How can you use market research to design your influencer marketing campaign?

Answer for SME's and SMB's: If the budget is limited there is one very important hack. After understanding your targetted audience. Which influencers have the most of our targetted audience? Like if you are finding a general influencer for a food product, you won't expect much ROI because it is possible that people will scroll through the brand post and they won't get much interest in the product. But if you are getting the same done via a food blogger return will be much higher because all the people who are going to view the post are most of those who are interested in knowing more about places and products of the food industry. The target audience of businesses and influencers should match.

During "Identification of the target audience" sometimes we tend to falter on a common thing - observation. Tools like Interviews, Surveys, FGDs are very helpful but before we deep dive methodically, observation can help in providing the glimpse of what the target should be & also, who can reach the intended audience effectively. Observation could be visual, behavioral or reactive to, say, an idea, a product or even a cue. One can easily pick up some key starting points from this exercise & use them to build upon the other methods. Observation can also help in identification of the right influencers, what kind of bond they share with their followers, the responses they get & whether they would be a suitable match to one's expectations.

I suggest first creating your Customer Persona. Once you have your persona, then do some research to find out what sites they visit for information and what sites they visit to buy (not always the same sites). Once you have this information, do some further research to identify influencers who spend quality time on those sites. Sometimes an influencer with a smaller following will be more responsive to your audience. Keep in mind that you want to do due diligence on influencers to ensure they are the real deal and not a pirated site.

So important! We need to know who we are talking to. If we are talking to everybody we are not talking to anybody. It also helps us to be more clear and intentional in our business.

Analyse your competitors' market campaigns to assess how your competitors are running influencer marketing. You can leverage tools like Digimind, Google Alerts, Social Media monitoring as well as competitor intelligence platforms to determine what types of activities do your competitors run? What are the key messages and value propositions of competitors? How much are they investing in terms of campaign budgets? What is the performance and success? Who are key influencers that your competitors use? What audiences are your competitors targeting? If possible create a benchmark so as to assess strengths and weaknesses and critically determine opportunities for you to differentiate yourself from your competition and crucially succeed.

Analyzing competitors through market research tools like Google Alerts and social media monitoring is crucial for designing effective influencer marketing campaigns. It helps identify industry trends, successful tactics, and gaps in competitors' strategies. This insight enables brands to adopt best practices, explore untapped opportunities, and differentiate themselves. Understanding competitors' influencer partnerships, content formats, and engagement rates allows for benchmarking and strategic positioning in the competitive landscape.

Imagine a tech company planning an influencer marketing campaign for their new smartphone. They analyze competitors' influencer campaigns, discovering that a competitor had success partnering with tech enthusiasts and using unboxing videos for product showcases. They also note that another competitor leveraged influencers for interactive Q&A sessions about their phone's features. Armed with this information, they decide to combine both strategies, collaborating with tech influencers for unboxing videos and live Q&A sessions, differentiating their approach and aiming for a wider reach and engagement.

Start simple - utilize AI tools that have completely changed the game for fast research and contextual understanding. First, utilize Google Bard - focus on broad questions like "Help me analyze competition, here is my company" - begin engaging in prompting and expand the search, really chat with Bard like they are your personal assistant. Then, head to ChatGPT so you can level up your strategy. Have chatGPT ingest your findings (upload it to the chat as background) and begin creating strategy tables - have ChatGPT recommend what insights it sees about your top competition. You can always export this to a google sheet as well once done via the Zapier ChatGPT integration.

Social media listening and monitoring are essential here; you can check what is working and understand the best practices to take inspiration and use other people's mistakes or successes to tailor your strategy and content to your needs.

Choosing the right influencer can make or break your campaign. Beyond metrics, understanding the values and authenticity of an influencer is paramount; after all, their voice becomes an extension of your brand.

I agree with Tomas Henkenhaf, It's crucial to comprehend the values and authenticity of an influencer as their voice becomes an extension of your brand. You must identify an influencer or a critical person and ensure that their content aligns with your company's values and beliefs. This way, you can be confident that any content they produce on your behalf won't harm your brand.

