When it comes to influencer strategy, lots of people will offer advice. If you don’t know why you should listen to ours, maybe you don’t know our story. After getting a few awards under our belts, we at Komodo have decided to lay out a brief guide on influencer marketing strategy so that you and your brand know where to start, where to go, and who you should be talking to when you want to do some strategizing yourselves. We’ve already provided our own influencer definition, as well as an explanation of influencer marketing. So, before going any further, let’s answer this question instead: what is a marketing campaign? To quote the helpfully-named Investopedia, ‘marketing campaigns promote products through different types of media’. This normally includes older media, but today let’s talk socials, influencers, and strategies. Now, Oxford Languages specify that campaigns involve ‘an organised course of action’. Influencers, though, are often seen as lone agents, even when their taking part in concerted campaigns is becoming increasingly normalised. Spend any time on YouTube, and you’ll encounter content sponsored by companies like HelloFresh and Dollar Shave Club. These are potent examples of affiliate marketing strategies formulated with a specific platform in mind. Both these companies, and many others who use similar promotion, provide subscription services. Naturally, the influencers who fans are subscribed to provide a perfect pipeline from customer to product. Of course, subscription services can be well-advertised on any social platform – these are just examples. Successful influencer strategy relies on more universal traits. If you’ve read the blogs above, you’ll already understand influencers’ unique strengths as advertisers. The core principles of relatability and specificity remain, no matter what platform. So, to turn this information into a strategy, you need to start making choices. For example, before planning can even begin, you need to determine which platform is best for advertising your product. Like with any campaign, you’ll also have to form a budget. To determine your social spend, you’ll have approximated your campaign’s ideal reach and duration already. However, it literally pays to know how much to offer your influencers. Influence.co published their research determining the average pay-per-post for Instagram influencers in 2017, but payment methods can differ between campaigns, and up-to-date research is vital. Assuming the numbers are settled, and you’ve started establishing appropriate partnerships, it’s essential that you communicate consistently throughout your campaign. While acting, for example, as your affiliate marketers, influencers will often create content for you, but they will still need you to explain your brand’s needs alongside your campaign’s message and goals. To keep things on track, regularly review your strategy’s impact, even while the campaign is ongoing. If you do take the affiliate marketing route, affiliate links will provide valuable metrics on this front. Also, while humanity is an influencer’s greatest asset, it also brings the risk of human error. You can discuss the best times for your representatives to post, but as with any talent, you have to be understanding of delays and other difficulties. It may seem a petty detail, but the lives of human beings can’t always be strictly timetabled. Make the requirements of your partnership clear, but remember that a little compassion goes a long way: all the way to the end of a successful campaign. Needless to say, this is just a broad-strokes introduction to strategy. Influencer campaigns are new, complicated, and daunting for brands to manage alone. If you still need more answers, you can get in touch anytime. Whether you need help finding the right talent, refining your strategy, or even managing your campaign, just call on Komodo.