Leads.. It's on everyone's lips these days whether they have just pushed out a new product or they need to generate more sales on existing products. Cold calling method is no longer suffice in this competitive market and at the same time we are bombarded with information faster than we can digest. Today, it's all about data, insights and automation.
To generate leads and build business growth using influencer marketing you need to have social media strategy. Every brand is different from brand guidelines, target audience and brand positioning but how you manage the workflow is very similar.
In July 2020 when I first started my content creator role at Dailyjocks, a boutique retail that sells luxury brands in men's underwear, swimwear and activewear, I created a roadmap and the social media strategy. I used to get comments from people.. "It's underwear, how hard is it?" Throughout this website you can view some of the contents and strategies that I have developed within the 5 months.
I developed the followings while managing 50 influencers from around the world across 4 brands at Dailyjocks. Working with 50 influencers at any given time can be daunting, especially during the Covid pandemic when everyone was facing all sorts of challenges. With the right strategies I was able to work efficiently and produced results that convert to sales.
q You must know your product and be able to communicate with the potential influencer with confidence
q Who is your target audience and who will eventually buy your products
q Reach out to your current customers, because they already know your brand and products, so they are the best promoters for your brand
q Able to analyse data and output from Insights. There is no point in investing into an influencer if the look and output do not convert to sales or grasp the viewers' attention
q Pay attention to what is trending in your industry that is similar to your brand. If you are selling Nike sweat pants then you shouldn’t focus too much on Prada Sportswear
q A lot of companies don’t pay attention to the customers' comments on social media. These can be feedback on products, complaints, praise on customer service or the website.
On Facebook pages, people are very vocal sparking a whole debate on one single post. While you shouldn't engage in a heated public debate because it can reflect badly on your brand. However the feedback should give you an indication of how you should focus in your next campaign or how to design new products.
Analytics and insights give you data, but words never fail because people are often honest and passionate with their opinions. You can convert any negatives to your positives. You gain more respect from customers if you just listen.
q Be more inclusive and embrace diversity, it's 2021. Don't just focus on one group of customers who happen to tag your brand on Instagram, get in touch with the '98% others'. Being able to get into people's head and analyse personalities is a bonus when working in social media. So 'Persona' and 'Customer Journey' are relevant.
Embracing Diversity: Inter-racial couples
Inclusive: People of Colour
q Your brand needs to represent a variety of customers and show them that they matter. I acted upon a bunch of Facebook comments in regards to 'too much' of a certain skin colour and build, which does not represent the 98% of the community. I turned it around within a week when I reached out to some people of colour, in inter-racial relationships and different body shapes and sizes. The viewers' responses were very positive.
Using the right tool
There is a bunch of CRM tools out there to help you manage your customers, but you can also streamline your workflow by creating a database in an Excel spreadsheet to manage your influencers, Both options are fine and depends if you have time to learn a new software. Instead of scrolling through emails or Instagram DM everytime you need to retrieve some information - his shirt size for example or trying to remember what your last conversation was about everything is centralised in one spreadsheet
Below I have summarised the most practical way of how to run an Influencer campaign efficiently.
q Build a database of influencers
Although your first point of contact should always come from your brand's Instagram DM, then you should continue the conversation on emails, so that you can send any attachments on guidelines and templates. The following is an extract from the spreadsheet I created from scratch, each column can be searched by filter.
For example if an influencer has a query on his order because it was delayed in shipping, I was able to retrieve the data from the spreadsheet that includes all the products information / SKU and the Shopify create order # . Imagine the pain of going through emails?
By the end of first month, I already reached out to 20 influencers across Australia, Europe and USA who agreed to the terms I set out in the Influencer campaign. All the data are recorded in the spreadsheet. Furthermore, I developed a number of templates below:
q Develop templates
I had templates for every touch points so I adjusted personal details to fit, so you don't need to reinvent the wheels every time:
n Intro email template to potential influencer
n Welcome email with Influencer brand guidelines
Please view the Dailyjocks influencer brand guidelines that I have created.
n Follow up email template
n Thank you email template
q Digital Asset Management
Most companies in Australia hasn't yet quite adopted DAM as part of their workflow. I implemented a solution using Dash from Bright for Dailyjocks. When influencers emailed me photos and videos, I was able to ingest the assets into the DAM. To read more details about how to use a DAM in your business, please click on this link.
q My process in summary
n Influencers emailed me photos and videos via Dropbox, Google Drive or emails
n I download them to my hard drive then renamed the assets using a file name conventions I created.
n I ingested these assets into the DAM and for the description of each asset, I copied the product information title and SKU from the Influencer spreadsheet into the DAM so everything align
n The assets are now ready to be shared any time in the future. I was able to share photos and videos directly from DAM to any social media platforms - anywhere with internet access, even on the flight
n To caption the social media post, I copied and pasted the description from DAM to Instagram.
I created an easy to follow training video which shows the simplicity of sharing photos from DAM to Instagram.
Sharing from DAM to social media without downloading onto phone or desktop first
q Communication
The most important task when managing influencers is communication and giving feedback
n Know when to disconnect! Set a time each day where you finish the job and don't pay attention to the social media. You can set a Auto Reply to inform the influencers that you will be back the next day. Or allow them the chance to reach you on email. Everyone needs down time, even you!
n In your welcome email, express your vision of what you require from the influencers. Most influencers promote many other brands at once so it is best to tell them the guidelines however refrain from dictating the type of photos or videos, you want them to feature THEIR lifestyle.
q Feedback
Feedback is important when managing influencers, it is akin to grading the students at school. They need to know how their photos and video are performing, it is best to be more transparent with the influencers afterall you are investing your brand in them.
