands can
clarify who they are and what they stand for in a
language that audiences will understand!
_TRUST
Influencers are third-parties with credibility and
visibility in specific niches. People are already
looking to them for recommendations, inspiration
and entertainment online. In fact, 63% of people
trust messages from influencers more than
messages from brands.
_VERSATILITY
There’s a variety of influencer niches and social media platforms
meaning that influencer marketing can be leveraged by all kinds of
brands with all types of budgets.
_LONG-TERM BENEFITS
Unlike other forms of advertising which disappear when the campaign
ends, influencer content will continue to circulate post-campaign. That
content can always be repurposed for future marketing campaigns or
leveraged to grow your own social media channels!
_INSIGHTS
Data-driven influencer marketing (the kind you’ll learn about in this guide)
delivers key insights such as consumer behavior patterns in addition to results.
RECOMMENDED READING
Influencer Marketing Blog
Boost Your Agency Offering With Influencer Marketing
22
Part 1 - Planning PAGE 13
Key Influencer marketing leverages trust and visibility
takeaways. Working with creators in your industry niche helps you to build authentic
connections with your target audience. They have a valuable social reach
and create powerful social engagement through their unique content,
helping businesses to reach brand new audiences through channel
partnerships.
READ ARTICLE
READ ARTICLE
Whether you are new to influencer marketing or a Your campaign goals will dictate the criteria for your
seasoned pro, every influencer strategy starts with agreeing influencer selection, KPIs and so much more. That’s why
on campaign goals, defining a budget, target audience, goal-setting comes before choosing content creators!
and key message. Brands are understandably eager After all, both you and your influencers will need to fully
to reach out to influencers. But don’t let identification understand your aims in order to deliver the results.
overshadow your strategy!
Having a clear goal establishes a framework for the campaign and allows you to set relevant KPIs. For example,
an awareness campaign KPI could be a spike in new followers, web traffic or brand mentions. For sales campaigns,
measure conversions such as promo code uses, subscriptions, downloads, or traffic from affiliate links.
Nano and micro-influencers often Nurturing long-term partnerships Influencers like money but they
agree to cheaper rates or free is conducive to mixed value offers also value working with brands
collaborations in exchange for which helps keep costs low and that they like and respect. That’s
product samples. results in better, more genuine why influencers who already love
collaboration. your brand require less monetary
incentive to accept a partnership.
RECOMMENDED READING
Influencer Marketing Ebook
The Essential Guide to Planning Your Influencer Marketing Budget
should I recruit?
to participate in the campaign. A good rule of thumb is
to contact 10x the number of influencers you actually
want to work with!
EBOOK
5 Mistakes to Avoid in your Influencer Marketing
Strategy
READ ARTICLE
MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
Part 2 is all about finding and securing new creator partnerships and executing the best type of campaign
to meet your business goals. You’ll get expert insight and tips on choosing the best influencers, how to craft
the best outreach messages, and how to optimize every stage of your campaign delivery.
Campaign outcomes (and budgets) are dependent on a multitude of factors ranging from an influencer’s content
creation skills to their community size and perceived authenticity. Based on trends observed among hundreds of
thousands of profiles, it is possible to identify seven types of influencers:
Each type comes with unique advantages (and drawbacks!) but once goals and budget have been established,
selecting the influencer category you need is intuitive!
WH Y WO R K WI T H T H E M?
WH Y WO R K WI T H T H E M?
_Brand awareness
_Product reviews
_Product how-tos RECOMMENDED READING
_Niche product launch How Micro-influencers can transform your business
WH Y WO R K WI T H T H E M?
Leaders (KOLs).
_5K - 500K followers
_Most active on Linkedin, Twitter and blogs.
WH Y WO R K WI T H T H E M?
WH Y WO R K WI T H T H E M?
_500K+ followers
WH Y WO R K WI T H T H E M?
TOP TIP
C A M PA I G N I D E A S
Ensure your value proposition is appealing to mega
_Ad Campaigns
influencers who might not have heard of your brand.
