(image source: https://hub.uberflip.com/social-media/storytelling-the-killer-app-of-content-marketing)

Selling through standalone marketing mediums that can be considered “new” (such as influencer marketing) to bosses and decision makers can be difficult. However, incorporating this tactic into existing strategies will be easier to sell-through for trial purposes.

The following article walks through five marketing mediums that can be paired with influencer marketing in 2018 to boost campaign success and prove influencer marketing is worth investing in:

1. Email Marketing Campaigns

The main reasons why email marketing is so successful is because of exclusivity and directness. When customers give a brand their email address they are basically saying, “Ya, I’m interested! Call me.” Which means this could be a great medium to incorporate influencer marketing tactics with branded newsletters, and promotional outreach.

Influencers provide brands with a unique spin and perspective on products, services and movements. They also provide brands with unique, high-quality content. Using this content in an email campaign is a great way to freshen up content and increase engagement – higher open rates, more link clicks, increased shares or improved sale conversions.

If your email marketing management is strong you should be able to segment your campaigns by demographics that match those of the influencers you’re working with.

2. Event Marketing Opportunities

A tale as old as time – in other words –  event marketing!

Event marketing is face-to-face contact with existing and prospective customers. For marketers, if executed effectively, it’s a goldmine opportunity.

Over the years, we’ve watched event marketing strategies evolve from print handouts to contesting to digital sign-ups to tweet walls, we all know this list goes on. Which brings us to influencer event marketing, an idea that can be scaled by budget or by brand.

Social media influencers are the new (more accessible) celebrity. By inviting influencers to a marketing event, you can extend an offline opportunity to reach millions of people online.

Your event influencers can be as small-scaled as event attendees or as large as a YouTuber with millions of subscribers. Either way, the main benefit is the unique content created by these individuals. How a brand uses this content after the event is important as well. Can you incorporate this into an email marketing campaign?

3. Website Customer Journey

All websites have a similar goal. Unfortunately, all website goers use it differently. Web developers and UX designers have a tough job. They work with one platform in hopes of providing an exceptional experience to all its distinctive users.

Influencer onsite partnerships could help feed website users through your sales funnel. For example, let’s use a tech brand to illustrate how onsite influencer partnerships could help. YouTube tech influencers are continuously developing content about the latest gadgets with tutorials, unboxing and how-tos.

Have a few gadgets for sale online? Partner with a rising tech influencers to create unboxing videos that inform visits of tech specs. If you provide the influencer with creative freedom they will likely share the content with their followers as well.

4. Social Media Calendars

Creating new creative social media content isn’t a simple task – especially if you’ve been developing owned content for years. Partnering with influencers can we a great way to cultivate new content that will engage your existing social media audiences.  

Having influencers create unique content doesn’t have to be a heavy task. It can be as simple as providing them with a product and having them share on their social media channels. Once they have shared the content, you can ask to repurpose this on owned channels as well.

If you’re working with influencers on any of the shared tactics above make sure to incorporate this into owned social media channels as well.

5. Product Launches

Have a new exciting product launching this year? Why not launch it in a new exciting way!? Partnering with influencers is an excellent way to increase awareness and engagement surrounding a product launch.

Before the product hits the shelves makes sure it hits a select group of influencers first. Selling the product online? Have influencers review or test the product and developed their own content surrounding the launch. Take it one step further and provide each influencer with a unique promo code to understand how content is tied to sales.

These are just a few tactics of how you can incorporate influencer marketing into your 2018 business plan. Did we miss one you’re putting to the test? Share in the comments below. :)

For those tapping into influencer marketing this season, you’re ahead of the curve for breaking the “noise” against the competition. As November quickly comes to an end, most marketers are passed the stage of vetting influencers for a holiday campaign. The outreach is likely complete and negotiations are being finalized. And as you set up to pass the ball over to these amazing influencers to execute a stellar holiday campaign, ask yourself is there anything we can do in-house to enhance this campaign? The answer is YES!

Check out this influencer holiday campaign sponsored by Daniel Wellington Watches. Now over the next few weeks see if you spot any additional marketing efforts by the brand to enhance this awesome campaign.

In this blog we outline 5 tips to enhance your holiday influencer marketing campaign to increase awareness and engagement on your marketing channels and your partnered influencer’s channels:

1. Drip, Drip, Drop Marketing

As marketers you have a backstage pass to all the awesome creations coming through your holiday pipeline – use this information to your advantage.

Tell your audience through social media or email marketing that you have something cool coming soon and to stay tuned.

Provide your audience with hints and clues of an upcoming promotion to hold their interest. Once your influencer campaign has dropped informed your audience that the promotion is live by using campaign specific links and hashtags.

Selling a product? Drive your audience to influencer content to access a promotion code for discounts.

2. Sponsor Influencer Content

Many marketers are advocates of organic reach and engagement, but when an influencer creates authentic content during a highly competitive in of year, paid boost shouldn’t be frowned upon. However, a strategic approval to ad spending needs to be considered.

Internally, marketers should discuss the best channels for advertising. This largely depends on the audience you wish to reach. Does it make more sense to repurpose the influencer’s content on owned channels or should you work with the influencer to promote the content on their channels?

3. Talk to the Media  

Media outlets, traditional or online, love great angles for holiday-specific content. You’ve worked hard to develop a unique influencer marketing campaign so now you should be thinking who else would be interested in this?

For example, perhaps you developed an influencer holiday shopping challenge. How could this be spun for traditional media? Pitch outlets a few angles:

• How to get your holiday shopping done in 1 day
• Challenge: Finding amazing holiday gifts for under $100
• 5 of the must-buy holiday gifts for 2017

Use this as an alternative channel to insert influencer campaign content. Use influencers imagery or videos and links to their channels with the campaign specific content.

Creating a media worthy angle for an industry is possible with a little brainstorming and the right outreach strategy.

4. Blog or Vlog About it

Similar to the last tip for media outlets, think about how you can repurpose your influencer marketing initiatives to create a blog or vlog content for owned channels.

Using the example above of an influencer holiday shopping challenge. Think of ways you can repurpose this internally. Create a staff holiday shopping challenge and write or create a video about their experience. This could be great content to link to influencer content to increase awareness.

5. Retarget to the Influencer’s Audience  

Without taking away from the effect of your well-crafted influencer marketing campaign, there’s an opportunity to enhance awareness by marketing to an alike audience for the duration of the influencer campaign.

For this to be effective you must have a good understanding of your influencers existing audiences and platforms.

If your influencers are marketing a specific product (let’s use shoes for this example) to their audience, you should create ad content about the same shoe(s) and target your influencer’s audience. This way after the influencer’s audience is exposed to your brand offering you have the opportunity to remind them how to purchase. This is a great tactic in case the influencer call-to-action was missed or as a means of retargeting.

These are just a few ways you can enhance your influencer marketing campaigns this holiday season. Have any more ideas? We’d love to hear them in the comments below. :)