Growing to become a $24 billion industry, influencer marketing has expanded to become an integral part of business digital marketing plans. However, there are layers to influencer marketing, too. It's not as simple as finding a creator and paying them to create content for you. A lot goes into influencer marketing campaigns, from strategy to content type selection and incorporation of paid social.
Together, these influencer marketing tactics help take your campaigns to fruition and achieve returns on investment. While you don't necessarily have to use every tactic in the book, it's good to be familiar with them. Below, we discuss some influencer marketing tactics that can help you ace your campaigns.
Difference Between Influencer Marketing Strategies and Tactics
Before getting into influencer marketing tactics, let's quickly differentiate between them and full-scale strategies.
Long-Term Vision vs. Short-Term Action
The main difference between influencer marketing strategies and tactics is the timeframe in which they are executed and the complexity of the actions. An influencer marketing strategy is a long-term plan that outlines the overall vision and goals of your influencer marketing campaign, which is in line with your overarching business goals.
Suppose you want to establish your presence in a new market. You plan to use influencers to increase brand awareness in the region. So, your overall influencer marketing strategy goal is to collaborate with local influencers to raise brand awareness and drive sales.
On the other hand, tactics have more to do with immediate action. For example, letting an influencer take over your Instagram account for a day to increase engagement is a tactic - one piece of a larger set of actions that are all connected to a broader strategy with a specific goal in mind. Similarly, collaborating with an influencer to run a giveaway is another tactic.
A collection of tactics ultimately makes up your influencer marketing strategy.
Strategy Sets Direction, Tactics Follow
Strategy and tactics go hand in hand. A strategy sets the direction for your influencer marketing campaign, while tactics follow to help you achieve those strategic goals.
For example, your influencer marketing strategy may be to target a specific audience segment by collaborating with influencers who have a strong presence in that demographic. The tactic here would be to partner with those influencers using a specific platform.
Similarly, a strategy may be to drive sales for a new product launch. The tactic could be creating a sponsored post with an influencer promoting the product.
Balancing Strategies and Tactics for Success
For your influencer marketing campaigns to be successful, the tactics accompanying or complementing the strategies should be well-balanced.
Take Bud Light's community connection campaign as an example. On their 35th summer celebrations, Anheuser-Busch, the parent company behind the brand, wanted to show their commitment to the Hispanic community in California. So, their main strategy was community building.
Here are the tactics their partner agency, Viral Nation, used to achieve this strategy:
- Collaborated with 11 Hispanic influencers who had a strong following in the target region
- Created a Hispanic hashtag campaign #HechoEnCalifornia (Made in California) to reinforce the brand's roots with the community
- Got influencers to create content that showed Bud Light as a must-have in key family and friends moments
The balance between strategy and tactics helped Bud Light achieve 7.9 million interactions.
Bud Light case study
How Can an Influencer Marketing Strategy Amplify Your Campaign?
The way an influencer marketing strategy impacts your campaign will depend on the objectives of the said campaign. According to our Influencer Marketing Report for May 2024, direct sales are the primary objective for most (54.9%) marketers, followed by brand awareness, which 27.2% of marketers focus on.
Goals of influencer campaigns
Some other goals that can be amplified by an influencer marketing strategy include:
- Increasing website traffic
- Generating leads
- Improving brand sentiment
- Boosting SEO ranking
- Launching a product or service
- Promoting a cause or social responsibility efforts
In each of these cases, influencer marketing can help drive results. For example, if you want to increase website traffic, influencers can direct their followers to your website through links in their content or by hosting a giveaway that requires participants to visit your website.
If generating leads is your goal, influencers can create sponsored content that encourages their followers to sign up for newsletters or free trials.
Let's explain the role of influencer marketing with an example from NVIDIA's back-to-school campaign. The tech company wanted to promote its GeForce RTX 30 Series laptops specifically to STEM students during the back-to-school season. The campaign had two goals: to show STEM students the laptops' functionality and to increase sales.
NeoReach, the brand's influencer marketing agency partner, identified influencers across TikTok and YouTube who could take part in their ''Build Something Awesome'' campaign. These influencers use NVIDIA's laptops to create fun science and engineering products to show STEM students the functionality of the company's products without making it come off as promotional.
Influencers also put the link to purchase the laptops in their bios, another tactic. Their efforts resulted in 5.7k link in bio clicks and 46.7k total engagements. NVIDIA's total influencer media value was over $266,000, which indicates that influencers helped drive both sales and engagements. Campaign goal accomplished!
NVIDIA case study
Influencer Marketing Tactics to Maximize Conversions and Revenue
Now that we've established that influencer marketing helps you achieve your digital marketing campaign goals, let's look at the tactics that supplement this process.
