How to produce a successful marketing campaign,
generate ridiculous return on investment and grow your
business. And what to avoid so you can save a tremendous amount
of time, money, energy and brand equity.
We, at Global Yodel Media Group, have a global
influencer network with a social reach of 200,000,000. (An
effective influencer network has the ability to promote and
sell products or services through strategic customized
campaigns leveraging influencers who have the capacity to have
an effect on the character of a brand.) We work with fortune
500 brands as well as small local businesses on digital
marketing and influencer marketing programs to achieve specific
sales, marketing, branding and growth goals.
Through our years of producing countless social media, content
marketing and influencer marketing campaigns we have seen a lot
of different approaches. We know what works, what doesn’t —
and why.
When things don’t work (usually because brands and their
agencies are going about things totally wrong), ridiculous
amounts of money are wasted on doomed campaigns.
We recently worked with two directly competing Fortune 500
brands in the same industry that shared similarities in their
goals, budgets and overall capabilities while they differed in
their values, missions and ways of doing business.
One of these businesses came out victorious generating almost
unheard of results and return on investment. We will call this
brand, Brand 1. The other brand who we will call Brand 2 saw
some decent results but left a lot of opportunity on the table
because of mismanagement and misunderstanding of the influencer
marketing space, despite our best suggestions and coaching
strategies.
Each brand took a drastically different approach to a somewhat
similar influencer marketing campaign. Each had similar goals
to: generate millions of organically distributed branded
impressions, gain many thousands of new followers on social
media, create greater discussion around the brand, build brand
equity, reach a younger millennial audience and ultimately sell
more of their product.
To help you distinguish what works and what doesn’t, we
outlined how the above brands (who shall remain nameless for
confidentiality reasons) took different approaches and got
varying results.
Terms of Agreement:
When producing any type of marketing campaign or any program
with many moving pieces it is very important to create clear
and concise guiding documents for all facets of the program. It
sounds like a lot of work but being organized from the
beginning will actually save you lots of time and energy and
help you and your team to avoid mistakes, misunderstandings and
budget overages. Some important documents that we use in every
campaign are a Statement of Work outlining simply what each
party involved will do, by when and how. Another important
document is the Creative Brief that gives the creative
contractors (photographers, writers, videographers,
influencers) the information and clear simple direction they
need to be successful and execute per expectation. Another
important element is to generate legal documents that protect
everyone involved.
Real life example:
Brand 1: Brand 1 understood the risk of
competitors stealing their influencers and the unique concept
of their campaign. So, instead of focusing on thick contractual
limitations and unfair non-compete clauses, they focused on
fostering real relationships with the influencers that would
last beyond the campaign. With our coaching they scheduled
personalized phone calls with the individuals participating,
produced unique one-of-a-kind experiences, provided gifts,
stayed in great communication and offered them value beyond a
paycheck. They took their relationship with their contractors
from corporate to personal.
Brand 2: In the planning phases Brand 2 was
very worried about their competitors stealing the influencers
they selected and the concept for their campaign. A competitor
had done this once before and Brand 2 was going to try
everything in their power to make this legally impossible. They
created incredibly thick contracts with complex non-compete
language that prohibited the influencers they hired from
working with their competitors for a certain amount of time.
They spent valuable time, resources and energy creating these
legal documents that were unfair to the contractors for the
scope of work and somewhat unrealistic.
Takeaway:
Provide crystal clear production documents and legal contracts
but make sure they are fair for all parties. With any business
agreement you should operate using legal contracts that protect
you, the brands you work with and the contractors you work
with. Make sure the contracts cover important topics such as
usage rights, terms/termination, applicable laws, etc. Consult
a lawyer who understands the space or work with an influencer
agency that has established legal documents and contracts. And
don’t just expect that any marketing or influencer agency has
the proper legal contracts. Make sure to review the agreements
they use with their network and brands as well. Also, request
some real life case studies before agreeing to work with them.
Focus on building a true relationship and partnership with the
influencer. Think long term. Remember you can’t own your
relationship with your influencer (or anyone else for that
matter). You need to earn it and build trust. You want this
person to become a friend and brand ambassador for life, not
just for the week of your engagement.
Campaign Management & Creative License:
Effective campaign management is a key component to the success
of any campaign. It is a crucial component that decides the
success (or failure) of a campaign and frequently gets
overlooked. Successful campaign management requires the person
in charge to be incredibly organized and a clear, effective and
honest communicator. When something goes wrong, brands often
blame the creatives or the contractor for campaign failure when
in fact mismanagement from a project manager is more often to
blame.
Why do people hire creatives in the first place? Because they
are creative and make cool stuff. Remember this when managing a
campaign. Be sure to provide clear and simple guidelines but
don’t make them so strict that you stifle the creative ability
of your contractors. Remember, this is the reason you hired
them in the first place – let them do their job.
Real life example:
Brand 1: Brand 1 provided a clear vision of
the campaign in a detailed creative brief, required @ and # tag
requirements but left the outcome, approval process and exact
copy up to the influencer. This allowed for a live posting,
which was timely (live) and allowed the audience to actually
feel like they were there experiencing the branded event and
participating along with the influencer. This allowed Brand 1
to capitalize on the influencers’ genuine excitement about the
awesome event that they were participating in on behalf of the
brand. That excitement showed through and the influencers’
community responded. It allowed the influencers’ audiences
(millions of people) to virtually attend that event and feel
the excitement and energy. There was incredible engagement on
behalf of the branded post that generated beautiful organic
brand equity, lots of new fans and new customers that day.