_Driving web traffic
Revenue sharing campaigns are appealing as mega
_Affiliate campaigns
influencers have the chance to earn more than a one-
off fee.
_1M+ followers
WH Y WO R K WI T H T H E M?
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PERFECT FIT FOR
Celebrities are likely to be highly solicited and are
_Large scale ad campaigns
often busy traveling and promoting their own activities.
_Brand ambassador
They will be more likely to accept partnerships from
_Sponsored content
well-known brands, or brands/causes they have a
_Event host or patron
personal connection to.
_AVOID SATURATION
Saturation Rate is the ratio of organic content to paid content on an influencer’s profile. So if saturation
rate = +50% that means the influencer posts more ads than organic posts! A high saturation rate =
lower engagement rates.
RECOMMENDED READING
Organic influencers: they’re closer than you think
The secrets to success with brand ambassadors
takeaways.
When looking at an influencer’s audience, you should look beyond their
follower count to see if they’re reaching the right people for your brand.
Be sure to analyze their audience demographic data including location,
age and gender. You want to make sure that a significant percentage of
their audience represents your brand’s target audience.
MASTERING
INFLUENCER OUTREACH
H OW D O YO U A P P R OAC H I N F L U E N C E R S A B O U T P R O M OT I N G YO U R B R A N D ?
In the first email, you should initiate a relationship and Know what you’re willing to offer as compensation –
spark the influencers’ interest. Do your research and either the payment amount, the revenue-sharing model
personalize the outreach as much as possible. Including or the exact products you will send. To avoid offering too
their real name and using specific examples of what much or too little, skip to Tips for Successful Negotiations
you like about the influencer’s work will increase interest. (p.56). You can choose to send the campaign brief in
What is your brand’s value proposition? This should be your first outreach email or wait until the influencers
clear on your end before reaching out. respond with their interest. Either works!
RECOMMENDED READING
Influencer Marketing Blog
How to Master Influencer Outreach + Outreach templates
Introduce influencers to the brand. What are your A concise overview of the campaign (one or two sentences).
values? What does your company bring to the public? What is the campaign for? What is being promoted? Is it a
Why should they work with you? Include social media launch? Is this a holiday campaign? A giveaway?
account links, photos of your brand, products, and past
collaborations. Be visual!
Now that the influencers have a brief understanding of _Social Media Platform, Content type and # of posts.
the campaign, you can present instructions for content _Content expectations.
production. You should include all of the following points _Campaign hashtags and brand handle to include.
in a straightforward way that’s easy to understand. Include (Don’t forget #ad in order to comply with FTC’s influencer
any additional resources they’ll need to be able to carry marketing guidelines!)
out the campaign. _Call to Action. (Is there a link to your website or product
page that influencers can include?)
_Date/time of publications. Other campaign information:
Giveaway rules, event dress code, etc.
5. GOALS
You don’t have to explicitly state the exact amount of clicks
or likes but rather an objective, i.e. “The campaign goal
is to increase brand awareness, we’re hoping to grow our
following on Instagram.”
6. PAYMENT TERMS
_Compensation type (Flat amount, commissions, product
details if sampling, etc.)
_Payment method
_Payment date
_Payment terms and conditions
contracts and why you need on time, and the influencers get the agreed-upon
compensation.
are they important? You will find that most influencers expect a contract
nowadays, like freelancers. So don’t be intimidated – a
good contract will help establish terms, reduce risks
and set the foundation for a transparent, professional
partnership.
You can send the contract along with the brief or later on
if the campaign involves more complex terms. This might
include negotiation around content ownership (whether
your brand can use the influencers’ content for other
marketing purposes) and exclusivity (influencers can’t work
with your competitors while working with you).
Be the first to mention a price in understand influencers’ costs when same price or lower the price for less
your outreach. (Don’t wait for them to making your offer. Take into account content.
set a price). factors like location (you can expect
influencers who live in big cities to Aim for mutually beneficial
Offering a small upfront payment cost more), industry, brand affinity partnerships which balance the
for signing on is a way to recruit more as well as campaign variables such amount of effort needed from the
effectively. as length and equipment required. influencer with the compensation
they’ll receive.