1.Collaborate With Influencers for Sponsored Posts
The most common tactic for influencer marketing is collaborating with influencers for sponsored posts. Basically, you pay the influencer to talk about your product or service in a positive light.
Why does this work, though? Why not just hype up the product yourself? Well, there's a general skepticism among consumers when it comes to branded content. As a brand, you'd obviously only have good things to say about your product. After all, you're trying to sell it.
But when a trusted influencer recommends your product, their audience sees it as a genuine endorsement and is more likely to believe in the product's quality and effectiveness.
You can collaborate with influencers on any major social media platform. Let's take TikTok as an example. In our TikTok Marketing Report, we found that 61.2% of marketers use the platform to increase brand awareness, while 20.4% strive to generate direct sales. You can achieve both these goals with influencer marketing.
Objectives for TikTok marketing campaigns
For example, Gucci Beauty worked with Kensington, a TikTok beauty influencer, to promote their new highlighters. Her video did not only increase awareness for the new product but also directed followers to Nordstrom, where they could buy the product. You can do similar sponsored posts on other social media platforms, too.
@kensnation how I get my Gucci glow using @Gucci new Glow Highlighters ? @Nordstrom #ad #GucciBeauty ♬ original sound - Kensington
2. Send PR Packages for Unboxing and Reviews
If you want to build hype around a product, you can also send PR packages to influencers for unboxing and reviews. This works well for products that have a tangible form, such as makeup, skincare, tech gadgets, home decor, etc.
Influencers love receiving PR packages and sharing their unboxing experience with their audience. The audience also likes to watch such videos, especially if the influencer is genuine and shows their honest opinions about the product.
Unboxing videos show potential customers your product. The influencer may even show them how to use the product or incorporate it into their daily life. It's more convincing than just seeing an ad or reading a description.
For example, @ipekreading on Instagram got books in a PR package from Zibby Books, along with goodies from beauty brands. She shared the picture of the package and her genuine excitement and gratitude with her 12k+ followers. So, it gave a lot of exposure to the brand.
3. Host Influencer-Run Giveaways
Influencer-run giveaways don't only help you engage your audience but also give back to your loyal followers. With the help of an influencer, you can organize a giveaway that requires participants to follow both the influencer and your brand, like the post, and tag a friend in the comments.
This does two things. First, the influencer collaboration exposes your giveaway to a wider audience. Second, your social media following increases since participants have to follow you to enter the giveaway.
Take Scrub Daddy as an example. They partnered with the cleaning influencer, Auri Katarina, to give away their products. People had to leave a comment answering a question, which counted as their entry into the giveaway. The post got over 41,000 likes, showing the efficiency of influencer-run giveaways.
4. Work With Influencers to Promote Brand Events
If you're planning to host an event that could be an opportunity for your customers to engage with your brand or products, get the word out through influencers. That's what Clinique did. They parked their Hydration Pop-Up Truck in different spots across the country to promote their new hydration cream.
People could come to the truck and have a consultation to find the best Clinique moisturizer for their skin. But how would people know about this event? Through influencers.
Clinique partnered with beauty influencers to spread the word about the pop-up truck and generate buzz. Here's a TikTok video one of these influencers posted.
@cheriemadeleine #cliniquepartner Had such a great time at the @Clinique Hydration pop up in Santa Monica! ✨✨✨ If you’re in Chicago, make sure to visit the next truck on May 20th in Millennium park! #cliniqueglowup ♬ original sound - Madeleine Rose
Influencer content helped bring a lot of attention to the event, making it a huge success. This kind of partnership is especially beneficial if your brand has limited reach and resources to promote an event effectively using your own channels.
5. Co-Create Content With Influencers
Influencers don't only promote your products; they can also create content for your digital campaigns. All you have to do is give them a brief and some direction. Then, let their creativity flow to produce content that you can later repost on your social media channels or repurpose for marketing campaigns.
Content co-creation is one of those tactics that can bring a lot of value. Not only do you save money that you'd otherwise spend on creating content internally, but you also leverage the influencer's audience and expertise.
A good example is NVIDIA's campaign we mentioned before, in which they partnered with TikTok and YouTube influencers to promote their RTX 30 Series laptops. One of the influencers they worked with was Sara Dietschy.
She created a YouTube video in which she showed her journey of learning Blender in 24 hours on NVIDIA's laptop. The video generated over 500k views and provided enough footage for NVIDIA to create additional marketing materials for their product.
6. Run Ads on Influencer-Generated Content
Besides organic use, influencer content can also be used for paid campaigns. For example, you can run TikTok Spark ads on organic content an influencer has created for you. Or simply run a Facebook or Instagram ad on a carousel post or video in which a creator is promoting your brand.
