How to create successful B2C influencer marketing campaigns

Despite concerns over influencer fraud and other controversies, influencer marketing is still alive and kicking. According to a recent Influencer Marketing Hub survey, the industry is expected to reach $13.8 billion by the end of 2021. And a whopping 90% of respondents found influencer marketing to be effective.

With that in mind, we’ll explore the key ways to create a successful B2C influencer marketing campaign.

What makes a successful influencer marketing campaign?

While anyone can launch an influencer marketing campaign, to make it successful, there a few key elements you need to include:

Well-defined goals – You need to work toward a specific goal to shape the campaign.

The right influencers – This is virtually the most important element of your influencer marketing campaign. You not only need creators with reach and who will influence your target audience, you also need to make sure they align with your brand values.

Authenticity – Unfiltered and honest influencer content can help you win the trust of your target audience. So you should carefully plan your campaigns in a way that enables creators to keep their creative voice intact.

Campaign measurement – You need to measure the ROI of your campaign to ensure that your creators are delivering results.

How to identify relevant influencers

From what you can see so far, it’s clear that your choice of influencers is vital for the success of your campaign. Before you begin your search, map out your ideal influencer persona based on the following criteria:

Relevance – You need to work with creators whose content resonates with the audience you want to reach i.e. influencers who can influence your target audience. Make a list of all the industries and niches that are directly or indirectly related to your brand.

Reach – Determine how many people you want to reach to meet your campaign goal and then decide on how many followers your influencers should have.

Platform – Choose the platform where your target audience is the most active and then find influencers who have an impact on those platforms.

Engagement – The right influencers should be able to authentically engage their audience and have a decent level of engagement - not just passive (e.g., likes and shares), but also active (e.g., comments).

Once you’ve created an ideal influencer persona, you can start looking for people who match the criteria. There are several influencer discovery platforms in the market to make the job easier. However, these platforms typically use niche-based searches that can be a bit limited.

Ideally, you should work your way backward – discovering influencers through the people you want to reach. Social listening platforms like Audiense and YouScan can help you make data-driven suggestions on influential people who are leading the conversations that your target audience engages in. This makes it easier to find creators who have an actual influence on the people you want to engage.

3 influencer marketing examples to inspire you

Now you know the key elements that make a successful influencer marketing campaign, let’s see them in action.

Audible

Audible has historically nailed its influencer marketing campaigns. The key to their success lies in partnering with highly relevant creators and giving them free rein over the sponsored content. This way, the influencers have creative freedom, allowing them to be authentic and create content that resonates with their existing audience.

For example, Audible partnered with YouTuber Comic Drake to promote “The Sandman” audiobook. The YouTuber created an explainer video on The Endless – powerful entities that play a leading role in the original comics – to get his viewers excited for the audiobook.

Frank Body

The clean and cruelty-free skincare brand, Frank Body uses real customers as their “influencers.” They use Instagram to share before and after photos of real people using their products to build authentic engagement and win the trust of potential customers.

In addition, they also run paid partnership campaigns with influential customers to amplify their reach while retaining trust.

Netflix

As they were gearing up for the release of “Cobra Kai” Season 3, Netflix turned to TikTok influencers to boost awareness and get people hyped up for the show. They worked with an eclectic roster of creators to reach a wider audience – Zachary Ryan, Hunter Woodhall, and Damien Doyle Jr.

The campaign was a huge hit, delivering 2.76X ROI and over 2.8 million views from paid content. The #CobraKaiChop hashtag generated an impressive 4.6 billion views.

Make influencer marketing work for you

If you’re new to influencer marketing or if your previous campaigns were a flop, these best practices and campaign examples can set you up for success. Make the most of them to launch a successful B2C influencer marketing campaign.

‍