Conduct research to find influencers who align with your brand values and have a significant following within your target demographic. Evaluate their engagement rate, the authenticity of interactions, and the relevance of their content to your products or services.

One thing to consider when choosing the right influencer is cost. Influencer marketing is no different than traditional marketing in that it cost money and will hurt more if you don't see a return.

Selecting the right influencers goes beyond metrics and brand alignment. A crucial first step is understanding the demographics of an influencer's audience—factors like age, interests, and location can heavily impact conversion rates. Experience teaches that creativity is key; allowing influencers to naturally integrate your mentions can make campaigns more authentic. While engagement rates provide useful estimates for conversion, flexibility is essential. Influencers might not match your target demographics but can still offer significant value if their audience’s lifestyle aligns with your brand.

Agreed. Set test campaigns and be sure you set realistic goals. Influencers may be focused on reach or brand - not always conversions. Test, test, test - don't think a gimic (copy cat) Influencer strategy will work.

In my opinion, influencers play a crucial role in boosting brand awareness, as they have a loyal audience. By collaborating with them, you get the chance to be exposed to their followers, which helps in achieving your goals of driving new followers and increasing brand awareness. So, the key question is how exactly do influencers add value to these goals/objectives?

Choose an objective for each stage of the customer journey. - At first (Reach), aim for increasing brand awareness, by boosting organic visibility with SEO/SEM, social media, influencer outreach and paid media. - At the next stage (Act), seek to increase the number of interactions and leads, through optimizing landing pages, personalized follow-up emails, lead magnets and content marketing. - Following the Conversion phase, it’s all about the sale! Optimizing conversion rate goals, remarketing, web personalization and multichannel selling are few ways. - Finally, you want to Engage with your customers by improving their experience and loyalty. Introduce lifecycle marketing automation and create amplification using social media.

Without a clear aim, even the best influencer partnerships can fall flat. While the objectives can vary, ensuring that both the brand and the influencer have a shared understanding and alignment of these goals can foster genuine collaborations that resonate with audiences.

Setting clear objectives is foundational for any influencer campaign. However, it's critical to differentiate between awareness and conversion goals. In paid campaigns using User-Generated Content (UGC), focus on metrics like CTAs, CPA rates, and CPC to gauge effectiveness. For organic campaigns, aim to provide value through educational content, targeting metrics like reach, impressions, and CTR. Understanding these nuances allows for a more tailored, effective strategy, whether you're aiming to boost sales or build brand loyalty.

As the CEO of UEL, I understand that influencer marketing is an integral part of our strategy. When it comes to deciding the content type, we follow a meticulous approach. We consider our brand message, campaign goals, and the influencer's unique style and platform. Utilizing tools like content calendars and guidelines, we plan content formats that align with our objectives. Whether it's blog posts, social media updates, videos, podcasts, webinars, ebooks, or live events, we select what best amplifies our brand message and resonates with our audience. This thoughtful content strategy is key to our successful influencer collaborations.

I always say nothing fits better than tailored pants. I keep this mentality to all my content, thinking of different media and formats that help to connect and engage with people.

When collaborating with influencers, the effectiveness of content types depends on the nature of the influencer's platform and audience preferences. - Social media posts and videos are impactful, given their visually engaging and easily shareable nature. - Blog posts provide more in-depth information and are ideal for influencers with a dedicated readership. - Podcasts & webinars cater to audiences seeking auditory content, allowing for a deeper connection with the influencer. - Ebooks are effective for influencers aiming to position themselves as experts, providing comprehensive insights. - Live events (physical/virtual) create a sense of immediacy and personal interaction, fostering a stronger bond with the audience.

Riding on moment marketing or the latest trends creates a nice hook in influencer marketing. By staying up-to-date on industry trends, one can ensure that the campaign is relevant and engaging. In my view, the best influencer marketing campaigns are those that feature authentic content that resonates with audiences. 99acres.com partnership with Stand-up artist Gaurav Kapoor was one such collab. It is of utmost importance to give influencers creative freedom to create content that is true to their personal style and brand.