There’s no ‘official’ rate for Offer rejected? Negotiate for
influencer content, so try your best to different kinds of content with the
Don’t approach without a clear collaboration in Don’t burn bridges by being pushy or rude. The
mind. If you don’t share enough details, influencers rule of thumb is that if you find yourself negotiating too
cannot make an informed decision about the price. much, then it’s better to walk away and find a better
match for your budget. Just thank them and let them
Don’t compare prices. There is no use comparing one know you’ll keep them in mind for the future.
influencer’s price to another.
TOP TIP
Don’t go over your budget just because an influencer Use the Upfluence price prediction tool to help guide you! It’s
Wire transfer, Paypal and samples are commonly Stay within the law! Currently, W-9s are necessary
accepted by influencers. for labor & services more than +$600. Upfluence
automatically generates these forms.
Paying influencers abroad? Or many at once? Be
prepared. With Upfluence software you can make Pure product sampling. Upfluence software offers
payments directly from the platform to over 200 the possibility to send product samples as compensation
countries & in 135 currencies. in bulk and does not force payment like other platforms.
_You can either propose a specific product or let the influencer pick one that interests
their audience.
_It’s important to share lots of details about the products to get them excited and make
sure they’re informed about what they’ll be promoting. Always be transparent.
_There is a chance that an influencer might not like your product. However, you can
mitigate this by careful vetting & hiring organic influencers who already like your brand.
_This is best suited to industries such as beauty, fashion, travel & leisure, luxury and
technology.
TOP TIP
Sampling campaigns can generate sales! Just provide the influencer with an affiliate link or exclusive
discount that they can share along with the review.
Sampling 2.0 : non-monetary compensation can take many forms. Do you have VIP benefits, event
invites or experiences that you can offer influencers for stand-out content?
RECOMMENDED READING
Influencer Marketing Ebook
The Ultimate Guide to Boosting Shopify Sales with Influencers
_The beauty of sponsored content is that it’s simple and scalable. Everything happens
online so it’s easy to attribute conversions.
_With revenue-sharing we recommend assigning your influencer a unique affiliate code
and link which they can share in their bio and in their content. The influencer’s affiliate
code will be used by customers at checkout and affiliate links (made with unique UTMs)
track the traffic that is directed to your website from the influencer’s content. Combined,
you maintain a clear vision of each influencer’s performance.
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Of course, affiliate codes work best when paired with special deals (a.k.a. promo codes) which offer
a % or $ discount. You can collaborate with the influencer to know what promos will interest their
followers the most. This is a great option for eCommerce and direct-to-consumer brands who may
be working with many influencers at a time to leverage different product categories.
_Activating influencers during a holiday season to make the most of increased consumer
spending.
_After all, people turn to friends, family and the internet for recommendations (and
online shopping!) leading up to holidays. In fact, 49% of consumers depend on influencer
recommendations for making purchases during the holidays.
_Make sure to plan content around key dates such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and
Giving Tuesday. Although most holiday campaigns will run through December, use these
opportunities in November to launch limited-time offers to build momentum in the run-up
to the holidays.
_Reach out in advance to influencers; and cast the net extra wide because it’s likely that
some influencers may already be booked.
TOP TIP
Consider launching a new seasonal product line, creating a gift-guide, or using storytelling to
create an entertaining campaign to feature your products. Think of ways that you can incorporate
your brand into one of the many narratives around the holiday to provide users with a more
immersive brand experience!
_During these campaigns, brands take into account the influencer’s input for either the
development of a new product or project.
_Letting the influencer take on a bigger role inspires trust in the eyes of consumers and
makes for truly authentic partnerships.
_Collaborating with influencers in a greater capacity is also productive for brands. By
including them in the creative process, you may just come up with an even better concept
than you could on your own!
RECOMMENDED READING
Influencer Marketing Infographic
A guide for launching a new product online - 6 steps to eCommerce success
_Brand compatibility is everything. This is a job for long-term brand ambassadors with a
mass appeal which you’ve already had success with in the past.
