How to approach influencer marketing

Intracto collaborates with influencers within the online marketing strategies of several clients. Two great examples are Manna Foods and Bokrijk.

Case: Manna Foods

Manna first experimented with influencers during their summer campaign of 2019. This successful first introduction led to a second influencer campaign in the spring of 2020. Due to coronavirus the approach of campaign was slightly modified. Manna is a brand that wants to make things easier for people. In the midst of the corona crisis, we all spent a lot of time together. For parents, it meant working from home, taking care of their children, preteaching and household chores. Manna encouraged those parents with the message that it really is okay not to put a fresh vegetable meal on the table every day. A Manna Bolognaise is totally okay. Nourishing, fast and tasty. 

The influencers received a cash compensation and a package of Manna products to get started. The results of this influencing campaign were excellent. For a very limited budget we achieved a nice reach with an average cost per impression of barely € 0.01 and an average cost per engagement of € 0.04. This shows that there was an excellent match between the Manna brand, the chosen influencers and their community.

Case: Bokrijk 

Bokrijk opened the exhibition 'The World of Bruegel' in 2019. An interactive exhibition about the life and works of Bruegel with a game for children. To convince families to come to the Open Air Museum, we worked together with six micro-influencers. These mum influencers travelled to Bokrijk with their families to experience the interactive exhibition for themselves. They created and published content on their blog and social media channels. 

The result was feed posts and stories on Instagram. These generated a total of > 32,000 impressions and an engagement rate of no less than 25%. If you know that the average engagement rate on Instagram is 4%, then we can conclude that this was a successful campaign. 
The content created by the influencers is still used by Bokrijk on their own communication channels to this day. A second influencing campaign this summer is also being kicked off.

And how do you begin?

Influencer marketing is here to stay, that much is clear. But how do you go about it? How do you know that influencer marketing fits your brand? How do you select influencers and get an idea on their community? How do you approach an influencer to propose a collaboration, and which channels do you choose? How much does such a campaign cost? How do you determine KPIs and evaluate a campaign? 

There are a lot of influencers, within different niches and with each their community. New profiles are added every week, and those who have been in the industry for some time have also become more mature. 

Influencer marketing is not rocket science, but if you want to do it well, there's quite a few things you need to do. And we, as a digital agency, can help with that. 

At Intracto, we have an influencer expert who knows the market inside out. Annelies herself has been active as an influencer for years and now knows the world from both sides.

Tips and tricks 

1. Determine your target group, objectives and budget in advance 
   As with any marketing plan, it is also important for influencer marketing to first determine your target group, objectives and budget. Do you want to achieve a certain image, awareness or conversions with your collaborations? Who do you want to reach and how much budget can you make available?
2. Check the influencer you want to work with 
   Thoroughly screen the influencer you want to make the face of your brand. What type of content does he/she create? Is the feed filled with collaborations or are they rather exceptional? Does he/she advertise product X today and competitive brand Y next week? Is the content that appears qualitative and credible?
3. Beware of fake 
   Cheating with the number of followers may not be as hip as it was a few years ago, but unfortunately it is still happening. There are still influencers who buy followers, likes and/or reactions, or influencers who organise one giveaway after another (often from expensive smartphones) just to get more followers quickly.          
4. Check the community of those influencers
   Today, there are numerous tools that agencies use on a daily basis to screen their potential influencers. For example, you can check how much the influencer is growing, from where those followers are coming and who those followers are. This provides very interesting insights.
5. Don't just look at the number of followers
   As is the case for many things: quality over quantity. Engagement is the key to a successful influencer campaign, and a good engagement can only be obtained through a good match between your brand, the influencer and that influencer's community.
6. Make good agreements
   If you are going to work with an influencer, make sure that the expectations are clear to everyone. For example, it is recommended to draw up a contract that clearly states which deliverables you expect from the influencer and by when. If your brand has certain wishes, such as the use of hashtags or exclusivity, this can also be included in the contract.
7. Pay correctly 
   Always make sure that you pay the influencer correctly. The reward and the return must be in proportion.
8. Are you ready to relinquish control?
   When you create a campaign as a marketer, you are in control. You decide for yourself what can be seen on the photos and videos, what text is added and what is said. This is not the case with influencer marketing. You don't create the content yourself, the influencer does that for you. Of course, you can give certain guidelines and dos & don'ts, but the final creation is entirely in the hands of the influencer. And that is the way it should be. The influencer knows his community like no other and knows what works and what doesn't, in his own tone of voice and visual language. So you have to be ready to let this go.
9. Don't start doing it yourself
   Unless you have a lot of expertise in influencer marketing, it's best not to start on your own. There are an awful lot of influencers, each within their own field of expertise, each with their own community. Selecting, screening, contacting, negotiating, drafting briefings and contracts, checking deliverables and reporting: it requires the right tools and knowledge, and it's best to leave that to influencer marketing experts such as those at Intracto.
10. Influencer marketing works! 
    Werkt dat nu, influencer marketing? Ja, dat werkt! Tal van grote én kleine merken hebben het intussen als vaste waarde in hun online-marketingstrategie geïntegreerd. 

People book a family holiday to the mountains because they follow a mum influencer who had a great holiday there. People buy that cool sports outfit from a brand they've never seen before, because they follow an influencer who looks great in that outfit. Yes, even people who say they would never let themselves be influenced by influencers admit it.

If you approach an influencing campaign well with the right influencers, you can achieve great results without it costing you fortunes. Trust me, I know.