While selecting the right content format is crucial, it's equally important to trust your influencers' creative instincts. They've built an audience large enough to catch your attention; let them leverage this rapport. Content that seamlessly integrates with their everyday lifestyle has a more organic feel and higher chances of going viral. Don't micromanage; if you're considering them, it's because you value their style and reach. Let them be authentic promoters of your brand.

Optimization is the key. Have a testing philosophy - run A/B split tests, decide on a confidence index, then split test your split tested split testing!

It's important to track the results of your influencer marketing campaign so that you can see what's working and what's not. The question is how - if you are running a promo, generate individual influencer-specific links and ask them to promote the same on their channel, it's easy to track ROI. There are many analytics tools to track metrics such as engagement, reach, and conversions; use them! Such data will help to refine the campaign and improve the results over time.

Monitoring and evaluating your influencer marketing campaign is essential for its success. Use analytics, reports, and feedback to assess your campaign's performance and compare it to your initial objectives. Regularly communicate with your influencers, offering them support, feedback, and recognition for their efforts. By continuously optimizing your campaign, you can enhance your influencer marketing ROI, establish enduring relationships with your influencers, and gain valuable insights from your experiences.

Analysing the data is essential here to determine which strategies are working and which need to be changed. Leverage tools such as Google Analytics, HypeAuditor and Influencer Marketing Hub. Collect feedback from the influencers and your audience to improve your future campaigns. You can use surveys, polls, comments, reviews, testimonials, or social media mentions to get insights into your customers’ needs and expectations. You can also ask the influencers for their opinions and suggestions on how to improve the collaboration. Optimise your campaign based on your budget and results. Adjust parameters where required. Finally, build long-term relationships with the influencers and audience to maximise impact.

Data is the most important factor for decision making. Always make sure to collect data everywhere you can. When optimizing, keep in mind that it's all about incremental improvements. Often there is no change that will double your campaign overnight, but there is always something that could improve conversions by 1-2%. Take consistent small wins every day, and in a year, you'll be surprised how much progress you've made.

There’s loads of reasons why market research is critical to any influencer campaign: 1. Target audience: Understand their demographics and behaviour. 2. Influencer selection: Match influencers with your audience. 3. Content strategy: Tailor content based on successful trends. 4. Competitor analysis: Learn from competitors' influencer strategies. 5. Partnerships and rates: Negotiate fair partnerships using insights. 6. Campaign goals and metrics: Set measurable goals and KPIs based on research. 7. Content authenticity: Ensure content aligns with brand and resonates. 8. Timing: Optimise campaign timing based on market trends. 9. Feedback & refinement: Analyse performance and refine strategies.

With influencer campaigns, I think one of the main problems companies run into is trying to directly attribute revenue to an influencer. "We paid X, and received Y from this post." But that's just not how the world works today. An influencer that generated no immediate direct sales doesn't mean their content failed. They gave you: - Exposure & credibility with an aligned audience - Email sign-ups, website traffic, or ad retargeting opportunities - Content you can repurpose - Etc. Many of the "influenced" will convert long after the campaign ends, so your attribution software will show you the customer came from "email" or "direct search." But did it really? Ask customers how they heard about you for better insights on influencer ROI.

Market research should be an ongoing process, as audience preferences and the influencer landscape, trends can change. What worked in one campaign the same template can't be applied to all campaigns.

It is vital to ensure compliance and transparency is crucial in influencer marketing. Your campaign must adhere to advertising regulations and disclosure laws, requiring influencers to clearly label sponsored content to avoid misleading consumers. Additionally, brand safety is a key consideration; it's important to thoroughly review an influencer’s past content to ensure their values and behaviour align with your brand’s image, preventing potential reputational damage. This careful vetting helps safeguard your brand and ensures the campaign remains credible and trustworthy.

Don’t over think. Don’t over analyze. Do! Just get started! Then analyze & reiterate as needed based on your definition of success!