_You’re going to need pretty robust contracts since partner exclusivity, content ownership,
intellectual property and confidentiality are extremely important.
_This kind of campaign is well-suited for consumer product industries like beauty, health
or fashion. Although, for more technical brands it can be a smart move to collaborate
with a Key Opinion Leader on a design concept, sustainability innovation or editorial/
artistic project to highlight their expertise and win their hard-earned approval.
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Influencers who’ve been involved in product creation should play an important role in launching the
product by creating teaser content for social media or attending a launch event. They’re also likely to
promote the collaboration organically to their network to show off their new skills in product design.
_A pro-bono campaign is when an influencer and a brand (or non-profit) come together
for a charitable cause. Pro-bono campaigns have altruistic calls-to-action such as raising
money, spreading awareness or challenging audiences to complete an action.
_Influencers, much like brands, want to use their platforms for good. Nowadays more
than ever, social media has become a tool for activism. That’s why collaborating for
a cause is a great way to build real rapport with audiences and gain the respect of
implicated creators.
RECOMMENDED READING
Influencer Marketing Case Study
How UNICEF and WHO supported over 800,000 parents during the COVID-19
pandemic through collaborations with 30 creators in just 4 weeks
_It’s essential that your ‘cause’ corresponds with your brand values and identity. What’s
the logical connection between the cause and you?
_Pro-bono campaigns are extra effective when they’re timed correctly (for example, Earth
day is a good time to collaborate on a mission to reduce plastic).
_Since pro-bono campaigns are on a volunteer-basis, it’s important to contact relevant
influencers that you think would be particularly sensitive to the cause. The more targeted
your influencer identification is, the better! Try using very specific search terms and
browsing content in Upfluence’s search engine to find the right advocates.
TOP TIP
Make a press release. These kinds of initiatives are great for brand awareness as they attract
traditional press coverage which will positively impact your SEO. For extra media value, make a case
study to show the impact of the campaign and share it on your social media channels and website.
EVALUATION
INTRODUCTION
Once you’ve put in all the hard work to run an influencer campaign, how do you know if it was
successful? In Part 3 we’ll explore how to measure success and get additional value from influencer-
generated content with a repurposing strategy and paid advertising. You’ll learn how to calculate
ROI and measure and understand the importance of earned media value.
MEASURING SUCCESS
Brand awareness campaigns focus on the overall reach of the content and the
engagements it produced; indicators of success could be:
Post performance & visibility CTR (Click through rate) Number of clicks divided
(impressions, engagement, saves, shares). by impressions.
Owned media growth: A spike in new User generated content: Positive reviews on your
followers, web traffic, subscribers. products, brand mentions, hashtag use.
Sales, subscriptions, downloads, new Promo code use and traffic from
leads or newsletter sign-ups. affiliate links.
H OW D O YO U M E A S U R E T H E S E K P I S ?
Brand awareness metrics are available within Upfluence software (via our social listening
and campaign reporting tools). Sales can also be tracked with Upfluence’s eCommerce
integrations with Shopify & WooCommerce which allows for native promotional codes to
be generated and assigned to each of the ambassadors you manage within Upfluence.
The sales results will be collected all in one place for easier ROI. For affiliate links, we
recommend using UTMs and Google analytics!
RECOMMENDED READING
Influencer Marketing Blog
A Complete Guide to Influencer Marketing KPIs
U N D E R S TA N D I N G R O I
Ex: You make $3000 from promo code uses but you invested $1000 into the campaign. The net return is
$2000. Your ROI is $2 earned for every $1 spent.
What about when the “turnover” isn’t monetary but rather a click or a follow? The classic ROI
formula works for many content-marketing KPIs: for example, marketers often calculate the cost
per impression, cost per download, CPC (cost per click), etc.
Ex: 500 new followers / 2 videos worth $800 = $1.60 per follower.
Brand awareness and engagement stats are one way to show content ROI. Track growth of
subscribers, fans, and followers on each platform. This is useful because while they may be at
the very beginning of your sales funnel, followers who engage with you online could become
customers one day with the right nurturing!
