Running a Successful Influencer Campaign as a Small Business

Influencer marketing is the trend of recent years in digital communication. In 2020, the influencer marketing market was worth 20 billion dollars compared to 1.7 billion in 2016 1. 

How to organize a successful influencer campaign when you are a small business? 

If you are unlikely to hire Enjoy Phoenix or Cyprien to represent your company, it is still possible to use influence marketing by being a medium-sized company. 

If you think that as a small structure, influencer campaigns are not communication tools possible to develop your brand, you will be surprised! Discover in this article, all the keys to a successful influence marketing strategy as an SME.

Choose the type of influencer to work with to succeed in your marketing influence strategy as an SME

When a small company decides to work with an opinion leader, it must be careful that the latter has a loyal and large enough community to have economic benefits. In influencer marketing, opinion leaders are also called KOLs (Key Opinion Leader). 

They are classified according to the size of their communities:

Nano-influencers, who have less than 10,000 followers;

Micro-influencers, who have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers;

Macro-influencers, with over 100,000 followers;

Top influencers with more than 500,000 followers;

Beyond three million subscribers, influencers are real celebrities.

A 6th category has been emerging for some time, the advisers. They are ordinary consumers.

 They represent 30% of the French population. They comment, share and give their opinions on the products or services they use.

The image of the KOL must be consistent with that of the brand and its audience must correspond to the target set in the objectives.

 Nano and micro-influencers, with fairly small communities, maintain a solid relationship with their audiences, based on trust. This strong relationship with their community promotes a very high rate of engagement. 

The cost of a campaign with this type of influencer also makes it possible to be on a more moderate budget and thus make influence marketing accessible.

Defining the objectives of an influencer campaign when you are a small business

Defining an objective and setting a budget are the first two points on which the SME will have to work. 

The envelope established must be realistic with regard to the size of the company. Without a guideline, it is difficult to determine the success of a campaign.

“Goal setting eliminates subjective perceptions of reality, making success objectively measurable. In this context, success is not a vague idea; it becomes demonstrable. »

Forbes contributor Jayson Demers.

KPIs (key performance indicators) are elements to be identified before the launch of a campaign, in order to assess the impact and the ROI. Measuring these KPIs helps determine the success of a campaign. 

This can be: the number of people who saw the posts, the impressions obtained, the number of new subscribers gained over the campaign period, the number of conversions, etc. 

It is up to each SME to choose which ones they want to focus on. The first two goals of influencer campaigns in smaller companies are usually to increase brand awareness and increase sales.

Determine the type of collaboration and the most suitable social platform to organize a successful influencer campaign when you are a small business

Just as large companies do for their marketing model, an SME must define its “persona” (its target group). 

A company will not be able to interest everyone, but if the target and the network are well chosen, specific groups of consumers will be affected. 

It is therefore important to reach your persona to select the right channels. Whether on YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter, each platform offers a unique audience. 

Once the social network has been identified by the social media verification agency, the SME must define the type of collaboration that will be set up, depending on the KOLs participating in the campaign. 

These partnerships can take the form of:

Sponsorship of content in blog posts or social media posts. 

The goal for the brand is to reach a wide audience to gain visibility and promote its content on social networks.

Product placements: this technique consists of placing a product in a YouTube video, in an Instagram story, etc.

Buzz kit distribution: the company sends the influencer a new product. This one will test it and share its opinion in stories or posts, with its community.

Invitations to an event: in return, the KOL publishes content on its networks by identifying the brand. 

It is a very interesting partnership when it comes to the company positioning itself in a specific geographical area and improving its local referencing. 

She may choose to collaborate with KOLs in her region.

Free trials of a service: the KOL shares their feelings and identifies the brand. Influencers living near the company will then be preferred for better geolocation of the service.

Giveaways: contest organizations with prizes to be won, presented by one or more influencers to their community.

It is essential to clearly establish the terms of the collaboration. 

The contracts include

: the duration of the partnership, the intellectual property rights for the exploitation by the company of the content produced by the KOL, the time and number of publications, etc. 

The SME provides a brief or leaves the influencer free to create the content, with final validation before publication.

Evaluate the results of your influencer marketing strategy

The company will have to examine the results based on the KPIs chosen during the development of the strategy. It can be based on the number of orders, sales, new subscribers, post shares, etc. 

To assess the success of a campaign, it is possible to follow the commitment of a community by creating, for example, different promotional codes for each of the KOLs. 

Thus, it is easier to count the number of leads that each has generated. Placing tracked links (UTM) on posts or stories makes it possible to track the origin of the traffic generated on the company's website. 

These results help to readjust the objectives and techniques for the following campaigns in order to make them even more effective.

If in the minds influence marketing seems rather reserved for big brands, it is possible for a small business to use it. 

The strategy it wishes to adopt must be clearly defined, as well as the objectives to be achieved and the budget to be devoted to it. You now have all the keys to a successful influencer marketing strategy as an SME.