This way, you get a two-fold benefit. You are not only promoting your product or service through an influencer's endorsement, but you're also running an ad on content that has already proven to resonate with your audience.
In our June Influencer Marketing Report, we shared Zilla's influencer campaign, in which they worked with beauty creators and then ran Spark ads on them to further get 952,709 views. These ads helped them get 38,000 paid clicks on their posts in addition to the 1.1 million views they had gotten just with influencer reach.
Zilla case study
7. Run Multi-Channel Influencer Collaborations
If an influencer aligns with your brand, you can partner with them for content on multiple platforms. For example, if an influencer has a following on YouTube and Instagram, you can work with them to create content for both platforms, particularly if you feel like your audience segments are different on both.
With this tactic, you can reach most of your targeted audience. You can also instruct them to tweak the content for each platform, i.e., make it shorter or longer if need be.
For example, Roadway Moving, a moving company, partnered with Danielle Carollan to help her move into her new apartment. Since she has a substantial following on both TikTok and Instagram, the brand got her to share her moving journey on both platforms, resulting in a combined reach of over 50,000 people.
8. Foster Long-Term Partnerships for Ambassador Programs
Influencer relationships can be just as rewarding as industry networking ones. When you find an influencer whose values and content align with your brand, work with them on a long-term basis to create an ambassador program.
Our ebook on Brand Ambassador Program will guide you more on the subject.
These programs establish a mutually beneficial relationship between your brand and the influencer, where they act as a brand ambassador, promoting your products or services to their audience consistently over an extended period.
Their continued endorsement of your brand shows their audience that they actually use and believe in your products and aren't simply being paid to promote them. That’s why our July Influencer Marketing Report found that 34.6% of marketers focus on regular influencer communications, and 15.6% emphasize exclusive collaborations for long-term partnerships.
Chad Chad, a social commentary channel on YouTube, has such a partnership with Raycon, a wireless audio company. Raycon consistently sponsors her videos, which helps show her audience that she also uses the products she endorses.
9. Co-Create Products With Influencers
Are you planning to launch a new product? Why not do it in collaboration with an influencer? This tactic is a win-win for both parties involved. It generates buzz for your product, and the influencer gets to be a part of creating something new and exciting for their audience.
For example, Pacsun worked with Anna Sitar to create a swimwear line. She also modeled the collection on her Instagram and TikTok, promoting it to her followers and driving sales for Pacsun. The campaign was such a success that it was featured on Yahoo Finance and PR Newswire.
Similarly, Avery Wood created a ''mommy and me'' sweat set with Mayfair, which she wore in her TikTok video. She also dressed her toddler in the matching set, highlighting the versatility and cuteness of the product.
@averyywoods the mayfair group x avery woods ? AHHH PINCH ME!!! ??? a dream collab with my all-time-fav loungewear company ?? this has been in the works for SO long and I’m so excited to finally be sharing it with you. this set represents so much of myself & I can’t wait to see you in it ? + the first ever kids collection from @The Mayfair Group ♬ Baddie Friend (Two Bad Bitches) (feat. House of Evo) - Kevo Jefé & Casa Di & Steve Terrell
10. Repurpose Influencer Content as UGC
The rise of UGC has come in the wake of people's increased distrust of traditional advertising methods. Content created by nano and micro-influencers can also serve as user-generated content, which you can post on your social media and website.
This tactic adds a touch of social proof to your content. You're basically showing your audience that real people use and love your products. It also saves you time and money on creating your own content.
For example, clothing brand Pull and Bear often reposts images and videos of micro-influencers wearing their clothes on their Instagram page. These pictures are not promotional. Instead, they just show the influencer styling and wearing the brand's clothing in their everyday life.
People who see these posts can relate to the influencers and envision themselves wearing the same outfits, making them more likely to make a purchase.
11. Use Influencer Takeover to Redirect Followers
While not as common, another influencer marketing tactic is to have influencers take over your social media accounts for a day. We recommend doing this when you have an upcoming event or product launch.
As a brand, your presence on social media won't likely be as strong and widespread as an influencer. So, you can let them use your brand's account for the day and leverage their large following to attract more attention to your event or launch.
For example, de Buyer USA, a cookware brand, let Serena, commonly known as @cheatday.ny on Instagram, take over their account for a day.
She showed the audience how to cook Blackberry Jam and Eggs Benedict in the brand's copper pan. de Buyer was very strategic in this takeover, as they also had a 25% sale on their copper cookware at the time. So, not only did they show their product in action to a large audience, but they also advertised a sale to drive conversions.