But what does a new follower actually do for your Ex: If directly after the videos are posted, there are 50
brand? Is paying $1.60 per new follower a good new customers then CAC is calculated as $800 / 50
deal? While engagement plays an important role in customers = the cost of customer acquisition is $16.
determining campaign success, marketers need more
to prove that their efforts are worth it. That’s why we Next you want to take the total revenue generated during
recommend calculating the customer acquisition cost in the same period and divide that by the total number of
addition to media value! customers acquired in order to establish what the average
customer spent with the business. Then, compare your
To calculate CAC, take your total content marketing CAC to the average revenue per customer to calculate
costs and divide it by the total number of customers your profit and your content’s ROI.
that were acquired during that period.
Depending on the average revenue per Track progressively & optimize. While it’s
customer, the CAC will be more or less justifiable tempting to create a content plan and calendar and
for different brands. Take the previous case for let your chosen influencers run with it, this doesn’t
example: $16 per customer is a great margin if the always lead to the best ROI. Just like any other
average purchase of that customer is $200. Though, online campaign, it’s important to measure success
the performance of this same campaign would not progressively so you can optimize when necessary in
be as profitable for a small brand whose average real time!
customer spends $20.
Maximize ROI by reusing influencer content. The
Share your KPIs with your influencers. Make
next chapter will show you how!
sure that your influencers are clear on what is
expected of them and how you will be measuring
the success of your campaigns.
To ensure your brand’s message is successfully received and effectively drives conversions, influencer
content needs to be seen multiple times by your target audience. For advertising messages to stick,
repetition is key. It means users are more likely to remember your brand, and your products will be front-
of-mind when they are ready to make a purchase. That’s why the best influencer marketing campaigns
share the same key message multiple times across multiple channels to consistently target potential
customers.
One key strategy for amplification is to create influencer content clusters. This means working with a high
number of influencers within a specific topic niche to create a cluster of content dedicated to promoting
your brand. The aim is to flood a certain online space with multiple pieces of authentic content created
about your brand. This strategy works by leaning into the importance of repetition outlined above, while
honing in on a specific target audience to have maximum impact.
For example, Helix Sleep, a mattress brand from the US tapped YouTube ASMR influencers to promote
their products. By focusing on a specific niche and working with a large volume of influencers within that
community, any user that was likely to search for content related to ASMR sleep triggers was very likely
to view a post sponsored by Helix Sleep. By creating an influencer content cluster they heightened brand
visibility and amplified the results of their influencer campaign.
Get the most from IGC by sharing it via your brand’s own communication channels whether that
be online, offline, paid or organic. Your creativity is the limit! Remember to obtain content ownership
beforehand (learn more about contracts in Lesson 4). Here are some strategies to amplify branded IGC:
Put simply, whitelisting is process where brands are granted access to run paid advertising campaigns through their
influencers’ social media accounts.
16
Part 3 - Evaluation PAGE 91
Tips for
whitelisting.
Create ‘dark posts’ which don’t appear in your influencer’s feed as a way to avoid over-
saturation and use any unused content from your influencer campaigns.
Prioritize your top-performing influencers for whitelisting so your ads will deliver the
best results.
Make sure you have a good working relationship before starting out with whitelisting, it
needs both parties to have mutual trust!
Include a whitelisting clause in the contract to make sure your influencer agrees to
whitelisting up-front and grants all the necessary permissions.
RECOMMENDED READING
Influencer Marketing Ebook
Whitelisting Influencer Content: A step-by-step
guide for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok & YouTube
71
Part 3 - Evaluation PAGE 92
Key Repurpose influencer marketing
for additional value
takeaways. High-quality influencer-generated content can continue
to serve your brand after the initial campaign is over.
Negotiate with your influencers how you can repurpose
their content for your other marketing channels,
whether that be on your eCommerce website, email
marketing, or your brand’s social media account. Their
authentic content can be harnessed again and again to
emphasize key messages and boost authenticity!
WEBINAR
Connect:Collab:Create – Driving ROI by Reusing
Influencer Content
READ MORE
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