Brand 1’s ROI was through the roof and hit levels that any
traditional digital program couldn’t even come close to.
Brand 2: During the production of the
campaign, Brand 2 had a very clear vision of what they wanted,
which isn’t a bad thing in itself. Unfortunately, they were so
specific in their vision that it spilled over into their
campaign management and the project managers forced the highly
creative influencers to produce creative assets under very
strict and limiting guidelines. There was a strict photo
approval process that required the influencer to submit a photo
before posting it on behalf of the brand. The photos needed to
get approval from a whole team of people across different
corporate departments, which took at least 24 hours. The
guidelines for the copy in the comments section of their
sponsored social posts were equally as strict. There was some
heavy corporate language and slogans that the brand required to
be said by the influencers. The final content looked and felt
very forced like a crappy ad. The content was about an event
that happened the week before and the language used obviously
didn’t come from the influencer but from stiff corporate brand
messaging.
Takeaway:
Provide crystal clear creative direction. Creativity is
subjective. Everyone has their own idea about what is ‘good’
when it comes to photography, video and design. Because of this
you need to be very clear with your influencers on what it is
that you are trying to achieve and how you are trying to
achieve it. If you need to provide guidelines do so visually as
opposed to with words. (This is a picture we love and why, this
is a picture we don’t love and why). You know your business
better than anyone so if things need to look and feel a certain
way be sure to outline that in a creative brief.
Don’t put words in your influencers’ mouths. Nothing is more
transparent than a social influencer campaign that has been
overly micromanaged and has a lot of required text. Don’t
require influencers to post a specific part of your mission
statement in their branded social media posts. Provide clear
direction on @ and # tags required and the overall sentiment
that you are trying to achieve (make a positive statement about
the hotel stay we provided you, say something positive that you
enjoyed about the experience we provided you, etc.) This will
not only make your influencers happy, it will come across as
more genuine to the audience.
With so many influencer marketing campaigns and native
marketing campaigns out there people quickly and easily can
sniff out a stiff corporate marketing campaign. But if you
create something that adds a ton of value and inspiration and
brand it, you get to take all the credit and the audience will
applaud you for it.
Influencers are influencers for a reason. They understand how
to create content that gets talked about, how to build a
community of followers and how to inspire those people. That is
why you are hiring them. Provide clear guidelines and
inspiration and then step back and let them do what they do
best!
Partners vs Employees:
We can’t overstate the importance of building relationships. As
a brand you want to think about how you can add value to your
influencers (think beyond money) for a lifetime. You want your
influencers to genuinely love your brand so much that after the
paid engagement they continue to buy your products or services
and even better that they continue to share your product or
services with their friends and followers.
Real Life Example:
Brand 1: Like always, we scheduled our
pre-engagement conference call between the brand and the
influencer to go over all the specifics, deliverables and
creative direction and to make sure everyone was on the same
page. With Brand 1, the tone was always professional but
positive and fun. The calls surprisingly ran quite long. Brand
1 took advantage of the opportunity to start building a
relationship with their influencers. We went over the specifics
of the campaign, the requirements and things to avoid but the
call also took things a step further. We all had a genuine
conversation that went beyond the specifics of the campaign.
Brand 1 showed genuine interest in the influencers’ work and
with kindness and excitement set the stage for a great
campaign. It impressed the participating influencers so much
that many continued to post about the brand months after the
engagement (for free). One influencer still will only stay at
this specific hotel brand when traveling. The Brand 1 even gave
them some free hotel stays. The relationship Brand 1 created
with their influencers made them brand ambassadors for life.
Brand 2: Our conference calls with Brand 2 and
the influencers had a much different and less memorable vibe.
The tone of our initial conference call with Brand 2 was stiff
and cold. It was apparent the team representing the Brand 2
wanted to be at lunch as opposed to discussing the details of
the campaign. While they did come around and provide clear
direction, spell out the deliverables by stating what was and
was not allowed, it was done in a way that left everyone
feeling a bit unimportant and the campaign feeling like another
puzzle piece in a bigger more important program. The
influencers were sent off to shoot their photos, create their
branded posts and that was that. We can guarantee you after
these creatives were paid for their work they didn’t mention
the brand again via social media.
Takeaway:
Treat your influencers like partners as opposed to employees.
Think long term and think of creating a partnership with your
influencers. We have worked with many brands that have missed
out on having brand ambassadors and partners for life. The ROI
of creating a brand ambassador for life is enormous when
compared to the peanuts you are spending on the influencer
campaign. Don’t view your freelance influencer as mere
commodified labor; see them as a part of your brand’s family
tree.
In summary, Brand 2 had a decent campaign. They generated
decent ROI and still produced a campaign that traditional
digital marketing couldn’t match but they left a lot on the
table.
Brand 1 was the big winner here. With just a little extra
effort, a personal touch, some kindness and excitement, Brand 1
received remarkable ROI and are still benefiting from their
campaign and blissed-out influencers over a year later.
Take these points into consideration before planning and
launching your next influencer marketing program so your brand
will see all the achievable benefits.
Visit Global Yodel Media Group to learn more about
creating a successful influencer marketing program to grow your
brand and business.