12. Measure Influencer Marketing KPIs
In addition to influencer-assisted tactics, there are some steps you can take internally to ace your campaigns. One of them is measuring influencer marketing KPIs to understand the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Some common KPIs include:
- Reach and impressions
- Influencer media value
- Engagement rates (likes, comments, shares, etc.)
- Website traffic and conversions
- Paid clicks
- Link in bio clicks
- Social media growth (followers, brand mentions, etc.)
You can use influencer analytics tools to get all these metrics in one place and track them over time. If things seem to be going the way you want them to, keep working with the same influencers or using the same tactics. However, if not, reevaluate your strategy.
13. Stay on Top of Industry Insights
A lot of brands overlook this aspect of influencer marketing. While using your tried and tested tactics can yield good results, keeping up with the latest industry insights and trends can give you that extra edge.
The simplest way to keep up with trends is to follow industry thought leaders and influencers on social media. You can also sign up for newsletters from influencer marketing platforms and stay informed about the latest tactics and emerging trends.
At Influencer Marketing Hub, we also release a State of Influencer Marketing report every year, which covers everything from the latest platforms, trends, and strategies to the future of influencer marketing. Think of it as your holy grail for staying ahead of the curve in influencer marketing.
Wrapping Up
Influencer marketing has now gotten out of its infancy, which means there are many new tactics to embellish your campaigns. From influencer takeovers to product launch collaborations, there are many ways to use an influencer's audience to your advantage.
When using these tactics, make sure they go with your strategy. They should ultimately tie into the goals you want to achieve with influencer marketing. Most importantly, keep monitoring how your influencer tactics are performing to determine if you want to continue using them or try new ones.
Need extra help with your influencer campaigns? We have reviewed the top influencer marketing agencies that you can count on to get your influencer marketing up and running with continued improvement along the way.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best strategy for influencer marketing?
There's no single "best" strategy for influencer marketing, as it largely depends on your unique brand and goals. However, you can create a solid strategy for your campaigns by:
- Identifying your audience
- Defining your goals
- Defining your budget
- Selecting the right social media platforms
- Selecting the type of content to create
- Identifying the best-fit influencers
- Tracking and measuring your results
What are the steps of influencer marketing?
When you create an influencer marketing campaign, the first step is to highlight your budget, goals, and target audience. Based on this information, you can then identify influencers. Next, communicate your expectations and collaborate with the influencers to create relevant content. The last step is to track and measure the results of your campaign.
What are some tips for creating an impactful influencer marketing strategy?
The following tips can help you create an impactful influencer marketing strategy:
- Select influencers who are authentic and have a strong connection with your target audience.
- Use various social media platforms, not just one, to reach a wider audience.
- Incorporate influencer marketing into your overall marketing strategy instead of treating it as a standalone campaign.
- Use different tactics to enhance your campaign.
- Measure the results of your campaign periodically to make required adjustments.
What are the most effective influencer marketing tactics for small businesses?
Here are some effective influencer marketing tactics that can benefit small businesses:
- Collaborating with micro-influencers who have a smaller but engaged audience
- Running contests or giveaways with influencers to increase brand awareness and engagement
- Partnering with local influencers in your community to reach a more targeted audience
- Co-creating content with influencers to use their creativity and save costs on in-house content creation
- Running ads on influencer content
What are the best practices for partnering with influencers?
Be extremely clear in your communication with influencers and establish a mutually beneficial relationship. Instead of micro-managing creators, let them use their creativity and style since that's what their audience follows them for. Also, make sure influencers follow FTA's guidelines and disclose sponsored content to maintain transparency with their audience. Plus, create a contract that outlines expectations, deliverables, and compensation to avoid misunderstandings.
How can I measure the success of my influencer campaigns?
You can use influencer analytics tools to track the success of your influencer campaigns. For affiliate links or codes, track the number of paid clicks, link in bio clicks, conversions, and sales. You can also request the influencer to provide their post's reach, impressions, engagement rate, and saves. Lastly, measure the growth in your brand's social media following and website traffic during and after the campaign.
What tools can automate the management of influencer partnerships?
There are some free influencer marketing tools that you can use to identify and manage influencers. These include Modash, Kitly Business, HypeAuditor, and Storyclash. You can also use paid influencer marketing tools, such as Brandwatch and NeoReach, for more functionality. For an even higher level of automation, opt for AI influencer marketing platforms like IQfluence, LTK, and Skeepers.
What metrics should I focus on to measure the ROI of influencer campaigns?
You can measure the ROI of influencer campaigns by monitoring engagement, shares, impressions, earned media value, conversions, brand awareness, website sales, affiliate link clicks, and sales. Look at the engagement rate of sponsored posts compared to regular posts and track any spikes in website traffic or sales around the time of the campaign.
