Plant-based products are usually met with two extreme responses from consumers: Excitement and delight, or suspicion and scepticism. However, when your product is endorsed by someone whose recipes are known and loved, consumers just might give it a try!
If you’re an avid social media user, particularly in terms of Instagram or YouTube, you’re probably familiar with the concept of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing might seem straightforward at first, but there’s more to this strategy than meets the eye.
Truly effective influencer marketing will help your brand to increase its digital presence (particularly in terms of Reach, Engagement and Audience Size.) When approached correctly, influencer marketing will also result in creative assets for your brand’s use. Here’s an example of how we successfully used influencer marketing on behalf of our client, Sheese Australia:
1. Find influencers in your niche
At Powered PR, we recommend partnering with influencers that already align with your target market. For example, our campaign with Sheese Australia required influencers who were:
- Australian: The focus of this campaign was to grow the client’s brand awareness Down Under, and to launch their new Aussie Instagram channel.
- Plant-based: Sheese products are 100% vegan, and therefore aligning with prominent influencers in this niche made strategic sense.
- Food photographers: Effective influencer marketing hinges on appealing content – after all, consumers eat with their eyes first!
- Recipe developers: For this campaign to be successful, we needed influencers who were also talented recipe developers. The goal was for each influencer to offer their followers inspiration around how to prepare Sheese products, using a variety of sweet and savoury recipes.
2. Consider your budget
You also need to consider your budget in relation to your campaign goals, as influencers will charge varying rates. Most influencers will charge based on their number of followers, but it’s a sliding scale:
- Mega-influencers have more than 1m followers. These influencers will charge premium fees, and are often the choice for high-budget campaigns where large-scale exposure across a broad audience is desired. Most mega-influencers are represented by talent agencies or managers, who you will need to negotiate with.
- Macro-influencers have 10k – 1m followers. Macro-influencers are a popular choice for most partnerships, as you’re more likely to strike a balance between Reach, Engagement, and your overall campaign Budget.
- Micro-influencers have less than 10k followers. While their follower count may seem low in comparison to the above options, micro-influencers often have highly engaged audiences. Many micro-influencers are often also looking to collaborate in exchange for product samples, which can be a great way to begin building relationships for your brand.
Depending on your budget and objectives, you may also choose to work with multiple influencers at a variety of audience sizes. For instance, the Sheese Australia campaign allowed us to partner with a range of influencers at each audience level – including Cherie Tu (@thrivingonplants), Claire Power (@healthyfrenchwife) and Katie Culpin (@delightfulvegans).
- Negotiate a content agreement
Decide in advance what deliverables you need from your influencer partner/s, and how you’d like the campaign to run. Plan as many details as possible, so that you can provide a written Content Agreement.
Your Content Agreement should include specific terms of the collaboration, including – but definitely not limited to:
- Content Requirements: What do you want the influencer/s to create? Be specific about what you have in mind, to avoid any confusion or miscommunication. For example, we specified which Sheese products should be used, and gave parameters for the type of recipes our client required.
- Payment Fees: Influencer collaborations can cost a substantial amount of money, and it’s crucial for both parties to agree on how much is being paid (and when), in writing.
- Copyright: Who owns the rights to the content created? Can images be repurposed by you or the influencer outside of the campaign dates, or is everything exclusive to the campaign?
- Confidentiality: We recommend keeping the details of your agreements strictly confidential, and this clause should survive the term of your Content Agreement.
- Launch your campaign
Once your Content Agreement is signed by both parties – congratulations! The real fun starts now. Make sure you’re tracking each influencer post’s Reach and Engagement levels, so that you can evaluate the success of your campaign overall.
As each influencer begins to post, make sure your brand is engaging with their content, too. Whether it’s reposting stories or commenting on and liking posts, you want to showcase a friendly, appreciative relationship with the influencer, in order to build trust amongst their respective audience.
Here are some of the outstanding results that influencer marketing helped to achieve on behalf of Sheese Australia:
- We were able to grow the brand’s Total Audience by 260% across both Facebook and Instagram.
- The content created by our influencer partners reached over 195K Australian shoppers.
- We grew an active and thriving Instagram audience, starting from zero!
When used correctly, influencer marketing can be an extremely powerful and cost-effective tool for your brand. If you’re interested in conducting an influencer campaign, contact the team from Powered PR here to find out more!
AUTHOR: Nicole Odviar
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